Hello, first time here and very sorry for the VERY long post. After several trips to the doctors with a persistent cough over a 12 month period, my MIL was diagnosed with stage 4 NSCLC 8 weeks ago. She was very breathless by then and her usual doctor still didn’t see an issue, it was only because she had to go and see another doctor as an emergency appointment that she was referred, scanned and diagnosed within a week. She was told this news at an appointment and (though sent for various scans) then didn’t actually then see a doctor for another 3 weeks. This was a very dark time for us all, having a diagnosis but not knowing anything about the prognosis. As well as several tumours around the right side of the lung she has fluid around her lung, one in her lymph node in her neck and one a lymph node in her abdomen. When we finally saw a doctor, she gave us some results of the scans but told us we had to wait another week to see an oncologist. Finally 4 weeks after diagnosis we saw the oncologist who told us that though this is a very aggressive type (she could see progression already from the original CT scan to the PET scan) my MIL could have some palliative chemo which, if it worked, would relieve some pressure off her lung, would give her some quality of life and maybe up to a year. They said they may consider radiotherapy but wanted to see how the chemo goes first. After this appointment the cloud seemed to lift a little for us all, we had a plan, an idea of time. We took her to her first chemo appointment which she dealt with really well. A week later she got a chest infection and was taken by ambulance to a different hospital. When she arrived, their main concern was the size of the lump that was now massively visible in her neck. They did a CT scan and said that this had progressed, she spent a week in hospital. The doctor in this hospital assured us that they were in constant contact with her chemo and radiotherapy doctors. She was discharged knowing that we had her clinic appointment a week later with her chemo oncologist. We arrived at the appointment Friday just gone and were told that they were very happy with the impact the chemo had on her lungs and she was OK for her next lot of chemo (due tomorrow) Just before we left the appointment we just quickly mentioned the lump in her neck and asked what was happening, the oncologist looked confused and looked at the lump. It was obvious straight away that she knew nothing about this and was very concerned. She asked some other doctors to come and look at this and told us that we would get a call over the weekend to give us a time to come in today for a bronchoscopy and that she would need to start radiotherapy ASAP. When we asked if my MIL would be OK for her chemo session this week, the doctor replied no and suggested that she probably would not have any more chemo now. So this is where we are today, still no phone call from the hospital as we were told. I have called them and have been told that she is being booked in for a stent (not mentioned previously) and will get an appointment for this in the post. I feel like we are back to square one, this doesn’t sound good to me but we are sat around waiting again for action, information and prognosis. I am frustrated with the seemingly slow progress from doctors and hospitals when they know that the tumours in her body are growing every day. 8 weeks in and she has had one dose of chemo and been given some morphine. I know that she has terminal cancer, I know there is no cure but whilst we are in this limbo it is very difficult for any of us to ‘get on’ with our lives. Does anyone have any similar experiences that they can share? Thanks for listening.