Hi,

Not sure why I am here but I guess I could do with putting things down so I don't bottle things up. My mum was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and metastatic bone cancer about 18 months ago. The news was a shock to everyone and although a prognosis wasn't given, it was on everyone's mind that Mum did not have long to live. It was hard to take that news as we weren't even given a fighting start. Eradicating the cancer was not even an option.

Given it was 18 months ago, and she is still here, we have been very lucky to have all that time. I was heavily pregnant with my son (her first grandchild) so we are so grateful she has been able to spend this much time with him. I guess we have taken for granted time she will be around.

Anyway, because the cancer is metastatic, there is no cure - or at least in Mum's case there isn't and all they can do is prolong life and slow the growth. In July, she was good. Although she had to be taken off treatment drug no. 2 she seemed to be ok and at the time, the cancer had not spread. It was nice to see Mum doing well as can be and we celebrated Monkey's first birthday with lots of photos of her with her grandson.

Only a mere few weeks gone by and mum wasn't feeling very well. There was tummy pain and vomitting, as well as weakness in the legs. I can't believe how quickly that occurred as I was visiting them beginning of September and she was fine. Next thing we know she's admitted into hospital as she was very weak, confused and suffered short-term memory lost. The MRI scan showed there was metastasis to the brain. There is already over 10 cancer cells showing up on the scan as well as the cancer spreading in the lungs (shown on CT scan).

While we wait to hear how she responds the the steroids and the next step, I'm wondering if anyone else is going through this or if families members can tell me how your love(d) ones cope(d) and how long they had. I just want to know if I should prepare for the worse. We've been lucky to have the 18 months so far but can I be greedy and hope for a lot more?

Thank you for reading.