6 months

[Michele]

Hello everybody! Well I'm coming up to my first ct  scan after surgery.it will be 6 months.I'm sure I'm OK surgery cured me  but still nervous about it.lately I've been having a little back pain between the blades which of course the worry wart I am the first thing I start to think is oh no I hope its not coming back but i m hoping its just from working due to being a styllists/ barber but that's what I thought last time and it wound up being nscl .I hear Tom saying stay the course and that I will .I just found out that my husband has a shadow on his right upper lung he goes for ct Thursday.I'm praying it is just a scar or something.I also just found out my brother has stage 4 lung 3 areas one is in his back rib in the bone which broke his rib.he is in terrible pain.he does not know what kind of cancer yet waiting for biopsy. They will start radiation for pain.so I have a lot of praying to do.thank you for listening. 

[Tom Galli]

Michele,

Wow, break a chop stick to stop the bad news of cancer raining on your family. 

Let's start with you. From my recollection of your diagnosis and surgery, you have every reason to believe you are NED - no evidence of disease. Likely the little back pain results from scanziety and I know of no cure for that problem. 

How was your husband's shadow discovered? X-ray?  Has he had a bad chest cold? I am really hoping these are the cause. One lung cancer survivor in the family is more than enough. 

Now you are dealing with your brother's diagnosis. The old adage is bad luck comes from three bad events. But I'm betting you'll have a NED scan, so break that chop stick and stop the mayhem at two!

And, yes, by all means, stay the course. 

Tom

[BridgetO]

Hi Michele,

My situation is similar to yours Adenocarcinoma, 1A, VATS surgery in November. I had my 6 months CT scan a couple of weeks ago, so I understand scanxiety. Mine was NED. There's every reason to believe yours will be, too, as Tom said. Hang in there and enjoy every day.

Bridget 

[Michele]

Thank you for responding.my husband had shadow from xray.no coughing or congestion.he is x smoker a veteran so I asked the VA to give him ct instead they gave him xray. Well tomorrow will be ct scan. .thanks Tom andBridgett for uplifting comments. I'll let u know results. Take careand thank you.

[Tom Galli]

Michele,

I'm a veteran also with experience with the VA medical system. Let me know if he has problems with the VA. I may be able to help him navigate the through the system. 

Stay the course. 

Tom

[Michele]

On 6/7/2017 at 9:21 PM, Tom Galli said:

Michele,

I'm a veteran also with experience with the VA medical system. Let me know if he has problems with the VA. I may be able to help him navigate the through the system. 

Stay the course. 

Tom

Thank you Tom. My husband had his ct  scan yesterday they called today that was the fastest response from the VA I've seen.they told him which was the nurse said she couldn't go in detail but he has 2.2 cm nodule upper right lung near the heart. They called it Mediastinal adenopathy. I looked it up at what I understand its enlarged lymph nodes and in middle of lungs.they said something about pretrachual node too but I don't have the whole story on it. Waiting for appointment for pulmonoligst.do u know anything about this? I'm worried. Thank you for any response.

[Michele]

1 minute ago, Michele said:

Thank you Tom. My husband had his ct  scan yesterday they called today that was the fastest response from the VA I've seen.they told him which was the nurse said she couldn't go in detail but he has 2.2 cm nodule upper right lung near the heart. They called it Mediastinal adenopathy. I looked it up at what I understand its enlarged lymph nodes and in middle of lungs.they said something about pretrachual node too but I don't have the whole story on it. Waiting for appointment for pulmonoligst.do u know anything about this? I'm worried. Thank you for any response.

I can't tell if this went thru

[Tom Galli]

Michele,

I got your message.  Good news about the rapid VA reaction.  I wish the preliminary findings were better.  What I know is the next physician he sees is likely to order a PET scan to check for metastatic disease and determine the extent, and a biopsy to determine the type of cancer if it is indeed cancer.  There is still some chance he does not have cancer, but the lung nodule and enlarged lymph nodes are typical lung cancer presentations. Depending on the location of the nodule in the right upper lobe, he could have a surgical biopsy or a needle biopsy.

Waiting is a major pain and lung cancer patients do a lot of worrying and waiting.  You should use the time to read into the disease so you can better understand the doctor's explanations at future consultations.  Here is a good start point for your reading.  I would encourage your husband to read up on the disease also.  Here are some important information on asking the right questions that may be helpful at his next consultation.

Let us know how his next consultation goes and contact me if you have difficulty with the VA.

Stay the course.

Tom

[Michele]

Hello my husband has small cell cancer upper right lobe and near airflow treachea. That's all I know until we get a appointment with oncology. Does anyone have small cell. Thanks.