Still No Answers

Before my VATS procedure I had lung tests to see how healthy my lungs were. The surgeon could use the results to determine how much lung I could afford to lose without getting handicapped if he had to remove some. The tests were the same as what they do for asthma: blowing in a machine, measuring peak flow, doing an albuterol inhaler and redoing the tests. None were painful and all of them together took about an hour. The surgeon went over my tests and checked me over. Then he went over what he thought he might find and what all the options would be right up to the possible (though not probable in my case) removal of my lung. I had to sign a lot of papers and get on the list for surgery. Then they gave me the standard physical, ekg to check my heart, and blood tests for who knows what. I was told that I would wake up in intensive care if they had to remove a lung, that I would be in for a week, and that I would be on a breathing machine if that happened. As it was, they only removed the nodule on the first operation. Thinking it was breast cancer mets, they closed me up. I woke up with a few tubes here and there that hadn't been in when I went into surgery, but in a day or two I was up and moving around. I was actually able to jog slowly around the school track 8 days afterward with no pain. It turned out to be lung cancer, stage 1 when the path report was finished. Standard procedure was to remove the lobe if it was lung cancer, so they had to go back in. (The lobe removal would have happened right away if it had been a different kind of lung cancer, but that's life.) That second recovery took considerably more time. I was back to work in less than a month, but I was walking fairly slowly. Part of the slow recovery though, was having two major surgeries in less than 2 weeks. They said it would have been easier if I had had just one operation. Also the second time around I got a 4 inch modified VATS incision, which was over twice the size of the first time around where they just had three 1 inchers. Conventional surgery has a much bigger incision and longer recovery time, but you have to do what you have to do. Good luck!

Before I would let them do any surgery, I would want a second opinion from a good cancer center like M. D. Anderson. They now say they have spotted 4 lesions that are larger than 1cm. I would think that they could be a little surer of what they are doing before surgery. It is possible that surgery could do more harm than good.

Stay positive,

Ernie

I second opinion the call for a second opinion. Depending on your location, Cancer Treatment Centers of America are pretty easy to work with, and can schedule an exam pretty quick. Airfare and transportation for our first visit was paid for by the hospital, as was the first week of lodging.

Take both opinions and consider them carefully. Just because one comes from a local doctor and one comes from a big company doesn't make any difference, it's just two views of the same thing. It's also important to take action as soon as possible. This stuff isn't gonna go away on it's own.

We chose wrong.