Hi,
I am 33 years old, and an only child my dad is just 64. In 2000 my dad was diagnosed with skin cancer, today in 2010 he has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. I feel like my world has fallen apart, I love my dad more than he will ever know. What terrifies me the most is I watched my father in law die from lung cancer - he was told in Nov and died 6 weeks later in Jan......I don't think I can watch my beloved dad go through that.
I have 2 young children 9 and 6, I don't know what to tell them if anything....
I don't know how to feel or behave, I feel so useless and selfish.........my dad has had a really tough life and I feel devasted that it is now going to be cut short for him, that he will not see my children grow up, that he and my mum will have no retirement together.
Thank you for reading x
Hello
My name is Kelly,Im 31 and am happily married with 4 gorgeous children. A couple of years ago my lovely dad (now 69) started to have problems with swallowing etc so his gp sent him for tests.One test lead to another and in the end he was diagnosed with lung cancerand emphsymia.Now please forgive me as I cant remember all the medical terms for his diagnosis,long story short is that the cancer was un-operable so he has had 3 goes of chemo.
It was last May when he was diagnosed and they estimated he may have a year left.Its been one hell of a rollercoatser and I wont go into too much detail but the cancer has spread to his adreenal gland and stomach.He has not had a scan for a while and I suspect it has spread more,he has a rather large raised gland in his neck which does not look good.
We have had some serious problems with dad as he is a type 2 diabetic,along with being seriously ill after his last round of stronger chemo at xmas he has had a hypo (blood sugar too low) and also admitted with high blood sugars.With his appetite getting worse its been a battle with meds and blood sugars.
Over these past few weeks I can see him fading.He is so weak.He had a stair lift fitted last week and he was managing to move around a bit but now just sitting on the stairlift and getting up stairs is a battle. He has not eaten properly for a long time and that is getting worse and I know there is nothing we can do.My mum is calling our gp out tomorrow to discuss if we need to admit him to hospital for fluid/liquid food but I really dont know what they will be able to do ???!!!!!
He is on morphine for pain,still has most control over bowel and bladder but is on a commode downstairs and upstairs as he is too weak to get to the loo.
I dont know what to tell my eldest son,he is nearly 9 and knows his grandad is ill but not how bad.
I have lurked around reading other peoples stories on here and its broken my heart to know that people all over are suffering with loved ones too,I really need somewhere to vent and write things down.To be honest I need support and I hope I can support others along the way.
I am so sorry to waffle on but as my dad is getting weaker he is not up for chatting,I want to tell him so much but it just upsets him,shall I write a letter???
I will use this post to write down the rest of my dads battle but for now I must log off as my throat is hurting so much as I am trying to choke back tears.
Thankyou for reading
Kelly x
Proxy season! Time, once again, to learn how much the captains of industry are pulling down.
First up for the Health Blog this year is Eli Lilly, which just filed its preliminary proxy.
John Lechleiter, the company’s CEO, had a package totaling $16.4 million, according to an analysis by Dow Jones Newswires. That includes $1.48 million in salary, $3.55 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, $11.25 million in certain equity awards and $90,091 from a savings-plan match and tax reimbursements.
Lechleiter has requested that he not receive an increase in salary or bonus for 2010, “in light of the business challenges the company faces.”
The proxy’s summary compensation table, which uses a different methodology than Dow Jones, puts Lechleiter’s total compensation at $20.9 million. The table lists several other execs with multi-million-dollar compensation packages, including the CFO, the general counsel, the president of the company’s established markets unit and the doc who heads Lilly’s research labs.
Photo: Bloomberg News
Scientists from the UK and The Netherlands have identified for the first time a variant of a gene that is linked to biological ageing in humans and suggest the discovery will help us better understand cancer and diseases of ageing...
Cell Therapeutics’ experimental lymphoma drug pixantrone faces rough sledding from an FDA advisory committee after an agency staff review raised questions about the drug’s effectiveness and side effects. The news sent the company’s shares sharply lower.
One of the chief studies of the drug was supposed to involve 320 patients but only 140 were enrolled. Cell Therapeutics told the FDA it had trouble finding participants for the study because doctors preferred to use multiple chemotherapy drugs or supportive care, Reuters said, citing the FDA staff summary. Here’s the full FDA briefing document.
The study period was also cut short. The FDA said “a higher level of evidence is usually required in trials which discontinue prior to final analysis,” Dow Jones Newswires said.
Following the FDA staff comments, shares of Cell Therapeutics were trading down more than 25% around midday.
Cell Therapeutics hopes to sell the drug, pixantrone, under the brand name Pixuvri to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that has stopped responding to other treatments. The oncology advisory panel is to meet Wednesday. The FDA doesn’t have to follow the advice of its advisory panels, but it usually does.
