A devoted mother & nanny!
A devoted mother & nanny! My mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer in the breast bone & liver only yesterday!!! We are all still in shock, and absolutely devastated! When you refer to Liver mets, is this what my mother-in-law has? She battled breast cancer 3.5years ago…
Its just so unfair, shes idolises my 15 month old daughter (her 1st Grand-daughter) and has another one about to arrive in approx.5 weeks, but this has now put a grey cloud hanging over us all!
Anita xx
Hi Anita
I have read your post on the secondary forum about your mother in law - I am sorry that her cancer has returned.
Breast cancer in the liver is indeed what is referred to as liver mets (metastatic disease) which means that it has spread to a section of the body away from the breast.
My mum was diagnosed with lung mets in August of 2005 and it was such a shock. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2004 so didnt have long in between before the secondary diagnosis.
I was devastated when I found out, but somehow you are able to cope. My mum tolerated the treatments very well and after chemo there were no traces of her lung mets at all. My mum only survived a year, I lost her in August, but there were complications. She fell and broke her hip which meant that she lost her mobilty, then because of this she developed a blood clot, and it turned into pneumonia. Please dont let this scare you, my mum was unlucky and there are many ladies here who have been living with liver and bone mets for years, there are a lot of good treatments out there.
It certainly is a grey card but you learn to live with it, and your mother in law has a new baby to look forward to, so I am sure that this will help her to keep her spirits up over the coming months with her treatment. Please keep in touch and ask me any questions that you like.
Love Joanne x x
Thanks Joanne for your kind words, I am so sorry to hear of your loss, ironic that she battled cancer and thats wasn’t the cause in the end, life is so cruel.
The reason I asked is when I asked my Mother-in-law if it was Liver Mets or secondary cancer she said she didn’t know, but shes not the type to ask any questions, which is frustrating at times but thats her way of dealing with it. Once she completes her 6 months of chemotherapy, will she then be on a high dosage of medication? She already has high blood pressure & diabetes so I guess this is just another problem for her to deal with and to add to her list! My MIL & FIL have had so much ill jealth to cope with over the last few years it just seems so unfair they have now been dealt this!!!
I’m expecting the chemotherapy to be quite intense and after finally having long hair again she is now prepqaring to lose it all again completely! she went very thin before but kept her hair-line & eye-brows, this time she has ordered a wig, is this because the drug will be stronger? Sorry Joanne for all the questions but I have never been involved closely with anybody tackling this awful disease and I would like to know the hard basic facts but also hang on to all the hope and postive feedback that is available!!!
Thanks again.
Anita xx
Hiya
Dont worry, you are more than welcome to ask!
My mum had a chemotherapy called taxotere. She had 6 blasts over 3 months. She found that she actually tolerated this chemo a lot better than she did when she had a different type the first time. The doctor told her that it was a harsher chemo but she didnt find this, I guess its different for everyone. She was really tired and couldnt eat much as had a funny taste in her mouth. She did loose all her hair and eyebrows pretty much straight away and wore a wig, the hair definately fell out more quickly and it took longer to grow back. Mum wasnt sick on this chemo at all and could go about as normal not feeling any ill effects. After the chemo my mum went onto a tablet chemo called capcetabine (or xeloda) this was very easy on her and she didnt really get any problems from this apart from sore hands which she dealt with.
Maybe it would be worthwhile finding out exactly what type of chemo your MIL is going to have. If her cancer is of a certain type then she may also have treatments related to whether she is HER2+ or -. I think Belinda mentioned this to you on the secondary forum, if she is HER2 + then she may be eligable for herceptin. If MIL is hormone receptive then there are a lot of other treatments to try as well as chemo as far as I am aware. I dont have any experience of these I am afraid but I know that herceptin is an injection and that there are a lot of ladies on here who tolerate it very well. Have you looked on the breastcancer.org website? On there there is a section in symptoms and diagnosis called recurrant and metastatic disease, and it lists all the different types of chemo and hormone replacement therapies it may be useful to you. I expect that after the 6 months of chemo are up, the oncologist may suggest further treatment depending on how well she responds - in my mums case it was just a kind of wait and see attitude and if anything popped up it would be treated as and when.
Hope this helps.
Love Joanne x x x
HER2+ Thanks once again Joanne,
I feel very niave or maybe ignorant not sure what is the correct word really, but what does it mean if you are HER2+. They haven’t given her any options with a choice of drug as far as I know, all I know at this stage is that her chemotherapy starts on the 4th January, and she will have 3 weeks on and then a weeks rest, they plan to do this for 6 months, but review after 3 months to see what sort of response they are getting and to make sure the lesions are shrinking.Is Herceptin the drug that the lady who raised that petetion a couple of years ago because they wouldn’t allow her to take it, wasn’t it only available in the States? maybe I am thinking about another drug???
One other thing that may cause a minor problem is that with her treatment before they struggled to find a vein, so they may suggest having a feed through her chest. I think she said that is not removed until her treatment is finished, and just linked up everytime she goes…I think there is name for this?
Anyway, its Christmas Eve, so I will leave you to enjoy the festive season with your family & friends, thank-you so much Joanne for responding so quickly, it helps more than you know, I know I can read up on stuff but talkiing to someone makes it easier to undertsand somehow…
Have a lovely day tomorrow, Good luck & best wishes to you for 2007.
Anita xx
Hiya
I hope that you managed to enjoy christmas - it was a bit odd for me as the first without my mum, but I got through it and that is the main thing.
It sounds as though the doctors have a pretty good idea of what is best for your mum then. This the same with my mum, they decided on the best course of action and they know best dont they, we just have to put our trust and faith in them.
Herceptin is available over here, but if they havent mentioned it, I would imagine that MIL isnt eligable - I think only 1 in 4 (ish) people are.
My mum also had problems with her veins, so they put in a port for her chemo. It was in her chest and the chemo went straight into it. As far as I remember she wasnt able to go swimming and had to be careful in the shower, but she found that it was much easier for her. It was painful when they put it in but she had no trouble with it after that. Sometimes they can get infected so they need to be flushed out on a regular basis. My mum learned how to do this herself and also the nurses did it whenever she went to get the chemo. It didnt show under clothes although she did have some bruising in the beginning which was above her tops which she was a bit self concious of.
Anyway, let me know how you are getting on, keep in touch.
Love Joanne x x