I'm caring for my elderly husband who was diagnosed with squamous cell penile cancer 2 years ago. He recently had to stop chemo after only 2 months as the side effects were life threatening. He is now receiving palliative care.
Hi flyweight welcome to the forum and I am so sorry to hear about what is happening for you right now. It is interesting the word Palliative ? What does it actually mean? I'm.asking because lots of people can be on palliative care for symptom management and I'm.wondering if this is what is meant? Have they said anything to you both about what the future looks like at all? There are other threads on here if you wanted to also post in there "the Carers thread" "family and friends thread". You need support for you as well as hubby hence why I am suggesting uou post in those. Sending very best wishes Gail x
Thank you Gail. I will take a look at those threads. I agree the term 'palliative' can be confusing. At the moment my husband is at the stage where the team no longer think he will benefit from any treatment/interventions, apart from trying to make him more comfortable. I asked the radiologist whether the squamous skin cell cancer will spread and he said eventually it will spread to the lung and heart. I didn't ask about the time trajectory. My husband asked about 6 months ago about his life expectancy and was told 6 months worse case scenario and 18 months best case. I feel more grounded now than I did at first, though I find it difficult to stay close to my husband at times. Maybe it's nature's way of allowing you to get used to the idea that they will no longer be there.
