Lung cancer patient reaching out

MommaD
Hello, Welcome and sorry you have to be here. If you look to the top left you will see the index of what is on the web site. The chat room is the 7th item listed. Please do keep your chin up, but come here and vent all you want. I'm sure theres not a feeling you have that someone on this board has not experienced. I am glad your therapy is doing well. Lori

nancylm said:

Lung cancer patient reaching out
Hi MommaD, I am new at this too. I was diagnosed with lung cancer just after Christmas. I would be happy to chat or email. Glad you are doing well with your therapy. My therapy will begin soon....the waiting is difficult. N

hello
sorry we have to meet under these cercimstances. I am here if you need to talk honey

Hello
Hello, I've recently been diagnosed also. What do you do? I don't know which way I'm going. I too need someone to talk to. And yes, I'm alone. How are you handling treatment?

3Mana said:

Husband had lung cancer
Hi,
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis. This is a great web site and you'll get so much support from everyone. Even though I was not the one with cancer, but it was my hubby this site was a big help to me. Tom passed away last March. He had been diagnosed in January and had a rare side effect to one of his chemos.
Anyhow, please come here to talk. And try the chat room, the people in there are very nice also. Take care! "CArole"

Newly diagnosed
Ladies,

I am the surviving spouse of a husband that was diagnosed with lung cancer. I cannot speak for those diagnosed, but for one that watched from very near by.

What I wish to share with you is, don't let this dx take away the best of who you are! It will change you, in many ways, but please fight for who you have always been, as hard as you fight to survive. I learned that surviving is not just about staying alive, but living!

Talk, talk, talk! To anyone and everyone that will listen. So crucial to release all that you carry, and you will carry alot! Keep a journal. Not only about schedules, treatments and results. Write about the good days. Write about the smallest of joys. Write of the things that worry or upset you.

When possible, strive to get out. Meet others with or without cancer. Get involved with a lung cancer movement.

I am sending you all the best of wishes and prayers.

Lucy

joep531857 said:

Hi, my name is Joe and i too was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer, I just got out the hospital after having surgery. Awaiting next step from my oncologist. I didnt want to leave the house either. but luckily i have a good therapist who i can talk with and she prescribed some antidepressants and anti anxiety medications. they seem to be working well enough for me to at least go out and talk about it. this site is wonderful for that and not just cancer patients but also their caregivers. It was like getting hit in the face with a bat. the emotions i have gone through were scary and unknowning. but the depression and crying moments have slowed. I have accepted this is just part of me now and i am trying to go on with my life. Friends and my family have been a tremendous help to me, so be there for him. i wish the very best for you and your dad and will pray all works out.

Cancer for Christmas
Hi my name is Charlie, I am 55 and I was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma in my right upper lobe. The cancer diagnosis came just in time to receive a nice new lobectomy for Christmas 2010. The surgery and recovery were painful but mostly seems like a bad memory now.

The bad part now is living in between visits to the oncologist. My friends and family are all back to their routines, thankful that I survived surgery and oblivious to the fact that I have to live with this everyday. I don't have it as bad as many who post here but, for heavens sake Cancer is what happens to other people!, Not me! at least that is what I thought.

Charlie Butler said:

Cancer for Christmas
Hi my name is Charlie, I am 55 and I was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma in my right upper lobe. The cancer diagnosis came just in time to receive a nice new lobectomy for Christmas 2010. The surgery and recovery were painful but mostly seems like a bad memory now.

The bad part now is living in between visits to the oncologist. My friends and family are all back to their routines, thankful that I survived surgery and oblivious to the fact that I have to live with this everyday. I don't have it as bad as many who post here but, for heavens sake Cancer is what happens to other people!, Not me! at least that is what I thought.

What Charlie said ...
"The bad part now is living in between visits to the oncologist"

Yep. I'm new here, but not newly diagnosed, in the grand scheme. Age 59, borderline fitness-lunatic, never-smoker with IIIb adenocarcinoma, left main stem bronchus and one right-side lymph node, inoperable, diagnosed just about a year ago. Concurrent radiation and chemo for 7 weeks last May-July, and really, nothing but good news ever since. I gained 15 pounds, and have been hiking (some in the mountains), biking, and working (about to pull the plug on that soon, I think).

But the uncertainty is always there, and your nearest and dearest will probably be the one to suffer when you voice your concerns. The rest of the world really doesn't have a clue. If you look good, you ARE good.

I guess I have go with what my onco said during my 2nd-last visit, when he wanted to put me on some happy pills (I filled the prescrip, but never took any): "What's the matter with you, man, you're living!"

Tough to maintain that frame of mind, but you have to try.

lynntaylor said:

question
Hi ex rock n roller... saw your post and wondered if I could ask a question. My dad has recently been diagnosed with 3a NSCLC and will start concurrent radiation/chemo treatments next week. They too plan on 6-7 weeks of treatment. Can you give me any advice on what to expect, & how to help him through the treatments?
So glad you have had great results.
Thanks for any advice/help you can share.
LT

What to expect from the radio/chemo combo
Hi Lynn,

Glad to help if at all possible. I don't know if I'm a good one to ask because my experience was possibly too good to be indicative, but I'm here to tell you that he can get through this in pretty fine style if he's as lucky as I was. My #1 point, based only on my experience and what the docs said, is that being in good overall shape will help. I benefitted from 20 years of swimming 6 miles a week, and 5 years of biking 25 miles a week to go with it. I think that fact also delayed my diagnosis, but that's another story. Anyway, that's not really advice, it's just an observation. Advice/expectations:

(1) If he's at all underweight (I was), and I assume he's been told this, bulk up as much as possible. He may need the resources.
(2) When he feels like eating, or really when he doesn't feel actually sick, he should eat. Same reasoning as above; my experience was that even when I didn't feel all that ravenous, I could get myself in the right frame of mind by forcing myself to eat a little bit.
(3) I really had hardly a hint of nausea the whole time (took only about a half-dozen pills on suspicion). They really have some good stuff they dump into you along with the chemo. Really, compared to what I thought, it almost literally was a day at the beach. Tell him not to go into this with fear; odds are he will sail through it. Also, he may get a chemo "high" before crashing a little bit the next couple days. If so, eat!
(4) This one's important: If his radiation pattern will be overlapping his esophagus at all, or even coming close to it, he should immediately start eating as though he were already having the inflamed esophagus problem. I am almost positive that is what delayed my onset of real swallowing difficulties until nearly the end of my treatment. You definitely don't want to experience that aspect if you can avoid it. Smoothies, pudding, and overcooked spaghetti can be your friends.
(5) He WILL feel like he's carrying a grand piano around on his back as the end of his course of radiation approaches. He should get a lot of rest.
(6) And of course, he needs to stay away from the general public during the times when his white cells are low. I skated through with no illness of any kind, but I was pretty darn careful about it.

If all goes as well for him as it did for me, he will feel a whole lot better within two weeks of completing treatment, and a world-beater within a month.

As far as what you can do, I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer. I guess just be there to shield him from trivial activities if he doesn't want to get involved, set up dates with friends if he's interested, help cook, stuff like that. Some people like to be accompanied to the chemo sessions; I went solo most of the time. I think it's all down to personalities; this is something you really have to go through on your own as a patient. But I tend to be a bit of a loner, albeit married and with a supportive family, so take that into account.

All the best to you and your dad.