Mom is caregiver to help father with his metastatic liver cancer.
Sounds great, yet mom is 75 years old yet 20 years in spirits. But her body is feeling the fatigue so hard, that now her back is in tremendous pain.
Tramadol
Mom takes a painkiller listed in my Top 10 pain killers. For those who remember that posts: Tramadol is fathers’ "Cancer pain management stage 2: tramadol"
So mom is constipated and from no painkiller to Tramadol: mom sleeps a lot.
Luckily the other children are around, yet with all the hospice and palliative care we asked for, it still is kind of killing mom.
As if fathers metastatic liver cancer is not bad enough on its own 🙁
Hi Cathy,
“You need to organise yourself and all the ones around you, and make scedual who does what when”
That is what the advisers of palliative care said. Yet even being organised, this whole thing sucks the energy out of you (and we are not even the ones that are sick, that’s the other hard truth)
Hang in there, carry on and what is very good is a good night rest !
Hugs,
SK
It’s hard for the caregiver. Obviously she won’t be able to do lifting and things like that. Does she have any in-home help – nurse’s aid, anything like that? Sometimes insurance will cover a bit of that. There might be some kind of local group that could/would help out on a volunteer basis as well.
I cannot relate to your mother, I am 50 years old and 25 years makes a big difference, but it is exhausting. My mom is living with us now and I have a husband a 14 year old son and a 12 year old son to care for also. It is alot.
My mom went through her first round of chemo 1-11. on 1-23 she landed in the hospital for 8 days (she is 75). She came home last Thursday and today saw her oncologist who told her he gave her too much chemo and will not give her the cisplatin and adreomycin again, now he wants to try taxotere and carboplatin (one treatment a week for 3 weeks then one week off). The medicine looks the same as cisplatin and adreomycin, same side effects and now she doesn’t know if she wants to do it. The last round of chemo caused kidney failure. She is still too weak and a blood transfusion was the doctors idea for tomorrow’s activity.
We both feel pretty down in the dumps and I am tired! So reading the post about your mom being exhausted hit home today.
Thanks,
Cathy Martin
cmarting@tmcmgmt.com