Urgent Advice required regarding Lung Cancer and Radiotherapy

[PussinJimmyChoos]

My Grandad is 78 years old. He had bladder cancer a few years ago and it was treated successfully with the removal of his prostate and bladder and then radiotherapy. However, he hurt his shoulder in March and since then, the pain has not gone away.

He went to the GP who sent him for an X ray and they found a mass. He had a CT scan and saw the oncologist today and they confirmed it was malignant and lung cancer. At present, I don't know the grade of the cancer, whether it has spread as I wasn't there to ask the questions and as my Grandad didn't ask them, my Gran was afraid to as she didn't know what he was ready to hear

They have said they will give him radiotherapy to shrink the mass and control the pain but not chemotherapy as at his age and in his condition, it would be too much for him. They didn't use the words terminal, but we are assuming it will be? There is a three week wait for the radiotherapy which we are angry about as think it should be sooner and we will be complaining to the hospital to get it brought foward

What is the usual course of action with these things? Does radiotherapy buy time or?? He is already losing weight by the week and is very tired

Any advice appreciated as we are all over the place

TIA

Puss

My mum sets my dad up with porridge and half a banana each morning. Sometimes he can't eat it, but mostly he does. It's a good start if your gd will eat it He's just started to have gold top milk in lieu of the small amounts of normal full fat milk that he did have.

Oramorph should have been sorted early on really. My dad hasn't been referred to Mac nurses either, but he is visited by the local hospice nurses regularly and they can prescribe medicines that she/he feels are necessary. Also those Ensure drinks can be got on prescription so will save you and your grandparents a small fortune.
I do think that you'll(well your gp's)probably start to get phone calls to arrange for people to come round and sort a lot of stuff out. Things that you wouldn't normally think about like bath seats and handles to help them up and down from the toilet seat etc. Pressure pad cushions that help enormously when you have no flesh on your bottom. Also, you know how difficult it is to get a GP appointment these days? well that should stop and a call to the surgery should get you a visiting GP very quickly.

I don't know what area you all live in, but my dad was treated with the RT in London and he made the mistake of telling them that he drove the half mile to the doctors surgery when he had appointments. Because of that, they expected him to drive into London, have his RT and then drive himself home . He did then have to fight to get hospital transport provided. Dad hasn't driven for 6 months now, he doesn't have the physical or mental strength, but he did apply for and(eventually)got a blue badge which he can use in anyones car he is travelling in. We've used it once ~ he just doesn't want to go out.

Hope that is helpful too...

sorry to hear this i hope you can get some clear answers, often hospitals avoid using the word terminal and talk instead of advanced cancer, this can be mis leading.
get a mac nurse as soon as you can it was the best thing we ever did for steve and our family.

Thanks for all the advice

Gran going to ring GP tomorrow to get referral to a Mac nurse so I feel we are getting the ball rolling as she will then be able to tell them all what they can do/what they are entitled to - feel very relieved about this because I just know my Gran needs someone not involved with the family to really speak her mind too - she's very mindful of upsetting us too much, bless her

The oncologist should get the letter tomorrow so am hoping we hear more details about what is what with the cancer after this. Has anyone else found that when the initial diagnosis is given, the doctors really fudge it a bit, rather than saying what the patient needs to hear?? I mean my Gran seems to think he will book up after his radiotherapy as it will shrink the mass and relieve the pain its causing - but I'm not so sure as I think other problems will then be coming to the fore if the cancer has spread (which we don't know yet as Dr didn't say)

Good news - the GP going to do a referral for a Mac nurse for Grandad - very pleased to hear this..not sure how quick it will happen, but at least the ball is rolling

Just waiting now for oncologist to respond to letter that we sent - hope its sooner rather than later, but they are so busy aren't they and lots of patients to deal with

Thats good news about the mac nurse.

Blimey..just heard from Gran - GP actually came out to the house without even being called and changed Grandad's pain meds..very pleased with this.

He also explained a little more about why the cancer has caused his shoulder to hurt - it has damaged the bone, hence the resultant pain when all he did was throw a stick a tad too enthusiastically for the dog

Am confused though - if its lung cancer, as they are saying, but the bone is damaged - does this mean it has spread??

Gosh, that sounds like it, doesn't it? It could be nerve pain if he has a large tumour (I had this, yelp, yelp)?

mum's shoulder hurt, i think it was the tumour pressing on a nerve, and was causing the pain.

I am glad that the gp has changed his pain meds.

I had morphine patches for my pain in the end.

Fantastic news PJC - am so pleased - the GP seems pretty on the ball to me.

if it has "damaged" the bone, then yes, that sounds like metastases - weird that it goes in the shoulder - that's what my dad had.

No idea why there particularly,or maybe it's just a point of weakness because of the way we move.....

Anyway, sounds as if you're less alone. good stuff.

J