Hello, newby here. Sorry in advance for the long-winded post.
Ive never posted to one of these forums before, but after reading how they have helped people in the past, I thought I'd give it a try. Last month (February) my 52 year old mom was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She was mis-diagnosed the past three years as "being older, so it was normal to have swelling around the stomach", and of course "stomach ulcers", and was put on heavy medication for weeks,which only made her feel worse. By the time they caught it, it had metastasized and spread to her liver and lymph nodes. Its now unoperable, and she was told over and over again chemo would not heal her. So she completly refused treatment.
She was told she has maybe 5 months left to live (but some say only 3), and now has weekly visits from the pallitaive care nurse. She is in so much pain that she is on morphine all day, and it makes her feel so drowsy.
I decided to look up alternate treatments, and convinced her to go on a vegetarian diet, so thankfully she did, and shes considering an available treatment in Argentina of all places.
I am a 22 year old university student, in my third year, and was given her diagnosis a week before exams, so my grades have seen a noticable drop. I don't live with her but I'm moving home once this semesters complete. My roommates don't even know her diagnosis. I am not sure how to properly cope. People say I am strong, but as soon as I have to tell someone, and even as I am writing this, I feel so anxious. And as I've mentioned, it is so difficult telling people because there doesn't seem to be a silver lining. Most people would not understand the pain this has caused my family.
I am so close to my mom, I never imagined anything like this would happen.
