Stage 3A Lung Ca

Michaela74

My mother just had her rt upper lobe removed with 6/30 lymph nodes that were malignant. she is Stage 3A T2,N2, I am trying to get any information on chemotherapy using vinorelbine 40 mg and cisplatinum 120mg.
My mother is being treated in Germany. I was there with her to talk to oncologist and start her chemo.
Hearing the word cancer is hard enough but not being able to be there for my one angel is devastating. The one person who took care of me my entire life and now I can't always be there for her. Beleive me I did not want to leave her. I will be flying back but just 2 weeks. As for the oncologist he said he will only be doing chemo when she originally was suppose to do radation too. They do not get PET scans done of the Brain only prior to surgery. They will not have her CEA level checked at all. This def. does not sound right. I would like to know what test are done during chemo such as the blood work, what test like ct, mri or pet scans that need to be done either during or after. Anything to get a jump start to make sure they do the tests even if I have to pay for it.

soccerfreaks

Michaela
It is true that the word 'cancer' is traumatic enough for the survivor and his/her loved ones to put them into a tailspin, as you point out. This is largely, I suspect, because we go through our lives learning little about the disease(s) beyond what we hear out of the corner of our ear, so to speak, and therefore we associate it necessarily with death.

Please be advised right up front that this is not always the case, as any number of survivors on this very site can attest to.

That said, it is impossible to tell you what will take place in a German institution, but I can tell you that when I had chemotherapy (carboplatin and taxol following a lobectomy of my lowest right), I was given blood tests prior to each round. Primarily, as far as I can tell, these were to evaluate the status of platelets and white blood cells which, if too low, would require postponement and perhaps a dose of Neupogen, depending on which one was beneath the minimum threshhold used by my particular Chemo Palace.

OncoMan may be reticent to warn of possible side effects, but if he/she is like mine, he/she is cautious about providing for self-fulfilling prophecies and such. Still, it is nice to know about these. If you know the nature of the chemo combo, you can usually go online to learn of the POSSIBLE effects. Please be advised, and I say this from personal experience, what makes one person ill has no impact on another; what drives one batty makes another a speed demon uber-housecleaning machine.

The radiation treatment may have been revoked for a number of reasons, by the way, Michaela, not all of them bad. It may be that mom's physical condition made it unreasonable to expect her to deal with it well; it may be that the 6/30 evaluation of the nodes leads them to believe that radiation is unnecessary (or, on the flipside, will do no good); it may be that it was simply determined radiation would simply do more harm than good --- I know some people who have had radiation to the lungs, and it does not sound like much fun at all.

In any event, the bloodwork was the only 'testing' I had done on the same day as my chemo session. I would anticipate that mom will get CT and/or PET scans every three months for the time being, to evaluate the success of the chemotherapy. I DID have a brain MRI (nothing was found, which came as no surprise to my friends and family ), but that may have been because I also was getting the surgery, although I did not put those two together at the time, to be honest: everyone's case is at least a bit different from others', after all.

I know that it will be especially hard on you, being so far from mom. Do the best you can, and try to do it, believe it or not, with hope and humor.

Best wishes to mom and her family.

Take care,

Joe

hopehope

Never giveup
Michaela,
I feel the pain you are going through and wooried for nor unbale to be with your mom. My mom has dx with Lung Cancer stage 4 ,Adenocarcinoma. By the time doctors found it is already stage 4. I live in US and my mom lives in India. She is getting treatment in India and I just couldn't breath when I came to know about my mom and not being there for my mom who took care of me in her entire life. Finally I decided to be with my mom for 4 months and now I am with her and taking care of her. The greates care you can you can do is be positive. Help your mom to get through this . Never feel sad in frontofher. Be positive and make her think positivey . It is true that Miceracles happen especially with Prayers. My mom is doing fine . She was dx on Oct 2008. Primary think is to focus on food habits and be healthy. Blood count is the major thing in chemo. She hasto have good diest for red bllod cells,white blood cells and especially Platelet count. My mom's doctor said that there are no meds for platelet count. If you can get Beetroot vegitable in germany, the give the boiled beet water to your mom daily twice so that she can keep up the bllod count and continue with chemo.
I love my mom than any thing else in the world and I am positive that she will get through. Have hopes and be positive with your mom.

My prayers are with you. Takecare. Never give up. Fight..and you WILL win

Michaela74

soccerfreaks said:

Michaela
It is true that the word 'cancer' is traumatic enough for the survivor and his/her loved ones to put them into a tailspin, as you point out. This is largely, I suspect, because we go through our lives learning little about the disease(s) beyond what we hear out of the corner of our ear, so to speak, and therefore we associate it necessarily with death.

Please be advised right up front that this is not always the case, as any number of survivors on this very site can attest to.

That said, it is impossible to tell you what will take place in a German institution, but I can tell you that when I had chemotherapy (carboplatin and taxol following a lobectomy of my lowest right), I was given blood tests prior to each round. Primarily, as far as I can tell, these were to evaluate the status of platelets and white blood cells which, if too low, would require postponement and perhaps a dose of Neupogen, depending on which one was beneath the minimum threshhold used by my particular Chemo Palace.

OncoMan may be reticent to warn of possible side effects, but if he/she is like mine, he/she is cautious about providing for self-fulfilling prophecies and such. Still, it is nice to know about these. If you know the nature of the chemo combo, you can usually go online to learn of the POSSIBLE effects. Please be advised, and I say this from personal experience, what makes one person ill has no impact on another; what drives one batty makes another a speed demon uber-housecleaning machine.

The radiation treatment may have been revoked for a number of reasons, by the way, Michaela, not all of them bad. It may be that mom's physical condition made it unreasonable to expect her to deal with it well; it may be that the 6/30 evaluation of the nodes leads them to believe that radiation is unnecessary (or, on the flipside, will do no good); it may be that it was simply determined radiation would simply do more harm than good --- I know some people who have had radiation to the lungs, and it does not sound like much fun at all.

In any event, the bloodwork was the only 'testing' I had done on the same day as my chemo session. I would anticipate that mom will get CT and/or PET scans every three months for the time being, to evaluate the success of the chemotherapy. I DID have a brain MRI (nothing was found, which came as no surprise to my friends and family ), but that may have been because I also was getting the surgery, although I did not put those two together at the time, to be honest: everyone's case is at least a bit different from others', after all.

I know that it will be especially hard on you, being so far from mom. Do the best you can, and try to do it, believe it or not, with hope and humor.

Best wishes to mom and her family.

Take care,

Joe

Thank You Joe
I just want to say your reply was much needed. I thank you. I have looked up so much about the chemo. combinaton side effects etc. Before I left to see her. I packed tons of over the counter meds to help her- they thought I was nuts at the airport, a whole suitcase filled with everything imaginable that I have read to help with side effects. I do believe in miracles just because the fact that I am a miracle. I was 2 months premature and only weighed 3 lbs. I was not suppose to make it- after 6 surgeries removing I don't even know how many feet of intestines in 2 weeks, spinal menigitis and hydrocephalus of the brain, and 5 months in the hospital. My mother was the only one with faith and came to the hospital everyday. They thought I had Non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the time but was lucky enough that I did not. Again at age 21- I was having gastrointestinal issues and was told I had non-hodkins lymphoma, surgery was not for another 2 months, Had 6 feet taken out of my intestines and again lucky enough it was not cancer, there is no cure for what I have but I can live with it. My mom was there every step of the way. For some reason during that time I had accepted cancer even at my age don't know how- so why is it so hard now- is it just because it is not me!!

Sorry for being an emotional mess!!:) I do have my phases throughout the day not all sad. I work in a hospital and see such sad things everyday but there are alot of great things too seeing patients fight like warriors everyday. Ok no more sad talk.

I will def. make sure she does get a PET scan of the brain after the chemo. The oncologist said she would only get a CT done from the lungs to pelvis afterwards.

As an end note I would like to say thank you for the post. I greatly appreciate any feedback from anyone. Too much information is not enough.

Wishing the Best for you,
Sonja

Michaela74

hopehope said:

Never giveup
Michaela,
I feel the pain you are going through and wooried for nor unbale to be with your mom. My mom has dx with Lung Cancer stage 4 ,Adenocarcinoma. By the time doctors found it is already stage 4. I live in US and my mom lives in India. She is getting treatment in India and I just couldn't breath when I came to know about my mom and not being there for my mom who took care of me in her entire life. Finally I decided to be with my mom for 4 months and now I am with her and taking care of her. The greates care you can you can do is be positive. Help your mom to get through this . Never feel sad in frontofher. Be positive and make her think positivey . It is true that Miceracles happen especially with Prayers. My mom is doing fine . She was dx on Oct 2008. Primary think is to focus on food habits and be healthy. Blood count is the major thing in chemo. She hasto have good diest for red bllod cells,white blood cells and especially Platelet count. My mom's doctor said that there are no meds for platelet count. If you can get Beetroot vegitable in germany, the give the boiled beet water to your mom daily twice so that she can keep up the bllod count and continue with chemo.
I love my mom than any thing else in the world and I am positive that she will get through. Have hopes and be positive with your mom.

My prayers are with you. Takecare. Never give up. Fight..and you WILL win

Beet Root Vegetable
Thank You so much for the Reply.

Is the Beet Root Vegetable a liquid and how much does your mom take total a day?

I wish your mom the best. I keep telling her we will beat this, and when I am alone I cry and pray to make her strong. I do ask alot of questions but that is because she lied for one month about the cancer. I know she tries to protect me.

Wish your mom the best,
Sonja

hopehope

Beet Root is a vegitable and you can make juice out of it
Michaela,
Beetroot is a vegitable that is a root and looks red in color. You can make juice from it like carrot juice. But one concern is if your mom is taking chemo, the it is good to cut the beetrot,boit in little bit water and give the water to your mom to drink. Fresh vegitable juices are not adviced during chemo because they are prone to infections. AFter the treatment she can take frest raw juice also.SInce I was in US and my mom was in India, she hide it that she has Cancer for 7 months. I feel so guilty that how could I am not able to concer about her health when she says she is not feeling well. I am so stupid that when she said she had surgery and doing ok now, I through it is some problem in lungs and doctors took care by surgery. I am so useless peson that I did not know much about it. I wish I was with my mom and might have able to took care of her so that atleast we could have found cancer in early stage,. I am still positive about my mom's health. Lot of prayers do save. I pray god that nothing is more than human's life. I pray for every human who is going through this pain . DOnt woory. There are lot many surviours. You can beat this. Take care.


You can find the images here. Google it to find in your place.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=beet+root&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=9qOSSuzjKIeUkAXkkci7Cg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4

Michaela74

hopehope said:

Beet Root is a vegitable and you can make juice out of it
Michaela,
Beetroot is a vegitable that is a root and looks red in color. You can make juice from it like carrot juice. But one concern is if your mom is taking chemo, the it is good to cut the beetrot,boit in little bit water and give the water to your mom to drink. Fresh vegitable juices are not adviced during chemo because they are prone to infections. AFter the treatment she can take frest raw juice also.SInce I was in US and my mom was in India, she hide it that she has Cancer for 7 months. I feel so guilty that how could I am not able to concer about her health when she says she is not feeling well. I am so stupid that when she said she had surgery and doing ok now, I through it is some problem in lungs and doctors took care by surgery. I am so useless peson that I did not know much about it. I wish I was with my mom and might have able to took care of her so that atleast we could have found cancer in early stage,. I am still positive about my mom's health. Lot of prayers do save. I pray god that nothing is more than human's life. I pray for every human who is going through this pain . DOnt woory. There are lot many surviours. You can beat this. Take care.


You can find the images here. Google it to find in your place.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=beet+root&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=9qOSSuzjKIeUkAXkkci7Cg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4

hopehope
Thank you so much. I guess we both know what an emotional roller coaster this is just normally but when your not there even more. I pray everyday to make her strong and give her the will to fight. God bless you and your family. Keep in touch if you ever need to talk I am here. I know what you are going thru as well.
God Bless,
Sonja