To think something is off here?

[Thegirlinthegreenscarf]

Way back early 2022 my colleague said that she got diagnosed with stage 4 Glioblastoma brain cancer. Of course we all naturally felt so sorry for her and since have done everything we can to make sure that her life is easier. She has a husband and two young children. In 2024 my colleague said that she had surgery which removed most of the tumour but she was still terminally unwell.

The thing that's at the back of my mind is that she's never changed in appearance never looks unwell. Still puts in all the work hours etc.

Am I being unreasonable to think she's maybe playing us all?

I tend to agree with this. So sorry about your brother, I know it’s an exceptionally cruel cancer 💐

I know someone with a Glioblastoma who is still reasonably well and working 1 year after diagnosis and surgery (they are classified as terminal).
Didn't lose all their hair in chemo. Did have obvious scars & shaved areas of hair from the surgery.
Basically the treatment is operation and then chemo/radiation to try to kill all the cells before it inevitably grows back (and it always does). After the initial treatment it's not unrealistic than your colleague could look and feel ok.
Back to work after 10 days does sound odd though, unless the tumour was very easy to access and recovery was minimal.

There's a YouTuber I know who has glioblasoma. He was diagnosed pretty young in his mid-20s after having headaches. He had surgery and then a year's chemotherapy to follow that up. A whole year, during which time he felt absolutely dreadful after each bout of chemo and put on a lot of weight due to being on steroids. After that, his tumour was checked every few months by MRI to see if it was growing (they'd not been able to remove it all). For awhile it stayed as it was and he was able to resume a fairly normal life again, but then a scan revealed that it was growing again. He had the option of another surgery which he took and is now on chemo again for another year, and again is suffering from chemo treatment whilst bravely carrying on his work from home. He was told originally it'll be fatal eventually (5 yrs to live optimistically) and that's still the case, but the chemo's not as effective this time round. It's terribly sad. I don't see how someone could just say they went from having an operation to being perfectly fine a few days later, even if all the tumour was removed, chances are she'd still have chemo to be sure all the cells were gone.

Did she have scars/shaved head?

I mean you can never call someone out, but this kind of thing does happen. The podcast Scamanda is also now a doc on Disney+ and it's crazy.

Heard about that, some people are really twisted but it is quite rare

What are you getting from questioning this persons diagnosis? I think it says a lot about your character to even consider posting this.

Ok sorry! 🤣

The point I was badly trying to make was; people may look ok or act ok, but actually might very much not be.
Or even can be getting on with their life with an awful diagnosis.

I think a lot of people don’t realise what a glioblastoma diagnosis is. It really is not the sort of cancer where you look fine and just get on with your life. This woman has already defied the odds massively by surviving more than one year. It’s really almost unheard of. Everyone I know who had this horrible diagnosis was dead within 18 months and had steroid and other treatment that caused quite a drastic change in appearance.

Weirdly people do lie about this kind of thing. I have a relative through marriage who has claimed to have terminal lung cancer for about 6 years – every Christmas she insists that all grandchildren need to spend the day with her (rather than alternating with the other side of the family) because it will "be her last Christmas". (Most people with terminal lung cancer have months to live, not years). She claims she goes to hospital for treatment but no one can confirm this, and she has shown no signs of the illness or any signs of treatment and regularly gets outrageously drunk at family events. It's quite bizarre although no one would ever say anything to her about it.

@MuddlingThroughLife I’m so very sorry , that just made me cry . It must totally boil your piss when you read story’s about why anyone would fake such a thing

I’ve known several with this awful diagnosis- and all had very obvious signs that all was not well - I think OP work on the basis she is telling the truth because as someone else said I would rather be a mug than cause issues for anyone who might just be telling the truth -

Tbf plenty of people are posting scenarios that are more much further away from the OPs scenario than your example!

I managed a flaky colleague for years who took endless time off for crises with her mother, who was living with her and had dementia.

Years later she was in the paper for a criminal act and it transpired that her mother was a young independent woman. Her entire work persona was a lie. You just never know!

Who knows? I do know someone with a similar diagnosis, they are now desperately ill and will not survive. It is heartbreaking.

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

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 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.

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.

@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!

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 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

Agree with this

Glioblastoma does not metastasise

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