Cancer questions :(

[lobs211]

Hi all you hooligans 🙂 Long time - hope all is good.

 I dont know where else to ask anyone so here I am.............

Can anyone tell me if they have experience with?:

A beautiful sister girl, who i call Mum (but clearly isnt) has just been diagnosed with both liver and bowel cancer.

So my question: What is this? 2 cancers found at same time? Same cancer in 2 spots? Do liver and bowel share the same cancer?

If someone says they have bowel cancer is that just a cancer that can get in the bowel?

I know those questions sound dumb but she is asking me (for some reson people think I know everything and I really know very little) so I am asking you lot cos there are heaps of you and youve been through stuff.

Doc has told her that they wont be deciding anything for 3 weeks - is this normal??

Any one know this stuff? This sucks 😞

Thanks

[sineaterdoodah]

you contact me anytime. and i stand by what i said,from experience. it's a GOOD sign that they don't need to see her immediately. 

obviously,i can't do anything but tell you MY experiences here,but i CAN help with other stuff. 

and i'd be happy to talk to you about yank stuff! 🙂  so many people here are incredibly patient with teaching me what things mean,and showing me pics,and just..sharing with me,i'd love to give that back! 🙂

[the*scarlet*pimpernel]

Hi Lobs,

I'm thinking maybe the three week wait it so they can see if the cancer on the liver has grown much. If it has it will need a more aggressive treatment than a slow growing one.

Liver cancer can be the end result of Hepatitis, or cirrhosis or poisoning from other chemicals,drugs, toxins.

I think bowel cancer is usually a primary cancer, meaning it started there. Don't hold me to this though, ok.  Bowel cancer can spread to the liver. This is different to liver cancer, this is bowel cancer in the liver. 

Knowing which type of cancer is in the liver will determine the treatment.

Only the doctor doing the tests can yell you and your sis what the origin of the cancer is.

I hope she'll be ok Lobs. My BIL had bowel cancer about 10 years ago, he's still going strong.

[tcmsecretuseid]

Hi lobs, another American here to offer support to you and your sister during this time. 

I don't know about this specific type of cancer, but remember that many cancers are treatable. I hope your sister can get good help, and a positive outcome. 

[fourandsixpants]

I am so sorry for your sad and scary news. My thoughts and prayers are with you Dear Poster.

Frankly speaking it does not sound good. Cancer in the liver does not have a good prognosis. Bowel cancer if in or near the rectum can be the most difficult bowel cancer to deal with. This waiting for 3 weeks stuff is the norm, nothing weird here. Surgery to remove what cancer they can and perhaps some radiotherapy &/or chemotherapy therapy on a regime, once recovered from surgery, may be suggested depending on the extent and prognosis of the cancer. Then there's oral medications e.g. could be suggested to counter any side effects of treatments.

There is no happy news with this Lobs. I am so sorry.

You are so brave to ask your questions but yes Lobs, it *bleeping* well suks big time.

[azureline**]

So sorry your family has this happening Lobs.

3 weeks is about the norm, it takes time for them to read scans, talk about options and plan treatment specific to the type of cancer and the level it is at. They will then be armed with the right way to help her (rather than a whole lot of ifs and buts.) Some cancers start in one area and then have a secondary cancer in another organ, one will probably be a primary and the other a secondary.

Do go with her, as others have advised and use any other resorces available to you.

[the_great_she_elephant]

So sorry, Lobs. My mum had bowel cancer, but she was one of those stubborn 'tough it out" people, a bit like your sister mum, and by the time it was diagnosed it had spread through her lymph glands. It sounds as if this case has been caught early. 

 I think Lovetoday's advice is spot on. Speak to your Koori liaison person. He/she will have a better understaning of your "mum's" fears and cultural hangups (and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense) than her GP and may be able to ask the questions she doesn't feel able to ask for herself. 

Thank goodness she has you there to support her - you don't have to know all the answers, you just just have to be the rock she can lean on - and being a rock for others is something you do really well. 

[love*today]

And that is a perfect example. People are taught cultural safety now and they have been shown that everyone has a culture. And just because someone's culture is different from yours it doesn't make theirs any less right.
They would (or should know better) never describe someone's culture/beliefs as a hangup.
If anyone did I would speak to their manager about them doing a refresher course.

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@love*today wrote:
And that is a perfect example. People are taught cultural safety now and they have been shown that everyone has a culture. And just because someone's culture is different from yours it doesn't make theirs any less right.
They would (or should know better) never describe someone's culture/beliefs as a hangup.
If anyone did I would speak to their manager about them doing a refresher course.

---

Why, don'y you have any cultural hangups?

 I don't think I could ever  bring myself, knowingly to eat either snails or horse meat and if that isn't a cultural hangup then I don't know what is.

[sineaterdoodah]

why would anyone think that? wow...i guess i'm very thankful that the hospitals i went to didn't judge me because i don't hold their beliefs....wow...

[love*today]

Oh my.......you must be trying to save face now or something?

I would call this subject serious, say if I was to say to an indigenous client that their culture was a hangup I would need to do cultural safety training again. Even if I was just discussing culture with coworkers. Do you understand even why?