On 10/31/2008 Ninashinobu wrote:
My mother is being treated for ovarian cancer with chemotherapy right now. One thing that really worries me most is her breathing difficulty sometimes. I think she has always had a low grade asthma that she never got diagnosed. and she had never told her oncologist about this suspsion of having asthma. So when she says that she is having a hard time breathing it really worries me. I am not sure if it is a side efffect of the chemo or perhaps the pain medication. But when i told her to tell her oncologist about it, she made it sound more like it was anxiety issues. Which i do believe she does have as well and it might be contrubuting to it. But i am still not convinced that is all it is. What should i do!!? I read something off of google once that a girls mother died from breathing problems in her sleep and she also had ovarian cancer and was being treated with chemo. please help me i am soo scared.
Lot's of people will minimalize their symptoms when they talk to a dr about problems. In this they do themselves a great dis-service.
Call your mother's oncologist's office yourself, and tell them what you have observed, and that you fear she is having more difficulty than she has actually said. Ask if they want to see her again - and if they do, make an appt for her and tell her she has to go. Don't give her a choice. Tell her that you love her, that you don't want to see her suffer NEEDLESSLY, and that she HAS to go see the dr and find out just what exactly this is. Even if this IS just anxiety, if she's not breathing well it can still make her treatment not be as effective. And if it is asthma, and goes untreated, it DEFINITELY will make her treatment less effective. If it MORE than anxiety and asthma, it could actually be an indicator of metastasis to the lungs - in that case it ABSOLUTELY makes a difference to her treatment.
I would not advise you to deliberately SCARE your mother, but perhaps you need to gently tell her what I have just told you. People can be very stubborn for many reasons - this is not the time to give in to her stubborness. Your mother may be afraid also. Fear often results from lack of knowledge, worrying about the unknown. The best way to combat fear is to face it head on. Get educated - which in this case means check it out and find out definitely what's behind the difficulty breathing. In this way you can let her know that you are there for her, and that together you can conquer these issues.
If your mother WON'T go to the oncologist about the breathing if you make an appt for her, then perhaps you should go yourself - to talk to the dr about what can be done.
Take care,
Tre