how do you find the mets.dr. says wait for symptoms

soccerfreaks said:

Ah
Pat, without getting into the details (you can read them on my page and the blog attached if you'd like and have nothing better to do), I was diagnosed in June of '07 with lung cancer so pervasive that OncoMan gave me as little as 10 months to live. Three months later we discovered via additional scans that I had had an infection in my lungs and really had only ONE node of concern.

Anyway, in January of '08 they went in via VATS to do a biopsy, the proviso being that if the stuff was metastasis from my previous head/neck cancer, they would not continue on and do a lobectomy. In my case, I was fortunate that they could not determine its origin, even though it was the same kind (squamous cell carcinoma), so they did the lobectomy.

The point though, Pat, is that had my cancer metastasized to my lungs from my tongue and neck, they were of the opinion that there was really no use in trying to remove it: we would be back to considering palliative care and riding out the last of the good times, so to speak.

I am not an OncoMan, Pat. I am not a cardiopulmonologist (or, as someone on here likes to insist instead, a thoracic something or other). I am not a doctor. I do not know how it is that they decide that some mets are worth pursuing while others are not.

I do have a reality check of my own, to be honest, one with which I am fairly certain they concur: if it goes to my brain, we are probably in bad news country. Mets to the brain, I think, are different, much different than an original tumor in the brain. I saw what happened to my mom when her cancer (breast from more than 20 years earlier) mets'd to the brain. She fought long, she fought hard, but it was a done deal.

The cancer you indicate, adenocarcinoma, is known as a rather aggressive one, Pat, which may make it even easier (from their perspective, but certainly not yours) for them to say, hey, if this moves on, Pat's in trouble.

But you DO have options. Do not let them talk you out of options if it becomes necessary to consider them.

If it gets to that, Pat, frankly, the job is to survive, and to hope for advances that will assist you in continuing to survive and to do so comfortably and with your wits about you. They are doing amazing things every day now, Pat. Truly. A friend of mine on this site once advised that she lives with the idea that if she can make it five years, they will have something available to make it five more years, and if she can make it another five years... well, you get the idea.

Right now, you indicate you are in all-clear mode, and that is excellent news! I congratulate you for that outstanding status!

It sounds as though they ARE scheduling regular scans along with the x-rays and that is great. OncoMan would probably tell you that the x-rays are less harmful to you in terms of radiation exposure, and I believe that is true, so that makes sense, but I would also want to keep getting those CT scans on a regular basis.

You can do things yourself to help, of course. If you smoke, quit. Period. My own doctors, when I first came to them with the head/neck cancer, were fairly adament that if I did not quit, there was no use in screwing around with me. And when we got to the lung stuff, of course, and you may know this, if I could not pass certain breathing tests, there would have been no surgery at all.

If you do not exercise, start. Eat well, Pat, take care of yourself, and hopefully your 'self' will take care of you.

Take care,

Joe

soccerfreaks said:

Pulmonary test
The breathing test is rather simple, marijune, as I recall. In my case it was a set of brief tests that were then repeated. Basically, they measure your ability to inhale, to exhale, and to retain oxygen, as measured by three or four different machines they hook you up to.

I doubt that one can 'cheat' on these (nor that it would serve any useful purpose), but I do believe, I strongly believe, that it is possible to train yourself prior to the tests. I didn't do it because I hadn't a clue as to what this procedure entailed, didn't even know it would be required, but in hindsight I can see why some of the brigher lights in this board and elsewhere strongly suggest that survivors get involved with regular exercise while getting rid of the smokes and the tokes and drinks if they are a factor.

Marijune, you can help yourself a lot by quitting the cigarettes, if you are a smoker. And you can help yourself a lot by taking a daily walk or getting on the treadmill. Increasing your lung capacity shows up on these tests.

I cannot answer as to whether 'passing' the breath test(s) is required for surgery. I feel nearly certain that other factors go into it, such as age, weight/height ratio, basic fitness. In my case, though, I'm pretty sure that in both cases I needed to show some good numbers, in the first instance because of the length of the surgery they were contemplating, and in the second because the subject of the surgery was a lobe of one my lungs.

I would say, marijune, that they are likely to be very interested in the results of such a study before they would consider removing part or all of a lung: after all, if you are having troubles breathing with all of the equipment intact (but with an obvious design flaw, to be sure), what's to make them think you will do better with some of it missing?

Just one view. Hope it helps.

Take care,

Joe