Not about BC, but sadly my SiL was diagnosed with bowel cancer yesterday after attending the local screening programme. She had to have a colonoscopy last Saturday as she had provided 2 stool samples which had blood in them. She has to have a CT and surgery in Feb. Apparently she has told my brother she has been feeling a bit off for a while and has had a bloated feeling in bed at night. I have a feeling she may not have wanted to go to the doctor as she is about 6 stones overweight - also she is the sort of person who goes to the surgery for extremely minor things and they do say to her all the time to get her weight in check as she has high blood pressure. It’s not unusual for her to take 2 weeks off work with a cold.
Thing is, I’m not particularly close to her and I think it’s fair to say within the family as a whole she has merely been tolerated over the last 35+ years as she can be a really nasty person (in recent times she was totally unsupportive towards my brother when our father was becoming very infirm due to the onset of dementia).I also don’t visit very often for all they live 10 minutes away as she is very lazy and keeps a house like a pig sty, she never diverts her attention from the TV when we visit either as she is so rude. The house is so untidy that my brother has lost the plot because when he has a clear out she clutters the place up with junk again - last time I dropped in there you couldn’t sit down for stuff piled on the furniture, there are also 2 cats. However, I would not wish this disease on my worst enemy and feel I need to be there for my brother as he is a highly strung person who does not cope in a crisis. When I was diagnosed he came to my house every week and for 6 weeks he couldn’t make eye contact with me as he was so distressed.
She has to see a colorectal Consultant on Tuesday and as luck would have it my OH has the appointment following her at the same clinic (purely a check up for some minor treatment he has had for piles in the past year). We have offered to take her and my brother with us as the hospital is 9 miles away and parking is difficult. I’ve also offered to print some stuff off for them as they weren’t given anything by the hospital and they are not on the internet.
I really don’t know what else I can do, but my worry for my brother is that he took redundancy from his job in December, so he no longer has work to get up for or the support of his workmates. I did a CV for him as he was looking for p/t work but he has told me last night he is putting this on hold now.
I can’t believe this is happening as my other SiL was diagnosed with lung cancer about 6 months ago, thankfully she is now in remission. It’s very difficult when it’s family, but you haven’t really got on with them over the years. Have to admit, I didn’t sleep all that well last night as it brings it all back again.