To think something is off here?

Except the OP’s colleague has said she has a glioblastoma. That is an always incurable brain tumour that leaves you disabled and your appearance is unmistakable. Most people do not survive beyond a year. I understand why OP is questioning it (anonymously) given those of us who have experience of it.

I've read some more of the comments and am quite angry really. Wtf is all this "my friend was different so she's fibbing" crap?

1. There are dozens of types of brain tumour. Dozens.
2. It does NOT always result in personality change at all. Depends on the location. My husband's was in the area that affects speech and language. He remained the same absolute sweetheart, pretty much until the end.
3. You can indeed be up and about soon. My husband's awake craniotomy was 14 hrs. He was discharged 4 days later, having proved to the physio team he could make a cup of tea, make toast and go up and down stairs. He was away with the fairies and struggling with language, mind, but he was up and about.
4. He did not have visible scarring. He had a small extremely neat scar on his temple, covered by his curls. His biggest problem soon after was an infected lesion on the back of his head where he'd been held in a tight clamp for 14 hrs.

What has become of us as a society that we might think this is our business and be sceptical of people facing such a dreadful prognosis?

glioblastoma grade 4 is the most aggressive incurable brain tumour there is. Treatment is surgery if appropriate, then chemotherapy and radiotherapy which are both extremely debilitating. My horrific experience with an extremely close dear person with this disease was they had 9 months from diagnosis til death. This 9 months was blighted by surgery to debulk the tumour, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, massive doses of steroids, hospitalisation, hospice care and death. It's not JUST a brain tumour it's the worse you can get, I've heard it called the terminator. The usual prognosis is 12 to 18 months. A small percentage of people may live over 12 months with it but only 5 percent with treatment are still around in 5 years. So your friend must be of the 5 percent or an anomaly.

I have a brain tumour everyone’s body reacts differently to them , I’ve been left disabled and cannot work anymore , the people I know with a gioblastama struggle as it’s the most deadly brain tumour , I find it strange you’ve noticed nothing , no one can have brain surgery and chemo and radiotherapy and no one notice as they make you ill and you lose your hair too , I hope she’s not lying as that would be disrespectful to others genuinely suffering , she would have taken lots of time off work too

Oh god, you absolutely need to backtrack here. First, it's a GRADE 4 cancer, not stage, that means something different.

I recently lost my husband of 41 years to a Grade 3 brain tumour. His prognosis was 3-5 years if you're lucky, 12-18 months if not (with that latter scenario meaning it would have become a Grade 4). He lived nearly 8 years. On the Brain Tumour Charity support page, there are indeed many people who die within months or years with a Grade 4. But there are some who live several years. It depends on so much.

For many people, the first choice of chemotherapy - temazolomide - is reasonably well tolerated. It's pills not intravenous, usually a few days per month. For my husband, it just made him very tired in week 3. Nothing more. Radiotherapy is usually soon after surgery, daily for a few minutes for some weeks. Again fatigue is the main consequence.

People wouldn't have known there was anything wrong with my husband except that his speech and memory were hit, because of the tumour location. There's a helpful gif showing life with a brain tumour, of an iceberg in the sea. Top bit is labelled something like "You look fine" and then the 90% below labels all the hidden side effects and consequences.

So honestly, unless you've got solid evidence something is amiss with her story, you have to drop this. If anyone had judged or suspected my husband as exaggerating or faking his illness, it would have absolutely broken me. And it was hard enough to deal with all the people saying "Ooh he's looking great! Doing so well!" and I wanted to say "you haven't a fucking clue"

A grade 4 GBM diagnosed in2022 but she didn't have surgery until 2024? No one, absolutely no one, would leave a GBM for 2 years if surgery was possible. Was she claiming to have been on treatment? You'd be fortunate to have 2 years even throwing all treatment at it. Is it possible she has a different brain tumour diagnosis?

Disclaimer - I do cancer related stuff but am not a neuro oncologist. But I've known patients with this aggressive diagnosis and the timeline as you've described it makes no sense to me.

I would be suspicious. Cranial surgery in itself has slow recovery and I wouldn't expect it within a few days, especiqlly for something like stage four glioblastoma.

Years ago, I volunteered for a confidential telephone counselling service. A regular caller said she had terminal cancer and received massive support from the branch. Right up to the director, they befriended her and broke every rule of the organisation to help this woman with shopping, home visits, taking her for days out, birthday celebrations etc.. This went on for some time until, after she was admitted to hospital for an entirely different condition it emerged that she had never had cancer at all. She had shaved her head and even made a convincing catheter in order to fool the people trying to help her.
It's a condition and not to be taken lightly. Anyone so desperate to appear seriously ill probably is, but not in the way they want you to believe.
No idea if this is the case with your colleague but from what you say, I'd be wary.

Recently cared for somebody with this. If all the tumour was removed, it's quite plausible that she could appear as normal until it comes back, which they almost always do. I think 18 months is average, so 3 years is not impossible at all. It generally depends on where the tumour was and if they were able to remove it all. Does seem odd that there was such a quick recovery from surgery though, and radiotherapy following surgery would be standard treatment.

My sister was diagnosed with it - we were told it’s extremely aggressive. I sat by her bedside for a month after diagnosis, watching her die. I think you’re right to be suspicious.

My father went through chemo ( alongside surgeries ) , he lost a lot of weight and looked very poorly it’s nigh on impossible for someone to go through a round of chemotherapy and still look on top form I’ll be honest . Is there a reason that this is bothering you ? Or are you just feeling something is off and a bit sickened at the through that she’s lying about this ? our friends little boy just had a brain tumour head was shaved and back left side of the head was operation site with a visible scar . to operate on a brain cancer and the way they do it they definitely would have had to shave hair , and cut open a sizeable area which would definitely be noticeable even a month or three later . I hate to think of anyone lying about something so awful but some people are not getting the attention they need in general and invent these things and dig a hole so deep they can’t get out of it ! I also know someone who I suspect has munchausens by proxy every month there’s a new “ possible cancer “ i dismiss conversation with this person about medical stuff and move the subject swiftly on !

I think my friend does this. Is it because the drugs are ‘chemo’ drugs?

On the basis of 1% suspicion

You may want to avoid that show but you could watch the 60 minute episode on her. She’s sick tbh.

I’m sorry to hear your cancer is terminal. It must enrage you to hear about stuff like this.

Oh amazing! I’m looking for a new podcast to listen to! I’ll be straight on that tomorrow!

My best friend has a brain tumour. Grade 2 astrocytoma. Hers will ultimately transform in to a glioblastoma.
From our experience there is no way she would wait 2 years for surgery. Even with a grade 2 we waited 3 months.
She was off work for about 18 months recovering however this is different for everyone, radiotherapy and chemo is pretty gruelling so I’d be surprised if anyone managed to work through it without time off.

Now she would appear normal to the outsider. She works full time. Regular scans to check for progression. However she suffers with fatigue very badly. I don’t know many BT sufferers who don’t.

She would be very very lucky to survive as long as she has. Glioblastoma has a survival rate of around 18 months. However younger people do tend to do better and it’s not unheard of that someone could live longer

Glioblastoma does not metastasise

Agree with this

@Thegirlinthegreenscarf does she still
drive? Has she ever stopped driving for any time?

Normally a licence would be surrendered www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/brain-tumours/living-with/driving

What’s the worst that could happen if she’s lying and you believe her?

Compare that with the worst thing that could happen if she’s not lying and you don’t believe her.

I would assume she’s telling the truth. Either way she is not well.

@Thegirlinthegreenscarf So she had stage 4 early 2022 and had no treatment or surgery until 2024? Surgery would have been first, very quickly in 2022. If she had had zero treatment for 2 years she would be dead. She also likely would not have been coherent enough to work with stage 4!

An immediate family member of mine died from glioblastoma in December.

They lived for 16 months after diagnosis. The first 6 months they appeared fine, the treatment (chemo and radio) caused a lot of health issues and from then on it was immediately obvious that they were very unwell. They gained a huge amount of weight due to the steroids and were bed bound from around 14 months post diagnosis.

Glioblastoma can’t be removed successfully, because the cells shed during removal and form new tumours, so even if she had surgery she would still be undergoing treatment now. I don’t know, it doesn’t sound right to me but maybe she is one of those cases that is an outlier? Sophie Kinsella (author) was diagnosed over a year ago I believe and appears to be doing well.

With glioblastoma, the decline is rapid when it begins, so she won’t be able to hide it for long. It’s the cruelest disease, and IF she is lying about this I hope she rots in hell.

I had a friend in her fifties who was diagnosed quite suddenly with an incurable brain tumour. She had surgery, recovered and lived for several years looking quite normal. She'd always been very thin so nothing to show there. She got very tired and retired from work, but otherwise enjoyed life and did lots of things she'd always wanted to. Then the docs told her the treatment had stopped working and she died a few weeks later.

Six years ago my bestie got pancreatic cancer, it too has a very low survival rate. He did lose his hair with chemo and a hell of a lot of weight. At the moment he looks fighting fit and healthy but he still has a small growth in his lung and is still terminal. He’s done fantastically well to get this far, but we don’t know when we’ll lose him, at one point we thought he wouldn’t make it to Christmas last year, but he’s here and doing well. Having said all that I should point out he’s in his seventies, but if you met him you would think you were talking to a fit and healthy man.
Sorry for rambling!

I had a gynae procedure under GA and was told that I wasn't allowed to drive for 24 hrs.