ken f.

hi, i think the particular drugs differ in toxicity and their effects. in my instance, as below, i did pretty well for a month or so but then fatigue got to me and i was sleeping 18 hours/day and started feeling pretty sorry for myself. it has taken me as long to get back as the chemo regime lasted. glad you can be there for your loved one. ken

i was dismayed to read your post. she is lucky to have you there as is this list. prayers and light to you. ken

hi, congrats on a year. at my age they can add up fast and i hope you have lost of adding to do. you are the best news i've heard out of texas in some time. keep it up.

hi, we never know what our situation is until we go the process of trying to find out. i hope your situation is happily resolved. they will be time to worry if it isn't so try to stay focused on the big picture of your life. here's hoping all goes well. ken

hi, i started chemo mid february and was so wearied by the process that i stopped looking at this list by mid march and only now am ready take it back up. i can tell you that sleeping 15-18 hours/day doesn't cure the fatigue when you have it. i have taken shots for white and red blood cell promotion and am on the up swing. i was able to garden the last two weekends and filled 6 trash barrels with clippings after 5 months of no yard work so things are picking up. our cancer center had a program put on by a psychologist in which she matched 25 cancer survivors with 25 artists to create an art project and we had a show to reveal what we all could come up with. it was amazing and incredibly touching. tomorrow they come here for an appetizer "potluck" to commerate the program. (hence the need for yard work). nice to see the posts here and i'm glad the list is still here and even reformatted! ken

hi, sounds like you two have been moving quick! sometimes it is all a blurr, eh? i know what you mean about finding more than one cancer. i've had 3 different types of cancer. they have cut two out altogether i hope and i'm figuring how to deal with the third. i just finished chemo so was off this list for a couple months. hang in there. it sounds like you guys are in this for the long haul. yours, ken

hi, welcome here and best of luck! i found it best to make lists. this defined the number of things i had to deal with so they didn't all run around in my head at once! love, ken

hi don, sorry you had this route open up but like you said you don't want to be chronic. i'm 1a or 1b (two independent primaries) and i think a post above is correct that there is not firm showing that chemo benefits 1a at least where tumor size is close to or less than 3. knowing this i have gone for carboplatin/gemzar and a two week on one week off three cycle course. it seems like the thing to do to me and i have been tolerating (but not liking it) into the secord of four rounds. i would just feel so stupid if i hadn't done this and had a recurrance when it was suggested as a cautionary step i had to go for it even though i don't have much confidence in efficacy. best of luck getting a little wind back.

hi, i asked my oncdoc about this. he said that generally the easiest way for the second opinion doc to get in the insurance system was to see the patient. this made sense to me so i traveled. i would seem like a dr. would want to meet a patient at least once to give any kind of meaningful opinion. best of luck with this! and just talking and trying to be with your mom and dad is of great support to them.

hi bev, from your description it sounds like you have been up, over, down, and around LC. you doubtless can be of help to many here. i like the pic too. you fit right in there sunsmile.

hi, well 2 cm isn't that big but not so small either. they can measure down to millimeters. nodule many times refers to a lympt node. perhaps it also refers to an area of unknown type. depending on what the tests show and where the nodule is, they may want to do a needle biopsy to get a piece and examine it under a microscope to see what it is. sometimes this is difficult because the area is too close to the heart or other organs as it was in the case of my lower tumor. but in my case they could get to an upper tumor so it wasn't so much of an issue. sanity is in the mind or the operator! all our problems seem to stem to unpleasant feelings. but we catagorize these unpleasant feelings and they have little to do with what seems like outside events. things that we characterize as negative are not inherently so. for example, i doubt lance armstrong would have won his races as he has if he hadn't had cancer and gotten extra motivation. so was his cancer good or bad? i should think neither. his mind transformed. hope you can find this in your way. and welcome to this list. .

so sorry to hear about your papa. my mother is pretty much sinking under right now and i've been thinking about the "orphan" experience. i have told my mom is that she showed me all these years how to live and that she is now showing me how to die. she's a little impatient with her process. one thing is sure: there will be no excuses for not acting like the adult in the family! i hope you find some new horizons glimmering and bright.

hi, i'm doing carboplatin and gemzar at present. i wasn't given any diet restrictions. i've been eating too much but think i'm indulging myself for personal sympathy or something!!! i'm only 3 days into this but can only complain at this point about being tired and just not feeling right. best of luck to you.

hi, congrats on being a surgery candidate. you are likely a strong block. i am just starting carboplatin/gemzar some 80 after surgery by way of thoracotomy. i just quit the vicodin for the chest lung and back pain. i don't think i would have liked starting chemo much before i had a chance to recover from the surgery but then there are many ways to skin a cat! best of luck with your treatment! love, ken

hi, shocking news can really set one back. we have to keep our perspective and what i find helpful is to try to back away a little bit and watch myself and to try to follow my feelings back to see where they are coming from. it is important to have a clear head when you reach difficult times. i hope you have someone to help steady you and, maybe, to go to medical appointments with you to help get the most useful information. best of luck on any treatment plan you work up. love, ken

hi, well, while it is true that statistics don't reveal the whole truth and world, it is comforting at least a little to be on the good side of them. and i think it is more than just the two year thing. the longer it is with no recurrance the less likely a recurrance is. just think, nearly two years. i hope you have used them well and make even better use of the next two. love, ken

hi, as i understand it, PET scan interpretations are subjective as they show a rate of uptake by tissue. usually, if a PET scan shows localized tumor an analysis will be undertaken to see if a biopsy if feasible. tissue extracted by biopsy is viewed by a pathologist under a microscope. the individual viewing a scan or actual tissue has to make interpretative decisions. i haven't heard that there are specialists who should be consulted with lung cancer as there are with colon cancer. there are several doctors involved in assessing wisdom of lung surgery including a cardiologist, oncologist, pulmonologist, and surgeon. it is beneficial to have these consult to cross verify between themselves that surgery is appropriate and possibly curative. generally reference to second opinions pertains to seeking out the views of doctors at major cancer centers. i just got a second opinion from a major cancer center last week and posted about it a couple days ago if you want to see my reaction. it does make sense to get as much input as is reasonably feasible. best of luck with this. love, ken

hi, wedge resection is not generally fovored way of proceeding at ucla because of margins and recurrance risk. i had 2 wedge resections of upper right and lower right lobe. lung capacity pre surgery is an important factor to capacity post. there is no doubt that some capacity is lost on any lung surgery. in my case, i can still hike without losing breath at least at low altitudes. i look forward to seeing what happens at 10000 feet! love, ken

hi, well, i went to a major cancer center monday last for a 2nd opinion and was told that my surgery was inadequate and without adequate margins so i should do it again. my look back probably said a lot. as it happened, tuesday night i was in my local hospital visiting my mother (who was just hospice discharged wednesday) when i encounted my surgeon in the cafeteria. (nothing like smaller towns). i explained to him what i'd been told. he ranted a minute then took a few minutes to explain again to me, perhaps in a little more detail than 1 week post surgery, that he had reached into my right lower lobe, grabbed the 1cm. tumor which had showed up on CT and PET SCANS, pulled it up and out, and then used the cautry to cut a big hole around it. he said the margins were good tho the pathologist couldn't say what the margins were to the resulting mangled mass of tissue he presented for frozen section examination. so i met friday with my oncodoc to review all this and get a grip on where to go. he said, as he had before, the surgeon was quite competent, that he had discussed the procedure he undertook with him, and couldn't explain why he would proceed in that fashion that didn't result in pathologically confirmable margins now that we are all into microbiology and such. i knew tho and so did my oncodoc. the surgeon saw what he thought was a "pushing" rather than an "infiltrating" tumor, in short what he took to be a confined rather than fingers extending tumor, and determined that he could get it all without removing the entire right lower lobe (and right middle lobe as well) as he told me he would have to before the surgery. he determined to not take the whole middle and lower lobes so i could have some function. i don't know about this trade off. it is difficult to assess. on the one hand, i didn't get the "protocol" treatment but on the other i did get a "custom" treatment. on the one hand, i can now 60 days post surgery hike 2 miles gaining 800 feet in an hour without being winded, and on the other i've got more than usual uncertainty about local recurrance. after consulting with all these people, each of whom i think has my best interests at heart, i suppose the best way to proceed is not to now do another thoracotomy but to follow with regular Scans in the hope that should there be a local recurrance, a 2nd surgery could possibly be undertaken before the recurrance "gets loose." + the margins may, after all, have been fine as the surgeon said. there are downsides to another surgery too, after all. so next week i will get scanned to be sure i'm getting adjuvant therapy and then start rounds of chemo cocktail. it's not usually what you think it will be (orwas)!!! ken

how's about those cute little martinelli bottles? ken

hi, welcome you lucky one! they generally won't try surgery unless it is thought there is a good chance of curative effect! don't worry about it coming back--at least not just yet. if you had a pet scan, nothing would show for some time. so relax and take it easy--from now on.

hi cool named one: it is hard to say if you could know more being closer. perhaps, likely, a little sooner and maybe a little more clearly but considerable ambiguity seems to come with territory in this realm. but in any event there wouldn't be too firm an answer as to life expectancy even from a doc and even after a complete analysis has been done. that's one of the first things you will find about this-as in life generally there is not often certainty. there can be indications but any hard opinion can only really be based on statistics and, as i recall, i have never met one who fully conformed to all the statistics. it would be nice if you could find a good way to get and stay in touch with your loved one. i would suspect it probably best to talk about what the parient is feeling and think about without trying to give too specific answers and and try to get most factual details about medical condition from your sister if she is her "advocate." it is good to have someone go to medical appointments with the patient as it helps in the recollection of what was said, what is to be done, the getting of questions answered, etc. best of luck, ken

hi, yours is a heartrending post and i reflect with some dismay into your situation. then it occurs to me that all through our lives and into our deaths we are examples to others we encounter of how to live, and of how to die. you are teaching your lesson now for the benefit of others. they will remember. i hope you can find the focus to look at an be with right now. it is all there really is and all we really have. best of luck and i'm sending you light and clear vibrations. yours, ken

hi cheryl, here's to ya! hang in there. and if you can find a way be with where you are you can ask that you be happy just where you are. acceptance of what is happening right now seems to make right now okay. always. and that is peace and comfort. best wishes flow out to you across this wire and through the ether. yours, ken

hi, well here's to shadows! let there be shadows which only appear on one view. best of luck on this one. but grrr? i'm trying not to go there but rather to take these cards and play them. i've gotten to draw more than once and i'm not quite sure of the rules yet! yours, ken