(X-posted on r/cancer but I figured this community might have some more specific insights.)

My mom (65) has stage IV appendiceal cancer with metastasis to her liver. She had a colon resection in August with HIPEC and she's been on FOLFOX since January. Unfortunately it's just kicked her butt so hard - much harder than most, her doctor said. The first few treatments she bounced back after chemo and felt okay. Then 6 weeks ago after treatment, that bounce back never happened. She missed a treatment due to low platelets and has been having bad arthritis pain in her hip, her diarrhea has gotten worse and she's so weak and fatigued.

Long story short, she (and me, her daughter and caretaker) are afraid more chemo will do more harm than good and we are considering hospice care instead, to focus on palliative care. She's 84 lbs and very weak, but when her hip and gut/bowels aren't hurting her she's often in good enough spirits. We went to chemo yesterday and of course, her NP and oncologist were not in to discuss our fears. So we talked to another NP who encouraged her to hold off on chemo this week and talk to the oncologist next week and reschedule chemo if she decides to proceed.

We started a list of questions, and the big one that keeps coming up is "What will it feel like if I just let the cancer take over? What can I expect" I told her I doubted we could get a good answer about what to expect because it's different for every body. But, I figured if I could get answers anywhere, it would be reddit. Thanks in advance for any wisdom you can provide.