Spine/Brain cancer - I feel so low...

[Jamaica2013]

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and after that in 2009 she was newly diagnosed with bone cancer (spine). Last summer after some treatments for those problems, we found out that the cancer has spread to her spinal fluid. She has not had any tumors so far but we started to do a procedure where doctors can introduce chemo drugs directly into her spinal fluid controlling her brain. Is there anyone with the same problems? What do you think about this? Anyone had positive results with chemo? They are telling her that she has 8 months but I’m not sure if they wanted to say those 8 months with the treatment or w/out it. We’re all very concerned, these thoughts are killing me, I need some positive thoughts, PLEASE!

 

[Sorty9]

Hello all, my mom is in a similar situation. She was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer three year ago. First of all this was a small tumor in her left lung but after some months it had moved to her brain. This cancer provoked a series of side effects but after MRI, and bone scan, we found out that the tumor was shrinking and it didn’t spread. About 3 months ago she told me that she feel a strange pain in her head. Her doctor (a professional oncologist) said that this pain was provoked by tension. Three weeks ago my mother fell down and broke her pelvis and wrist.

 

After some time doctors decided to send her at home, and my dad noticed that she was sleeping almost all day and also that she did not say much when she was awake. We thought that her fall caused her to need some rest. When she did the CT scan later it showed no brain damage.
After that she started to splutter all the words when she was talking, and our family doctor said that this was provoked by too many pain meds. So we decided to back it off. After some time, and some tests the doctors found out her cause of symptoms. They were provoked by UTI. From the beginning my mother did not improved and we insisted to rush her to the ER.

 

Today, after 2 weeks of testing, all the results came back clear, but we found out that her cancer had passed to her spinal fluid. We were so exciting about these good results but when we found out about her spinal fluid we just got scared... and shocked. A few days ago they injected chemo into her spinal fluid and they moved her in a large hospital with a large center of cancer. We thought that she has only few weeks but now, after recent discovers it sounds that she will get better. I know that the time is different for every patient, but I wish I would know how long she has.

 

[Quily]

I am only 16, and it is hard for me to talk about it but I really don’t have another option since doctors refuse to answer any of my questions so you’re my last hope to make me understand what’s going on… So… my mom has breast cancer… Not so long ago it spread into her spinal fluid. She has the breast cancer for about 8 or 9 months now. It is not the first time the cancer spreads thru her body. Previously it spread into her ovaries and lymph nodes. Few months ago she had a full hysterectomy and mastectomy so we’ve got that good news that her lymph nodes are totally clean and there’s no sign of cancer. Her body responded very well to chemo and radiation but obviously, she was in recovery for few months. Everything seemed to be going well, however, later she started to have seizures. Only after that, the doctors finally realized that she was having cancerous brain tumors. Now, the bad news are that within about 2 months she already developed bacterial meningitis. That means that after she had a spinal tap, the cancer cells could be found already in her spinal fluid. I don’t really know why I’m really here because I’ve read on the internet that people surviving from cancer cells in the spinal fluid are extremely rare…. I guess that I still have some hopes… The worst part of all this is that these doctors said that probably the cancer cells had spread into her brain and her spinal fluid since the very beginning of her cancerous diagnose. So now, it’s too late do something. The docs gave her a maximum of 10-11 weeks to live...We’re still hoping… we’re still continuing to do the chemo and radiation once a week on her lower spine. However, she is not responding as well as she responded previously to the lymph nodes, breasts and ovaries. This is killing me, why she doesn’t respond as well as she previously did?  I really don’t know what’s going on and I’m very very scared!! I’m not ready to lose my mother!

 

[Giread]

Hi there, I found interesting your posts about this issue and I would also like to share my history.

 

My father was diagnosed with 4 lung cancer 1 year ago, he is nonsmoker. He did different kinds of chemo and he was responding to this well also to all kind of treatments that he received from cyberknife that eliminated his tumors away. There was a thing that was inexplicable to us. After the treatment he experienced a strange neuropathy. It started with his hands and then feet and after some several months it moved up to his knees. It was very strange, because it happened very fast and after some months he went from walking independently to walker and after this to wheelchair. This is not all, besides this he started to have some problems when urinating and he started to lose control of his bowels. Every single day he felt tired as he did not seeped for 4 days. The real problem started when he started hallucinate, it scared me so much because I never saw him like this before, he started to see things that were not there, started to  say strange names of people that does not exist and so scream during the night. His doctor did some exams to him such as MRIs to sew how’s working his brain but they found nothing. After some days and some additional examination he was diagnosed with cancer f the spinal fluid. This was very strange, our doctor could not explain what actually happened and still now we can’t believe that he was diagnosed with this.