Pancreatic.and Lung Mets

 

My wife was disguised with inoperable pancreatic cancer and lung Mets in October 2017 with 12 months prognosis. She.also has a cyst growing in front of the tumour which is bigger than the tumour itself. She has been extremely ill through the chemo (5FU) and hospitalised three times (dehydration  twice and Nutripenour once) . The half way scan showed shrinkage on the lung mets but not shrunk on the pancreas(still 3-4cm) her CA 19-9 marker did drop from 13200 to 2500. Recently she has two sessions of chemo delayed 1. Red , white, nutrifill were all low and.liver function up, halted for a week, 2. Platelet low (75) halted for another week.  My wife went three weeks without chemo.and saw a return of the early symptoms. On wednesday oncologist said as platelets were up to 114 she could have chemo but a dose reduction (for the third time). He has also decided to reduce the cycle from 12 sessions to 10. He Believed the body is resisting the chemo particularly re the platelets from her bone marrow. My wife is hardly eating and doesn't drink anyway near enough and has suffered severe weight lost (4st) which is believed may be as a result of cachexia (chemo annorexia)  He isn't particularly active although still mobile. Recently Recently she is sleeping more during the day. Throughout her BP has been low 90-117 / 64 -66 My fear is we are reaching a turning point. I would like hear from others who may have experienced similar signs and more importantly, what signs i should now look for.

Thank you in advance

  • Hello Sminty961, I'm so sorry to hear about your wife.

    You mention that you would like to hear from others who may have experienced similar signs, so I wanted to stop by to link you to a recent discussion that I felt might be helpful: Signs and symptoms

    In this conversation, Moderator Steph links to information about approaching the end of life. As she says, it's a tough read, so please only read it if you feel ready to, or have someone that can read it with you. 

    I do hope that somebody will be along soon to talk. If you have any questions or would like to share how things are going, please do post again - we're here to listen.

    Wishing you all the best, Sminty961,

    Helen
    Cancer Chat moderator