I am new to this site and didn't even come across it until I was searching for lung cancer awareness pins.
My mother is 49 and was diagnosed in October with
stage IV NSCLC along with mets in the bones. Throughout this year, the doctor kept telling her that she had bronchitis. She ended up seeing an arthritis doctor for severe pain in her back and legs. She couldn't find anything specific wrong so decided to do a ct scan of the chest, pelvic and abdomen. Sure enough almost a 6 cm mass was found in the upper right lung. Nothing was wrong per the other doctor though!!!
I recently remembered that she had a x-ray of her chest done in January 2008 so I went to the hospital to pick it up and it looks like the tumor was in the lung then. I brought it to her Oncologist and he says that it does look like a small mass. I'm so mad that this could have been caught almost 11 months ago and now she is at the worst stage.
She is in such a great amount of pain in the tail bone due to the mets. She is not able to have surgery in either the lung and/or the areas with the mets. She has already lost over 10 pounds and the tumor in the lung has already grown another cm since September 19. The doctor's performed radiation on the mets to help with pain, but it only helped one of the areas.
The doctor is concerned about getting the lung tumor under control, but I'm concerned about how fast all of the tumors seem to be growing. I guess I'm just scared about this whole situation.
How do you deal with this kind of news about someone who is so young? How do you tell your kids that their Nana is so ill? My 9 year old knows what is going on, but I can't help but to feel like I need to be there for her even more than I already am. I feel like I'm a turtle hiding in it's shell when it comes to my own feelings. How do I cope with this myself without feeling like I have to be the BIG STRONG ONE???
I am the only one doing everything for her as I am the only child and I wouldn't change it for the world, but is there anything specific that I can do to help HER? I want to make her as comfortable and make her feel as loved as I possible can. Any suggestions??
To make me feel even worse, my grandmother has SCLC and is trying to cope with her daughter having lung cancer (my mom). I have been better with dealing with my grandmother and I think it's because of her age, but I can't grasp how to deal with my mom.........
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