I stumbled upon this site I guess wanting answers, maybe hope of some kind. My mom is 58 and this fall she found out she had stage 4 lung cancer. Not sure what it is called but its the kind that grows slow. She has a massive tumor in her right lung in her upper lobe and some smaller tumors in her left lung. She also has cancer cells in her chest cavity. She, like many, was a smoker. Hell, even after she found out she had lung cancer she would lock herself in her bathroom and sneek a cigerette. She was that addicted. She on the surface sounded positive at first and started chemo because she was led to believe that she may only have a month or 2 left if she didn't start right away. The chemo practically killed her. She only got through 2 treatments before she was so weak she couldn't stand. She wouldn't eat. She had a lung infection prior to starting the chemo but the doctors didn't feel it was serious enough to prolong her chemo treatment. Turns out her lung infection plus the chemo really knocked her down. She had gotten so dehydrated from constant diaherra my dad had to call 911 and she spent all of this x-mas and new yrs in the hospital. She had on top of the dehydration, pneumonia (spelling?) and her lungs had collapsed. They had to put a tube inbetween her ribs to drain out all the fluid. She was on alot of meds and even started seeing 'dead people" and talking to them. Somehow she started to come around.... started to sound like herself again and they started radiation and physical therapy. She came home though we had to get her a hospital bed and 24/7 nurses to help. We thought she was starting to get better, hoping the radiation was working and then a week of being home and acting normal she all of sudden starts turning blue and can't breathe. We go back to the hospital. Its pneumonia again. She didn't have to stay in the hospital that long but she is on oxygen all the time and recieves breathing treatment. They did a catscan on her before she left and supposedly the radiation wasn't working like they had hoped. She was pretty much acting like "mom" and was starting to get her strength back and was able to finally get in and out of a wheelchair but she talks funny. She talks "crazy" like she doesn't hear us or says things out of the blue. My brother says she refuses to go back to the hospital. I'm afraid she may have had a stroke or something on top of this or the cancer has spread to her brain. My dad says the doctors said there really isn't more they can do but is that true? Is there nothing left to be done? Is it really over or growing near the end? I'm only 24 yrs old and though I'm an adult I still need her around. This may sound childish but I want my mommy and I'm losing all hope.
Thanks for listening
Caroline