Any help you can give is greatly APPRECIATED!

scarletphoenix

Hello members,

I am searching for any support anyone can give me to help keep me from losing my mind. My mother has been recently diagnosed with breast cancer, this past May 2015. To say the least it has been a struggle for me, because I live in Austin and she is in Atlanta. True be it, she does have my brother, father and grammie there to assist her, but as her only daughter I fell helpless. I am trying my best to remain positive in the midst of this storm because I know life and death lies in the power of the tongue, but my heart is hurting - I truly don't know where to begin to do research or get any answers. I get limited information from my family; they don't want me to worry and they know I will walk out on my lease and my job in a heart beat when it comes to my family; especially my mommie.

My mom has been complaining of muscle and joint pain and her doctor is taking her off chemo for the next 3 weeks (sessions) to see if the chemo is causing her mobility issues; she has to use a walker or cane, someone has to be with her at all times and she says her feet and her hands tingle. I was reading up on the causes and tried to find exercise she may be able to do sitting down or those she can be assisted with.

Does anyone know of any ideas or suggestions I can pass along to my mom / family? Any direction someone can give me is greatly appreciated. I know I may be rambling and not making much sense but I'm still trying to get my grip on this.

I thank you in advance for any help and wish nothing but the best and blessings to us all as we travel on this journey.

 

Peace and Blessings

Scarlet.

BarredOwl

Hi ScarletPhoenix:

Sorry to hear your Mom is having a hard time. It is hard to be far away. Let your family know that you think you might worry less if they kept you in the loop as possible.

This web site has a lot of good information, and there is a search field on the home page. There are different kinds of breast cancer, so you will want to know what type she has. Ask your family for the information or ask them to give you a copy of the pathology report from the surgery.

Things you probably need to know are:

Type: for example, invasive ductal carcinoma, invasive lobular carcinoma, or some other type;

Size: how many tumors, and what size in centimeters;

Node status: for example, how many lymph nodes were removed, and were cancer cells found in any;

Hormone receptor status: are there hormone receptors on the cancer cells (estrogen receptor (ER) or progesterone receptor (PR));

HER2 status;

Stage: With invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), the stage is usually based on three things: (1) the size of the IDC tumor in millimeters or centimeters; (2) whether or not there is any involvement of the regional lymph nodes; and (3) whether or not there is distant spread.

Also ask what hormonal and/or chemotherapy drugs she is taking. With that information in hand, you can focus your reading and questions here.

Keeping in mind we have no medical expertise, I am not sure about the muscle and joint pain. However, as for the tingling in her hands and feet, it could be a symptom of "chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy." This is seen more often with elderly patients. You can learn more about this, including self-care tips, here:

http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/side_effects...

Hopefully others who may have experienced peripheral neuropathy will share their experiences and speak to your question about seated exercises.

BarredOwl