Cancer Grade, Prognosis, and breathing difficulties

Hi. I have no experience with adenocarcinomaa, but I did survive nsclc, through chemo, radiation, and surgery. While still in the hospital, recuperating from surgery, I was given an "inspirometer" to help me with lung function/capacity. It is not power operated, and poses no threat to the patient. It is a plastic cylinder with a hose and mouthpiece attached. Inside the cylinder, there is a piston which moves up and down, with a scale of numbers engraved in side the cylinder. At regular intervals, set up by thedoctor/nurse/therapist, the patient draws deep breaths through the mouthpiece. The piston rises, and indicates a number, or "score". The number will be low, at first, but with persistence, and deeper breaths, the numbers will rise dramatically. The more frequently it is used, the more benefit derived, and the better lung capacity developes. I found that it helped me immensely after I had 40% of my right lung removed.

Plymouthean said:

Hi. I have no experience with adenocarcinomaa, but I did survive nsclc, through chemo, radiation, and surgery. While still in the hospital, recuperating from surgery, I was given an "inspirometer" to help me with lung function/capacity. It is not power operated, and poses no threat to the patient. It is a plastic cylinder with a hose and mouthpiece attached. Inside the cylinder, there is a piston which moves up and down, with a scale of numbers engraved in side the cylinder. At regular intervals, set up by thedoctor/nurse/therapist, the patient draws deep breaths through the mouthpiece. The piston rises, and indicates a number, or "score". The number will be low, at first, but with persistence, and deeper breaths, the numbers will rise dramatically. The more frequently it is used, the more benefit derived, and the better lung capacity developes. I found that it helped me immensely after I had 40% of my right lung removed.

I found that sleeping with a humidifier next to my bed helped me after I had 1/2 of my lung removed. I sleep with it on every night

rpatt said:

Hi crot1998.
About 3 weeks ago his breathing really deteriorated to the point where he needed oxygen 24/7(which he hasn't used since first diagnosed in April '04). He had a chest x-ray, which indicated "infiltrates" in the opposite lung, which could be the cancer coming back. We are kind of in a waiting game right now to see if this is true because his breathing has been too poor for a biopsy to be done. It does seem that the steroids which the doctor prescribed has helped his breathing improve, but it is now where back to where it was just 1 mo. ago. I was asking about the poorly differentiated grade due to the seemingly quickly way that the cancer would be coming back. I understand this is the most aggressive kind and was wondering if anyone else out there had had success at keeping it at bay. The doctor had to take him off of the Tarceva due to the breathing difficulties, which can be a rare side-effect.
Thanks for your response! How is your dad?

Hi there. My Dad is doing very well, diagnosed in Aug. 05 stage 3b with adenocarcinoma also. He did 4 rounds of carbo/taxol as well as being in a clinical trial of a new drug, supposed to be more potent than Tarceva but the same family. Since then the tumor has shrunk considerably and the doctor states that he has local control as there were no signs of cancer elsewhere. He had his last scan about 2 weeks ago. My father will be 68. During his last carbo/taxol treatment his counts were really low and he was hospitalized for 2 weeks with sepsis and then going into septic shock, this was very stressful as it is so acute, he came out of it with flying colors. As a precaution an MRI of the brain was done and that came back clear too. Right now his O2 sats are about 98%, he has never been on oxygen. My father was diagnosed after I witnessed him coughing up blood and begged him to go to the hospital which he did that day and that was in August. The chemo is now done and he continues to take the trial drug. He also had a bad rash on his face, neck and back but that cleared with some anti-histamine, we see the doctor every 3 weeks and he has scans every 6 weeks. We are in Ontario, Canada. We are happy with the results and hope that things will stay the same or better, we almost lost him during the last hospitalization and he needed to be able to have 4 chemo doses in order to stay in the clinical trial, we were happy that it was his last dose. Keep in touch, don't jump the gun. Adenocarcinoma is very common, even the poorly differentiated kind, that just means when the patholgist looked at the biopsy under a microscope it wasn't so clear, it was hard to differentiate it from other cell types. Think positive and try reading through the personal web pages (on the left tool bar) it made me feel so much better. Also ask the Oncologist if he would consider trying him on Iressa, for some it was the miracle drug, it wouldn't hurt to hear all of your options. Also, we made an agreement that as a family we didn't want to know statistics, they are just averages and can make you into believe anything. Remember the doctors are only guessing, only God knows! Hope this helps and you are in my prayers to my favourite Saint, St. Theresa of Lisieux the Little Flower.