Daughter with TNBC and mets to lungs - what pain relief is available for her?

My daughter has been healing cancer for 6 years and had numerous treatments inuding TACE in Germany. She is now on a clinical trial. She had a massive fungated tumour on her shoulder which required 8 hours of plastic surgery resulting in loss of power in her hand and a lot of pain possibly due to cancer in her neck and shoulder area pressing on nerves. She has mets to her lungs too. 

At 80 I'm her main carer as she lives with me as does her 17 year old daughter but as I have had ME for 36 years and TNBC twice life is becoming more difficult with age. Mostly she is upbeat but I can see the effects of the pain and lung problems affecting her mental attitude. She is on pain relief, pregabalin, but it doesn't do much and she is not keen to take morphine so I'm wondering what to advise. I am fairly expert with pain as I was instrumental in setting up a pain management group but often drugs can only take the edge off. Medical cannabis is not something she wants to pursue, although it is widely available these days. 

My husband died 6 years ago from prostate cancer but I was fitter then and looked after him in his final weeks with the help of Marie Curie. Looking ahead I am wondering what help would be available to us and what pain relief might be available for my daughter. Thank you. 

  • Hello helens939

    I'm sorry to hear about all that your daughter and you as a family have been through. It sounds like it's been an incredibly difficult time, and it's understandable that you want to try and help your daughter with improved pain management and to plan ahead. 

    We do have some information about cancer and pain control on our website that may be useful, but I'd really encourage your daughter to talk openly and honestly with the specialists about her pain management. There should be options for control available to her, and the team may be able to alleviate some of her concerns about using certain types of medications if she is worried about those. 

    If you'd like to talk things through with one of our team of nurses, I know they will be happy to listen and offer any advice, information and support they can. They're available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm on 0808 800 4040. 

    I do hope that you can access the support you all need to improve your daughter's pain management and to give you some reassurance that further support will be available in the future. 

    Sending you all my best wishes, 
    Jenn
    Cancer Chat moderator