Experience of PV in older people
Hi everyone,
I'll try to keep this as brief as possible but my 81 year old father was diagnosed with PV back before covid and has been on a variety of chemo/treatments since. He has had ongoing issues - possible side-effects of the chemo, I guess - which he has frequently complained about in the various NHS appointments he has had. Whilst I've been to a number of appointments with him, there's plenty I haven't been to, and the info I get from him is at best a bit unreliable. Currently trying to get access to his records via MyCharts which I hope to have sorted this week.
I caught up with him this week and he was really low, convinced that the NHS is basically giving up on him and that his symptoms are really getting him down. I suspect there may be bits he's leaving out when he reports back to me (either by accident or deliberately); I wonder how frank the doctors/consultants have been with him about his quality of life going forward and how much he's perhaps choosing to not pass on to me.
Some of the main complaints he has are:
- Extreme fatigue
- Sore mouth/lips
- Loss of appetite/ability to taste food properly
- Mouth turning to sandpaper when he drinks water
- Breaking out in sweats/extreme sensitivity to heat
There's plenty of others too, but those seem to be the most commonly recurring ones.
I guess I'm wondering what other's experience is, both in terms of chemo side effects and symptoms of PV itself, especially in older people.
Thanks