cough after treatment

newfies
newfies Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Lung Cancer #1
My mother in law was diagnosed with stage IV small cell lung cancer, 5 weeks ago. She has a tumor in her left lung the size of a small canteloupe. She also has another spot in her right lung. I'm not sure how large that one is. But it has also spread to 2 spots in her brain. She immediatley received radiation treatments, which just ended on Friday. She is to start chemo this Friday. During her radiation treatments, she starting an almost constant coughing. She coughs up brown phelgm, and omits a terrible odor whenever she coughs. Everyone says this is a good thing, but I'm not so sure. Is it from the destruction of the tumor, or is it from the lung rotting, so to speak ? This is all new to me and our family. I'd appreciate any information anyone has to offer. What kind of timeline or prognosis do you think we're looking at with this type of cancer ? Just looking for some honesty.

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  • goldlox1
    goldlox1 Member Posts: 1
    #2
    My mother has unresectable NSCLC & went through 24 radiation treatments-12 to a lymph node in her neck and then 12 to her brain since the beginning of this year. She coughed up ROPES (don't know how else to describe it) of phlegm, but it was clear/whitish. She would go through several rounds of it each night-sometimes choking/coughing until she threw up. NO ONE prepared us for that side effect, but now that her treatments are over, it has subsided. I don't know what to tell you about colored/odiferous phlegm. I assume her radiation was to her lung, so that may be why the side effects are different. Hang in there, stay positive & try to learn as much as you can. My Mom was diagnosed in December 2003 & she's still fighting.

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