Is this girl faking cancer?

Question

My boyfriend's roommate is seeing this girl who claims to be undergoing chemo therapy. She claims this is her second time undergoing treatments in her life. She also claims that she "used to be thin" but that during her first treatments her doctor told her to "keep eating" and that's why she's fat now. The thing is, the girl weighs at LEAST 250 pounds. I've heard of people experiencing weight gain as opposed to weight loss during chemo treatments but, in this case, I find that concept hard to swallow *excuse the pun* since the girl also claims to experience nausea and vomiting. Even if she did continue to eat, wouldn't the vomiting cause her to either lose weight or at least maintain her original weight? The reason why I think she's lying about her illness is because it seems like she keeps piling on these melodramatic sob stories to get attention and sympathy from my boyfriend's roommate. First she claimed she wanted to be "just friends" because she claimed her boyfriend had just died *which we later hear was supposedly from suicide* yet she still insists on coming over everyday and spending hours cuddling with him on the sofa. When my boyfriend brought up the subject of the two of them leaving us some privacy by maybe going to her apartment, we find out that she won't allow my boyfriend's roommate over at her place, *for an undisclosed reason*, and after the issue is brought up more than once, we suddenly hear this story about her supposedly being ill and not wanting to be alone at night when she gets nauseated. She acts all lethargic when she's around my boyfriend's roommate, yet she has time to work and go out at night. My boyfriend claims he's heard her vomiting and that she's *supposedly* both blacked out once or twice and spent a great deal of time sleeping at their place. But it also turns out the girl is an insomniac and has a weird sleeping schedule. And as far as the weight gain goes, well, I found a strange assortment of food near her stuff in the living room: an empty bag of potato chips, two bags of candy, and a giant soda. If anything, the girl sounds either more like a diabetic or someone with an eating disorder rather than cancer riddled. I can't shake this feeling that she's just looking to take advantage of someone who is really desperate to dispense that kind of attention. It just all seems so suspicious...

Answer 1

My experience was similar to the above answerer. I had chemo for 6 months, and I ended up putting on weight!

Yes nausea makes you feel nauseous, and you can throw up, but there are many anti sickness tablets out there. I kept trying different types, until I found one that worked well!!

And I was on steroids, which make you put on weight as well.

And I ate so much junk. I was encouraged by more doctor to eat anything I want. And I love junk food. And I know its crazy, but whenever I was ill, I craved KFC or pizza!!

And I would sleep a lot too. I would sleep for hours in a deep sleep. One night I slept 16 hours straight!!!!

So to me her experience does sound real, but I can't say if I think she's faking it or not.

Answer 2

All sounds like a bunch of bull c**p to me. She shouldn't lie about stuff like that.....karma's a *****!

Answer 3

i don't really know about chemo effects but since she behave like that, you have a right to be suspicious. have you voice out your suspicion to your boyfriend or his friend? what do they think? maybe you can offer yourself to accompany her to the chemo center when she was scheduled for once and see how she react. if she is really is sick and afraid of being alone, she should accept your offer. then you can ask her doctor what is her real problem.

Answer 4

Well... many people gain weight during chemo, I did myself - over 20 lbs.

That doesn't mean I didn't feel nauseous - I did, much of the time. As well as putting on weight because of the steroids given with chemo, I ate a great deal of bland carbohydrate because I felt  it would help the nausea. Potato chips and soda? - sounds like the emergency supplies I had by my bed on the worst days just after each chemo. Cola can be effective in combating nausea.

It's less usual for people on chemo to vomit these days because of the much-improved anti-sickness drugs, but it's not unknown. It's very likely that someone who was throwing up would be doing so in the week or so following chemo, leaving plenty of time for the huge appetite to kick in before the next chemo.

And a common pattern with chemo is you feel extremely nauseated and exhausted in the week or so after each chemo, and then you feel a bit better, more like yourself. Some people are able to work part-time. I certainly went out at night occasionally while on chemo.

Of course, it's not unknown for people to pretend to have cancer. We even get them posting on this forum from time to time - they get a lot of sympathy from kind people but anyone with experience of cancer can usually tell.

I don't think that you should pester this young woman with questions about her cancer. But you might try asking her boyfriend, since she has presumably told him everything, what type of cancer she has - I'm assuming you don't know, as you don't mention it. What her current staging is. What hospital she's being treated at, how many chemo sessions she has had and how many she still has to go. Whether the cancer she has is a recurrence of her previous one, or a different cancer.

If she is attention-seeking by making up stories, she is sick and needs help. But keep in mind she might be telling the truth.