Mesothelioma

Glenna M said:

My sympathies..
My heart goes out to you and your husband. It's still hard to comprehend that people are becoming ill and dying from the exposure to man made materials. We don't stop to think or test most products to assure their safety as we are in too much of a hurry for the new item to hit the market. Unfortunately, because of our greed and need for progress, this will continue to happen.

I am so sorry for what you and your husband are going through.

Glenna

onemore said:

Hi There
I am just curious -
Hi There

I am just curious - which Mesothelioma did your husband have? Epithelioid or Sarcomatoid?

My Dad was just diagnosed with Epithelioid Mesothelioma and they want to remove the whole left lung, lining of the lung and part of the diaphram.

This is all new to me.

Regards

onemore said:

Question for Cookie-Girl
Hi Cookie Girl

I just needed to ask you a few questions.

My dad has decided to go with Sloane Kettering - they are going to start Chemo 1st, he has to have 4 rounds of chemo, once every three weeks. They want to shrink it and maybe try not to remove his lung, then surgery to remove the lining, then radiation. They dont think that they will remove the lung. He is going to be part of a clinical trial.

He was diagnosed with Epithelioid Mesothelioma Pleura-

I am just not sure this is the way to go - I am not a doctor but the 1st opinion from the 1st doctor was to remove the lung, lining and parts of the diaphram - I think that it would be better to take out the lung - which is what you did - did you go to Sloane Kettering - I know they are all for chemo 1st -

It sounds like you went through hell and back like you said but the outcome sounds more promising to me -

The doctors at Sloane said that there are only 1500 cases of this in the US.

Thanks

kimbee1218 said:

How did you know
I am sorry about your husband. How did they diagnos the mesothelioma? My Dad was just diagnosed with Lung Cancer - SC or NSC is still somewhat of a question. He worked 40+years in the plumbing and heating industry and was exposed to alot of asbestos. In his CT is states that he has calcification - probably due to asbestos exposure. I asked the onocolgists today, if he had mesothelioma also and they said that was a whole different diagnosis, they are treating the lung cancer. My concern was that it would affect his treatment.

cookie_girl said:

I don't live in the states I
I don't live in the states I live in Calgary, Alberta Canada. My surgeon was Dr. S Grondin and he worked under Dr. Sugarbaker for a couple of years if I remember. Dr. Sugarbaker is the dr that created this type of surgery. It is one of those cancer's that is rare and are still trying to figure out which is the best way to treat this.

All that I can say is make sure you go to a doctor that knows about mesothelioma cancer and go from there.

We have 4 thoracic surgeon's in Calgary (Tom Baker/Foothills hospital) and 2 of them would not do anything as they don't know enough about it and one doctor was a 50/50 and he assisted the surgery with Dr Grondin. It was a very long surgery, my husband said it was about 12 hours. I still have pain but I am still healing. It is worth everything that I went through as my kids (which are adults) still has a mom. Hope this helps

cookie_girl said:

Hi onemore
I am doing pretty good, slowly gaining my strength, but not back to normal yet.

He will be fine, just remember that, and it will help.

It sounds like he is getting the same surgery as I had. They did remove my right lung, lining, i think it was about 3 or 4 small spots of my diaphram. They thought they had to do some on the heart lining but didn't need too.

Right before surgery they gave me an epidural so when I wake up i can control the pain medication on my own as well as other pain killers. When I woke up I was heavily drugged to keep the pain down and it isn't too bad until they took the epidural out a week later. I started to get out of bed about 3 days after surgery but could not go too far as i would get tired extremely easily but it got better as I walked a little more often as the days went by. Once they took my epidural off I felt more pain but we got it under control. Tell your dad not to wait until the pain is getting worse when he starts to feel a little bit of pain ask for meds as it is hard to get the pain under control when you don't get it on time. I went home a couple weeks later. Be very careful the no one gets in contact with him that may have a slight cold as he will get it. The coughing will take a while to go away, as I still have it but getting better.

My healing of my surgery has taken a long time but that is due to having chemo a month and a half later and then radiation after. My surgeon said that when you get surgery and then the treatments start, the surgery healing really slows down and starts again once all treatments all done. I still have a couple of month of healing and in a couple of weeks i see my surgeon again to see how i am doing and updates. As my surgeon said before I started everything "you will be going through hell for the next year" and boy was he right.

Look at it this way, they only do this surgery if they know that he will make it through which is a good thing.

My kids were very scared too, hang in there!

Just be there for him

cookie_girl said:

I am so sorry to hear
I am so sorry to hear that.

For some reason this cancer spreads a lot faster then any other, that is why my surgeon didn't want to wait or take chances for the surgery as it spreads too fast. As for radiation that is what I was told it slows it down and helps the pain go down a bit.

I know you are now thinking what if we would have done this instead but don't. Take the time that you have and make the most of it, that is the important thing.

I will be thinking of you and your dad. I know you will take good care of your dad but don't forget to take care of yourself, you don't want to get drained and get sick.

onemore said:

Update on Dad
Hi Cookie Girl

Just wanted to give an update on Dad.

He went in for surgery 2 weeks ago. Surgeon said that once she went in the cancer was cemented to his ribs and that it was inoperable. She was very disappointed as well as all of us.

Surgeon wants to take a different approach which is to start radiation to slow down the growth.