Treatment and the bad weather

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I’ve started writing a couple of times in the past but never got round to actually posting. Now I’m letting all my emotion out, probably for the first time since my mum got diagnosed with secondaries in August and all because of the stupid weather!

A bit of background. My mum had breast cancer 7 years ago, and apart from acute lymphodemia and some other side effects has been caner free since. However this summer she started experiencing extreme pain in her ‘bad’ arm, along with increased swelling. She also had what she described as swollen glands in her neck and a bad rash on her back. Turns out cancer is back and gone to lympth nodes, skin and bone. 2 weeks ago she was refused her second dose of second type of chemo after a routine scan showed it wasn’t making any difference. A kick in the teeth on its own but doctors then revealed that they were going to stop giving her chemo full stop as didn’t seem to be working. It was decided that radiotherapy might provide her with some relief as she is still in extreme pain in her right arm due to mets in neck pressing on nerves.

Now to put the icing on the cake, my father called me well over an hour ago to let me know how mums appointment went, and revealed that they had already been stuck in traffic due to the snow for over 3 hours! They weren’t given any particularly good news at appointment as increased lumps on my mums back are showing that the cancer is still continuing to spread, and now they’re stuck on treacherous roads with no guarantee of when they’ll be home. Seems like a silly thing to have upset me so much – feel like I have been so strong until now - but mum won’t even come to family down the road for Christmas dinner for an hour as its too much for her, and now shes been forced to sit in a car for over 4 hours. I just feel so helpless. Just sitting at home waiting for dad to call saying they’re safely home. Sorry for the rant, but feel more composed now! Not sure if this is the right section to be posting in, but I am sure we’re not the only family to have had the weather (and London’s inept way of dealing with it)adding to our woes.

Thanks for listening/ reading.

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Nothing useful to say-I hope they are home safely now x

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so sorry to hear about your poor mum and her awful journey. It took me 3 hours to get 6 miles yesterday and that was only to see the oncologist prior to chemo 4 - so frustrating. Only two of us made it to see her yesterday so everyone is suffering. Hopefully its the last of the white stuff here in the south east and london and things will get better for her.
wishing you well and lots of luck.
karen xx

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The weather is just another awful element in the equation and hopefully it will start clearing up soon. It must be so hard to think of your mother sitting in the car in the cold.

I am sure that you’ll do something with your mum over the Christmas period if not on Christmas day itself to make it special for her. Having family that care is so important and also the understanding that goes with that.

A big hug to you
elinda x

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support4mum, have you been put in touch with a Macmillan Nurse?
As a mum myself, i know one of the real downers in all my BC is the effect it has on my kids (19, 22, 24) it hursts like hell.

Your mum most prob just wants to have a quiet day, christmas day, with her kids about spoiling her. Sounds as if she has had a tough time.

Its good to have a rant so don’t apologise

rhian

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Thanks for all your kind messages. They did make it home safely eventualy! Mum managed to join us for tea after lunch today which was really nice and everybody was really pleased to see her.