My mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer back in 2011, it was found early and operated on successfully, some chemo after the op and she was declared cancer free.

In November 2020, she suddenly started have problems with speech and texting/writing. A call to the doctor and she was immediately taken in for scans. They found tumours in the lung and brain, a reoccurrence of the bowel cancer, not lung/brain cancer we were told. 

Her speech declined quite quickly, but she was still able to talk fairly coherently. She had a 5 day course of radiotherapy in mid December 2020 for the tumours in the brain. Since the radiotherapy, her speech has gone completely, she can think the words no problem and knows exactly what she wants to say, but the link between brain and mouth just isn't there. We have no idea if this will come back, and she is obviously very frustrated and upset that she cannot communicate.

She was supposed to start chemo in January, for the lung tumours. Unfortunately, on 24th January she collapsed while walking up the stairs, rushed to hospital where it was discovered that she had developed a fairly hefty blood clot in the aorta. It was very touch and go, she was on blood thinners and oxygen and extremely weak. The consultant told us that no one would touch her with chemo currently, which is understandable.

3 weeks in hospital and she is now breathing OK and has been discharged to home care. She is still very weak and completely bedridden. We have been told today by GP that chemo is not an option, and she is now having palliative care. That's about all we have been told, we have not been advised of any expectancies, nor have we been told about her speech and whether we can expect it to improve or not, and she has not had any scans since before her radiotherapy.

Is this normal? I have had the information passed on from my Dad, so I may be missing something, but I'm sure we should have been given far more information and guidance on what to expect and what the next steps should be?

What should I do?