How bad it can get... (Skin Cancer in General)

Member Name: chrispitts

Product:	Skin Cancer in General
Date:	15/07/02 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: .

Disadvantages: .

3 years ago, a mole on my mother's back started to itch and bleed a bit. She went to her GP. As a doctor myself, I already saw the warning signs, and, following a referral to the dermatologist, a biopsy confirmed melanoma. The melanoma was described as Grade IV. Mum didn't know what that meant. To be honest, I'm quite pleased she didn't realise that Grade IV tumours had an appalling survival rate. I didn't tell her that.

Following the biopsy, she went back into hospital to have a wide excision of the melanoma, with skin-grafting from her leg, and lymph node biopsies from her armpit.
The melanoma had spread to some of the lymph nodes, so Mum underwent "axillary clearance" - all the nodes in her armpit were removed.

A CT scan of the body revealed that the cancer didn't seem to have spread at all. Mum was reassured by this. I knew the truth...

She continued to have regular CT scans for about 2 years. Then, last year, the scan picked up a lesion in the pancreas. That was surprising, as melanomas rarely spread to the pancreas. Mum was booked in urgently for a "modified Whipple's" operation, in which her pancreas and part of her stomach were removed. Obviously, she felt pretty knocked-about after this, but tried to lead a normal life.

2 CT scans later, and more lesions were spotted. In her uterus, her liver and in the spine. Mum was referred to the palliative care team at the local hospice and to an oncologist for chemotherapy. By now the whole family knew what I had known for the last 3 years. Mum was dying, and wouldn't get better.

Mum died in November 2002. By the time she died, she weighed 5 stone, she was on very high doses of morphine, so didn't make sense much of the time, and, despite the pain-relief, she was in almost constant pain.
Fortunately, she spent her last 4 days unconscious, at home, with her family around her, but by this stage she didn't
look anything like my mother. She just looked like anyone else who is dying - gaunt, pale/grey, struggling to draw breath... she developed pressure sores on her heels, her back and even her ears.
Yes, the death was peaceful, and she died in the way she would have wanted, but she was only 52. And her Granddaughter was only 18 months.

And now, I have time to think about what we're all going to miss out on as a family. As Mum said herself, 2 weeks before she died: "I'm not afraid of dying - I'm just annoyed about everything I'm going to miss - especially Emily."

And all this, from a small spot on her shoulder. And all this, from sunburn earlier in life....

Summary: