Mum with brain metastases

So my mum was diagnosed with lung cancer December 2020 she had all the treatment and it shrunk to more or less nothing. We were always aware it will come back as she had small cell lung cancer. Well exactly a year to the day she got told.its probably returned and had tests done and confirmed it had spread to her lymph nodes, adrenal gland and her brain. I saw the CT scan and it was a 2.5cm tumor in the center of her brain and another one in her right frontal lobe. He have weeks if not not months to live. She's now on week 4 and 2 days. Shes absolutely lost her mind and is hallucinating seeing people and animals all around her house. My main question here is why after her having the worse 4/5 days she's not up and walking around for 3 days now it's so confusing and upsetting as we have no idea how to take this. I understand the energy burst before death but this has been for 3 days now is this normal behaviour for severe brain metastases 

 

Many thanks, Donna.

 

 

 

 

 

  • Hello Donna

    What a difficult time you are all going through.  From your post I wasn't sure how much support you were getting from the palliative care team at the moment.  They are specialists in helping manage the symptoms of cancer, if she isn't currently getting input from this service talk to her doctor about this to get it arranged.  But regardless of whether they are currently involved, do tell her doctor about any changes in her symptoms or behaviour.  Sometimes people can have unusual reactions to the drugs they are on, like steroids for example, which can lead to problems like hallucinations, or if the calcium levels or other chemicals in her blood stream have become unbalanced this might be causing her problems.  These problems can often be treated, so do tell someone and get her properly assessed, possibly have some blood taken to check her calcium levels or look at whether she needs an alteration to her medication. 

    Symptoms of advanced cancer can almost always be treated with input from the palliative care team so do ask her doctor to assess her.

    I hope this has been of some help

    Martin 

  • Hi Martin,

     

    Thank you for your reply, yes everyone is involved more people than we imagined! The hospice came today and said just what you've said. She's changed her meds around to help her manage her symptoms.

     

    Thank you again 

    Donna.