My 66 year old father has just been confirmed with Bone Metastases (from colonrectal cancer to the base of the spine). He currently has nightly fever and high pain which is reduced by 60mg morphine each morning and night. Due to past radiation damage he can have no more radiation and due to metastases at spine base they say no surgery. They are doing follow up MRI to see if it has grown but plan on starting chemo (once a week for four weeks and then off for a few). Specialists said this usually has good results but often bad side effects. Can anyone please give me feedback ASAP! ME

I hope you have or your doctor has contacted hospice for you. If not please do, they are a wonderful and can answer all your questions. I hope the medication is controlling your dads discomfort. Try to be strong,for your dad needs you now...plc

Thank you for your response. What is hospice? It is so hard to deal with and now my father has depression setting in at times when the pain is bad. The morphine keeps getting increased. Are their any groups I can contact for support that you know of.

Originally posted by plc:
I hope you have or your doctor has contacted hospice for you. If not please do, they are a wonderful and can answer all your questions. I hope the medication is controlling your dads discomfort. Try to be strong,for your dad needs you now...plc

Hospice is a support group who helps with terminally ill patients and their families. You can check out this website for more details: http://www.hospice.on.ca/

Please do follow up with Hospice if your Dad meets the criteria. They are a compassionate, caring organization that has vast resources and experience dealing with the last stage of life. Many hospice workers are there because one of their family members were helped by Hospice and they feel compelled to "give back".

My Dad had chemo, a clinical trial, but there was just no stopping the metastisizing in his case. His colon tumor was already Stage 4 (it had spread to his liver) when it was discovered. It was his choice to have the chemo but it did leave him weak and not at all hungry when he needed more strength, not less.

Has your Dad been able to talk to anyone about his diagnosis and it's outcome? His depression may come from bottling up very natural fears and concerns that he may not want to "burden" anyone in the family with. There are many people who find it easier to talk to someone from Hospice about these things than to "worry" anyone in their Family.

My Dad died a year and a half ago, peacefully, at a Hospice House and I hope to sign up as a volunteer this fall. My heart goes out to you because I was also a "WorriedDaughter" for 6 months. Unlike many of your friends, there are people here - including myself - who HAVE lost a father and who DO know how you feel.

Please keep checking back here to let us know how things are going... And if your Dad isn't talking about life & death & feelings, don't hesitate to work whatever things you want to say to him casually into a conversation. No matter what the outcome, it will mean the world to your Dad to hear some favorite memories again from when you were little, or somethings that you may see in yourself that "must have come from him".

Please keep in touch -
Bj

BJ, thank you so much for your feedback. It has been two years since dad initially had the surgery and about five months since they thought it has metasized to his spine and still waited. It is so hard to see him in pain all the time. This week they up'd his morphine to 75mg morning and 75mg night with 5mg fast acting to be used every two hours as needed, it was only 15mg am and pm five months ago. He is meeting with the chemo doctor this week and will get the results from his recent cat scan. They never told him what level or what stage he is in so we do not know how bad it is. I never heard of hospice but I am in Canada, thanks for explaining it. I am so sorry for what you went through, I really need someone to talk to on my families behalf to get feedback. I am the oldest daughter at 36 and my younger sister is pregnant at 30 so we are trying to minimize her stress and my mom is so strong she doesn't often ask for help. Dad has been talking and saying things like don't feel bad when I'm gone, living like this isn't worth living. I cried the first few times but now I let him talk it out as I know he needs to. Thanks again for the feedback, I'm just sorry it is because you already went through it. Mel

I have an new update which I need feedback. My father is on Saltz Regime once a week for four weeks and then two weeks off. He has been told he has two floating lymph nodes in the abdomen which have cancer and two slightly unusual areas on one lung which they are watching and are not sure. They have told Dad as long as he can handle the chemo (his only option) that they are positive it will get the cancer tumors but not the spine bone tumor.

Can anyone please give me feedback on Saltz Regime, info on abdomen lymph node cancer, and what shows on an xray for lung cancer?

Dad started chemo on Wed and was pain free for two days (now 90mg am and pm) and then got very nauseous and tired and was admitted today for dehydration and they postphoned his chemo treatment tomorrow.

Please give me feedback. Thank you. ME - Worried Daughter.

First of all, a big hug from someone who has been there...
I can help a little with your questions to at least give you a starting point:
"Saltz Regime" is a combination of chemo drugs - 5FU,
LV & Irinotecan - which made it through the "Clinical Trial" phase by showing great improvement over the standard chemo treatments.
There are numberous lymph nodes in the abdomen, they can sometimes become involved when there is cancer in surrounding organs.
X-rays of the lungs can show whitish areas which may or may not indicate metastatic tumors.

You should be very proud of yourself that you are trying to learn all you can about your Dad's illness. After each bit of news I got about my Dad I would put my Search Engine to work and read everything I could find. It did help me to know a little bit ahead of time what could happen next. Neither my sisters or my brother wanted any advance knowledge and that was o.k. too because that was how they needed to deal with things.
Bless you for understanding your Dad's need to talk - and I do understand that you're doing that in the middle of what is a bit of a nightmare for you. I feel very sure that you will come out of this well-equipped to help someone else down the road who is where you are now.
It truly is a matter of putting one foot in front of the other and letting him know the impact he has had on your life, personality, just who you are... Not to mention a family joke or two!!
Hang tight, check with your Mom to see if she is willing to request copies of pathology reports on his biopsies, pass out hugs left and right (the point is, that you get one back when you give one out!)
Please stay in touch, I've been there and I care,
Bj

BJ, thanks for the hug. You are a great help and I appreciate it more than you'll ever know. I will keep you updated. I found out dad only weights 121 pounds last night and I am so worried. Like you did, I am trying to find out everything I can and like you, my sister doesn't want to know. My mom however takes my little suggestions and follows up with the doctor, she understands it is my way of copying and helping her. It is so good to finally have someone to chat with who understands, although I am so sorry the reason for the connection is from bad health experiences in our family. Thanks again. Mel

Hi Mel, I hadn't seen anything from you in awhile on this message board... If you check in here please let me know how things are going for you and your dad, o.k.???
Bj

Here's a link to the National Cancer Institute. From here, you can link to treatment, drug and clinical trials information as well as support resources.
http://www.nci.nih.gov/

BTW, the Saltz regimen is considered the 'gold standard' for colon cancer.

Good luck,
Jay