We just found out today that the bowel symptoms my wife (who is 55) has had for the last 3 weeks are due to the cancer infiltrating the bowel, advanced quickly after 6 cycles of chemo finished in November - if she didn't have the bowel problems they could try irinotecan - but she is not fit enough.
So now starting symptom control - she has had gasric emptying problems so been struggling to keep hydrated and hardly eaten anything for 2 weeks.
I think she was expecting the news - she was really scared last night before the appointment with the oncologist, but was much less shocked than me and has sort of accepted it and is more concerned about the effect on me and our daughters (17 and 19yrs). she wants to leave making the news clear to them until after Christmas but we have told them that the bowel symptoms are probably the cancer and docs etc will be trying to control and improve her bowel symptoms.
I feel a bit hollow at the moment and know I will have to support her and the girls until the end.
It all seems so unfair - 7 months ago she was perfectly healthy and thinking about the things we might do when the girls leave home and we think about retiring etc - now it is just wondering how long she has before she dies! Even 3 weeks ago after a clear CT scan we were making a few plans.
