Mary McLoughlin

hi tom im having a central line put in october 11th and back on chemo the 13th so figures crossed do you mind me asking where your cancer reoccured. ya i feel there is a stigma that comes with lung cancer as i have tryed for local support groups with lung cancer suvivors havent found any yet surely they must be some, i will keep trying. Think my husband is showing fear on display at present and also my kids but we will get passed this, so glad your wife is so supportive a true angle without wings im sure my husband and kids will step up too just like last time we all had a rough couple of years my mom passed away last year from a stoke and my husband had a heart attack at the same time he had 5 stints put in i think were all very scared and in shock at present slowly im thinking bring the beast on so i can win this battle

hi tom hope your keeping well thank you so much for getting back to me, it means a lot to me. so happy to hear there is some hope out there.I start back at chemo in 2 weeks pemetrexed and carboplatin to be honest i wasnt sure id take the treatment but reading your post it is making me think differently.I had a biopsy and they are testing the DNA to see if theres a more targeted treatment for my cancer which was adenocarcinoma stage 3 b but is now stage 4 due to lymph nodes. The doctor has said its very small and that its a very good sign that Im feeling very physically well. lets hope hes right I am not coping very well with all this mentally as my family dont seem to want to speak of cancer so thanks again for your reply and information its very helpful please keep in touch. mary
 
 

By nature, I'm an anxious person so I often just clear my mind by writing or speaking all of those random, whirly thoughts going through my mind.  I've posted a couple of times before and some circumstances have changed.  So here's my story that I just have to get out of my head: I had an unidentified mass in my upper left lobe and a bronchoscopy indicated it wasn't cancer.  Pulmonologist recommended surgery so in February of this year, the left upper lobe was removed and I was diagnosed with Stage IIIa adenocarcinoma.  Seven of ten lymph nodes were affected.  I had an MRI and CT of chest, abdomen and pelvis before I started chemo and the only thing noted was a nodule on my thyroid.  I completed four rounds of Cisplatin/Alimta and side effects were/are manageable.  I had my first post-chemo CT on July 1st and it showed no new areas of concern, since we already knew about they thyroid.  
After chemo, I went to see an ENT about my thyroid.  Biopsy results were inconclusive so surgery was scheduled.  I had a thyroidectomy two weeks ago and last week received my results.  I had papillary carcinoma and metastatic lung cancer in my thyroid.  I blew the oncologist's statistics out of the water.  Less than 5% of thyroid nodules are cancerous and both of mine were.  It is very rare for lung cancer to go the thyroid (ENT has seen it 3 times in 40+ years, oncologist has seen it twice in 20+ years) but numbers mean nothing.  Fortunately there was no lymph node involvement but it does change my staging to Stage IV since those sneaky cancer cells left the lung. When my oncologist told me that the lung cancer staging changed from three to four, I panicked. My brain immediately went to the darkest of places. I couldn't stop crying.  I'm an only child and my husband and I don't have kids, so my first thought was him and then my parents.  What would happen to my parents?  
But then clarity stepped in.  He was changing a number, not changing my attitude or my desire to fight this disease with all of my might or the progress I've made thus far.  I remind myself that the July CT was good and the nodule was the only issue noted when my baseline scans were done prior to chemo.  I have a pet scan in two weeks.  I'm praying that the chemo did its job and killed the rest of those cancer cells and that this scan is also good.
I come to this site every couple of days to see if I can contribute and to read stories of people diagnosed with late stage NSCLC who are still alive, still fighting, still living.  Those stories give me hope and renew my energy to fight with everything I have.