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Thread #6, living with incurable cancer, taking ALL the drugs, and remembering our fallen comrades

1000 replies

SewingBees · 24/06/2025 15:08

New thread!

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Enigma54 · 28/02/2026 21:07

Do you mean the hospital staff have withdrawn your omeprazole? Hope that isn’t the case! Really hoping these antibiotics will help, you definitely need a break.

Feeling deflated this end. “Leiomysarcoma will eventually take my life” (words of my second opinion oncologist). How do i look DD and DS in the eye without crying. Don’t know 😢

EachandEveryone · 01/03/2026 00:37

I just don’t know the answer I’m so sorry.

can I ask how you got a second opinion? How did you choose where to get it from and what was the process? Did it take long? Thank you x

Enigma54 · 01/03/2026 01:10

@EachandEveryone I did a bit of research online and found a clinic which also treats my type of cancer. I then asked my oncologist to make a referral
( which he did). Within a month, I had an appointment.

To be fair, the second opinion hospital did mention two other drugs as potential possibilities, should this one fail. They are going to detail all of this to my oncologist.

All I wanted was a fresh set of eyes on my situation, which I got, in the form of a solid question and answer/ session.

You can ask for a second opinion @EachandEveryone everyone is entitled to do that. It doesn’t even need to be a hospital in your locality.

EachandEveryone · 01/03/2026 12:06

Im still in. Ive started Linezolid antibiotics as im still spiking temperatures. No news from oncology but the medics are on top of me and i really think they want to know what will happen if these antibiotics wont work. Im fucking terrified. What do they do just pack your stuff up and wave goodbye?

SewingBees · 01/03/2026 15:26

@EachandEveryone if you haven't already you could ask for the palliative nurses to visit and help you with next steps. They're not just for end of life stuff, they can open the doors to all sorts of support.

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Enigma54 · 01/03/2026 15:49

@EachandEveryone agree with @SewingBees don’t lose hope. Palliative nurses can offer practical and emotional support. You won’t just be abandoned. Is this antibiotic definitely the last one? Is the infection showing any signs of subsiding? X

Sausagesforever · 01/03/2026 17:14

Echo everyone - contact palliative care team - they are amazing at offering up ideas and solutions and also at making stuff happen.

EachandEveryone · 01/03/2026 21:42

I dont know if its the last antibiotic but nearly is. I spike a temp every night 38.5 which they are concerned about. My sugars are out of control keep dropping to 4.5 but i honestly think this is be ause Inhavent got diabetes it was just part of the infection they keep showing insulin into me and its making me feel ill.

balkanscot · 01/03/2026 22:35

@EachandEveryone I agree with reaching out to the palliative care team. During my 5-week hospital stay in January and February palliative care team were amazing and very pro-active in terms of managing my pain and anything else I needed. And were a shoulder to cry on. I didn’t even have to ask for them, there must have been a protocol that triggered it.

Funnily enough, I also kept spiking temperature every single day, around 39 every single time. Usually in late afternoon, like bloody clockwork. Eventually it got better but I was on 3 types (if not 4) od antibiotics, all given via IV, I never had a break from being hooked up to IV for about a week. At one point I was hooked up to 2 of them, left and right. Which made going to the toilet, ahem, interesting.

Your medical team cannot just give up on you like that. I almost gave up myself and made up my mind to go to the hospice as my mucositis was that bad (oramorph didn’t really touch the sides, especially at night time) and palliative care team were so supportive in terms of leaving it up to me what I wanted to do next, At no point did I ever feel pressured to “give up”. In the end it was my oncologist who indirectly persuaded me to give this weekly Epirubicin a go. Which in my case is the last treatment NHS can offer.

Can you speak to a member of staff voicing all of your concerns? Is there anybody who is willing to listen and advocate on your behalf?

Enigma54 · 02/03/2026 09:50

How are you today @EachandEveryone ? Have you thought any more about getting some help from palliative care? What’s the wound doing now? x

SewingBees · 02/03/2026 14:27

Just had my ultrasound, nothing untoward and the CT scan I had last week looks clear in the same area.

Bet the bastard swelling goes down now after scaring me senseless for 3 weeks.

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EachandEveryone · 02/03/2026 19:29

Had the picc line put back in thank goodness. They’ve tried twice to do it today but it’s leaking. I don’t know why the tvn or experienced nurses can’t show the others.

Enigma54 · 02/03/2026 21:04

That’s good news @SewingBees do you feel relieved? These lumps, bumps aches and pains, they send us into a bloody spin, don’t they!

SewingBees · 02/03/2026 21:09

Yes, very relieved but also a bit of an anti climax!

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balkanscot · 02/03/2026 21:40

@SewingBees Amazing news! I hope you can breathe a bit more easily now.

A trip to Maggie’s for me tomorrow morning after almost 3 months, then bloods. Epirubicin on Wednesday. I seem to be constipated. I also seem to be living in the elasticated waist-land clothes-wise, even with all this weight that I had lost. Totally lost my fashion mojo as well. I find myself drooling over clothes online, only to realise this is not me anymore. Looking longingly inside my wardrobe - I have never had loads of clothes but what I do have is quality. And I can’t relate to the contents anymore. Relics of a pre-stage 4 life.

sellotapechicken · 03/03/2026 00:14

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

SewingBees · 03/03/2026 10:24

@sellotapechicken that post needed a warning - I was eating my breakfast 🤢 😂

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sellotapechicken · 03/03/2026 15:42

SewingBees · 03/03/2026 10:24

@sellotapechicken that post needed a warning - I was eating my breakfast 🤢 😂

🤣🤣 apologies!!!

Enigma54 · 03/03/2026 16:20

This reply has been deleted

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

That’s me right off Pringles for the foreseeable! 🤮😆

sellotapechicken · 03/03/2026 22:24

Apologies I’ll ask Mumsnet to remove and won’t post for a bit 😳

Enigma54 · 03/03/2026 22:43

sellotapechicken · 03/03/2026 22:24

Apologies I’ll ask Mumsnet to remove and won’t post for a bit 😳

Don’t go. We were laughing too x😀

SewingBees · 04/03/2026 11:59

@sellotapechicken please don't stop posting, it was just a tad graphic 😂

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Enigma54 · 04/03/2026 12:08

@balkanscot is the constipation chemo induced? I’m guessing you’ve tried lactulose/ movicol/ laxatives? My pain team have prescribed naldemedine for opioid induced constipation. One tablet a day, seems to do the trick. Might be worth asking if all else fails?

balkanscot · 04/03/2026 14:04

@sellotapechicken I am SO squeamish I even have to look away when they are taking my bloods through port, let alone anything else like inserting suppositories into my orifices. 😂 I will now look at tubs of Pringles in a different light from now on. 😬

@Enigma54 I think it is a combination of both chemo and me not going when I feel the urge (there is always something more “interesting” to do). I did take a few Bisacodyl tablets (equivalent to Dulcolax), so all good now. But my colon is so irritated now that it is quite uncomfortable when I do have to go.

Chemo is on at 5 pm this afternoon, I have to remember to bring some yoghurt with me to swallow damned steroids with. Last time I didn’t bring any, so had to attempt to swallow them with water. Disgusting as they simply refused to go down my throat (they are so damned powdery) and stuck to the roof of my mouth and that’s how they dissolved. 🤮

Enigma54 · 04/03/2026 21:13

@balkanscot are we both going to be off our faces tonight, from steroids then? 😆 I am starting to hate all tablets with a fucking passion! This afternoon on the chemo suite, I was presented with a “ tablet” No explanation as to what it was, so I asked. No reply from chemo nurse, so I held said tablet in my hand. She says “ take it” I say, “ with all due respect, I’m not taking anything if i don’t know what it is” She replies “ Dr wants you to take it” I’m thinking I don’t care if the bloody King wants me to take it, I’m not if I don’t know what it is! Eventually she mutters “ anti sickness” Well why didn’t you say!! 🙈 So I’m attached to a chemo pump, via my port and hope I don’t roll over in bed and close the clamp shut because if that happens, the chemo can’t get through. Even more importantly, I need the district nurse to come over tomorrow, to disconnect pump and remove port needle. Oh and I need chemo to bloody well work! 🤞

@EachandEveryone how are you?

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