Stage 4 Lung Cancer

ldoman
ldoman Member Posts: 9
in Lung Cancer #1
I was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last March 11,2011. I was pretty healthy before that, that is why it was a shocked to me and my family to be this sick. It has been 3 months after the diagnosis.My oncologist prescribed "Tarceva" pill, a targeted therapy pill, that targets only cancer cells. It is less toxic than the intravenous chemotherapy. The first week of the pill I experienced the normal side effects like diarrhea and rash. I ate 2 bananas and with the rash,my doctor prescribed an antibiotic and works fine. Having a positive attitude helps as well as people around you. Have faith in God, HE is is the only one who knows the end of our lives. Eat and live healthy. I was a non-smoker and non-drinker and will continue to to do that. My husband blends these concoction everyday, a combination of fresh vegetables and fruits. They are: raw cabbage , broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower,beets, turmeric,banana, apples,strawberries, papaya or any fruits in season. Use carrot juice in the blender. I drink it 3x a day in addition to my regular meal. After three months I am strong and gained back my weight that I lost. I had my xray last April 18th and looks good. My next appointment will be on June 22nd and I am positive it will be good. I keep myself busy, Finishing my MBA hope to graduate in August, and I just finished compiling our family tree. Last April 25th I attended a family reunion with almost 600 relatives in attendance, and celebrated my 56th birthday with a mananita at 6am in the morning.
You will never know what is going to happen in our lives. I hardly get sick before this. Have a positive attitude and surround yourself with happy positive people. I am going to fight this disease and live a long life to see my kids.

Comments

  • missy6953
    missy6953 Member Posts: 14
    #2
    Stage 4 Lung Cancer
    May God be with you during your journey...We must fight the beast!
  • UNBEARABLE
    UNBEARABLE Member Posts: 23
    #3
    Your Fight
    We have tried tarceva and have met MANY MANY people with great positive results. I hope it continues to work and you keep fighting. My husband was a nonsmoker as well. It looks like you are well on your way to beating this. Hugs and prayers :(
  • ldoman
    ldoman Member Posts: 9
    #4
    missy6953 said:

    Stage 4 Lung Cancer
    May God be with you during your journey...We must fight the beast!

    Thanks
    Thanks. I am all ready for this journey, with God's help. Be blessed.
  • ldoman
    ldoman Member Posts: 9
    #5
    UNBEARABLE said:

    Your Fight
    We have tried tarceva and have met MANY MANY people with great positive results. I hope it continues to work and you keep fighting. My husband was a nonsmoker as well. It looks like you are well on your way to beating this. Hugs and prayers :(

    Thanks
    Many thanks.Good luck to your husband. I am going to have a ct scan on June 15. This will be my first after the diagnosis as well as the first after taking Tarceva for 3 months. I am feeling better and hope the tumor shrunk. I was able to tolerate most of the normal side effects.God bless and take care.
  • alanr300
    alanr300 Member Posts: 4
    #6
    ldoman said:

    Thanks
    Many thanks.Good luck to your husband. I am going to have a ct scan on June 15. This will be my first after the diagnosis as well as the first after taking Tarceva for 3 months. I am feeling better and hope the tumor shrunk. I was able to tolerate most of the normal side effects.God bless and take care.

    I've taken another route with the same disease
    I have stage IV NSCLC. already metastasized to liver and in the lymh nodes in the chest. I have taken a different route by entering a clinical trial in North Carolina. I don't know what your original prognoses was but mine was not good, 8 months to maybe a year. My trial consists of four treatments of 3 chemo's, avastin, carboplatin and taxol. after my second treatment I was retested and cancer has decreased an average of 23% for all tumors and has not spread anywhere else. Praise God. Hope you have very good luck with your up coming scan. After my last bout of full chemo I will be retested again and if results are the same as the 1st test I will be considered stable and will start a maintenance program of just avastin for who knows how long. But the good news when considered stable my life expectancy goes up from 8 months to 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years. I try to tell everyone I write to or talk to keep 4 things in mind, keep your God in your life, keep family close, surround yourself with good doctors and never give up. I live by all 4 of those on a daily basis. I which everyone God's speed and the more people you have praying for you is awesome, pray is power. Good luck to all of us.
    AlanR
  • lynntaylor
    lynntaylor Member Posts: 39
    #7
    alanr300 said:

    I've taken another route with the same disease
    I have stage IV NSCLC. already metastasized to liver and in the lymh nodes in the chest. I have taken a different route by entering a clinical trial in North Carolina. I don't know what your original prognoses was but mine was not good, 8 months to maybe a year. My trial consists of four treatments of 3 chemo's, avastin, carboplatin and taxol. after my second treatment I was retested and cancer has decreased an average of 23% for all tumors and has not spread anywhere else. Praise God. Hope you have very good luck with your up coming scan. After my last bout of full chemo I will be retested again and if results are the same as the 1st test I will be considered stable and will start a maintenance program of just avastin for who knows how long. But the good news when considered stable my life expectancy goes up from 8 months to 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years. I try to tell everyone I write to or talk to keep 4 things in mind, keep your God in your life, keep family close, surround yourself with good doctors and never give up. I live by all 4 of those on a daily basis. I which everyone God's speed and the more people you have praying for you is awesome, pray is power. Good luck to all of us.
    AlanR

    Alan,
    I just wanted to tell
    Alan,
    I just wanted to tell you I love your outlook, and I am so glad your treatments are working! My father is on Carbo/Taxol as well, slightly different regime though. He is NSCLC stage 3A. And, we are from NC as well! He has a Charlotte based team, but has input from Chapel Hill as well. We have some wonderful doctors in this state! Prayer is powerful, so is attitude. I will add you to my prayers... and continue fighting!
    LT
  • alanr300
    alanr300 Member Posts: 4
    #8
    lynntaylor said:

    Alan,
    I just wanted to tell
    Alan,
    I just wanted to tell you I love your outlook, and I am so glad your treatments are working! My father is on Carbo/Taxol as well, slightly different regime though. He is NSCLC stage 3A. And, we are from NC as well! He has a Charlotte based team, but has input from Chapel Hill as well. We have some wonderful doctors in this state! Prayer is powerful, so is attitude. I will add you to my prayers... and continue fighting!
    LT

    God's speed
    People in our situation are family. My prayers go to all. To give you a bit of back ground on me sad but true. My 1st wife Janet Started with breast caner at age 39. She was clean for 1 1/2 years then all hell broke loose. I was her care taker 24/7 until she passed away 9 years after 1st diagnosis. She was a great lady and a smile on her face always.

    On Sept 12, 2010 I went into a coma induced by a prescription wrongly filled by a pharmacist at CVS. I had 2 hours to live when my 2nd wife found me, I spent 6 days in the hospital. So survived that. I believe God has a plan for me. I don't think he allowed me to survive that to die from NSCLC..I guess time will tell and I believe something good will come from this. I just want to mention this, I am a blessed man. I have found true love twice in my life. Most people can't survive one marriage let alone two. Both women, Janet and Linda were and are very caring people and I couldn't love them more.

    Remember as always, keep your God in your life, surround yourself with family and friends, trust in your doctors and please never give up. Prayers are very powerful.
    AlanR
  • ldoman
    ldoman Member Posts: 9
    #9
    CT scan result after stage 4 diagnosis
    I had a ct scan after I was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer last march 11,2011.I have been taking tarceva, a target cancer cell since my diagnosis and have been trying hard to eat healthy. It paid off; My impression is " Marked response to therapy, with minimal residual disease." I am so happy with the results. I will continue taking Tarceva and drink my special blended drinks of fresh vegetables and fruits. I am schedule to see my oncologist in 2 months.
  • marie18
    marie18 Member Posts: 1
    #10
    alanr300 said:

    I've taken another route with the same disease
    I have stage IV NSCLC. already metastasized to liver and in the lymh nodes in the chest. I have taken a different route by entering a clinical trial in North Carolina. I don't know what your original prognoses was but mine was not good, 8 months to maybe a year. My trial consists of four treatments of 3 chemo's, avastin, carboplatin and taxol. after my second treatment I was retested and cancer has decreased an average of 23% for all tumors and has not spread anywhere else. Praise God. Hope you have very good luck with your up coming scan. After my last bout of full chemo I will be retested again and if results are the same as the 1st test I will be considered stable and will start a maintenance program of just avastin for who knows how long. But the good news when considered stable my life expectancy goes up from 8 months to 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years. I try to tell everyone I write to or talk to keep 4 things in mind, keep your God in your life, keep family close, surround yourself with good doctors and never give up. I live by all 4 of those on a daily basis. I which everyone God's speed and the more people you have praying for you is awesome, pray is power. Good luck to all of us.
    AlanR

    Lung Cancer
    I need help. I can no longer stand the pain. I,too,live in North Carolina for the past five years. I'm in my seventieth year. I'm sitting here with a lidoderm patch plastered across my right breast. I feel like I have been shot point blank in my right breast with pain radiating out to right lymph nobs. I have had three mammograms and four sonograms in the last five years. Nothing Coughing. Four bronchitis attacks strong enough to send me (a non-doctor person) to the emergency room. Intermittent palsy in my right hand. And then last summer I felt like I fell down Alice's Rabbit Hole. Completely wiped out. Epstein Barr back running rampant. And double vision. Five doctors later on the double vision and I gave up. My young doctor just says, "You're OLD!"
    (I must say Christmas was fun with the double vision which I still have.)
  • ReneeYak
    ReneeYak Member Posts: 1
    #11
    ldoman said:

    CT scan result after stage 4 diagnosis
    I had a ct scan after I was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer last march 11,2011.I have been taking tarceva, a target cancer cell since my diagnosis and have been trying hard to eat healthy. It paid off; My impression is " Marked response to therapy, with minimal residual disease." I am so happy with the results. I will continue taking Tarceva and drink my special blended drinks of fresh vegetables and fruits. I am schedule to see my oncologist in 2 months.

    Tarceva
    My husband has Stage IV metastisized lung caner also...it has gone from the lung to the lymphnodes in his chest to his liver and adrenal gland. The adrenal are giving him the worst problem. He won't eat much and has lost so much weight.He is scheduled for chemo this Thurs but I am afraid they will cancel due to his weight and strenghth.
    I am calling the Dr this morning to see if there is anything I can do to make sure he is treated on time. Any suggestions?
    My husband is taking Alimta (infusion)
  • sleepless in jersey
    sleepless in jersey Member Posts: 185
    #12
    ReneeYak said:

    Tarceva
    My husband has Stage IV metastisized lung caner also...it has gone from the lung to the lymphnodes in his chest to his liver and adrenal gland. The adrenal are giving him the worst problem. He won't eat much and has lost so much weight.He is scheduled for chemo this Thurs but I am afraid they will cancel due to his weight and strenghth.
    I am calling the Dr this morning to see if there is anything I can do to make sure he is treated on time. Any suggestions?
    My husband is taking Alimta (infusion)

    Will your Husband
    Will your Husband drink like Boost or my Mom has the magic bullet so she is doing these drinks from that? She said she had a constant full belly that she didn't want to put 3 meals a day in so the Onc. said to do 5 to 6 snacks a day in. Keep us posted.
    Continue to stay postive and keep the faith!
    Prayers your way...
  • Hope4Marge
    Hope4Marge Member Posts: 74
    #13
    alanr300 said:

    God's speed
    People in our situation are family. My prayers go to all. To give you a bit of back ground on me sad but true. My 1st wife Janet Started with breast caner at age 39. She was clean for 1 1/2 years then all hell broke loose. I was her care taker 24/7 until she passed away 9 years after 1st diagnosis. She was a great lady and a smile on her face always.

    On Sept 12, 2010 I went into a coma induced by a prescription wrongly filled by a pharmacist at CVS. I had 2 hours to live when my 2nd wife found me, I spent 6 days in the hospital. So survived that. I believe God has a plan for me. I don't think he allowed me to survive that to die from NSCLC..I guess time will tell and I believe something good will come from this. I just want to mention this, I am a blessed man. I have found true love twice in my life. Most people can't survive one marriage let alone two. Both women, Janet and Linda were and are very caring people and I couldn't love them more.

    Remember as always, keep your God in your life, surround yourself with family and friends, trust in your doctors and please never give up. Prayers are very powerful.
    AlanR

    Just wanted to say that I
    Just wanted to say that I was touched by your story and I am glad you are ok.

Discussion Boards