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Hi all,
My mother in law has just been diagnosed with liver cancer. She has several tumors all over her liver the biggest being 8cm and the next 4.5. She is refusing treatment as she wants quality rather than quantity of life, which we are all supportive of as she is almost 80. She is also refusing to have a biopsy and wants minimum checkups which obviously does not help with estimating how long she will be able to look after herself etc...
I was wondering if some of you would be able to tell me how long we could expect her to have and what is the progression of the illness. My husband and I live in another state (about 10hrs away) and we want to try and be there for her as much as possible, particularly toward the end. The problem is that we need to take time off work (which is limited to annual leave etc..) which will mean trying to come and be with her at intervals so we don't use everything up straight away and then have nothing left when she really needs us.
We don't want to put any more pressure on my mother in law, but it is really frustrating to have absolutely no clue whether we have weeks, months or longer and try to come up with a plan to be there for her.
Welcome to the Online Community. Reading your post I thought you might also want to call Cancer Council on 13 11 20 (business hours, Mon-Fri). The consultants on our Information & Support line could help answer some of the questions you have about your mother-in-law.
Kind regards
Gabrielle, one of the Online Community Team