Hello everyone!
I've been lurking around this site for a couple of months now but just couldn't bring myself to post. Before I tell my mother's story I wish to thank everyone who participates on this board. Without knowing it, over the past months everyone has provided me with comfort and hope.
My mother, an otherwise healthy 61 year old former smoker, was diagnosed with NSCLC, stage IV in mid-September, 2004. In addition, she was also diagnosed with primary kidney cancer (a tumor was caught on the chest CT scan). Since then she has completed 14 rounds of WBR for 2 brain mets (the only mets). Between the WBR and chest radiation she was hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism.
She had the first of 33 rounds of chest radiation while in the hospital for the PE. She was unable to start chemo at this time because the port-a-cath was not in place yet. She began chemo the following week. She was given Cisplatin on Monday, followed by VP-16 on Tues. and Wed. Her oncologist gave her Cisplatin the following Monday and then decided that she wouldn't tolerate additional chemo. About 1-1/2 weeks later my mother was admitted to the hospital with a fever of just under 102. Her white blood cell count was very low. She was given 2 units of blood and was eventually diagnosed with Cytomegalovirus (CMV Virus). She began taking Valcyte and is much better now.
Originally the treatment plan was to give her another round of chemo during the last week of radiation. Now her oncologist is saying no more chemo.... ever. He believes since she had a bad reaction the first time, she couldn't tolerate additional rounds. If not chemo, what then? Isn't there a milder form of chemo that she might be able to tolerate?
I apologize for a very long first post. Thank you all.