Hi everyone,
Im clutching at straws, but has anyone been given a ‘few’ months to live, and survived perhaps a year? I have secondaries to brain, lungs, breast, abdomen and stomach skin and am trying to be a little bit positive. Just had radiotherapy to brain, and am applying for a chemo trial for Trip Neg cancer. Got bone scan next week, so its probably there too!
Thankyou xx
Hi Kez
So sorry to read of your situation and although I am not in your situation just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.
I think I read a post recently from someone who had a poor prognosis but was doing OK,so there is sometimes some good news
I am sure others will be along soon to give their support but here’s a cyber hug to be going on with
Daisy xx
Hi Kerry
Have posted under your other post. There are good stories out there and unless you have an expiry tag on your foot, I’d ignore anything that anyone tells you.
Laurie x
Hi there,
I was given a few weeks at christmas time and I’m still here, setting goals for myself and seeing them pass by which has been a good time, been out to lots of lunches, caught up with old friends and put all the leagal things in place and just generally put my house in order.
I have given personaly all my jewelery away, which was a pleasure, especially to my daughter and son, letting them chose what they would wear and then my wedding rings and other important bits, they didn’t have much choice there lol.
Its a worrying time too, I have a cold and its set me back a bit but I have just had the occupational therapist in to assess my needs , so have all the right equipment to aid me. I can feel my liver growing and growing which makes my breathing sometimes difficult but I have oxygen and inhailers for that, its only really bad now as I have a cold.
Its a crap place to be in but I am making the most of the time I have left and enjoying simple things day to day and being with my family is important, My children know I am on borrowed time and understand, we keep no secrets, which is the best way to be, as we even joke about me still being here to nag them.
Best wishes to you, you have just been landed in an awful spot and its a hard place to be…just focus now on our own personal prioreties and let know one lead you off that path if thats the choices you make.
Luv Clare xxx
Hello Kez,
I am so sorry to read your news and my heart goes out to you, I remember just what a horrid nasty experience it is being given a secondary dx.
We are all different and the treatments and the way we respond to them are different, no-one can tell you with any certainty how long you have got. I know several women on here who have been living a long time with secondaries, and I know some who have been given weeks/months who are still around 2 or 3 years later.This is a cruel and unpredictable desease and there are no guarantees but there are treatments and more coming along all the time.
I’m glad you have already had some treatment and hope that trial is suitable for you. It is a dreadful surreal situation to be in but you will find a way to cope with it. I have seen the advice that juliet and others have given in your other thread and would agree with them. Holding you tightly in my mind and sending positive strengthening wishes your way.
Julie x
In case you have lost the other thread, I will try to post the link :-
share.breastcancercare.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=35953&p=638976#p638976
julie
Dear Kez,
What a nightmare for you, which is a total understatement,I know…
Please look around the threads here and find comfort from so many women continuing to live fruitful lives in many many different ways.
I am not in your situation but nursed my Mum when she was in the same predicament as you with a terminal dx.
So I can understand a little about your situation.
May be you can locate Clare’s thread from above (Potmaid) called something like ‘I am in a really surreal place’ where she is sharing her journey and talks about very practical aspects of living with a terminal diagnosis. She is a shining example to us all about considering what really matters in our world…
You may like to keep posting and share your journey with us and we want to share it with you by continuing this dialogue, but you may be a more private person.
Whatever you decide to do here on this forum I can assure there are so many caring people here who will help you and hold your hand tightly…
We cannot take away the shock or pain of your recent dx but we can listen and we can share…
You are in such a horrid predicament and I hope you have people in your world you can rely on but please remember we are here for you too. We can create another community for you to share in.
Wx
Dear Kez…
I am sending you lots and lots of love…xxxxxx
Me too, love, hugs and positive thoughts!!!
Liz, x.
Sending love and hugs to you too xxx. I know of a lady with secondaries, has been told 18 months, that’s more than two years ago and she is still going fairly strong. They can get it wrong, it’s good to get treatment and if you respond well to that, that can make all the difference.
My heart goes out to you,
Christine xxx
Hi kez
I have been diagnosed with mets in multiple places (liver, bones, brain, lungs + nodes in my neck)
In every area the mets are widespread - throughout liver, pelvis, spine, ribs, skull, etc etc
In 2009 I was told 12months, in may 2011 I was told 3-6 months
Now I have stopped asking and they have stopped telling :-))
Of course having mets in lots of different places is really scary and there is a tendancy to assume that it must be much worse than having a secondary diagnosis in just one area but I think that it is more about how you respond to treatment. The staff at the hospital are only giving you their best guess, they don’t really know what’s going to happen to you.
There is a thread for triple neg ladies as they have different treatment options to hormone sensitive ones. Lots of them are responding well
I do think that it’s worth mentioning that there are a surprising number of women out there who’s disease becomes stable (I think there’s a ‘stable mable’ thread). Most of the time no one can say exactly why it happens but the cancer just stops growing. it doesn’t mean they are cured it just means that they are living with it as more of a chronic disease. Maybe it’s because they respond well to the conventional treatments or maybe it’s because they are following a fantastic diet, meditating, doing yoga, taking complimentary supplements etc (lots of women do but it doesn’t get mentioned that often as it can quite often be knocked back by other posters)
Anyway the worst thing that I am going through at the moment is feeling very p***ed off because I can’t drive and no one will tell me when I can have my license back. The brain mets (treated with radiotherapy) have all shrunk and no new ones have appeared. Bone mets are stable. Liver mets and nodes in neck were playing up but hopefully latest chemo will deal with that.
- not bad for someone who passed their first sell by day 2 years ago and their 2nd last October
Big hug
Melissa
Hello, First of all i want to send my love and hugs to you all in this unfair situation.
I have a lot of cancer in my family, i’m 47 and have just finished my treatment for grade 3, treble negative cancer, my nan died aged 50 from it, my mum died aged 53 from lung and heart sac, my aunt Doreen died aged 52 bone and lung, but my aunt Marg,who was the last one to die surprised us all. She had an aggressive cancer like we all had/have, and they gave her 6 months to live, she had it in the bone and lung (mets). She prepared for everything, like potmaid said she has, one year on she was still here, two years on, three years on, four years on and she was still with us, she was going line dancing, everything, she continued her normal life, the cancer was still there, not shrinking but year 5 she was still going strong, but her daughter kept asking them to do a brain scan to check her head for any tumours, and the reason she was asking this as only 2 years previously she had nursed her dad with a brain tumour, so she wanted her mum checked just in case. The hospital refused to do brains scans as my aunt was not showing any signs of anything wrong with her head. My lovely aunt Marg made 6 years after being told definitely only got 6 months to live, cancer was too advance, 6 lovely extra years for my cousin to have time with her lovely mum, and aunt Marg enjoyed those 6 years living a full normal life apart from the last 2 or 3 months only.
Eventually aunt Marg started to get headaches, and my cousin had to practially scream at the dr to do a brain scan, she got very angry with him and spoke her mind, which did not go down too well, but tough. They scanned her brain, and they stopped counting at 18 tumours, for gods sake, if only they had scanned her sooner, she would have lived longer, they could have gave her some kind of treatment for the brain tumour ( as it would have only been one tumour if they had scanned her sooner). So in the end it was the brain tumours that killed her, not the mets she had in her body. The dr said he was so sorry, and my cousin pointed out ‘if only you did as i asked we would not be here in this situation would we’ and he looked at her but didn’t answer, he knew he had done wrong.
So my lovely aunt Marg lasted 6 years after being told 6 months, and this spurs me on to think of her, i used to speak to her and she was out all the time, almost like she had nothing wrong with her.
Good luck ladies, i’m thinking of you, please let me know how your doing, and god bless you all xx
Caramac. xx