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How does Stage 4 triple negative cancer play out without treatment?

Cancer | Last Active: Feb 13 8:19am | Replies (12)
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@happyjack

I am on palliative care for pancan so I have not answered before now. My palliative care nurse just seems to be on only seeing that I have pain meds so that I am not in pain. She has said that pancan is rare and they don't see many cases, so she has not been able to answer the same question you have. I am not sure Hospice folks will be any difference. Palliative care really blew off my infected large bowl and covid that put me in the hospital with sepsis 2 days before they were going to have someone schedule to come out to draw blood for tests. And I would think most people on this site are looking to fight whatever cancer they have. Very few of us that hang around just trying to have the best quality of life we can for the time we have left. My plan is to stay on palliative care as long as I have no evidence of any cancer. And then move to hospice care. But even that is difficult. My cancer markers are up to 1300. But that may have been caused by my infection. In the hospital a CT scan was done to find my infected large bowel, but they did not find any tumors. I return for another scan in just over a week if my palliative nurse cannot convince me the cancer is back and to go ahead and move to Hospice care. Had I been in Hospice care I would have just remained at home and let the sepsis kill me instead of going to the hospital. I have asked these same questions and just not really getting much of an answer. Best of luck to you with this. I try to do as much of the things I enjoy doing mixed with making end of life planning as I can. I think Hospice has help with this. I have gone over my taxes with my youngest son and my brother. My mom used to work for H&R Block and used to do everyone's taxes. Mom can no longer do this, and I just found out my brother has been doing hers and other family members taxes. My goal is to do my taxes this year also. All my best to everyone dealing with cancer.

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Replies to "I am on palliative care for pancan so I have not answered before now. My palliative..."
hsminc | @hsminc | Feb 3 9:16am

You sound like a fighter and I like that. I have worked with pancreatic cancer patients that lived a relatively long time with good quality of life because they kept fighting.
Unfortunately, what I have seen, is that nurses (including both palliative care and hospice nurses) are not trained in their patients' medical conditions and all the complications and ramifications of their symptoms. If training is offered at all it is very superficial. And they do not take the initiative to educate themselves. I think this is a function of many factors, including the fact that it must be a very difficult job and you have to be strong emotionally (or devoid of feelings at all) in order to do the job and protect yourself.
The other issue as I see it is that nurse training programs, especially the RN and LPN or LVN are oriented toward "doing it." This, of course, is critically important, but nurses are left unable to answer questions - they do not have the resources to do the job as well as it should be done either.
A number of years ago we were (US wide) so desperate for nurses that RN training programs were only two years long. LPN and LVN programs were one year. Many did not have high caliber entrance screening exams. It was very sad. More recently bachelors degrees have been encouraged - but these graduates often are found in administrative positions - not bedside and certainly not home health - which is bedside, of course.
My solution: Patients have to educate themselves until nurses, especially home health types, are paid enough to attract individuals that have gone through extensive training. And these nurses need to be specialized - that will cost the home health agencies, of course, who tend to be owned these days by investors (owners have to return a profit to investors as we all know). I have personally found a world of difference between a clinical specialist nurse practitioner and a family practice nurse practitioner.
In the meantime, you need to read all you can and try to find resources to help you understand what you read. Quiz your physicians.
PubMed is free and a wonderful resource. Have you found it and used it? You need to.

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