My sister has brain cancer

[Meadow Skipper]

I hate reading about these things. My heart goes out to her and hers.

Fuck cancer.

[Ripzalot]

heavy vibes. ugh. so much of this going on.

worth consideration: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/meet-t...ancer-cannabis

[groundcontrol323]

A good friend of mine had a seizure on July 3th, MRI revealed a tumor in her brain. A whirlwind couple of weeks, and she's now in San Fran, operation is scheduled for tomorrow. 35 year old mother of two, diagnosed a day before she was going to run the Mt. Marathon race, her dream race.

Montanaskier, prayers for you sister and her family. Prayers for everyone and their loved ones struggling with this. The best thing we can do is be there for love and support. There is no right thing to say, but just being there for anyone affected by this can mean more than you know. Stay strong everyone

[Millsie]

So sorry to hear about your sister. Not brain cancer but my wife's breast cancer has come back and will probably kill her in a few years. Take one day at a time. There will be good days and bad days. Don't be afraid to cry. Tell her you love her and how beautiful she is as much as you can. For cancer support look up www.imermanangels.org. They are here in Chicago but reach all over the country. I'm a mentor angel for them. PM me if you need to talk or if I can steer you in the right direction.

[flyandski365]

Far to many of us are familiar with the impact cancer can have on a family. Stay strong and don't forget to be good to yourself during all this.

[TNKen]

See if you can reach out to a major teaching hospital. Since she is on the east coast, think about Johns Hopkins, Duke, or Vanderbilt.

We have a very young lady in our church battling a form of leukemia. Vanderbilt has kept her going and close to remission when everyone else gave up.

Prayers to you and your family, as well as to all of those bitten by this damned disease.

[thebirdhunter]

A good friend of mine had a seizure on July 3th, MRI revealed a tumor in her brain.

Same thing happened to my mother in 1996. 5 months later she passed. Praying for a better outcome for your friend.

Montanaskier,
prayers and vibes to your sister.

[summit]

Matt I'm sorry to hear that. My sympathy

[Tippster]

Ah man. I just went through something similar with my Mom, but her brain cancer was a Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), not glioblastoma, so I have no insight what she (and the rest of you) are up against.

My thoughts are with you.

[montanaskier]

Thanks for all the wishes. This weekend was the hardest of my life. Telling my niece and nephew was terrible. As of today her tumor is inoperable and her prognosis is 10-18 months. She goes to UAB on Thursday but we also have MD Anderson and Duke looking at her file.
Just a brutal blow that I'm really struggling with.

[Cono Este]

Vibes bro. Thats just so much to digest, I cant imagine. Stay strong.

[t-the-east]

Jesus, that is horrifying. I'm terribly sorry. Stay positive.

I stumbled upon this thread because my TGR app just popped up a notice like a text message and suggested this thread as "Today's top pick".... Wtf is that?

[ex-powderbroker]

Lots of vibes your way. Stay strong for your family. Hoping for some good news for you over here

[nutmegchoi]

Oh, my god...
I'm so sorry...

I do know a person whose brain tumor in remission and ran a marathon.
You just have to do everything until you can't.

Prayers for you and your family.

[ducklover3]

Wish your sister the best sending those positive vibes through the jet stream all the way from Alaska

[Tye 1on]

i can't even imagine the smallest fraction of what's hitting you, and when i consider this in relation to if it was me and my sister, i'm a fkn puddle. Biggest vibes <<<-*->>>

[Stymie]

Dude, that fucking sucks. So sorry.

Make sure your sister's team has a keen eye for trial enrollment. New stuff coming out all the time. She may be eligible for a few- though at stage 4... I'm not sure and the timing may be off.

Just be present as much as you can for her and her family and also take care of yourself.

[montanaskier]

So after talking to MD Anderson, Duke, and UAB, we've decided on UAB for treatment. All agree her tumor is inoperable. Standard treatment will be her journey. 6 weeks of radiation followed by chemo. She can have treatment at the local cancer ce treat home and drive to UAB for scans. Her speech/language hasn't improved and may be a bit worse. She simply can't say what she wants or intends to say. I can't imagine not being able to say, type, write, express, how sad/mad/scared she is. This is like a terrible dream.

[iceman]

One foot in front of the other, brother. Deal with the immediate problems. Ignore the big ones for now. Keep going.

There's stuff you're worrying about that may not come to pass. Or it may, but you can deal with it later on. For now just keep dealing step by step. It's all you can do. What's the next thing? Do that.

[CantDog]

So after talking to MD Anderson, Duke, and UAB, we've decided on UAB for treatment. All agree her tumor is inoperable. Standard treatment will be her journey. 6 weeks of radiation followed by chemo. She can have treatment at the local cancer ce treat home and drive to UAB for scans. Her speech/language hasn't improved and may be a bit worse. She simply can't say what she wants or intends to say. I can't imagine not being able to say, type, write, express, how sad/mad/scared she is. This is like a terrible dream.

Don't want to sound harsh but be realistic--make sure palliative is involved early. Life expectancies are longer with earlier involvement, and UAB has one of the top 5 palliative care programs in the country.

[old goat]

It's important at each state of treatment to ask and keep asking what the expected benefit of the chemotherapy and radiation is. I'm not trying to cast doubt on the treatment she is about to undergo--I'm not knowledgeable about brain cancer. But she needs to know if the treatment will relieve her symptoms for a while, or if it will prolong her life and if so for how long and with what side effects. Probably you've already asked these questions for her but if not you should. Also, it's important that whatever treatment she receives meets her goals, not just her family's. Not that family is unimportant, but sometimes patients undergo futile treatments at the urging of family members when they would rather not do it and would be better off without it. Of course her inability to express herself will make that judgement much more difficult. Regarding hospice, generally hospice will not care for patients on chemotherapy or radiation, unless that treatment is intended to relieve symptoms and not prolong life. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is a marvelous book that may help you and her cope--can she read? She is in very good hands at UAB. I wish you and her the best, especially regaining her ability to express herself.

[montanaskier]

It's important at each state of treatment to ask and keep asking what the expected benefit of the chemotherapy and radiation is. I'm not trying to cast doubt on the treatment she is about to undergo--I'm not knowledgeable about brain cancer. But she needs to know if the treatment will relieve her symptoms for a while, or if it will prolong her life and if so for how long and with what side effects. Probably you've already asked these questions for her but if not you should. Also, it's important that whatever treatment she receives meets her goals, not just her family's. Not that family is unimportant, but sometimes patients undergo futile treatments at the urging of family members when they would rather not do it and would be better off without it. Of course her inability to express herself will make that judgement much more difficult. Regarding hospice, generally hospice will not care for patients on chemotherapy or radiation, unless that treatment is intended to relieve symptoms and not prolong life. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is a marvelous book that may help you and her cope--can she read? She is in very good hands at UAB. I wish you and her the best, especially regaining her ability to express herself.

So my wife is a NP at our local cancer center and has specialized in oncology her entire career. You speak the truth. Her inability to speak or express is a large issue because she can't tell us what she wants. Her tumor being inoperable, typically we are trying to prolong quality of life. Hard to say how much quality she'll have as nobody knows how she'll react to treatment. It's difficult, we know the odds. Just trying to do what's best for her and her kids. We obviously hope that treatment helps but you never know.

[iceman]

Is it only verbal communication that's the issue? Can she write?

[montanaskier]

Is it only verbal communication that's the issue? Can she write?

Can't speak, write, type, etc.....all language is impacted.

[Stymie]

radiation and chemo may shrink the tumor and hopefully lead to a temporary increase in communicative function...

so, so sorry for you and your family. heartbreaking.