What to make of what's going on?

[dkitten13]

My mom was diagnosed in May and seemed to be doing well. It had spread to liver and lungs but both of those show almost no cancer now after several rounds of chemo. However, the cancer in her pancreas grew. The doctor always assures us how good she's doing and all I was concerned about was the cancer. However, this week she has had loose bowels, more troulbe eating, is barely getting out of bed and lost six pounds (down to 110). Today she told me she was very thirsty. Also, she told me it was just from laying down but she sounded kind of raspy.

I called her doctor on Friday and he told me to call on Monday morning and he'll look at all her labs/etc. and decide what we should do. She only saw the NP on Friday as he was at the hospital and I had to miss the appt. because I've missed days of work due to my mother in law being in the ICU in critical condition with sepsis.

I all of a sudden realize that she may not die from the cancer after all but just from what its doing to her. Does this imply something dire is going to happen soon? Do they have means to get her nutrition if she can't eat or can't keep it down?

Thanks to anyone who can shed any light on all of this.

Deborah

[sheila]

dKitten- I dont know anything about pancreatic cancer, but weve been dealing with colon liver and now stomach. at one point in time mom couldnt keep any foodsown and diahrea so she became very dehydrated. not a good situation- but yes they can rehydrate with saline and they cangive her what they call PTN-parental nutrition -mom got it through a picc line in her arm.
she was on it for about a month -mostly they do that in the hospital . If they are able to be out of the hospital environment then they suggest a nursing unit or or this could be done at home- someone has to help her. mom had it about a month in the meantime she tried to eat and soon was able to get control of that -then the nutrition was no-longer needed.
You can ask the doctor about it. I dont know your moms total situation and if it may or may not be necessary for her. If she isnt consuming water and just laying around sleeping and feeling very weak-she definately needs to get to a hospital.
sorry aboutyourM-I-L hope thy can clear her problems up too.
The raspy happens to my mom with different treatments- thats the chemo. I wouldnt worry about that too much.
just make sure in the meantime she is keeping well hydrated or worst case scenario- her organs can shut down on her- I know this for a fact -almost happened to mom a few times. so Moday when you discuss this report to him how weak she is or what she is consuming. He should let you know from there what to do.
hope she picks up soon ask if she can take immodium- if shes on it already ask him if he can prescribe her lomotil-also get her to eat things from the BRAT diet bannanas ,white rice only, applesauce and toast(plain) no jelly white rice works the best for mom. to control the diahrea. keep us posted and hope she did a bit better through the weekend.