I am sorry everyone...my mom quit smoking the night before her surgery, March 26, 2009. Has not wanted one since. (I meant she started again after her first cancer occurrence in 2003.) She is definatley in a good place as far as smoking is concerned. Actually scared of second-hand smoke which cracks me up because we were around it growing up!!!!
It is the post cancer stuff that I am struggling with. I appreciate all of your thoughts and look forward to more.
Lis

Hi Lis...my experience is that it took about a timeframe equal to the total rad/chemo treatment time before the effects of the treatments my Dad went through started to improve significantly. His treatments started beginning of April and went through almost end of May. By mid-July, started seeing some improvements, and by beginning of September, he was feeling well enough to get out and drive on short day-trips on his own.

So once that "low" following treatments was reached (about 4 weeks), he improved significantly week to week.

Alot of his improvement came with removal of the feed tube, as he felt more confident about being able to move around much more and that seemed to accelerate his improvement.

From a caregiver perspective, hope this helps a little.

Chuck

:)Thanks for your input. I am afraid my mom will be on the feeding tube for the rest of her life. It is okay as long as she "feeds" while asleep. We are dealing with nausea and tremors I think related to the new blood thinners they have prescribed for her heart. I have gotten her off of the methadone entirely in the last week, we are relying on oxycodone for pain. My goal is to get her back home to her place, where she lived alone prior to this latest bought with the big C.
Her doc. is helping to get us a case manager to help with a life alert system and more home heath care.
She is having a bad week energy wise. Hopefully next week will be better.

.hi lisaibell

why do you think your mum will be on tube feeds for the rest of her life?a lot of people have the tube for many many months but eventually get it taken out.
love liz