Multitude of new onset health issues

becominglola

Hello! I’m here for my father. He avoided doctors all his life, but recently started having some shortness of breath and cough. He’s a lifelong smoker and I encouraged him to finally get a primary care doctor for labs and a CT chest to rule out lung CA. Test came back with minor nodules in lung, opacity in pleural space, and some mediastinal lymph node involvement less than 15. More notable was scattered sclerotic bone lesions in the thoracic spine, ribs, manubrium, and sternum. I started looking at differentials for sclerotic bone lesions as I understand lytic or a mix are more common with lung cancer. I kept coming across Prostate cancer. Then the PSA came back 3389 and it started to make sense. Things were as fine as they could be at this time and we made appointments for urology, PET scan, and pulmonary.

Out of the blue, one morning when he walked down the stairs, he lost control of his right leg. Recovered quickly and walked normally the rest of the day and suspected it was sciatica despite not feeling pain or weakness, endorsed an odd feeling near right hip/thigh area. Later that evening, he became cold and clammy, vomited, and had significant difficulty walking with a wide unsteady gait. At this point I was concerned for spinal cord compression and managed to get the most stubborn man to advanced urgent care with CT access, but they said go straight to ER and rule out stroke as well. So here we are and the picture is becoming more confusing.

Within a few hours, we were told he has lesions also in cerebellum. Then they came back and said it’s actually a stroke. He was recently diagnosed with atrial fibrillation on eliquis and metoprolol, taking these daily and as prescribed. They did an entire MRI spine, with results still waiting to be read. He’s started having difficulty finding words suggesting a cerebral vascular event and is slightly confused.

Then we find out his high sensitivity troponin is 8000 with an EKG showing afib and slight ST elevations. We are at a loss entirely. We took him here to rule out cord compression and now have all of these other possibilities with little answers. We were hoping to simply stabilize him and take him home tonight as pet scan is Wednesday and urology Tuesday with oncology being set up.

My question is has this ever happened to anyone? I’m a nurse. I’ve never seen someone have so many issues all develop within 24-48 hours.

Old Salt

Very sorry to read about your Dad's situation. As you must have surmised, his case is VERY serious. And I am just focusing on his prostate cancer which has metastasized all over. On top of that of course are the issues with his heart and brain. His case is obviously complex and he will need to consult the very best medical oncologists. I imagine that the urologist can prescribe an androgen deprivation drug, but your Dad's case is really out of his/her area of expertise. I hope you can find a medical oncologist at an NCI Designated Cancer Center ASAP to guide him (and you).

Forherself

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/326114/multitude-of-new-onset-health-issues

Gosh so sorry to read about your Father. I am visiting from another board and saw your post. I reply because I am also an RN who worked in a family doctor office. It is so hard when a patient has avoided medical offices for years and then has their hand forced by disease. He is not alone in this. I suspect that many of your Dads problems are not developed over 24 to 48 hours. He needs support from you. Being diagnosed with all this must be so hard for you all. Bless you for being a caring daughter. Remember his family doctor should be getting reports from all the specialists. That person should be able to coordinate all the specialists your Dad is seeing, and help answer your questions.