hi anthony, i'm sorry your mum is unwell, i think i do understand how you are feeling. My husband was diagnosed with a brain tumour and lung cancer a year ago. The docs gave us a broad life expectancy range of 3 months to 3 years. They won't be clear because they don't know. My gorgeous husband, who is 53 is looking poorly now, even though the brain tumour was successfully removed and the lung tumour has shrunk considerably, since May he has been getting unrelenting excrutiating pain in his thigh and hip. Pain relief isn't working, morphine makes him itch all over. He is having a bone scan in a weeks time, and i am so worried i can't sleep. It is my understanding that when it moves to bones there isn't much time left, weeks or months. The doctors are so vague but don't reasure either so you are left floundering helplessly. Maybe the nurses will respond to your question. I'm sorry, my answer isn't any help to you and i wish i knew what to do. Try and pin the doctors for more info and keep telling them about her pain. I think if i was in a lot of pain, i would choose dopey over pain.

Thanks for your reply. I'm trying to get as much info as possible but it's difficult to get it from the doctors. They are reluctant to speak to me without my mum being there and even when they do speak to us they don't really say how long she has got. I hope your husband is okay.

Hi

Have just seen your post and think for you to be able to learn much more your Mum would need to give her doctors permission to discuss matters with you(my husband did this so that I could hear things first hand(he preferred not to know).  I was in the same position when my husband was diagnosed as to a time line.  Every patient is different, every journey is so very personal (my husband had incurable Mesothelioma and there were records of patients living anything from a few weeks to over 10 years).  In the event  my husband's journey lasted nearly three years but we were lucky in that his pain was well controlled once he 'owned up' to it!  It is also possible, from my experience, that they will have a clearer idea when they see if the chemo treatment  is helping but nearly all time lines are an approximation.  If you feel  you are getting nowhere and are still concerned it may be possible to talk to a specialist pain management nurse. If your Mum has a nominated breast cancer nurse this could also be useful.  I hope you have better information soon.Jules54