hi all my husband is nearly 67 but was told a he has terminal bowel cancer and he cant get any treatment as he has other helth problems and now he does not see a oncologist and we have no idea to know if it has spread or whats to happen next
I see that this is only your second post to the forum, so I extend a very warm welcome to Cancer Chat.
What a horrible position for your husband to be in.
Does he have any further appointments with the doctors at the hospital, or has he been given a specialist nurse that he can discuss his concerns with? He should have been given an initial diagnosis telling him what type and stage of cancer he has. At this time, I would have expected the consultant to discuss any further treatment. Where this is not possible, the consultant should have told him why not and what, if anything could be done to slow down the growth or spread. He should also have been given a follow up appointment for routine check-ups.
If you haven’t already got an appointment, you could phone up his consultant’s secretary (you can usually find this number on a letter that the hospital has sent to him. Failing that phone up the general hospital number and ask to be transferred to Mr. X’s secretary) and explain that neither you nor your husband know anything about his situation and that you would like to discuss this with him.
Why don’t you both draw up a list of questions and bring this along with you to his appointment? It would be helpful if you could go with him and could write down the answers as the consultant gives them.
The other person who should have access to his medical reports would be his GP. He may not know as much as his consultant/oncologist, but it might be worth talking to him as well. If your husband’s bowel cancer is terminal, the hospital should also have made some contingency plans for your husband to receive end of life care at home, perhaps with MacMillan nurses calling in on him at home or for him to go into a hospice.
Don’t put this off. It is imperative that you both know exactly what you are dealing with and, that you have the help and support that you will need to see this through.
Please stay in touch and let us know how you get on. We are always here for you whenever you want to talk.
sorry only just saw your reply all he sees is a palliative care nurse for the local hospice about once a month she calles to the house just to talk he not saw any Dr for just over a year now since they told him it was terminal we dont know what stage his bowel cancer is we were never told or how to tell if it has spread or any way to tell if it is getting worst or even what to look out for my husband dont take about it much when ask how is he all you get from him is he is grand so far he just got some pain in his back and he cant go to the toilet with out medicens he did get a stent in the bowel as they said the tumour was closing up and would block the bowel if stent did not go in that was at start of january 2017 and saw no one since then
I am relieved to hear that you have the palliative care nurse calling in regularly. Why not prepare a list of all the questions that you want answers to? I am sure that if you or your husband explains to his nurse how you feel about everything and ask her if she can answer any of your questions, that she will come up trumps. If not, she may be able to refer you back to his consultant to clear things up.
It should also be perfectly in order to ask her about staging and whether or not your husband is going to have any follow up appointments to see if it has spread. The nurse should be able to tell you both what symptoms to look out for if there is any spread. I don’t know much about bowel cancer, but I would have thought that he should be being seen at least once a year for check-ups.
