Pain From Lung Cancer

brookmum,
Unless the cancer has spread to the plura or has gone outside the lungs there should be no pain from the tumors. Mine was a little over 3cm and I never felt a thing. Now the radiation treatments I had were something else. First the esophagus got to where I could hardly swallow. Then about a month after the treatment was over I got a pain in my shoulder that made my arm useless. That lasted about 6 weeks, but now is all but gone. Have they ruled out Pleurisy or Pleural effusion?
tomsbc

superbobbie said:

hello everyone....my name is superbobbie (Eileen) and i just wanted to say that my mom has inoperable lung cancer and she has been fighting the cancer since may of 2001. She has been a wonderful fighter!!!!! She has surprised the doctors at M.D. Anderson Cancer Clinic in Houston Texas. Her first oncologist said....You have 6 months to 12 months to live....GRRRRTR!!! I am really upset cuz this one doctor didn't know what he was doing. He wouldn't refer my Mom to another cancer specialist....so Dad had a really difficult time getting Mom to M.D. Anderson at first.

Thanks for listening...and you can reach me at ETOLSON@CHARTERMI.NET

That's nice to hear. I have the same thing, but just started this past September. Wish your Mom good luck from me and tell her to keep up the good work.
Tomsbc

hopenheart said:

my mom too was diagonosed 2/7/2003. She has NSC Carcinoma of the mediasteinum which started in her lung. She has had 3 rounds of chemo and good success. her tumor was massive. 17 cm x 10 cm when they found it. she has lost her voice and her esophagus is bent from the tumor so eating is a problem. after the third chemo treatment its down to about 3 cm . her radiation starts 5/8/03 and I am very scared and nervous. I want to know if and how it works. She doesn't like me to go to the dr. with her because I panic and she is stronger than I am about this. She had pain until she had the chemo but her oncologist told us it was from the tumor itself.

It would seem to me that any pain would depend on where the radiation is targeted. The idea is to do as much damage to the tumor while keeping the damage to healthy tissue at a minimum, but it will get damage. They will map the best way to direct the radiation beam through the least amount of good body tissue, and to avoid organs & nerves & they make the beam as narrow as they can in order to make sure the entire tumor gets the calculated dose of radiation. So that means that some surrounding healthy tissue will get some radiation. With time most of it will heal, but in the meantime it can hurt. How much of a problem depends on the tissue that was damaged. Initially because mine was close to the esophagus I developed problems swallowing due to damage to the esophagus, and the skin where the target was felt as though I had a bad sunburn. It quit very shortly after I finished radiation. 2 or 3 months later I got severe pain in the tissue & muscles in my shoulder (front & back) that the beam went through getting to the tumor. That lasted 4 to 6 weeks, but it is also now gone. There is no way to tell if and how much until it happens, just make sure that they give good pain medication. The radiation itself is a piece of cake, there's nothing to it & it takes 5 to 10 minutes.

tomsbc

superbobbie said:

is there any place where people can chat online like on aol im??? or yahoo im???

thanks for letting me know...

eileen

Go to Cancer Surviver Network, its a great chat line. I go there all the time. You meet people with all kinds of cancer.
I have had lung cancer 2 times once in each lung 3 1/2 yrs a part. Different cancers
betty2