Family member has brain cancer non curable what to expect as his caregiver?

Answer 1

I found this question in the Pain Management section so I will answer first along those lines.

My mom passed from cancer that was first found in her brain. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer (the worst) and given 6-18 months to live. She actually lived about 1o months.


For the first few months she was good. The surgery to remove the brain tumor allowed her to regain all she lost from the growth (balance, speech, ability to drive, etc). However the radiation was very hard, and became fairly painful. At about 7 months she started to go downhill rapidly, and the end came very fast, for which we are grateful when compared to an extended period of suffering.


About the pain - Her pain began with the radiation. At first Vicodin did fine. As the cancer spread into her kidneys and bones the pain escalated. By the 6th months she was taking Percocet regularly. The doses went up regularly. She became bed-bound by the 8th month and required oxycodone liquid around the clock, low doses at first, escalating slowly until her last week. By the last week she was taking 20mg oxycodone liquid every 2 hours.


But the pain meds gave her a quality of life she might not have enjoyed. Whatever you do, make sure your patient gets good, aggressive pain management as early as possible. Pain should be prevented, not treated after it starts. So, once pain becomes an issue the patient should be taking pain med around the clock on a scheduled basis. However much it takes to hold off pain. For whatever remaining time the patient has, continue to escalate the dose as needed to prevent pain. When the pain spikes be sure the doctor has ordered short acting medications to take out the breakthrough pain.


If your patient hesitates to take pain meds you need to stay on them. Use the quality of life argument to get them to take the meds. You can also tell them, truthfully, that their health depends on being as strong as possible. Pain robs us of strength and harms our immune systems. Keeping pain in check allows us to fight all the other battles cancer throws at us. It also allows the patient to enjoy his/her loved ones as long as possible. Addiction is not a good reason to avoid pain meds. It's not like they're ever going to have to stop, right? So no worries about withdrawals and such.


It's hard to get a stubborn pain patient to take pain meds - I know of what I write. You can't deceive them, but you must find a way to convince them that it's in their best interest to keep pain managed so they can remain as healthy and active as possible for themselves and their families and friends.


Non-pain issues - Be sure to get a hospice involved. The patient can remain at home and receive hospice care. Getting the hospice involved was the best decision we made. Talk about caring people. They are professionals at what they do and they're the best. Sometimes the rules say that the patient must be through with all efforts to heal the cancer before hospice can start. This is almost nonsense. The patient can go into and out of hospice care as needed. Once the decision is made to stop all efforts to heal the cancer then the patient can enjoy full-time hospice care. Hospice usually costs patients nothing, it is supported by private donations. Don't let financial fears stop you from using a hospice.


Best of Luck - You are an angel :-)