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Mum moving to palliative care after sudden terminal cancer diagnosis

1 reply

Pleasehelpme90 · 07/04/2026 18:57

My head is all over the place but I will try to get my words down as best I can. My mum and I have been estranged for two years. Last week a family member got in touch and said she has every recently been diagnosed with cancer. I went in today for a meeting with the doctors and they have confirmed she has stage 4b clear cell carcinoma, which I understand is a rare and aggressive type of ovarian cancer. It has unfortunately spread to her liver, lungs and ribs. The oncologist gave a best guess of weeks for life expectancy. They could try chemo but it wouldn’t prolong her life by much and we think she’s probably too weak. She has deteriorated so much in the last week I didn’t even know it was possible. She was happy to see me and I just want her to be as comfortable as possible when they move her to palliative care this week. I would like to know any signs that the end is near, and how I can make her as comfortable as possible

OP posts:
Pugglywuggly · 07/04/2026 19:00

So sorry you're going through this, your head must be all over the place. It's always hard to know, but generally if they are getting worse by the week they have a matter of weeks, by the day it's days, and by the hour it's hours. A big increase in sleeping and stopping eating/drinking are common near the end. Hugs.

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