Calling all Stage 3B/Stage 4 Lung Cancer Survivors!!!

Hope4Ever

Hello to all,

I've been on the Internet trying to come up with a list of Stage 3B and Stage 4 lung cancer survivors to inspire my dad - stage 4 nsclc but extremely positive about beating it. The only list I came across was one put together by Margo Lubbers:

http://www.cancerpage.com/special/surviving_lung_cancer.htm

http://www.acscsn.org/Forum/Discussion/thread/view?msgid=1487&msgrid=4


Sadly, Ms. Lubbers passed away earlier this year:

http://www.cyberhideaway.com/forums/cancersupport/posts/1187.html

So, I'm attempting to recreate her list with contact information and more details about all you stage 3b/stage 4 lung cancer survivors so as to give hope to my dad and all those others who are have been diagnosed with this awful disease...

Will you please help me? I will e-mail you a short form to fill out so I can combine everyone's information together and perhaps even post it somewhere. Just e-mail me at hope4ever212@hotmail.com. Of course, ALL contact information will be kept confidential and if you want to use a pseudonym, that's fine too!

Look forward to hearing from you survivors (I know you are out there!!! e-mail me and put that "obligation of the cured" to good use!!!).

Tina
hope4ever212@hotmail.com

Unknown

Hi Tina:

I can't really tell you a heck of a whole lot except that my mom, 69, was diagnosed September 2002 with Stage 3B inoperable lung cancer because, as I mention in another post, one lousy little lymph node below her left collar bone on the same side as her lung tumor lit up on a pet scan. Up until that point, they were ready to "cure" her. Needless to say, an operation no longer was an option so went on a very strong chemo regime (for the life of me, I can't remember the cocktail) which, with the exception of complete hair loss, she tolerated quite well. Then on six weeks of radionation, daily. This too went okay, but fatigued her much, much more and also gave her some minor digestive problems, which has since then settled.

Bottom line, it has been a little over a year since her diagnosis and she is doing quite well. She just came back from an 8 week stay in Europe and has all her tests done again on December 22. Last tests showed NED, or clinical remission, which is the best and all we can hope for. Hopefully, she will stay that way for quite some time. The chemo had a dramatic effect on her tumor, which was great news, and the radiation pretty much fried the rest.

You and your family are in my prayers...and hopefully, with God's good graces, we will one day find a cure or at best, more managability of this terrible, terrible disease.

I am also dealing with a stage III colon cancer diagnosis on my husband...so I can tell you first hand, hang in there and I think that what you are attempting to do is wonderful. Nothing nutures the spirit more than hope and by getting away from all the doom and gloom of this disease to the people who actually do beat the odds, even if only for a limited time, is a good dose of medicine that we all, both patient and care giver, can use.

Take care.

Monika

AJKIV

unknown said:

Hi Tina:

I can't really tell you a heck of a whole lot except that my mom, 69, was diagnosed September 2002 with Stage 3B inoperable lung cancer because, as I mention in another post, one lousy little lymph node below her left collar bone on the same side as her lung tumor lit up on a pet scan. Up until that point, they were ready to "cure" her. Needless to say, an operation no longer was an option so went on a very strong chemo regime (for the life of me, I can't remember the cocktail) which, with the exception of complete hair loss, she tolerated quite well. Then on six weeks of radionation, daily. This too went okay, but fatigued her much, much more and also gave her some minor digestive problems, which has since then settled.

Bottom line, it has been a little over a year since her diagnosis and she is doing quite well. She just came back from an 8 week stay in Europe and has all her tests done again on December 22. Last tests showed NED, or clinical remission, which is the best and all we can hope for. Hopefully, she will stay that way for quite some time. The chemo had a dramatic effect on her tumor, which was great news, and the radiation pretty much fried the rest.

You and your family are in my prayers...and hopefully, with God's good graces, we will one day find a cure or at best, more managability of this terrible, terrible disease.

I am also dealing with a stage III colon cancer diagnosis on my husband...so I can tell you first hand, hang in there and I think that what you are attempting to do is wonderful. Nothing nutures the spirit more than hope and by getting away from all the doom and gloom of this disease to the people who actually do beat the odds, even if only for a limited time, is a good dose of medicine that we all, both patient and care giver, can use.

Take care.

Monika

My wife, 43 y/o, dxed nsclc stage 3B 9/05/03. We went to Burzynski Clinic in Houston for evaluation, came back home to receive taxotere/carboplatum with radiation therapy. Radiation therapy (35) has been completed for 2 weeks, we have 2 more chemotherapies to go (3x stronger doses than before). It is hard to find anything positive about lung cancer, but I have found that it is an outcast disease. Issels therapy, radiofrequency ablation, et.al. sound like good alternatives. This is a humbling experience, which is, I believe (and have proclaimed many x's before), an individually tailored humbling process. I hope to have my wife added to the survivors list, 40 year survivor that is.