No help so far

Lyn603 9 years ago

3 replies

Edited by Lyn603 9 years ago

Hi on Thursday morning my family was taken into a room and told that my grandad had secondary liver cancer and could expect to live six months maximum. He was then pretty much left to the nurses as the only medical option he was given was pain relief. He was then allowed home on Friday although he has to go back in for a biopsy on his liver on Friday, even though they are certain it's terminal cancer which started in his pancreas and is also in his lungs. The thing is that they told us this devastating news and he has barely spoken since and we don't really know whether to talk about it with him yet or let it sink in.im really disappointed that we got absolutely no counselling in the hospital, nobody came to check how he was dealing with this life changing news. When can we expect to have some contact from a cancer nurse?

rene 9 years ago

hi lyn very sorry to here about your grandad, I understand it must be difficult for your family and wondering were you go from here. the best suggestion I can give you is to go onto the www.macmillan.org.uk web page and on that site there are information for yourself and family. its a macmillan cancer nurse who comes to see you/your granddad, they offer a lot of support that you need at this time, and will give you information and direct you to other help that is available.  marie curie are also there for you in a  nursing /caring capacity and something that you may need in the future. hope this helps.

HilaryB 9 years ago

Lyn, what a very distressing time for you all. My late husband had the same prognosis as your Grandfather, and having been broken the news by the hospital, who arranged an oncology appointment for the following week (they tried chemo), he then made an appointment to see our GP. 

The GP made contact with the Macmillan nurse, but it was around another 4 weeks before her first visit, the GP prescribing pain relief in the interim, as he had done prior to the diagnosis. In your Grandad's case, I would expect that palliative care would also be under the remit of the GP until a Macmillan nurse is allocated.

Our Macmillan nurse was fantastic, and, in effect, was there for the whole family. She visited weekly for the remainder of my husbands life, and dealt with all the detail of benefits, blue badge, specialist equipment, Physio etc, in addition to managing his palliative care (she would tell the GP what drugs needed to be prescribed). 

Best wishes to you all.

MarkWilkin 9 years ago

Sorry to hear about your granddads bad news. Like the HilaryB has said you will need to get in touch with your GP (or your local district nurse) to get a referral for a cancer nurse from either Macmillan or Marie Curie. 

We suggest some things you might want to talk with your granddad about and help him prepare before he goes and sees the GP here - Talking to your doctor. We've also got some general information about practical matters and coping with the news here - If you've recently been diagnosed.

If you've got any further questions please do ask them here and we'll do our best to help.

Thanks