End Stage Lung Cancer

My grandfather died 7 years ago from colon cancer after being diagnosed 9 days before. My father was diagnosed Nov. 18, 2005 of lung cancer and dies January 7, 2006 and I just found out that my husbands grandpa who is just like my own granpa was just diagnosed with end stage lung cancer. I feel so empty. Our family has lost so many in the past few years and I am starting to break down. It is getting so hard to deal with. I am only 23 years old. Cancer doesn't ever end the same so I feel at a lose with grandpa because you never know what to expect and how long it will be or when the end is coming. Everyone is different. It is so hard to understand. I have spent hours researching to help explain and always end up with more questions then answers. I just want to understand and know how much time we have the doctor said my dad when be out in the boat this spring well he only lived 6 weeks. He never saw the lake. I am finding out that they know as little as I do about the outcome of this horrible disease consuming our loved ones. If anyones know of any good sited for information please let me know.

Thanks Mel

I lost my mother Sunday, Sept 3rd the end stage cancer. The weird thing about all of this is that she did not even know she had cancer. She had her 2 hips replaced and had a blood clot with the second one. They put her on Cumadin and her cumadin level showed 13 which should be 2-3. On Wednesdy before she passed away, she was having some difficulty breathing. They sent her to the heart hospital and dranied off about a liter of fluid under her lungs. She felt better. Then they did a cat scan and showed the cancer was all though her chest/lungs and into her liver. She talked with us Wed, Thurs, Friday and some Sat. We then had to move her to a regular hospital so that oncology could treat her in the form of Chemotherapy. We left her Saturday evening around 8:30 when we decided not to try Chemotherapy as the oncologist felt the cancer was to advanced and she was unresponsive. We went back to see her Sunday around 2pm and she was very comfortable, but non responsive. I suggest, with our family being catholic that she have her last rights given. She passed away at 4pm- just moments after having her last rites. I suppose the morphine kept her comforbable and calm as she had no anxiety. We were there to hold her hand when she passed away. It is still hard, but seeing some of my friends go through Chemo, this was a better way to die. The hospital we had her in decided that we could turn her room into a hospice room since it was a holiday weekend and we didn't have to move her yet again. It was 5 days total that she was alive after finding out she had cancer. In the long run, she died having lived a wonderful life and died with dignity.

im sorry about your mum and of course your dad, my father inlaw has lung cancer he is at the last stages, he was told he had 4-6 wks left that was 5 wks ago, he was in hospital because his breathing went shallow and the family was called up twice now but hes still here with us he is now in the hospice. we dont know what to expect now because he was sleepy and saying weird things to us for a week and he wasnt able to walk, now he is sitting up in the chair talking sense and looking alot better.is this what happens they get a bit better near the end, if anybody knows let me know we r all just shocked.

 

On 6/24/2005 Alisonm wrote:

Before my mom went on morphine, she and I agreed that I would not put her "away" in a hospice, and that she would die in my home. Her friends have called the local hospice and feel she should be booked in there. The sister phoned me and asked if the symptons were there but what symptons. She cannot hold herself up any longer and going to the loo (commode) is a problem. She is extremely weak. Do I break my promise to her and allow her to go to a hospice to be looked after. I have a night nurse and would get a day nurse if necessary. Help.. Alison

alison,
   personally i dont believe you should listen to her friends. it was...i guess you could say her last wish. i am going through the same thing right now. night and day at my grandmas with my other family. she also needs 2 people to go to the commode. for the most part she has a difficult time taking any pills. but i do believe you should respect her wishes or it may be a heavy burden on you. i feel that if i was dying of something so empowering and wicked as cancer i would want to be in a familiar place with my family at my side. i think it would just be more comforting. it is alot of working caring for them by yourself, but in the end i think it will give you self justice, you must think of all the things she has done for you and try to return it. dont do it only as a favor, do it out of love and compassion for hopefully one of the closest people in your life. to my story: i am only 19 years old and being stricken with my first close death. my moms mother is as we speak on her death bed and weighing in on her last few days. during seeing her on cancer, i have never seen such a dramatic change. the first time i saw her returning from school blew my mind. im sorry for anyone who feels the same as i do, up untill now i never thought i could feel any emotions as i am now.

P.S. did you talk to the nurse about possibly getting a urinary catheter? we were going to get one for my gma but she lays only on her side so it's not possible.

 

I am so sorry to hear about your mother passing and your father's health situation. I recently had a close friend pass away from lung Cancer. She had very aggressive form and was diagnosed in the late stages. She passed away about two months after her first official diagnoses. The end stages are very very difficult. The family had hospice and she was in her home as she wished... in the very end she was given morphine to ease the pain, both for her physical pain and the families emotional pain. I am a nursing student and the doctors caring for her were friends of my family so I was able to be there for every doctors appointment and they were very blunt with me because they knew that I could handle knowing the reality of the situation without it being sugar coated. This disease is a horrible and painful one and sadly I haven't found anything being forthcoming with what to actually expect in the very end of your loved ones lives.
It is a very difficult and emotionally taxing experience to watch someone you love, especially someone like your mother. The actual weight of watching the person who brought you in to the world leave this world.

basically I asked my friend who is a doctor to explain to me what exactly will happen and he gave me the honest truth, which was more than anyone else had given to me up to that point. It is very very hard to really put it in to writing for others, but I feel like it is important for people to know what they are going to experience so that they are only having to deal with the pain and stress of losing a loved one and not losing them and going in to a situation blindly. So here goes... I'm being blunt, so if you don't want the truth don't read further.


When you or your loved one decides that it is time to go the oxygen will be either turned off completely or will be slowly turned off. Thier oxygen saturation in thier blood will eventually drop and they will have difficulty breathing. If the patient is on morphine this will not be so difficult and painful as it will be without. As they continue to breathe with more difficulty the liquid in thier lungs (from the cancer) will begin to essentially drown them. By drowning I mean that you will hear in thier breathing the liquid in their lungs.

My Grandfather got lung cancer and it is the last stage. I am soo scared. My grandmother, fall off from the bed and she died from it. NOW, my grandfather suffer from lung cancer, i can't affort to lose my grandfather.(few more months to live sob.)

Any body please help me by telling me how can treat that cancer.

 

On 2/12/2008 benjaminljk1 wrote:

My Grandfather got lung cancer and it is the last stage. I am soo scared. My grandmother, fall off from the bed and she died from it. NOW, my grandfather suffer from lung cancer, i can't affort to lose my grandfather.(few more months to live sob.)And i am also sorry for ur mother.

Any body please help me by telling me how can treat that cancer.

 

I came to this site about 8 months ago, after my husband had been diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.. I just sat and cried and cried because I knew this is what I had to look forward to.  I was so scared. We were told he had 6 months to a year of feeling "not too bad". Then another 6 months to a year before he would be gone. The doctor said he could get chemo but it only worked 1 out 3 times, and would only double his life expectancy.  Having already gone through chemo when he had cancer on his tongue, he said NO!

He decided to go to Health Quarters Ministries in Colorado Springs, CO. www.healthquarters.org   They told him that he needed to fix his immune system to fight the cancer through nutrition. He went through their program and has followed their diet.  He is doing wonderful!  He had a lung xray in December 2007, 5 months after being diagnosed and the doctor could not believe how good he was doing.  The cancer had not grown at all!  He is going to have another xray in May 2008 so I'll let you know how he is doing.

The diet is not easy. But if you get to live, who cares!!  He has to eat totally vegan, and organic as much as possible.  He also drinks lots of apple juice and carrot juice.  But right now he looks better than he has in a long, long time.  And he feels great!

He checked his PH level yesterday and it was 7.5 so I truly believe that his cancer his gone.  I don't think his PH could be 7.5 and still have cancer.

I'll be back and post after his doctor's appointment in May.

My thoughts are with all of you. This is an awful disease.

Carol 

 

I am really interested to know about the dietary changes you all made to prevent the growth of the cancer.  My dad has stage 3b adneocarcinoma.  I think it is time we explore other options rather than chemo.  He is just so tired from all of the treatments he has received in the last year and a half.  I also want to know what to expect during these end stages if he decides not to undergo any more treatments.  Can anyone tell me exactly what happens when a person dies of lung cancer?