I am new to these forums, but I have some questions about what I am seeing and what it means.
Some background.
My step-mother was diagnosed with a GBM in Feb. 2009. The main symptom is/was memory loss. She found she could not find her way home while running an errand. Inside a week, she had no short term memory, and with a few exceptions, the last 20 years of her life were erased. She didn't know where the bathroom was, or how old she was.
To add to the fun, she is a chain smoker and has refused to quit, to the point of getting violent when we tried to force the issue. This issue is to allow more caretakers to come into the home, since most of the family will not be around that much smoke. Since then it has only been myself and one other family member that has been able to help my father on a regular basis. I drive down 5 hours one way every weekend, and I am totally burned out.
When people hear brain tumor cancer, they picture the stoic cancer fighter striving to beat it to the end. My step-mother isn't like this, she is a confused, frustrated person that has much more in common with an Alzheimer sufferer.
The Tumor:
Due to the location, the tumor is inoperable. She did radiation in the beginning, and has done lots of Tremador (sp?) chemo treatment phases. We made it through those fun weeks of high dose steroid that I see on here is common with the 1 hour of sleep at night.
My questions that I can't find reliable information on:
When I was down this weekend, I realized she had more memory recall then before. She remembered who made the soup I was heating for her the day before. She remembered other events in a 24 hour window as well. She has never shown improvement before and this is a change. At the same time, she gets more frustrated at trying to figure out if it is night or day then I have seen before. Physical balance is worse then earlier weeks and vision seems to be declining from past weeks. A lot of this is out of pocket cost now, so the last MRI was canceled. She is being treated at Duke, so her doctors are good.
It has been a VERY long 8 months and we are ready for this to be over. She has no quality of life, and lives in frustration and confusion. Is it possible she is getting better? Could she start recovering her short term memory after 8 months of living like this? She is 60 years old, no operation was possible and radiation didn't phase this thing, now she starts to recover a little cognitive ability? I know this is terminal, I have no illusions how this will end. 60 year old GBM victims with COPD in the lungs, diabetes, 3 past heart attacks, and years of bad diet and a lot of sitting in front of a TV don't just recover from the brain cancer do they? I have no idea what to make of the memory recall I have seen in the last 3 days, but it frightens me to the core. If she is going to never get her memory back, and this is her life, I have to hope the end is near and not many more months in the future. I fear that Duke wants to keep its numbers up and will push my father to continue chemo to the bitter end. If this goes on more months, he will die from the toll this is taking on him, and he can't bring in Hospice while she is still on chemo. The positive changes I saw in her have crushed my hopes that the end is near and my family can recover and move on. I am now up at 3 am before I have to get up and go to work typing on a forum looking for answers to the question no one can answer, how much longer must we, the caretakers, suffer?
Saven
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. We can give you some support here but there is nothing that can replace a real hug from someone who knows you and understands what you are going through.
Originally Posted by pbj11
