Hi, CallyGirl!

You are a good sister. Your brother is a fortunate man to have you advocating for him. The best thing you could have done to help him was to come to theses forums. So many of us have "been there, done that".

I was hospitalized 5 times throughout my treatment. A few of them were actually after my treatment ended! Not all of them were for dehydration/malnutrition, but one of them was and they took care of those things all the other times I was in there. I just turned 39 years old a week ago. I was 37 and pregnant the first time I had cancer, but I didn't need the dreaded rads/chemo. I wasn't so lucky the second time. I knew what I was in for and I don't know if that helped or not.

You've got a lot of great advice here. I just want to add one more thing. When I was in the hospital, I was given a palliative care consult. Now, I know that sounds scary...like end of life care, but that's not all they do. They specialize in pain management. It was the best thing that they could have done for me. I tried all of the fentanyl patches and oxycodone and I was still not getting my pain managed properly. It was at that point that I felt so badly, I asked to be admitted to the hospital. Now, they put me on a medication plan that I never thought I would be on. I thought the drugs they gave me were only for heroine addicts in recovery, but in fact, these drugs are widely used in pain management for cancer patients. I am now in the tapering phase and I am doing fine.

It sounds like your bro needs to be hospitalized for many reasons to get him through. If he is admitted, ask if they have a palliative care team (or pain management team) that can consult with him and put him on a treatment plan that works for him. It may take a little tweaking, but I'm confident that with the nutrition, hydration, and proper pain management, he will tolerate the treatment much better.

Best of luck. He will make it through with good care.

xoxo,
Kerri