Mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over 3 years ago and was fortunate to be offered surgery. After a complicated recovery she had chemo for 2 years to control metastases into the hepatic portal vein, which it did. She was unable to tolerate further chemo so made the decision to stop in November. In March she found the aggressive cancer had spread into her liver and a stent was fitted. Although initially effective she is beginning to decline. The oncologist has been pushing her to take a ‘window of opportunity’ to have further chemo but she is struggling with food tolerance, her blood glucose levels are off the chart and she is increasingly in pain and has lost 20lbs in 6 weeks.
She has felt pressure from the oncologist and some family members to go ahead with chemo but now just feels too weak and I have been the only one to stand up and say that she isn’t strong enough to tolerate further chemo and all the possible side effects. I have tried to be impartial until now, but once I told her I don’t think she should have it now, she was immensely relieved. Obviously I would support whatever decision she made but she says her gut instinct is telling her enough is enough - and so is mine.
if she were stronger I would say it would be worth the fight, but there is no hope of a cure, only control of the disease. Mum is in a bad place psychologically right now and doesn’t want to die, but equally she doesn’t want to live a poor quality of life at any cost. It’s been a very turbulent few days trying to support both my parents and advocate for mum. I just hope the coming weeks are peaceful for her - I hope palliative care teams show up for her and give the care that she deserves.
She sees the palliative care team at home already but now have to negotiate her accessing inpatient care and don’t know where to start. Feeling tense and worried about what may come.
