My mother has breast cance and lymphoma. Per her oncologist her breast cancer has spread to her liver, spleen, some abnormalities are shown in adrenal glands. She is currently on her 3rd or 4th type of chemo, initial once she was tollerating more or less ok, new chemo she has 3 treatments and not doing so well since. She started to have pain in her abdomen. What is the best advise you could give? How long do people with her diagnosis live after pains start? Thanks!
Hi, Thanks for writing in. It will help to do an ultrasound scan and know where in the abdomen she is having pain Usually pains are due to underlying problems in abdomen like fluid collection or pressure on organs or nerve irritation. Some of these conditions can be treated if known. Pain can also be due to stomach infection or in relation to disease in organs like kidneys, live, spleen. Therefore, it is important to give her higher dose of pain reliever and also treat any condition other than the cancer that is causing pain. In my opinion, it is best to do an ultrasound scan and know if the cause of pain is treatable and give medication for that. Pain and life expectancy are not comparable. Some patients might have severe pain but can still live a few years while many patients can have a downward course in days without much pain.