Cancer of the Spine

carmenann
carmenann Member Posts: 3
edited March 2014 in Bone Cancers #1
Hi. My mom has been a survivor of breast cancer for 10 years. This April she found out she had 3 tumors on her spine. She has completed 6 weeks of radiation. Every month she goes to the doctor to recieve shots to promote strength in her bones. She has lost an immense amount of weight. She hardly eats and only gets out of bed to use the restroom or shower with assistance. She was receiving physical therapy in the beginning but it is over now. My question to anyone out there is if someone might be going through or has gone through this ordeal and if they can shed some light for my mom. I know when she had breast cancer, she recieved phone calls from breast cancer survivors reassuring her that everything will be alright. Now she has none of that, nor the strenghth she had when she had breast cancer and seems to not know what to expect. I also was wondering if there are any ideas for food that I can make my mom seeing how she can only eat very light. Thank you.

-Carmen

Comments

  • meena1
    meena1 Member Posts: 1,003
    #2
    I was diagnosed with breast
    I was diagnosed with breast cancer last July. At the time, they also found a spot on my spine, I went through chemo and herceptin, and i am also going through monthly treatments of zometa, is that what your mom is on? My last pet and bone scan came back clean. but i will i have to have the zometa for another 2-3 yrs, I like to eat alot of fruit, and drink green tea, and of course, lots of water. vitamin d is good for you as well as calcium. Some foods would be applesauce with cinnamon, oatmeal with blueberries, pancakes with any fruit, wild caught salmon is very good and light. Even tuna fish, apples with peanut butter. Yogurt is good, however, i am lactose intolerent. homemade soups are great also, there is too much sodium in the cans. put lots of fresh veggies in the soup. I have met a couple of woman who had breast cancer and then it spread to the bones years later, they are on zometa and doing well, I hope i helped you. How old is your mom? Stay strong
  • carmenann
    carmenann Member Posts: 3
    #3
    meena1 said:

    I was diagnosed with breast
    I was diagnosed with breast cancer last July. At the time, they also found a spot on my spine, I went through chemo and herceptin, and i am also going through monthly treatments of zometa, is that what your mom is on? My last pet and bone scan came back clean. but i will i have to have the zometa for another 2-3 yrs, I like to eat alot of fruit, and drink green tea, and of course, lots of water. vitamin d is good for you as well as calcium. Some foods would be applesauce with cinnamon, oatmeal with blueberries, pancakes with any fruit, wild caught salmon is very good and light. Even tuna fish, apples with peanut butter. Yogurt is good, however, i am lactose intolerent. homemade soups are great also, there is too much sodium in the cans. put lots of fresh veggies in the soup. I have met a couple of woman who had breast cancer and then it spread to the bones years later, they are on zometa and doing well, I hope i helped you. How old is your mom? Stay strong

    My mom has been taking
    My mom has been taking zometa and I'm not sure what the other shot is. She is 50 years old. She has just been taking into the hospital this week because she was unable to eat or go to the bathroom. They have found cancer in her stomach now as well. She will be treated with chemo tomorrow. She has a port now too. Thanks for your reply.
  • kat8674
    kat8674 Member Posts: 4
    #4
    Cancer of the spine
    Hi. Sorry to read about your Mom. My story is similar. Breast cancer diagnosis 10 years ago at the age of 36. Found out it was in my spine February of 2008. In 11 vertebrae. My treatment is Zometa once a month and tamoxifen, and I take oxycontin for the pain. Until these treatments show no sign of helping, this is the course I will be on.
    Hopefully she is feeling alot better. It took me about 6 months. There is more support out there for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, just because of the shear numbers. There is a website/group called the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network, /www.mbcnetwork.org, that has information pertaining to patients with mets. They even have an online support group if your Mom wants.
    Oh, I lost alot of weight the first few months of my diagnosis, sorry to say, it is all back on!!

    Kathy
  • verinniafi8t4life
    verinniafi8t4life Member Posts: 3
    #5
    From breast cancer to spinal cancer!!
    Hi , let me firstly introduce myslf to you and everyone, my name is Verinnia aged 24 years old and currently living in Johannesburg South Africa.
    Your story is a little similar to mine, my mother is also suffering from spine cancer too.
    On this side of the world when you have a problem like this and you are not financialy stable it can be pretty hard sometimes.I travel to see my mother who lives about 600 kilometers from Joburg every weekend and try to help her as much as I can and call her constantly too.
    Let me tell you a little about my mom she is a wildlife artist which loves to pain with oilpaints but must say she is realy good at detailed work and has been doing it since she was 12 years of age some of her paintings are in a gallery in america too but the people that took the paintings swindled her and never paid or saw her again... just shows you how people can treat the ones that dont even have anything its so sad.
    Anyways the first time she was diagnosed with cancer was 11 years ago when she was going through a divorce with my dad who cheated on her.And that was breast cancer she was very scared and didnt know how to handle it at the time.I gave my full support all the way everyday to help I even worked overtime to late nights to help her financialy too.I would say it was one of the most toughest times of my life too.

    She would go in almost everyday for the chimo therapy and then the surgery which all was succesful for a couple of years but the pain she went through was horrible, I dont wish anyone to go through that it wasnt pleasant at all.
    Wll afew years down the line things started to look a little better and BOOM last month my mother calls me up saying baby I have spinal cancer and its spreading more...Well my hope just fell at that moment and couldnt speak to anyone.
    So now its radiation again and more traveling to do .To be honest why must my mother and I suffer in this world like this when we have people buying yachts,big houses and expensive gifts everyday where all I want is to move my mom to St. Lucia by the see in a small little house somewhere where she will be happy with the last bit of her days.
    Im sorry im so emotional now and the sores are still raw for me and my mom at the moment.

    Thank you for listening to me today
    Verinnia
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #6
    This comment has been removed by the Moderator
  • VirginiaJewel
    VirginiaJewel Member Posts: 1
    #7
    Something for you mom's appetite
    first.. if her doctor will give her a script for ENSURE, tell her to call ABBOTT LABS. they are the parent company of ROSS industries. and THEY will send her ENSURE free for as long as she needs it. again, all she needs is the form ROSS sends her filled out by her doctor and sent back to them and they will ship it directly to her door.
    second, ask her doctor to prescribe MARINOL for her. that is a pill form of marijuana and it is commonly used to increase the appetite of cancer patients. i had a friend who had multiple myeloma and she was very much in the same boat as your mom. now ive just discovered that my breast cancer has metasticized to my spine in addition to being in my ribs, and my left lung. boy it sux to be me...hehehehe. good luck carmen
  • weazer
    weazer Member Posts: 440
    #8
    verinniafi8t4life said:

    From breast cancer to spinal cancer!!
    Hi , let me firstly introduce myslf to you and everyone, my name is Verinnia aged 24 years old and currently living in Johannesburg South Africa.
    Your story is a little similar to mine, my mother is also suffering from spine cancer too.
    On this side of the world when you have a problem like this and you are not financialy stable it can be pretty hard sometimes.I travel to see my mother who lives about 600 kilometers from Joburg every weekend and try to help her as much as I can and call her constantly too.
    Let me tell you a little about my mom she is a wildlife artist which loves to pain with oilpaints but must say she is realy good at detailed work and has been doing it since she was 12 years of age some of her paintings are in a gallery in america too but the people that took the paintings swindled her and never paid or saw her again... just shows you how people can treat the ones that dont even have anything its so sad.
    Anyways the first time she was diagnosed with cancer was 11 years ago when she was going through a divorce with my dad who cheated on her.And that was breast cancer she was very scared and didnt know how to handle it at the time.I gave my full support all the way everyday to help I even worked overtime to late nights to help her financialy too.I would say it was one of the most toughest times of my life too.

    She would go in almost everyday for the chimo therapy and then the surgery which all was succesful for a couple of years but the pain she went through was horrible, I dont wish anyone to go through that it wasnt pleasant at all.
    Wll afew years down the line things started to look a little better and BOOM last month my mother calls me up saying baby I have spinal cancer and its spreading more...Well my hope just fell at that moment and couldnt speak to anyone.
    So now its radiation again and more traveling to do .To be honest why must my mother and I suffer in this world like this when we have people buying yachts,big houses and expensive gifts everyday where all I want is to move my mom to St. Lucia by the see in a small little house somewhere where she will be happy with the last bit of her days.
    Im sorry im so emotional now and the sores are still raw for me and my mom at the moment.

    Thank you for listening to me today
    Verinnia

    How is Your Mom
    Hello Verinnia,
    My name is Karie, and I mostly post on the Breast cancer board.
    I saw your post and it brought me to tears.
    How is your Mom doing?
    I'm so sorry to hear about her art work, the terrible things that some people do.
    Please let us know how you and your Mom are doing.
    I'm sending Hugs and my prayers to your Mom and you.
    Keep your head to the sky.
    Karie
  • Lynn Smith
    Lynn Smith Member Posts: 1,264 Member
    #9
    VirginiaJewel said:

    Something for you mom's appetite
    first.. if her doctor will give her a script for ENSURE, tell her to call ABBOTT LABS. they are the parent company of ROSS industries. and THEY will send her ENSURE free for as long as she needs it. again, all she needs is the form ROSS sends her filled out by her doctor and sent back to them and they will ship it directly to her door.
    second, ask her doctor to prescribe MARINOL for her. that is a pill form of marijuana and it is commonly used to increase the appetite of cancer patients. i had a friend who had multiple myeloma and she was very much in the same boat as your mom. now ive just discovered that my breast cancer has metasticized to my spine in addition to being in my ribs, and my left lung. boy it sux to be me...hehehehe. good luck carmen

    BC survivor
    I am a bc survivor and on that Board most of the time.I saw where it said get ENSURE.My oncologist said NO way should I drink that.It has soy.So any cancer you really shouldn't drink EnSURE. I drank it for a short time even though I knew about the soy but doctor said NO.Some soy but the ENSURE has alot.she said the bars with soy and cake mixes etc have very little but the drinks that help you with vitamins and weight gain is not good.At least not cancer patients.If you are taking a anti cancer pill it will counteract that.

    I do have a brownie etc with a bit of soy and then I drink my healthy drink.FUSION. Full of vitamins and minerals and it helps a some with a gain weight and it is a antioxident.

    Lynn Smith

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