Hi Jule No no other treatment. There is nothing they can really do that will help. They can try to remove what's left of her breast and also remove part of her lung but unfortunately the cancer in her spine is aggressive and inoperable. It was decided that her quality of life recovering from these major surgeries was not worth putting her through as the outcome would still be the same. As the bone cancer is already in 4-6 places in her spine she can't have radiation therapy or chemo. They did try her on hormone therapy (apparently that help strengthen the bone which can become brittle) She's off that now and will be having weekly infusions (not sure of what) to help the bones stay stronger. Other than that it's just about keeping the pain bearable. Thank you for your reply...it does help to be able to write about things. It's not really a facebook share if you know what I mean Regards Jackie ... View more

Hi Jule My mother was given a terminal prognosis in July. I'm about 12 hours drive away from her so not quite a far as you. My parents and I emigrated here back in 1965 and I am an only child. My mother has breast, lung and bone cancer. The latter being the one they can't fix. My father was also recently treated for Bladder cancer and has his first review after chemotherapy this month. (Fingers crossed for that but prognosis is better). We have never had cancer in the family prior to my mother getting breast cancer for the first time 16 years ago. Unfortunately what she thought was scar tissue from her partial mastectomy turned out to be the return of the breast cancer and by the time it was discovered it had metastasized to the spine and a secondary inoperable cancer had appeared in the lung. At the moment all they can do is treat her for pain (she has just spent another week in hospital to sort out her pain meds as the ones she was on weren't doing anything for her). The oncologist says "up to two years" but in this recent visit to hospital they think they have found another cancer in her other lung. I keep asking her if she needs me to come up and her reply is always "not yet". There is no one else..her best friend died from lung cancer (and Mum nursed her) about 8 years ago. Dad does the best he can but she gets impatient and lashes out at him at times. I think more because of the pain than really being angry with him. Personally I don't know how, what to feel. Mum and I have never been close but over the past 5 years (prior to diagnosis) we have become good friends again. We talk daily on the phone now. Do you use Skype to speak to your mother? Anyway, this is the first time I have written anything here. Part of me wants to cry but Mum doesn't need that. I try to be upbeat and funny and strong for her but it's very hard. Like you I don't know when I should go and be with her. I'm in Victoria and she is in upper North NSW. I have a husband and chickens and I'm currently studying for my Bachelor of Art in Fine Art. I find this helps me focus on something other than my mother. I think it's good that your mother has "dates" to live for. For my mother it's my Dad's 80th and their 60th Wedding anniversary. We talk about that a lot. Regards Jackie ... View more