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I don't post very much, but I have really appreciated your's and becky's postings. You and Katie are in my prayers. My father also recently passed away, and like Becky, he went so quickly - in a matter of days. I know I am still in shock and I find myself crying when I'm driving, or walking alone. God's peace be with you - and may the tears bring healing and peace. Tears of sadness and of happiness of all the memories you have and will always have. shirley

Howard, You and your family are in my prayers and may you be surrounded by good thoughts and wishes. Take each day as a gift from God, but allow yourself to feel all of the emotions - good and bad. Your family and all of us are with you are this journey. . . and may you fight this terrible demon on your terms. . . and in your way. shirley

My heart goes out to you and Katie. Thank you for sharing that beautiful slide show. shirley

Tonight, my father, peacefully passed away at home with all of his family at his side. He was alert almost until the end, and we were able to tell him how much we love him and how much he means to us. Even all of the grandchildren were able to see him. Through God's providence, a home health nurse came to open up his case - on Easter Sunday. The nurse was able to come to see him only because another patient did not answer his phone. The nurse drew lab work and a type and cross, in case he needed a transfusion (Thanks to some advice I got from this site). We debated whether we should take him to the hospital or not and through God's providence, we were able to talk to a oncologist affiliated with our health plan from my aunt's church. We asked him a lot of questions about what we could do for my father, and he assured us that as long as we could keep him comfortable at home, there really wasn't much more they could do in the hospital. I am still in a state of shock on how quickly he went. There was a dramatic change every day for the past week. Last Sunday he went to church and offered a prayer request about everything being in God's hands, and today on Resurrection Sunday he is finally free from all the cares and troubles of this world. We had originally planned a family trip this week and in many ways it was God's providence that we had this week together and we will be forever grateful for this time we had. I know it was hard on us for him to go so quickly, but I know it would have been even harder for him to be sick for a long time since he was such an active/independent person. Thank you again for all your love and support and advice. Again, you are all a Godsend. shirley

What a week! Eight days ago, my dad was driving to my house with his tools worried about my plumbing problem. Last Monday-Wed our family had planned a trip while my dad was feeling good. Instead, Wed he started a weekly regime of low dose carboplatin/taxotere and we went home with home O2 and a wheelchair. Yesterday, we saw the MD and got morphine (sustained released and liquid), prednisone, a foley cathether, hospital bed, nebulizer, and O2 holder. Last night with the morphine, he slept great - over 11 hours but now he seems to be sleeping all of the time. I realize the morphine is for his breathing, but we were afraid he was sleeping too much and he's been complaining of dizziness. So we called to get a lower dose of Morphine. They finally agreed to give us the med - but it took a lot of effort since it required a triplicate. But a home health nurse called us and that the morphine would help his O2 saturations and that the dizziness was probably related to that. My dad is totally alert and today the gardener came for the first time to mow his lawn. He told us to open up the gate/lock for him and wanted us to time how long it took him to do the job and if he did a good job. Then he said - "I mowed the lawn last week". For the past 2 days he needs help to even get out of bed. We've been using the wheelchair in the house and it takes a long time just to take his pills, drink water, and he barely eats. The MD said that the disease was making him sick and not the chemo. And as long as his lab work was O.K., he recommended chemo next week. Others have posted that maybe he needs a transfusion. . . he's scheduled for lab work either Sunday or Monday in anticipation for his chemo on Tuesday. I don't know what this next week will bring. Looking for a miracle but also wishing for peace and comfort. Thanks again in advance for all your good wishes, advice, thoughts, and prayers. Your support and care have been a Godsend. shirley

Thanks so much for your encouragement and prayers and good wishes. At least my dad is sleeping at night now ( 2 good nights)! shirley

My dad has been basically symptom free for the past 5 months when he was first dx with LC stage 4. In less than 1 week, he has gotten so weak and gets short of breath just walking in the house. Prior to this, he was walking around the park! For 2 nights straight, he couldn't sleep and luckily last night he was able to sleep well after getting an rx for cough - tessalon and for sleep - ativan. My dad is usually so active and energetic and it is difficult for me so see him so tired and weak and for it to happen so quickly. Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this? He has started low dose chemo of carboplatin/taxotere today on a weekly basis and is still taking IRESSA. They took his O2 sat during the chemo treatment and since it was so low, ordered home O2 for him and a wheelchair. Looking for some encouragement or advice on what to expect. shirley

Hello, I haven't posted for awhile, but i was wondering how common it is to have rapid deterioration? Last week my father was feeling a little bit weaker, but over this past weekend, he has really gotten weaker and very fatigued. Before he could mow the lawn and now he gets tired just walking in the house. We saw the MD on Friday, and then he had a hard time sleeping on Saturday nite and Sunday nite. We saw the MD on Tuesday and started chemo today. Before we went to the chemo treatment today, he got very short of breath just walking to my car (last week he was walking around the park). And he had to rest several times to get to the MD office after I dropped him off in the front. His saturation was only 80 % on room air - we had never had it tested before and even on O2 it only went up to 88%. They delivered o2 to him tonight and also a wheelchair. We are just very surprised that he could get so weak so fast after being basically symptom free. Is this very common? At least the Md ordered some cough medicine (tessalon) and a sleeping pill (Ativan) and he was able to sleep well last night. We chose to go with a lower dose Carboplatin/Taxotere but to have it weakly - hoping to lessen the side effects since he is 81 yrs old. Please pray for my dad and thanks in advance for any words of wisdom. shirley

My dad was dx in 12/03 and when we went for a second opinion, the MD noticed the swelling. My dad wasn't even aware of the swelling until the MD told him about it so he could have had it before (I don't think the first oncologist we saw ever did a full physical). Anyways, our oncologist said if the swelling didn't bother him, my dad didn't need any medicine. He took an x ray and that showed it was not congestive heart failure. The oncologist said that it is common in cancer pts to be in a "catabolic" state and cited that my dad's albumin (protein) level was low. He encouraged high protein foods like tofu, nuts, eggs, etc to try to raise the albumin level but he said this catabolic state was common and a side effect of it was swelling. A week later my dad had pain in the foot and then the MD ordered Lasix (a diurectic) to see if the swelling would go down. My dad didn't take the Lasix much since the swelling didn't really bother him. We haven't had his albumin level retested lately so we don't know if it's better or not - but the swelling seems to come and go. shirley

Carlton, I was told that BAC tends to be a little more slower growing then regular adenocarcinoma - so the prognosis might be slightly better. Also, BAC tends to show up on both sides of the lungs early on, and sometimes if it is caught early enough, they can do surgery on both sides of the lung. We had a second opinion at UC Davis Medical Center and the MD said if you do have BAC, it tends to respond better to IRESSA instead of conventional chemotherapy. The only way to know definatively if a person has BAC is to get a tissue sample, along with the surrounding tissue. BAC tends to have a fluffy, pneumonia like appearance on the xrays and to be more confined to the outer areas of the lungs instead of the main bronchial areas. They are treating my dad as if he has BAC and since my dad didn't really want to take chemo, we thought it wouldn't hurt to try IRESSA. Our oncologist said he had a pt with BAC who has survived 4-5 years, but she also took chemo. Anyways, hope that helps. shirley

Howard, My prayers go out to you and your family and I'm so sorry to hear that you are finally getting symptoms from this terrible demon we are all fighting. Your posts are always so encouraging to me and it is so true that even though you are not taking treatment, you are definately still fighting back - and most of all, you are living your life. May God surround you with His peace and grace, and may He sustain you through whatever lies ahead. May the doctors control your symptoms and take away your pain. A friend shared with me this quote - "persistent prayer is not that God hears us, but that we hear Him" I definately know that you are hearing God and the way you live you live each day will be a blessing to everyone around you. Blessings to you . . . shirley

Is swelling in the legs a common side effect of lung cancer? When were were having a second (actually third) opinion, the MD spotted bilateral swelling in my dad's legs - with more swelling in the left leg than the right. It's mostly in his foot/ankle/calf area. One day he woke up and it was painful to walk on and especially painful in the arch of his Left foot. Have anyone else has similar experiences? Our oncologist said my dad's albumin is low and that is common in cancer patients and when the albumin is low, the proteins leak out of the cells and take the fluid with them. He said it was a catabolic state and recommended my dad try to get more protein in his diet. Has any one else heard of a catabolic state in cancer patients? He had taken an chest xray so he said it was not due to congestive heart failure. Anyways, he ordered Lasix as needed. He said the swelling wasn't a bad thing, it was just bad it it was painful. and he thought if the swelling went down, the pain would also go down. Anyways, it's not hurting my dad anymore and he hasn't taken the Lasix yet. He just started on IRESSA 2 days ago and didn't want to take too many drugs at once. Thanks. shirley

Howard, My dad has a cough, and they were able to dx his type of cancer from a sputum specimen. He also had a bronch, and they did bronchial washings that also confirmed adenocarcinoma. Lastly, they did a needle bx under CT to see if the spots on the right lung were cancer, and they also confirmed adenocarcinoma. A second opinion MD made the dx of BAC (bronchioalveolar carcinoma) by the appearance and location of the tumors on the CT and x rays. That's why they recommended IRESSA as a first line of tx. They said the only definative way to confirm BAC was to do an actual bx and get part of the tumor and also some of the surrounding tissue (which is way too risky). Since you remain in such good health, I would say you have an extremely slow growing tumor. The last MD we spoke with also thought my dad's cancer was slow growing and said he could have had it for years. We have seen 4 different oncologists in this past month and each of them either confirmed what the other MD's said or had different ideas to give. Our first oncologist was extremely pessimistic in his own kind of way and definately recommended no treatment. But all of the other MD's were so much more positive and optimistic. So it never hurts to keep on asking? Get a copy of your records and a copy of all your films and tests. If you do have a cough, it's simple to do a sputum specimen. I recommend to continue to ask questions until you are satisfied with the results. Hope this helps. (Seems like Rich or dadsimeon - i think that's his log on - also has adenocarcinoma with BAC like features who had lung and adrenal gland tumors - And He's had a good survival rate) Hope this helps and keep on living your life!! The oncologist we switched to told my dad that he never give statistics because nobody knows - He told my dad to break the records - someone has to! So here's to you - break the record!! The oncologist we switched to also told my dad that he could do no treatments but that he could monitor him every month with an x ray to see if the tumors were growing or not and then my dad could decide if he wanted treatment or no treatment at that time. The first MD we saw wanted my dad to decide within a month or so what to do. Maybe your MD is pressuring you too much to make a decision too early. shirley

Opps. I meant chemocare.com shirley

Donna and Chani, Thanks for telling me about Cancercare. The site is really informative and I'll be sure to tell my dad about it. Thanks. shirley