Hi all, just wondering if anyone has any experience with a loved one electing not to have treatment? my mother in law is 82, she is wellish after a bowel resection 4 onths ago. The cancer mass was left as it was too large and difficult to remove. It also involves lymph nodes. Much to the suprise of all including doctors there is no pain..however she does get little 'grabs'. For this she will take 1 or 2 panadol !! so as you can see the pain level is quite low at this stage.
I'm wondering if things will go from not too bad at this stage to worse and how soon? I realise every one is different but just to have some idea would be helpful.
Can anyone help please?? there is so much info' on those electing to have treatment and none on the 'no treatment'
option.
Thanks xx

Dear Barney:

not sure if you got some other info or not. guess this board is not very active.

my father died of colon cancer nearly 20 years ago. He had the mass removed, as he had a 75% blockage. The doctors told me it would be a terrible way to die, and my dad was willing to go through the surgery in order to have about a year or so of painfree life. Unfortunately, when they did the surgery they also looked at his liver, which they thought had some tumors. They were going to remove some of them and hope that the liver would regenerate or regrow. Liver was nearly 99% occuppied by tumor and there was not much they could do. They revised their outlook and said it would be about 6 months, but that his disease process would not be terribly painful. He was discharged from the VA hospital on a Thursday at noon. He died at home less than 24 hours later. Guess he just wanted to go home.

For more info on lots of questions, contact the american cancer society. also a website called chemocares.com

Good luck.

Ingrid

Dear Barney, Have very effective natural routes. Have used them myself. My pain is gone. email if you so choose. will tell you what I have done. Sarah smcpelkey@yahoo.com