My 91 year old mum in law had a fall in February and due to corona virus (we weren’t sure how much we’d be able to help her if there was a lockdown) we moved her in with us temporarily. Long story but we discovered she has fungating breast cancer. She has never seen any one about it and says it’s been there for years. The gp came (she hasn’t seen a gp for 30 plus years) He was v good with her and quietly told us what it was and that given that she was going downhill quickly (she had gone from looking after herself and moving around her bungalow to bedridden in the course of a few weeks, after having a fall) he thought she probably had weeks or months to live. We had a nurse visit to show us how to dress the wound but other than that we are on our own due to Corona Virus. We have a private carer twice a week to wash her, other than that I am caring for her. Her coming here coincided with me getting a letter saying I need to shield for 12 weeks (I have bad asthma but really no problem at all with it at the moment) So at the moment this is fine, I am at home so I can do it. She’s v happy to be here and has improved loads, she obviously has the wound but says it doesn’t hurt, (I put dressings on it, she complains about this and the fall off-I don’t bother any more because I’m pretty sure she pulls them off) eating much more (but still v little). However she only gets out of bed to sit in the chair next to the bed every other day at the most, for a couple of hours, will only use the commode if I take her to it, twice a day at the most (right next to the bed), she wears pull-ups, originally I got these for her for leaks, but she’d prefer to just use them all the time instead of the commode) I guess really I just wonder if this is normal, I’ve never been in this situation before and we aren’t getting any support or back up(she wouldn’t want any treatment for the cancer) so I feel a bit lost really. What sort of support do you think we’ll get when the Coronavirus is over? Plus as soon as I’m able to I’ll have to go back to work, that will obviously be a whole new issue altogether.
