My husband was 82 when he was diagnosed with cancer of the duodenum a year ago. The consultant told us that if he operated on my husband he would never come out of hospital and he recommended that if we wanted to do anything we should do it now. My husband actually didn't understand what that meant so I explained it to him. My husband had radiotherapy on his duodenum and again when a lump came up on his neck (lymph gland?) he had radiotherapy on that. After that the oncologist said goodbye to us as there was nothing more he could do. He forgot to refer us to a Macmillan nurse but luckily I emailed his assistant about something else and she chased this up. We are now a year later and it is a terrible journey. They put my husband on steroids and he turned into a completely different person. During that time he cut up our stair carpet and decided to decorate the hall, stairs and landing! He was getting up all hours of the day and night. Finally they took him off the steroids so we have a state of calm but the house is in chaos. Luckily one daughter is able to do the decorating. They are now talking about putting my husband back on steroids and I really would like to know what stage my husband is at. Obviously I want him to feel good but he is very weak as he has lost a lot of weight and is hardly eating or drinking anything. Am I able to request tests that will show how far the cancer has spread?
