Our mother (late 70s) has recently been diagnosed with cancer after several months of being very unwell, mainly bed-bound and with what was thought to be scabies. It wasn't scabies (it seems this is often misdiagnosed), but it was so bad that she grew more and more immobile (to avoid itching) and bed-bound. She is now in hospital with diagnosed cancer, but unclear which kind until we get biopsy results, aside that it is in her spinal cord, skeleton and sternum area. Liver and pancreatic cancer have been mentioned. She tires fast, itches still, and her memory is poor, she is still not mobile, but has a bit of an appetite and is not in pain, on steroids for the inflammation and blood thinner (following pulmonary embolism 6y ago); she has had some radiotherapy which seemed to go ok. She had colon cancer in the early 2000s and recovered.
Question here: has anyone experienced this case of chronic itching / pruritis linked to cancer, and what can one do to alleviate this? creams and steroid pills etc help a bit but not that much, antihistamines haven't helped (not surprising since it's not an allergy). It is still really bad and just doesn't help with her morale, though we realise it may also be a bit psychosomatic, ie the lower she feels, the more she itches.
