Message for Ernie/Plymouthean

reinstones1

Ernie, I just wanted you to know that your posts are a source of inspiration and comfort to me. I check in on this board every few days, to help me maintain a positive attitude during my mother's lung cancer fight. Dana Reeve's death this week really derailed me, as I'm sure it did to everyone who is fighting and/or living with lung cancer. I have forced myself to remember your initial advice to remember that statistics are just that, that every cancer patient is different, and that doctors don't know everything. Your comment of "why not your mother?" (in regard to her being a long term survivor) rings in my head every time the fear takes over and I start to panic. I pray that my mother's cancer story will be similar to yours.

Your helpful and sympathetic posts, to me and others, enable me to keep plugging along. Thank you. Martha

scungileen

Hi again. I was just wondering if you have had any updates on your mother's progress. My dad has the same stage IIIb nsclc with a malignant pleural effusion. As I wrote previously he was hospitalized for his pleural effusion and a lung clot. Next week he has the okay to begin his chemo again on Tuesday. I've been crawling out of my skin worried that the cessation of chemo for two and a half weeks has done irreparable damage to his outcome. I am so glad he can start up again. Does your mom have any idea of how the chemo is working for her?

Plymouthean

scungileen said:

Hi again. I was just wondering if you have had any updates on your mother's progress. My dad has the same stage IIIb nsclc with a malignant pleural effusion. As I wrote previously he was hospitalized for his pleural effusion and a lung clot. Next week he has the okay to begin his chemo again on Tuesday. I've been crawling out of my skin worried that the cessation of chemo for two and a half weeks has done irreparable damage to his outcome. I am so glad he can start up again. Does your mom have any idea of how the chemo is working for her?

Hi. During my treatments (chemo/radiation) I was hospitalized twice, - once for one week - once for two weeks. During both hospitalizations, the treatments were interrupted. In my case, it did no harm. I was able to pick up where I left off, and my outcome was successful. The doctor can better inform you, but I would think that the interruption would not do irrepairable harm to the outcome of the treatment.

reinstones1

Hi scungileen-- my Mom just had a CT scan performed this week, after her 2nd chemo treatment (her 3rd was today). The CT showed no decrease in the size of her tumor in her lung, but showed marked improvement in the areas of her pleurae. . . she has NO fluid present in the pleural space! From early December to mid-January, she had repeat thoracentesis performed to remove fluid, and it was really impacting her breathing and quality of life. So although we would have loved to hear tha t her tumors have shrunk, they haven't yet, but it's still early in her chemo regimen. Her oncologist considers her to be a "stable patient", which is better than the alternative, right?

And as far as panicking about the delay of chemo-- I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN, but look at it this way. My Mom was diagnosed on 12/7 and didn't start chemo until 1/26, 6 weeks later. SIX LONG AGONIZING WEEKS. With your Dad, it's only been 2.5 weeks. It'll be OK!

I was a wreck, picturing the cancer taking over her body during those 6 weeks. Although she couldn't undergo chemo, she did have every kind of PET and CT scan possible-- head scan, bone scan, etc. Everything was OK. Nothing spread during that time. The delay in her onset of her chemo was unavoidable, because of her pleural effusion problems, and then surgery (pleurodesis) to correct the problem.

So, in answer to your question, so far so good. The disease has not progressed in 3 months since her diagnosis, her pleural effusion has been corrected successfully and has not reoccurred (this is the biggest positive for us), and she is tolerating chemo pretty well. Keep us posted on your Dad's progress. And chin up!