Cancer rant

[TrekDianna]

My mother-in-law is in her 80s and just diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread. She has 4-6 months left. We just finished moving her across the country from the only place she's ever lived in her life, to a few miles down the road from us in assisted living. When going through all her meds with her oncologist, he picked out the likely cause of the cancer. She had a hysterectomy when she was in her early 30s. Her PCP was still prescribing estrogen and she was still taking it - in her 80s. First, I hate that there is a generation that seems to find anyone with a medical degree infallible and follows them without question, but also that someone would be prescribing this for a woman of her age.

[emily_in_nc]

Oh Dianna, that is awful! I can't believe it either, though I had a somewhat similar situation with my MIL.

Her doc prescribed Prempro when she was around 70. She was long past menopause, of course, so I asked her why he prescribed it. To prevent bone loss/osteoporosis, she said. To me, that was patently ridiculous as she was heavy, ate plenty of dairy products, and got plenty of exercise, so I didn't think she was in a very high risk category for osteo. Perhaps she'd had a bone scan she didn't tell me about that indicated the need, but I think there were certainly better meds for that, even back then (this would have been in the 2000-2002 time frame). I told her that I thought it was wrong that she was on hormones, but of course she was raised to 100% trust MDs. A couple of years later, she developed uterine cancer. Thankfully, it had not spread, so she had a hysterectomy but no chemo or radiation was recommended. She was incredibly scared to tell me that she was diagnosed with cancer b/c she knew I had been against the Prempro, and apparently that is what the onco thought caused it. He took her off it, of course, and over 10 years later she's had no cancer recurrences, thankfully. She has also never been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis and is not on any meds to prevent that either, so I honestly don't know why the original doc prescribed the Prempro.

Just shows we all have to be our own health advocates, educate ourselves, and not be afraid to question MDs!

[Catrin]

I am so sorry to read this Sending thoughts, prayers and best wishes.

[ny biker]

Given her age, there has probably been more than one doctor who continued to prescribe the estrogen for her over the years.

I'm very sorry, Dianna.

[snapdragen]

Some doctors are still in the dark ages. I worked with a woman who was experiencing hip pain. Her doctor gave her valium! A few months later, when she went to visit her kids and they saw how impaired she was, they took her to a different doctor. She needed a hip replacement.

[TrekDianna]

Thanks for the comments. It's difficult to watch and not be able to do anything that will make it better.

I've just been telling everyone to check and see what their mother's and grandmother's are taking that they don't need to be! Really, what anyone is taking that they don't need to.