Help - What is it.

[Mark2050]

My wife has been in hospital 6 weeks today with some sort of secondary cancer caused by her previous breast cancer the doctors say. She has been unable to stand on her own so is confined to a hospital bed, her sight is completely blurd and her speech is differcult to understand,herco-ordernation has gone for the simplest things like just touching her nose.She has not had a stroke and no scan so far has shown any cancer.She is waiting on a PET SCan which might show something but maybe not.

[Mark2050]

My wife has already had CT/MRI and Bone Scan, all being clear.She has also had a couple of different antibiotics and a 5 day course of Steroid over a week ago now and this has shown no improvement in any area.Doctors are saying after the Pet Scan the only thing left to try is a Flush Through, or a cleaning of the blood.
Is this our last hope.

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  From the information you've provided, it is possible that your wife has recurrence of breast cancer on her brain, which can cause all these neurologic symptoms like slurred speech, poor coordination and inability to stand.  However, there are other conditions which can cause the same set of symptoms.  If she has a severe metabolic or electrolyte problem - deranged blood levels of sodium, magnesium, calcium or even abnormal blood sugar levels - these can all be causes of the neurologic symptoms you observed.  The PET scan will certainly help determine if she has any cancer recurrence.