Brain cancer misdiagnosed.

Thank you for reading. My elderly, 80 years old, father was diagnosed with bowel cancer 2 years ago, he has had no treatment. 6 weeks ago he was sectioned for aggressive psychotic episode. This was completely out of the blue. Since being in the care of the psych ward he has had a CTI which came back negative. He has since had a "troubling" lesion removed from his tummy and a lump was found under his armpit. We have watched in horror as his mental state has gotten worse even with anti psychotic medication. He is a different man from before he started the meds. His psychiatrist has today said that she "definitely thinks this is something organic" and that it is an urgent situation and he needs an MRI. When pushed she admitted this could take up to two weeks. He has a cancer specialist and cancer nurse and I will contact them tomorrow. I am so worried that he should be in palliative care and that the antipsychotic meds and the psych ward environment is exasperating his condition. We are based in Scotland, we are at our wits ends and watching in horror as our sharp and clever dad wastes away before our eyes. How can we speed up the MRI and get him the correct care? 

  • Hello and thank you for posting.

    I am sorry to hear about what is happening with Dad, it sounds like an incredibly difficult thing to witness.

    I would advise speaking to his oncologist and specialist nurse as they are the ones who can help organise an MRI if needed.

    Unfortunately, there is no other way to speed the process up, but do discuss with them your father's current condition. It may also help to pass on the psychiatrist's details to your father's cancer team so they can discuss him and work out how best to move forward and work together to improve his current situation.

    Take care and if you want to talk anything out then do call our freephone number on 0808 800 4040. Lines are open mon-fri, 9-5.

    Sarah.