bopd

My father, age 86 and getting weaker, has had prostate cancer for a
number of years, which has now spread to the bones (his spine). He now
also has cancer of the pancreas and lungs, which may or may not be
related to his original prostate cancer. Does anyone have any ideas
about how to prolong his life, painfree, as long as possible? Thank
you all for any information you can give me.

sharon

Dave, If you are in the US, you may want to contact your local hospice
agency. My personal experiences with them have been great. They helped my
stepDad (who passed away from lung cancer a few years back) live with no
pain. They conversed with his doctor and they decided to do some palliative
radiation treatments that helped his breathing and made him much more
comfortable. And they administered pain medication, that made the
experience a little more tolerable for my Dad. He was up and around right
up until 2 days before he passed away. And he never left his home, which
was important to him.

The hospice workers were compassionate and understanding. They helped the
whole family. I hope that your Dad's passing is as peaceful as my Dad's
was.

Take Care, Sharon

j

Hello Dave,
I'm very sorry to hear about your father.
There's nothing, in this world, that's going to prolong his life now,
sadly.

I"ve never heard of cancer of the prostate spreading to the pancreas (nor
the reverse), so I ran a search and here's what the ACS says about
metastatic cancer. http://tinyurl.com/vuxs
So it looks to me, that your father has two cancers.
Pancreatic cancer usually moves very fast in endstage and can be one of
the most painful cancers with fast weight loss and muscle wasting.
So as Sharon says, please find him excellent palliation.
With the weight loss, he'll become very weak for probably the last four
weeks, unless he passes quickly from other unrelated causes, such as
heart.
If someone's unable to be with him 24/hours a day, he'll probably need to
be in hospice.

Please help him to make sure his "affairs are in order" (will, power of
attorney of care, advanced directives) before he is unable to cope with
that himself. Before Dad died, my sister helped Dad go through his papers
and make sure as much as possible of that was done (legally), so that he
could relax and enjoy as much quality of life as was left him.

Please feel free to join us on news:alt.support.cancer
If that's not a throwaway e-mail address you're using, you may wish to
"munge" your e-mail addrsss so that "spammers" and those offering "quack
cures" don't try to contact you. You won't have time for that.

I'm sorry my reply can't be more hopeful to you.
J-not a doctor

j

Dave,
there's some eating tips here for pancreatic cancer
http://pathology2.jhu.edu/pancreas/nutrition.cfm
http://www.pancan.org/Patient/Pancreatic/diet.html
http://www.pancan.org/Patient/Pancreatic/Diet/more.html
http://www3.mdanderson.org/DEPARTMENTS/pancreatic/qa/whatabout.htm
They may all be similar with some slight differences.

Sometimes people with pancreatic cancer develop diabetic symptoms.
So if your father is eating, perhaps eating such as above, would help with
some of the symptoms.
If he's not hungry, don't try to force him.
Hope this helps
J

ironjustice

I suppose that would be heavy doses of narcotics and a ventilator ..

http://herbivore.7h.com/cancerpost.html

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com
Man Is A Herbivore! http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/manisaherbivore
DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/deadpeoplewalking

mike radcliffe

Dave
you have had good advice from the other members, except ,of course,
'Do(p)e' who inhabits his own unique universe.
Being 86 is a terminal condition in itself and although no one wants to
die any sooner than they have to cancer at an advanced age is not a bad way
to go. Any treatments of a curative nature would certainly cause more
problems than they would solve.
The less we interfere in the process the better things go, as a rule, and
with hospice/palliative care there to guide you your grandfather will
probably have very little in the way of pain and other symptoms.
Most likely he will just get weaker and gentlly drift away as time goes
on.
MIKE

bopd

Thank you all for your replies. I guess my siblings and I will try to
visit Dad as often as possible and make things as comfortable as
possible for him until the end. Though he has begun radiation and
chemo, he is still very strong and upbeat. I imagine his condition
will deteriorate soon, but we'll just take it day to day. All affairs
are in order. Thanks again for the advice, all. Happy Holidays to
everyone!

jeff

That's doing a lot. Beasically, everything you can do.

Make sure a hosptice is involved. This is what they do for a living.


I am 38 and healthy. Taking it day by day is all I can do too.


Having been there, I know this is both a happy time and a sad and scary
time. I hope you and your dad find peace in the days ahead and I hope your
holidays are happy as well.

Jeff