Welcome to the Cancer Chat forum Staceytoo although I'm very sorry to hear about your diagnosis and possible prognosis with treatment.
This must be such a challenging time, with such a difficult decision to make, but I hope you can take some strength, and comfort, from knowing that our community are here for you and hopefully some of our members will be along soon to offer their thoughts and advice.
If you would like to talk things through with one of our cancer nurses, they're available on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m. They're very insightful and they will do all they can to address your questions and concerns about whether to go ahead with the chemo.
Whatever you decide to do Staceytoo, we'll be here to support you.
Hi Staceytoo. I am so sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I have incurable cancer too, my oncologist said it is not terminal because although it is incurable, it is treatable. I have it in most of my bones including spine and skull. I am on treatment and have a good quality of life. I don't know about your chemo but you definitely won't get all the horrible side effects. If you do there are tablets to counteract them. There are new treatments and trials coming out all the time now. If I were you I would definitely start the treatment because it is worthwhile and none of the specialist can give you an accurate life expectancy and in two years there might be some new trial/treatment out.. I know someone on another forum and they gave her six months and that was in 2013. So ultimately the decision is your but you could try it and if you decide it is not worth it, stop it. Good luck with your decision. Big hugs.
Did they use the word “terminal” rather than “incurable” or “stage 4”. I only ask because terminal is a very specific label that is rarely used by health professionals in the UK.
Survival stats can only be accurately used for very large groups of patients, they are worse than useless for individuals. For example, in 2013 I was told that even with chemo my odds of survival for 5 years was between 3% and 5%. The chemo was brutal but I was incredibly lucky and beat the odds. Without the chemo I would have died, with it I had a 1 in 20 chance of survival. Not great odds but better than zero.
Only you can make that call. Talk to as many people as you can who have had to make an informed choice.
l would address you as an individual person, not a statistic, so why would you use one as a reasoning base for deciding your future as Davek has pointed out.
Surely its about you,not about others, a very personal and almost selfish decision and the hardest any of us have to make. l, or no one else can tell you which way forward you should choose.
Neither could they say how well you would tolerate any treatment or any outcome
The only thing l could tell you is that those whose treatment failed would have swopped in a heartbeat with those whose treatment suceeded.
The answer you seek is deep within yourself, so give yourself enough clarity of thought to seek it out
l wish you well in your quest for your personal decision, l know l went through the same process over ten years ago,
