My mum has just passed away from metatastic small cell lung cancer and I'm still in shock.

My mum passed away 10 days ago after being diagnosed with metatastic small cell lung cancer and it happened so quickly... Mum was diagnosed less than 8 weeks ago and, the cancer was so aggressive and took her so quickly, I am still in shock that she's not here. I've cried everyday and struggled to function. Mum thought the pain in her back was osteoporosis and arthritis in the spine until her bones began to hurt and she pushed her doctors for a scan. We were all devastated when the scan revealed tumours on both lungs that had spread to her spine and lymph nodes. There were delays via her oncologist for proper pain medication or treatment due to histology report needing to be resent back for second specialist to look at it all, that by the time mums appointment with the oncologist arrived, mum was too weak to even get out of the front door. She had been walking unaided only the week before.

Seeing mum deteriorating so fast was traumatic and even though I was with her everyday, cooking her meals and keeping her company, just after 6 weeks of being diagnosed, mum was being taken to hospital in an ambulance where she remained until she died only 9 days later . The pain mum was in was beyond devastating and she was so terrified of leaving us and this world, it was such a shock to her but dying in pain was her biggest fear. Witnessing my mum helpless and begging for help in those last days....Haunt me. My husband and I stayed at the hospital overnight by her side, holding her hand as did my brother and his wife the following night and, my sister. Mum didn't want to be alone and we, didn't want to leave her. All of her family were with her during this awful time which is the only comfort mum had. She became so distressed the last few days that the morning before her passing, the doctors ran off to assist and gave her palliative sedation, from which she never gained consciousness. 

I sit today, going from feelings of numbness and not believing all this has happened,, to feelings of complete despair. My poor mum. Nobody deserves to suffer the way she did. My best friend, the person I spoke to/saw everyday has gone. I'm hoping in time I can come back on here and give comfort to those who have or are loosing someone to cancer. It's such a lonely and frightening time. I was on here weeks ago searching for hope and comfort when my mum was still here. I feel for everyone going through this, I really do. X

  • I am so sorry for your loss.

    I have come on here as I have a very similar story, my own lovely Mum just passed away on 20th June too, very similar story and we only got 8 short weeks with her from diagnosis.

  • My lovely beautiful Mum passed away nearly a week ago on 20th June, she was 70, a very young, fit and healthy 70.  She started having a sore back around Christmas time and the pain led in to her leg, the doctors treated her for sciatica, unfortunately the pain only got worse, she eventually took herself to hospital where they gave her Xrays and a CT scan and got the chilling diagnosis that she had NSCLC which had metastized into her peritoneal are, soft tissue surrounding her spine and her spine, we were devastated, she was seen relativity quickly and got radiotherapy for the pain in her back, which didn't really help. 

    We had a bit of a wait for the biopsy results to come back for them to decide on a treatment plan, my family and I looked at various different options of going privately or alternative medicines to try alongside the treatment, but it was too late, she began deteriorating within weeks, she received her immunotherapy and basically never got out of bed after that, she was completely immobile.  I feel we didn't get time to get our heads around the fact that she had cancer to her passing away so quickly and so suddenly, we are all beyond devasteted, we feel if she had a scan sooner she may have been fitter to receive treatment.

    She passed away comfortably at home, surrounded by us all, but what a loss she is to us all, she was our best friend that we spoke to every single day and the absolute best Nan in the world to our children.

  • I am so sorry for your loss. My beautiful mum died a year ago at 68. Sore hip then a month later she was dead. Lung cancer we didn’t know about. I’m still heartbroken and in such shock. 
    reach out to people like us, it does help.