Hi Lisa,Thank you for your reply.T o give you a wee bit more encouragement,I would like to share with you something that happened to me following the completion of my treatments in January 2009.I was off work recuperating from my surgery (upper right lobectomy),bored out of my head, home alone worrying about the "what ifs" ie what if the surgery is'nt a complete success, and what if the cancer returns? how will I cope?.These fears and a few others I have since forgotten whizzed around my over active brain,boy do I have such an imaginative brain.Anyway,I decided to look around for lung cancer survivors who are still around following the completion of their treatments.I first tried online,I was'nt very successful,mostly stats of the 5 years survival projections on lung cancer patients,not very encouraging at all.One day I picked up a popular evening paper in Glasgow called the Evening Times,and I chanced on a article about a guy called Robert Lowe who was starting up a lung cancer support group along with a LC nurse called Penny Downer,well I had a quiet chuckle to myself over the irony of a LC support group founded by a Lowe and Downer.However I read on,this Robert was dxd with SCLC in 1993 his doctor projected he had approx 2 months to live.Undeterred,Robert pleaded his case to have the best possible treatments that would give him a fighting chance of life.Robert was offered a extreme form of chemo that would require him to hopitalised for the duration of its administration,during which time he endured such an ordeal with the chemo his medical team had called his family to his bedside on more than one occassion as they believed he would not see the next day.To the astonishment of his medical team,Robert began to respond to his treatments and went on to make a full recovery.He soon returned to the normal life he had prior to his dx.In 2007 Robert was now dxd with NSCLC,again he went though his treatments and made a complete recovery.I was completely enthralled by his experience,I just had to meet up with him,and I did,I joined his LC support group in Stobhill Hospital.
My meeting with Robert uncovered further pleasures for me,I discovered he was born and brought up in the same district of Glasgow as myself,we went to the same schools,despite Robert being 10 years my senior,we even shared many of the same teachers.The anecdotes we shared of our past lives,brought us such fun and laughter,lung cancer thoughts just left my mind.I like to say the elephant in the room has now got so small,I cannot even find the little blighter now.Robert became the UKs longest surviving duel LC patient (SCLC and NSCLC) he survived for just short of 20 years.
I soon returned to my senior lecturer post in a College of Further Education in Glasgow.I entered my classroom that first day,my 3rd year students were being taught by a stand in colleague of mine,one of the students who first saw my entrance,smiled at me and enquired if I was just in for a visit.No, I replied,I am back to my task of teaching this class,just at that moment the students gave me such a round of applause,I can still hear it today.Still can bring a lump to my throat.
Bye for now.
There is always hope. It took just over 4 years of near continuous treatment before I achieved a finding of no evidence of disease or NED. I had 3 failed surgeries, 4 failed stent insertions, 1 failed session of conventional radiation with adjunct chemotherapy, 2 failed sessions (6-cycles each session) of conventional chemotherapy, a failed session of oral chemotherapy, and finally a successful cyber knife that brought me to NED. I lived on hope for 4 years. My treatment timeframe was in the dark ages where few alternatives of chemotherapy were available. My oncologist kept trying to keep me alive till something hatched out of trial or research that would save my life and that is exactly what happened. There will be disillusionment, despair, and disappointment in the extreme but there will always be hope.
Killing cancer cells with chemicals is so daunting, it is like "finding some agent that will dissolve away the left ear and leave the right ear unharmed." In spite of this, there is always hope.
No I don't know of a treatment your brother should be considering save for the next idea his oncologist has. Encourage your brother to have his oncologist suggest options, limited they may be. If this doctor runs out of options, consult another for there is always hope.
bjacksontex reacted to eric byrne in Stage 4 NSCLC