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Mic13
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Hi. My family has been threw alot since feb of this year. My aunt was diagnosed with lung cancer in feb and died 6 weeks later. She had an agressive form and it had spread to other organs and lymphnodes. Now weve just been told my gran has lung cancer,two growths within the one lung which has spread to two lymph nodes. Im sure the lymph nodes are within the same area. As she has been told she will be offered a blast of radiation. Im unsure how radiation helps or treats the cancer/area. And wondering if anyone has any info?. And will this mean she will also be offered Chemo.? As i know Chemo is something she will refuse because she saw how it affected her daughter. 

Its very surreal that within 4 weeks of her daughter dying she has now been diagnosed with this. Shes 76 and im unsure how all this will affect her as she is still struggling with losing her daughter. 

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    Hi Mic,

    I am afraid that I know very little about radiotherapy or chemo. You might get a more informed reply if you ask the nurses on this site. You can phone them or contact them in the “Ask the nurses” section of this site. It is free to phone them and they are very helpful.

    Your poor family, especially your gran. It is a tragedy to lose a child before the parent, but for your poor gran to have to deal with a cancer diagnosis so soon after losing her daughter is tragic.

    I expect that your entire family have been left shell-shocked by all that has happened. Try your best to support your gran. Attend hospital appointments with her and help her to compose a list of questions she wants to ask her consultant. Take this along to her appointments and this way you will ensure you that you don’t forget anything important.

    I suspect that how your gran deals with her diagnosis depends upon how the rest of the family deal with it. Try not to come across all doom and gloom because you fear that she might leave you too. Instead try your best to put a positive spin on things. Try to make some good memories while she is well enough to do so. Let her know how much love surrounds her and do anything you can to make her comfortable.

    I do hope that she copes with her radiotherapy and that it helps to shrink the growths.

    My love and prayers to you both.

    Jolamine xx

  • Offline in reply to Jolamine

    Hi Jolamine,

    Im sorry for not replying 3 years ago. But i wanted to thank you for your kind words, advice and prayers. 

    Unfortunetly by the september of that year the lung cancer had spread toher brain and she passed away peacefully in her own home surrounded by family. Was such a hard year for us. 

    Sending best wishes. Xx

  • Offline in reply to Mic13

     

    Hi Mic,

    By the sounds of things, you were busy at the time, so don't worry. Still, it is lovely to hear from you now, even though it is such sad news. One thing I am glad to hear is that you managed to keep your gran at home to the end. I'm sure that she was happy to be able to stay there with her loved ones all around her.

    We had a hard year too. We lost my Mum-in-Law in September 2018 after a 5 year battle with Dementia. We managed to keep her at home until the end too. My 97 year old Father-in-Law looked after her, so well. They were married for 80 years and, he was totally bereft after she passed. By the following February, he was having really severe back pain. He went into a Day Centre at the hospital for assessment. We were told that afternoon that his body was rife with cancer and, he only had weeks to live. Five days later he died. In June, my son managed to break his neck and, had to have an operation to stabilize this.We went on holiday in September to try and get ourselves back on an even keel.

    Whilst we were there, we received a phone call to tell us that my husband's youngest brother had been found dead in bed. He was only 53. The same week, I had a phone call from my In -Law's best friend of 83, to tell us that his wife had just died. He wanted our help to arrange the funeral, because he has no relatives left. We knew that he needed help, so we didn't say anything about my Brother-in-Law's death and, he didn't find out anything about this until after his wife's funeral.

    We also lost my Mum to secondary breast cancer, which had spread to her liver, lungs, bone and brain. I know how hard it was to support her and to see her through to the end.

    I sincerely hope that you and your family will have a better year in 2020.

    Kind regards,

    Jolamine xx

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