My wife was diagnosed with secondary BC in the lungs back in March. She was originally diagnosed back in May 2005. She has only recently started coughing really badly. She has noticed it is getting worse. She has a CT scan this Monday and it scares the c**p out of me to think what it might show, especially as we have 2 young girls
So sorry you’re in that horrible stage of waiting. Best wishes for Monday.
Sass xx
Hi rmat01
We all know what you are going through. The not knowing is the worst sort of agony and there is little you can do but endure as it takes every waking moment. The only thing I could do was to watch an action movie (more gripping the better) and that might override the thoughts for a while - but they return as you know they will. I found being active (doing things) and being with people (not one to one chats but going out with them) helped me.
All the best for Monday and keep posting if you think we can help
blondie
Hi,
My situation sounds similar to your wife, though no two are ever the same. I have mets in the lungs bones and liver diagnosed in March, my daughters were 8 last month.
I just wanted to say try not to think the worst but be open in waiting for the scan results. My cough is driving me bonkers at the moment, codeine linctus sometimes helps, but the last scan showed the mets in my lungs are stable and not growing at the moment, so the docs were not worried but it is horrid for everyone hearing me cough and it can hurt.
You sound like a very supportive husband, it makes so much difference to feel loved and not to be going through this alone. I will be thinking of you and your wife.
Thanks for the comments, i have arranged to get the kids minded tomorrow night so we can go out to see 007 - she thinks daniel Craig is great ???
She has some cough mixture to try and ease it, but its still there, still in her mind and still worrying. It won’t be a good weekend.
Its not only the weekend but the wait for the results - why does it have to take so long?
Hi rmat01
I hope you enjoy the cinema - my daughter said the film was good fun and you both need the break.
Re the wait for results - I always ask when I can find out the results and get the onc to give me a verbal report (ie he gets a phone call from the consultant radiologist, or whatever, rather than wait for the written report) and then he tells me the good news - always try to be positive! - at his earliest clinic. I am usually able to push in and so the wait is as minimal as is possible. The medics do understand the agony of waiting and, if you make your feelings clear, they usually oblige.
Enjoy the cinema and don’t stint on the popcorn!
blondie
Well that’s the scan over thank God. What a traumatic weekend we put in, not looking forward to the results so the worry is still there. Can’t get the results until next week so its still in the back (and front) of our minds.
My wife asked a very poignant question last night, which i wasnt able to answer, namely could I remember what life was like before she was diagnosed? She was diagnosed 31/2 years ago and i cant for the life of me remember the daily routines etc.
Anyone else have this problem??
im new to the site but my mum is going through a very similar thing at the moment, she had breast cancer early 05 and for the past 3 mths has had a cough that has got progressively worse - a month ago she was diagnosed with pneumonia but due to no improvement they sent her for scans 2 weeks ago. results were bk yday and theres a shadow on her lungs plus spots on her liver so back today for more tests - the waiting as a whole family we find the hardest.
i hope its good news for your wife vic
Hello
I had a cough when I was first dx drs thought I had pneumonia. After having a scan it was found that I had fluid in the pleural cavity of my left lung. This was drained and I then had chemo which has worked really well. The fluid has almost gone and no longer have a cough.
Fingers crossed for you that it is something simple that they can treat easily
Caroline
thanks for that Caroline - my mum is back at hospital 10th Dec so until then we are doing our best to stay positive.
Vic
Yes, Mat01, I was diagnosed six years ago and can only vaguely remember what it was like before. I can’t remember a day since my breast cancer diagnosis that I haven’t thought about this stinky disease - although some days I have thought about it much more than others. I don’t think my little girl, who is ten now, has any memory at all of a mummy without breast cancer, which I find incredibly sad.
Deirdre
Hi there Mat 01,
Haven’t been looking recently. Yes am still coughing! it comes and goes and I haven’t been back to my GP yet. I have an appointment with my BC Oncologist in jan. and am trying to hang on til then as I want to be referred back for a check to the lung consultant I was initially referred to. I presented with lung mets. original BC diagnosis 15yrs ago so they weren’t sure I was secondary BC.
Thing is I think keeping the lungs functioning is fairly important and so need to talk to lung specialist now, even though i have breast cancer. Anyone else feel this way or have i got tunnel vision???
Yes mat01 i remember life before BC and also when I thought we were out of BC zone. my husband was distraught at secondary diagnosis, but we are determined to try and carry on whatever. the only thing we do which works for us is try to talk to close friends/ family as honestly as you can, enjoy your times together, and plan stuff for the future. enjoy a bit of every day, and laugh if you can every day ( actually I cough when i laugh but heh i’m not going to change the habit of a lifetime now).
I wish you and your wife good times despite all the tests etc. My oncologist is pretty positive so far, and working/carrying on 15years with this disease should encourage you a little i hope?
Best wishes
lizzie
Hello,
I was diagnosed with secondary bc to the lungs and bones June 07. Original diagnoses was in 1997.
My cough at the time was very bad and I would often have to suck ice to get my coughing under control. I used to wake up in the night coughing so hard i could not catch my breath and had a persistent annoying cough all the time.
The oncologist decided that I have 6 x Taxotere, and although it was pretty tough it worked wonders on the cancer and on my cough. Within 6 weeks (two treatments) my cough was much better, and by the end of the treatment it had gone completely. I finished chemo last October and have been on letrozole ever since. I still have the odd cough ( like everyone else) but my awful cough have all but gone.
I hope this helps.
Hi fayjay69,
thanks so much for your response, yes it’s the waking up coughing, and in my case wheasing wakes me, like you have a set of bagpipes in bed! have noted your treatments to talk to my consultant in Jan. though I have no bone mets… as yet. It comes and goes with me but so irritating.
Thanks again for info and good luck,
Lizzie
Hi Lizzie,
I am glad that helped.
Fay :o)
Hello again - sorry for the delay in responding but its been hectic around here.
LizandRob I can understand your husbands fears - my wife’s secondary diagnosis came out of the blue. She had problems with the wound to her belly button after the reconstruction, after a scan to see what was wrong it picked up the bottom part of her lungs which showed tumours in her lungs.
Deirdre I totally concur with your statement that it is sad that the children can’t remember their loved ones without the cancer. I recently done some work with the Ulster Cancer Foundation CLIMB project, my eldest daughter attended this and we both met several children in the same boat as her.
Fayjay69 I will try the ice cubes to see if it works. My wife also had 6 x Taxotere, but this cough only developed after the treatment was completed, which seeing as it helped your cough has really made me worry more, though I know this wasnt your intention, you were only relaying your story. She is on anti biotics now to see if that clears the cough up and havent yet got the results of her scan so we will just have to wait and see.
Life isn’t about having problems its how you deal with them.
Good luck, best wishes and thanks
rmat01
Just got the results of the scan today. All is stable so no worsening of her condition which is a great relief. Its 5 months since her last chemo so she is really holding her own, apart from that damned cough
Well that was good news but can’t they give you anything to help with the cough? there must be some kind of medicine for this sort of situation - often in cancer thet use different things to non-cancer patients.
I feel my 8 yr old son has no memory of a well mummy and neither hubby or myself can remember a time when I was well and I was diagnosed in april 05 so probably the same sort of time as your wife rma. It seems so unreal. An ex-work colleague came to see me tonight and that seemd so odd too to think I was working and well before then as actually I have no memory of the work/family life balancing act that was my life back then plus studying for my degree.
My youngest son - the 8 yr old very matter of factly said last week - ‘I’m so glad you didnit die before christmas’ which broke my heart. For him as well, there is also the memory of his same aged cousin dying of liver cancer 8 months before I was diagnosed so all he remembers since the age of 3 is cancer and death which is very sad.
You spoke of a local charity that works with families where a parent is ill or maybe has died, luckily for us we locally have a brilliant charity which works with familes where a parent has died so know my children and hubby will have somewhere to turn to.
Really pleased that you got good news but if the antibiotics don’t work then maybe you willl have to push for other investigations which may hsow some cause for this cough. It’s so miserable coughing all the time.
All the best
Kate
Thanks Kate, my wife is going to our GP tomorrow to try get something for the cough.
My kids are just like yours - my eldest has known cancer for a third of her life, my youngest for half. This is the really sad and upsetting thing. I can remember my daughter getting really distraught asking us was her mother going to die from this? God i’ll never forget that
Keep the chin up
Rmat01
just a quick update on my mum, she went to see her chest consultant who is pretty sure she has mets in her lung and a few suspicious spots on her lower spine. shes off to her old oncologist tomorrow and is hoping more than anything that they can put her on something to help her cough as she is having problems sleeping and is getting quite breathless and has no energy. thanks for tip about the ice cubes I will def suggest this to her.
Vicky