confused

Hi there,
This is my first post. My amazing MIL was diagnosed with Non Small Cell Lung Adenocarcinoma, and she is just finishing up a round of chemo for brain mets. The trouble is that my husband's family all live about a 17 hour drive from us, so we aren't around. Most of the family members we speak to that are down there seem to all have a different story about what is going on. Her sister told us she is at stage 1, but with any mets, you are automatically given a stage 4 diagnosis. I don't know if my MIL isn't being forthright about her true situation, or if other family is trying to make us feel better. She finds out today what the outcome of the mets treatment is, and my FIL told us the doctor will either say "good news, we are doing more treatments" , or "bad news, there's nothing else we can do". I don't know how bad she looks, or how her days are spent, and we want to see her again before she passes away. I am not sure what to tell my kids because I want them to know what is coming before it does. Also, my husband doesn't want to know anything technical about her illness, as he finds this too painful to deal with, so I am trying to be educated enough for both of us. I know getting a timeframe for prognosis is very difficult, as most times the doctors don't even really know, but here is what I do know: She was diagnosed in early 2007, had a piece of her lung removed, they then found more lesions on the other lung, a few months later she had a pleural effusion, and the "talc" procedure was done, they then found brain mets, and treated that with gamma knife procedures a couple of months ago, she had a scan Monday this week, and finds out today how things look. I don't know if we will be getting the full truth on what is going on or not, so any input would be appreciated. It's so hard. She is such an amazing person.

[julieben]

How is everything going?  How is your sister (I think it is your sister) doing?

Hugs,
Julie in SoCa;of