small cell lung cancer

fava said:

Hi, my mom was diagnosed w/small cell in Sept of last year she's 57 she had multiple nodules 3-5 that were small she did chemo 3 days every 3 wks for 6 months and 30 round of radiation all starting at the same time her ct scans since are as that the first one after initial treatment looked like the nodules in the lungs were gone but she also has a secondary site that has a name of Superior Vena Cava Syndrome which is that in a nut shell a tumor on top of her heart pushing on her juggler vein on the return blood flow side of her head the dimensions of this thing are equivalant to the size of an eggplant, length width and height.anyways she had a ct scan in Dec which didnt show any changes from the previous scan, she had one again in March which looked the same also so this thing is sitting idle for now we do our next scan on 4/23 I'm stressed to see what it will be hopefully there wont be any negative changes I don't think there would be any positive one's because she's done with her treatments and I don't think the chemo works on going months later I was wondering how often you can do radiation though she finished up the begining of Nov I believe and I know she was maxed out on it my big question was ,was she considered limited or extensive I've heard a few Dr's opinions of what catagorizes which one you would fall into I've heard that when you do your radiation and they can get all the area in one shot or beam it's limited, like in other wards if they have to shoot you here and then there it's extensive then I heard if you drew a line down the middle of your body and all of the cancer is on one side of it it's limited if it's crossed over th line it's extensive were pretty much confused because we have the right lung and the vena cava thing so I dont know which we are, how did you handle your chemo? how old are you my mom's 57 and yes was a smoker but quit the day she found out cancer was suspected,I too am a smoker and the stress is making me smoke more it's so disgusting I can't stand it and I can't help it either, ask your dr if your limited or extensive and find out what rule of measure he uses to decypher each one I'd like to know or if any one else out there knows about it let me know which ever one you may fall into positive attitude I think plays a big role in everything and talk often with those who make you laugh real hard my mother in law has the starts of althimezers every day she meets new people she thought she had bugs in her house because she had spots on her clothes only to find out that she screwed up her laundry and had fuzz balls all over them, she still swears its bugs I cant help but laugh at this, every week its something new anyways Happy Easter, eat good get all of them food groups(a couple times) and laugh alot:)

fava said:

Thanks for your kind words and I'll try to quit the cigs,as for the welbutrin it worked great for about 10 days even curved the appetite a little I had a few pounds I wanted to loose anyways but soon after I got outrageous head aches and quit them I got Effexor but I dont take them as much as I should, any who it sounds like your s.v.c. reacted well to the radiation what was the original size? my moms looks the same but they think its shrunk and their seeing scar tissue, I asked if she could get more radiation- thinking if it would shrink mor the scans would look different then we would know if it is scar tissue or still the same size.so your arms swelled? my mom went to Acapulco a week after her last chemo I was so freaked out about her leaving the country I could just scream she was gone a month I thought for sure she was just gonna stay there for ever,it was cold here in Illinois when she left but while she was there her for arm swelled up and she thought she was bitten by something could'nt find a bite mark so reluctantly went to a Dr. there.he said..are ya ready for this !! It's a grease ball...she thought yea and whats that? he gave her some antibiotics and it went away I guess this is a known medical condition in Mx, now I work in a restaraunt with alot of mexican people in the kitchen and so I asked them what a greaseball was they looked at me like I was crazy my moms sister married a mexican man and the live in Acapulco so when she told her sister about the greaseball her sister asked if the Dr. had drained it with a needle? he did not but her sister didnt seem to suprised with the diagnosis it's the great greaseball mystery....I was wondering if it had to do w/svc I have read about it actually if it wasnt for the svc my mom woulnt have known she had the cancer!! she had a cough and every morning when she woke up for about a week her face would be swollen up but it would subside as the day went on.she was a waitress and during her shift she'd tell co-workers she thought she was gonna have a stroke! so when she went to the Dr. she gave her a dieretic and antibiotics for her cough.so as she was just about to leave she said to the Dr oh buy the way what do you think about this and pulled her shirt up and right between her breasts she had a purple splotch that looked like one of those splotchy birth marks and the said you go for a chest xray right know i'll call and tell them your coming.it was blood pooling under the skin from the svc cutting off the blood they said her heart was manufacturing veins to relieve pressure from the svc so then it was ct scan bronchoscopy and so on her inital scan her svc was 8x10cm and her lung had a 2mm,8mm and another 8mm but if it wasnt for the symptoms of the svc she would have never known as for she had no insurance at the time so dint really go to the Dr unless she needed antibiotics for something was basically healthy 10 day after she found out about her self her sister had her leg swell up and in 8 days she died didnt even know she had cancer it was a big blow to the family as we were stll trying to digest my moms diagnosis ya know I talk to much I should wrap this up, I like angels too:) well keep in touch i should go to bed i have 3 kids to get on the bus in the morning bye!!

fava said:

Hi how are you don't cry you'll make me cry, how old are your kids mine are 14,11 and 6 it's real hard dealing with all of this and trying to keep up with my mom's situation and to boot I'm an oly child 37 now I feel like I'm 107 I look in the mirror and feel like I've aged so much since Sept, so what was the breathing test one of those breathe out & out &out some more and they get a computerized reading or one of those plastic things that make you feel like your at the carnival trying to ring the bell.do you have family to help you and that are supportive? you can email me at cfava@mc.net if you wish, I guess you could consider your self lucky that you had the option to operate they've never even mentioned surgery to my mom, months ago when she was doing chemo the had talked about the radiation to the brain later but I think you have to meet certain criteria for that to be an option, I haven't heard anything since she see's the Dr. Monday, mean while were thinking of putting an addition on our house for her and selling her condo so we can be closer she about 30 min away she's doing fine now but I want her close by so I can keep an eye on her, thank god my husband and her get along!!!!...yea I had a real good cry last week I watched a movie on t.v. about a woman with cancer I could'nt take it on h.b.o. I think it was called 'WIT' it was good but when you watch something like that and it hits to close to home it's hard my kids were all looking at me because I was crying, then I had a glass of wine blew my nose and went to bed I hope I won the lotto tonight I'll take my mom on another vacation:) ya know people reading these posts must think I'm nuts posting these journals all the time,I should do a personal start page but i dont have a scanner to put my moms picture on and if I did I would'nt know how to get it to the start page anyways.my moms beautiful, we dont discuss the cancer much we act like it doesnt even exist, we just go to th Dr. periodicaly together and get or info ask some questions, get them answered and then forget about it until next time, I think about it alot, and I suppose she does too, but we cant really talk about it much or we'll cry, the Dr. gives us an excuse to do lunch, she says though that she cant think about it as she say's "I'm about 3 thoughts away from making myself crazy" I guess she doesn't want to dwell, so she trys to keep busy doing anything,well I should go hope your test comes back good for you to get your surgery if that's what you want to do, Is the angels on your start page a painting? did you do it ? it's beautiful!!!I should go or I'll start telling ya about my laundry situation take care, I'll be here:)