End stage stomach cancer?

Question

My grandfather was diagnosed with end stage cancer in january he was going okay untill he fell and broke his oppisite hip to the one he had broke 4 years ago he had the choice to be bedridden and has always been an active man or have the op so he choose the operation hes 84 and he survived he hasent had any treatment this was his wish but even with the op he is now unable to move cannot get out the bed if they try to get him out he gets very breathless they took him of the drip and he went right down hill so hes back on it hes now having 4 tablets of morphine a day but hes not unconcious yet all he says if i was a dog theyd put me to sleep ive had enough..he cannot eat and has burning in his throat he also keeps choking because he cant swallow well can anyone tell me how long he will go on suffering and your experience

Answer 1

my father had lung cancer and the end was very quick he was on an awful lot of morphine for his pain but fortunately didnt know too much about it due to the drugs
i really feel for you and hope he soon finds an end to all his suffering xx

Answer 2

I'm very sorry to hear about your grandfather. How much time people have, varies. My mother had the same thing and was given 3 months. She lasted a year, but once they took away the drip and started the morphine drive, a small machine attached to her leg, to give her regular doses of morphine, she only lasted a few more weeks. If he isn't getting any nourishment, which is impossible in the last stages, it may only be a week or 2. When he loses consciousness for longer periods, then it's only a matter of days. I truly understand what you're going through. God bless and good luck

Answer 3

sorry to hear you ( and he) are going through this.As a community nurse i .work in conjunction with the hospice home care nurses, with terminally ill .people. It sounds like your grandfather has advanced disease, but it is always impossible to tell how close to the end he is ( though i would reckon the hospice nurses are the best people to ask, they have the most experience in being with people at the 'end'). In regards to choking, he should be able to get pretty much all his medications via a syringe driver( which is a tiny needle inserted under the skin and a pump which gives constant small doses of eg morphine, anti sickness, anti anxiety, anti phlegm medicines,etc whatever he needs to make him comfortable)
. If he is close to the end, there is no real need for him to have eg high blood pressure meds, just the essentials for comfort....pain and nausea being the main things in my experience( remember pain is what HE feels as pain, not what we think he should feel)
I hope you and the care team can provide him with a peaceful dignified death. you're doing a good job

Answer 4

That is the brand new from the ACS. I have no idea if it'll help or no longer. Are they going to do radiation now too? I hope everything will determine good for him. It sounds very serious. Treatment New drug combos: clinical trials are in development to experiment new chemotherapy medicinal drugs. Some studies are checking out new ways to mix medicines already recognized to be energetic in opposition to stomach cancer or different cancers. Other studies are trying out the excellent approaches to mix chemotherapy with radiation remedy or immunotherapy. The most effort is being directed to improving the outcome of surgical procedure via adding chemotherapy and/or radiation medication either earlier than or after surgery. A few medical trials of this process are in development. Immunotherapy: Experimental cures that raise the patient's immune reaction to battle stomach melanoma extra simply are being verified in clinical trials. Some therapies use medicinal drugs, corresponding to interleukins, that boost the immune procedure mainly. In energetic immunotherapy, the sufferer is given a vaccine that might motive the immune approach to appreciate one of the abnormal chemicals in belly melanoma cells and kill these cells. Passive immunotherapy uses antibodies made in the laboratory and then injected into sufferers to seek out belly cancer cells that incorporate overproduced proteins, such as the HER-2 oncogene product. Toxins can also be attached to these antibodies, in order that the cell-killing chemicals or radiation is exact specifically to the cancer cells and don't assault the healthful cells of the body. Sentinel lymph node mapping: medical professionals are trying to identify the spread of stomach melanoma to lymph nodes using this process, which has proved very successful within the healing of melanoma and breast melanoma. In sentinel lymph node mapping, the general practitioner injects a blue dye and a radioactive tracer substance into the cancer. These will go to lymph nodes that will be the first web page of melanoma unfold. Doctors can remove these lymph nodes and appear for cancer. If there's no cancer observed, then it can be that full lymph node removal isn’t needed. This could make surgery much less difficult for the sufferer. If there may be melanoma reward, then all of the lymph nodes must be removed. As an operation for stomach melanoma, this process remains to be in the clinical trial stage and now not yet equipped for general use. It isn’t unique yet that sentinel lymph node mapping will establish the cancer-containing lymph nodes. Revised: 03/23/2006

Answer 5

Sorry to hear about your situation.

I'm not a doctor so I can't advise medically, but my mum died of cancer and I know that the end stages can be extremely difficult both for patient and their loved ones. It is very hard for someone strong and independent to decline to the point where they are almost totally helpless.

All I can say is that obviously your grandfather does not have much time left and right now he needs all the support you can give him. Don't take anything angry or hurtful to heart, he doesn't mean it. Just try to be there for him and help take his mind off things.

Answer 6

Kedie, I'm so sorry to hear about your dear Grandfather, it must be awful for him and for you to watch someone you love suffer so.

I think that you should not be shouldering this burden on your own and would advise that ask either your Mum or Dad to explain just what is happening to your grandfather. As it mayhelp you to have greater understanding how he is been nursed and what other treatment he maybe getting.

Now you take care and I hope that your grandfather will soon be at peace and that you can start remembering him as he used to be fit and healthy.

In life we all have to face death at sometime and now perhaps is the time for your grandfather to have the peace and rest that he deserves.

I shall be thinking about you and your grandfather. Bless xx

Answer 7

i have read your first story on this so sorry to hear this bad news i dont think he will be long now before he goes he will go into coma and wont know anything at all i would say within the next few days they will give him lots of morphine to help him .like your grandfather said if he was dog would have put him to sleep i think it should be law that the person who as this should be able to sign to say they want to die ,not right letting people suffer for nothing.i will pray for him .xxx anne

Answer 8

Sorry to hear of your grandfathers illness....
Please speak with the care team.... it may be apprpriate to consider more powerful treatments to achieve rest and comfort.
A slow sub-cutaneous infusion of diamorphine and an anti-sickness medication can assist rest and well-being. It would be wrong however to introduce this treatment too early.