Glioblastoma death?

shelly65

My brother has GBM and has reached the end of treatments. Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect in the next months?
shelly

suzi191

I am sorry to say that I can help you alittle with that,,,my mom has gbm 4. She had her radiation and surgery but it did no good.. How is it right now? Any noticable symptoms. My mom had a seizure 6 weeks ago. She was just finishing her round of radiation. That left her in a very confused state. She acted alittle silly and could not stand on her own any more. We had no choice b ut to put her in a local nursing facility. She could no longer use her left arm and leg. And her right arm would jerk and shake all the time. She could barely talk and couldnt feed herself anymore.She just went down hill from there. She soon couldnt hold her head up on her won at all. So she couldnt sit reclined in a chair and had to be bed ridden. She can no longer control her bowels so she must wear a diaper. She started a spell of running very high fevers for no apparent reason. She lost a great deal of weight and is now 101 pounds and skeletal thin. Even though she eats extremely well. She has to have her food pureed becasue she tends to choke when eating or drinking....she will be swallowing and her body will forget how....they have had to suction her throat a few times. She will have food in her mouth and will not be able to swallow it and will hold it until she remembers how.Her cancer has progressed very quickly. She was diagnosed april 3 2005. Had her surgery 1 week later. Began radiation 3 weeks after that andnow is in her current condition. She really wasnt that severly affected at diagnosis...especially after the surgery. She was pretty much just mom. Everything went down hill in just 4 months. When I sit and figure this up it is hard to believe that only 4 months ago she was an active busy working woman.......god it just blows my mind. We have hospice in 3 times a week. They are very good at taking care of them and helping you out...you might want to keep them in mind...I am sorry if any of this has upset you. This is just our experience...yours maybe totally different. Maybe your brother will be healed....I will be praying so.

nanc721

Shelly, I am very sorry to hear about your brother. I lost my 52 year old husband to GBM in May of 2005. We were very lucky in that although he had a period of severe pain for a week or so, overall, he went very peacefully. I think that the location of the tumor will effect what symptoms your brother may experience. My husband's tumor began in the right temporal lobe. By the time the treatments stopped working, he was pretty much comatose. I wish that I could tell you just what to expect, but I can't. Just take every opportunity to make sure that he knows that you love him. Talk to him even if you think he is asleep. I am SO glad that my husband and I talked about EVERYTHING. It makes things a bit easier to handle now that he is gone.