Hi,

My mom has been diagnosed on the 12th of June with cervical cancer after 2 years of pain - she lives in Belgium and no one was able to find why she is in such big pain for such a long time despite having X-rays and even a cervical biopsy last year which came back clear. She started having kidney pain last year,then abdominal pain and had a colonoscopy which was clear then some MRI of the kidney in March,then coloposcoy because she became unable to urinate since March - she is now having a urine probe in. They finally did another cervical biopsy in June as she started having vaginal bleeding again after one year of pause, and they found she has cancer.She had a CT and PET - which showed 2 really small lung nodules and also an adrenal cyst(she had it in March and they said it's a normal cyst,but it got bigger since then so they changed their mind now)- they suspect metastasis,so they did a biopsy on both -the VAT lung one removed one of the nodules, which was a bit bigger than the other but still small enough to remove it easily. Even though, since it's still a surgery I hope this won't delay the treatment she needs to start on 13th July.

I am an only child and I am in terrible pain as she is the only family I have - I do not get along with my dad, and I am scared of being left alone.It's also really hard to watch her.She has terrible pain - she started hitting herself lately because the normal painkiller like Tramadol don't work or cause her to vomit. She can't eat she has already lost 10 kgs and there is a long waiting time until the treatment starts- we will find the final diagnosis on the 6th July (also her birthday...she will be 56 ) and we have a booking for starting chemo on 13th July, but I am afraid she's too weak to even make it till then.Also worried she is way too weak to face chemotheraphy in her condition.She said she wants to fight, but she can't urinate,she cannot walk - she has really bad pubic bone pain, I think the tumour is pressing on the bones and organs, and she cannot eat .I have so many questions , I don't even know where to start from.Is it normal for cancer to be so painful even with strong opiates? Is there a change to achieve NED if the metastasis is still small? Is the long waiting time until treatment normal and is there no way to stop the cancer spreading until then as she gets new pains every few days?  How long until the chemotherapy starts taking some of the cancer pain away usually?

Thank you!