My Mom has Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. The tumor is in her left lung, she has pleural drain after fluid build-up in lining. Her doctor says there s nothing left to do, except a low dose chemo (which she s had treatment once a week over the last 3 weeks) with a 20-25% chance of slowing it down. The tumor is growing into the pulmonary artery & caused blood clots. She gives herself blood thinner shot 2X a day. Now she is bloated and tired. How much time does she have? I ve taken off work to care for her off & on the past year and a half. I don t know whether to take FMLA or just go help when I can. She s 2 1/2 hours away.
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor. In my opinion you should take FMLA. As your mother is progressing towards end stage malignancy. Lung cancer when spread in pulmonary artery and gives tumor thrombi, this suggests the worst prognosis.  Your mother soon develop massive pulmonary embolism (tumor thrombi) and pulmonary hypertension.  In fact she may start this as you are saying that she is puffed up. Lower limb edema is the earliest sign of pulmonary hypertension. So in my opinion you should take FMLA and spend as much time as you can with your mother as in my opinion she has less than 3 months of life expectancy.