My grandad was diagnosed with lung cancer about 8 months ago. They found a singular growth, so he underwent a round of chemo that, unfortunately, very nearly ended his life with septicaemia. We are so thankful and blessed that he was able to pull through - he has always been a very strong man and has overcome a lot in his life. 

Everything seemed fine after the chemo. No new growths, tumour wasn’t growing, but he couldn’t risk another round of chemo due to the very high risk of another septic episode, and so stuck to monitoring it with frequent scans since it was going so well. Was shocked to learn just a week ago that the cancer had suddenly spread so rapidly and quickly to other parts of his body, and that he would be put on a palliative care pathway. He was given 6 weeks until it “gets much worse” in the oncologists words. We are all as a family utterly devastated and heartbroken. We have been spending as much time as possible with him to give him the support he needs to grapple with this news.

What can we expect within those 6 weeks? My mind wonders if it will happen that soon at all as I am unsure by what the oncologist meant by “much worse”, but unfortunately I was not there to probe and I’m sure my grandad was thinking about other, much more important things during the news rather than asking questions.