My uncle has: COPD, Congestive heart failure, lung cancer, and his right lung ha!


Question:

My uncle has: COPD, Congestive heart failure, lung cancer, and his right lung has collapsed. Will he live?

Right now he is in the hospital and the doctors have cleared him of the pnuemonia he had when he went in there. He was getting morphine shots, but the doctor recommended a drip. Before going into the hospital he was on oxycontin but was not abusing it. He asked today to be removed from the morphine drip because it was making him loopy. He is very coherent and knows what all is going on. He is also only 47.
My mom and I think he is basically addicted to pain killers. The doctor has indicated that his cancer is untreatable, and he is having trouble breathing, however, I am wondering if he is going to be ok. My uncle has hope he will be out of the hspital soon. We were all thinking he is about to pass away, now we are thinking, he is simply hooked on pain pills. Remember, his pnuemonia was cured. But the cancer will eventually take him out. Do you all think he can still lead a normal life outside the hospital? If he takes a oxygen tank home and takes it easy? Sorry so long..............


Answers:

Ask the doctor for a prognosis and likely disease development. Things depend on the specific type of lung cancer (small versus large cell makes a difference in usefulness of chemotherapyA), the stage of the lung cancer (the areas to which it has metastesized).

My late wife (a non-smoker) and several friends (all smokers or former smokers) of mine have died of lung cancer in the last 5 years. The disease took them all within a maximum of 4.5 years of initial diagnosis. It is not a pretty picture.

In my wife's case, the cancer got into her spine and she had several vertebrae removed in a series of operations as wll as one lung. She had immense pain from bone tumors and collapsing vertebrae that impinged on her spinal cord.

One friend had a lung removed but ended up with brain tumors that ultimately ended his life after a couple years of chemo, a gamma knife and brain surgery.

If your Uncle is feeling better with pain pills, let him have them. There is no pain like cancer pain and no good reason not to get relief. So what if he is "hooked"? This is the one time in life that being "hooked" is not a bad thing. It is unlikely that he will ever need to get "unhooked" from what you say.

Consider hospice care (it can be in the home) as it is generally very compassionate and they help with proper drug dosages.




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