Has Anyone Experienced This Sort Of Behaviour ?

Hi,

Can anyone help please?, My father has secondary liver cancer which has come from the upper bowel(no symptoms) and has now spread into the stomach, thus blocking it completely. He has had a stent fitted ,over 10 days ago now.  He was discharged from hospital 5 days after operation but had to be re-admitted with severe pain even though he was dosed up on morphine.  He has spent another 9 days in hospital trying different pain relief.  He has had many other tests, one to make sure stent not blocked or wound infected , chest x-ray etc( I cannot fault his medical treatment), also I think he had a chat with a MacMillan nurse(Its like a hospice nurse), not sure what they have said to him.   He was discharged from hospital yesterday.  I rang him and spoke to him saying "Are you pleased to be home?" and he sounded rather flat.  I have just rung today and my Mother said she had not slept hardly any last night as my Dad  wanted pain relief every two hours and that he now has a pain in the back, (He thinks incurred from the journey home from the hospital, bearing in mind he has no fat on his bones).  He has said to my Mother he is not getting out of bed, not even to sit in his favourite chair.  My Mother sounds down as she thought at least he would be able to just enjoy being at home.  The hospital would not have discharged him if they didn't think he was fit enough.   All he keeps saying is " Look at my thin body" (its heatbreaking to see,  my Dad was a thin man before this disgusting disease got hold)

Why do none of the pain relief seem to work on him?  I think he is fighting it has he never likes to go to sleep.

He seems like he is more relaxed in hospital.

He was diagnosed in September, had two lots of chemo but was too ill with vomitting from the stomach cancer to have any further treatment.

Is this normal coming home behaviour ? Has it made it more real to him at home, that he is going to die?

I just don't know the answers. Please if anyone has experienced anything like this I would be grateful to hear from them.

Gail (England)

My mom has colon cancer that has metastasized to her liver.She was diagnosed back in June and has a had a very good quality of life since. All she has was surgery to remove the main tumor that had almost completely blocked her bowel. She decided against any chemo or radiation which, in my opinion, allowed her to actually live longer and better.

 Now she is staring to decline. she spent a short period in in-patient Hospice last week and over the weekend to adjust meds for pain control She is now back to being pain free but she has shown personality changes. She sleeps more, has some cognitive impairment and is very tired and sometimes short of breath.

Cancer is a complicated disease and each person has many different symptoms at different times. It can be a roller coaster ride.

When there is metastatic disease to the live there is likely also metastases elsewhere like the lungs, brain and bones.  Both liver failure and brain mets can cause personality changes, cognitive problems and even very aggressive behavior sometimes. 

as cancer progresses, the patient sleeps more, eats less and drinks less until they don't eat or drink anymore. They will typically slip into a coma at some point  around this time prior to death.

We also went through this with my father-in-law who passed from pancreatic cancer that had also metastasized to the liver.  

One thing you should be able to expect is good pain control. Most patients can be treated quite well for pain. Hospice is especially good for this. 

Be kind to yourself. Take care of yourself along with everyone else.

Jen