My dad was diagonosed with Secondary brain cancer, we are stilll looking for the primary cancer.
He was diagonosed in November 2005, he is still here now.. but getting much weaker, he is sleeping almost constantly, only waking up five minutes to ask for a coffee for him to fall asleep and not drink it. He hasnt eaten a thing for over a week and he wont drink his nurishment drink that were prescribed. How long roughly does a cancer patient die after diagonositis, and does it sound like he has long to go. He also cant walk very far even if being aided.

thank u

Hi,

I wish I could be of help... I'm new to the world of cancer via my father since June this year. The doctors are also having a hard time finding the primary site for his cancer.

Is/has your dad been in treatment? If so, could this be a reaction from treatment? Did they give you a stage for the brain cancer?

I'll keep your dad in my thoughts too. If you need someone to talk, I'll be here, although not too knowledgable yet.

Lynn

My father-in-law 's primary was in the lungs. The found that after the brain. 6 months later it is in the lungs, liver and shoulder.He started chemo right after diagnoses. He has just started a new chemo. This is his 7th month. i don't mean to scare you but I wish I could find someone that has been where we are now. Hopefully your situation will be different.
Jennifer

I lost my 43 yr old sister to lung cancer in April 05. We did not know she had cancer until she started having very bad headaches. A CT scan revealed 4 secondary tumours in her brain and that she was already terminal. She had the largest tumour removed as it was 'pushing' her brain to one side. My sister had an extremely aggressive cancer and it spread to her bones, lymph nodes, liver etc within 4 months after diagnosis. She died 10 months after diagnosis even though the doctors gave her 12 months to 2 years. She endured both radiation and chemotherapy. I have also just lost my father to bowel cancer (12 August 2006) with secondaries in his lung and hip bone. My mum has also been diagnosed with Breast cancer (June 2006). Her diagnosis is a lot more postive as they have caught it in Stage II. It has been the saddest 16 months of my entire life. My sister and dad both battled so hard and suffered so much. It is one of the hardest things to endure, watching your loved ones slowly fade away and there is not a thing you can do to help them other than to 'be there'. If I can help in anyway, please let me know. Although my family had very different cancers, the process (and sadly the outcome) was the same. Take care, Christine PS I would just like to add that we were told by the medical staff that my sisters cancer was extremely aggressive because she was young.

Hi Smeggles,

I am sorry to hear about your father. Is he in the hospital or at home Hon?

My husband had grade 2 ependymoma located in left frontal temporal region. It settled on his speech center, which means we can't communicate much at all. He has had 2 surgeries, 31 rounds of radiation, oral chemo called Temodar. He's doing great! Been told he is in complete remission. Although this was low grade tumor and remission is good, we are talking about the brain, radiologist/oncologist told us it should be referred to as brain cancer. It's not like they can cut out the organ that the tumor is in ... so ... it's a really lousy form of cancer to get ... but, of course, as you know, all cancer is really lousy!

I can't imagine the doctors not being able to find a primary tumor location. It sounds like your father is very, very ill, for he is not able to eat. What are they doing to help him Hon? Please stay in touch and let us know what's going on.
Joy

Hi, - I lost my father to cancer too .... it's painful to watch someone you always thought was invincible and would be around forever go through this.

Time is one of those things that no one can quote with accuracy. But, if your dad is now sleeping a lot and finding it hard to walk, I would not give him much more than 6-8 weeks, based on my personal experience - (I am not a doctor).

My heart goes out to you and your family.


Paul