BridgetO

Hi LindaMarie.  Yep, I had a right low lobectomy by VATS,  4 years ago. My surgeon took out 27 lymph nodes, meiastinal, from between the lungs. They were all benign. They had not been  previously biopsied. 

 I didn't get lymphedema from this. In fact, I didn't know that lymphedema was possible from this surgery.  I briefly looked at this on the internet and from a quick look, it seems like pulmonary lymphedema is possible but not common. 

I'm pretty familiar with lymphedema. I have it in both legs as a result of surgery and pelvic radiation treatment for a non-lung-cancer-related gynecologic cancer.  Prior to the surgery I asked my surgeon if I would be at risk of lymhedema from the extensive surgery and he said I wouldn't because he was not planning to take ot inguinal (groin) nodes. He took out 27 nodes from my pelvic and aortoc area and 2 were malignant. (odd coincidence  that it was the same number removed from my chest). When I develped lymphedema, the Physical Therapist that treated it saie that she had heard from other patients that that surgeon had told other women the same thing. He was otherwise an excellent surgeon. So I'm not sure how much I would trust one surgeons opini9on on this. On the other hand, the surgery and other treatment saved my life. My cancer was Stage 3 ane very aggressive and I had a 0or prognosis. I would have hae the surgery even if I had known the risk. I've been NED (no evidence of disease for 10 years.

You might want to get a second opinion on the lymph node issew: Is it necessary to taike them out ane what is the risk of yymphedema.

When is your surgery planned and is it going to be by VATS? 

I am well and doing fine. I just had cataract surgery. If you find typos in this message, it's because I don't yet have the right pos surgical reading glasses and It's hare to see what i've typed.

Bridget O
 

My goodness, how awful! I understand your decision to stop driving. I wish you all the best in your recovery. How are you doing now?

Hi Banna, I can't find my pathology report but If I remember correctly, my tumor was around 1 cm, more or less. I never smoked but I did live with smokers,so had a lot of second hand smoke.

Hi Again, Rick! I'm glad to see that you posted on the general forum and you already have one respone. I'm sure you'll get more. It is indeed hard to get ready for an uncertain future!  I like the "Here goes! I try to think of cancer treatment as an adventure; it's something I've never done before and there are things I can learn from it. And since I have no choice about having cancer and not much choice about having treatment (assuming I want to live, which I really do)--  I might as well try to find a positive way to approach it. That works for me some of the time.

Bridget O

Hi Rick,

Hang in there, I don't know how bad it will be! I don't mean to be facetious, I think that's how it is. My lung cancer was stage 1a, so I only needed surgery. It was discovered in a routine every-6-months surveillance CT for an unrelated cancer which was stage 3 (regional lymph node mets)and aggressive. For that cancer I had 30 (if I recal the number correctly) radiation treatments with concurrent cisplatin weekly, followed by  3 rounds of carboplatin and taxoterre (close relative of taxol). Some of my side effects were different than yours will be because my gut was being radiated. I had some nausea and a lot of diarrhea. Hard to know how much was from the chemo itself, probably the diarrhea at least was mostly due to gut radiation. I had to carefully figure out what I could eat (bland, non fat, non fiber foods) and that helped some. I had neutropenia, once mild and once really severe (zero neutrophils), and then was put on neulasta, which prevented recurrence.  At the end of my treatment I got very anemic and needed a transfusion.

i'm retired so not working during treatment. I was able to drive myself to all of my chemo and radiation appointment. So I would say it wasn't a piece of cake, but it was doable, and I'm grateful to be alive with no evidence of disease today, so it was worth it.

All that being said, everybody's experience with chemo and radiation is different.  A lot of people get really fatigued with radiation. I didn't, although I had very low energy from anemia at the end of my treatment. 

You posted  in a way that came only to me. Don't  know if this was on purpose or not. If you post to the general forum, you'll get input from others, which would be valuable to you, since everybody's different with this. You can go to the home page, then Forums, and then "Start New Topic" and give it a title, maybe like " Want to hear real chemo/radiation experiences". These forums are good places for information and support. Be sure to ask, either generally or to me or others, what questions you have.

Best wishes to you.

Bridget O

No' I don't really miss it. My surgeon said that I probably wouldn't notice it missing unless I was running a marathon, which I'm not. Prior to surgery my O2 saturation was 99-100% and now it's 98, not much of a difference.

I wish I could find my biopsy report to give you a more exact answer. I think mine was 12 mm in the largest dimension. (it was kind of oblong) It was the only one and the borders were clean. I didn't need any treatment other than the surgery. I have CTs every 6 months. I just today got the results of my 18 month one and it was clear. Yay!

Hi Lynny,  I saw another post in which you said you're seeing a pulmonologist soon. He or she should be able to look at your scan and give you a better idea of what it is likely to be. There are a lot of different reasos (and sometime it seems like there's no reason) for lung nodules. Coughing up blood is alarming in any case.  I had no symptoms. My nodule was found in a CT scan for something else. pulmonologist was able to give me a lot of information just from looking at my scan.  

If the doc sees cancer as a possiblity (and also for some other possible lung diseases), you may need a biopsy. Often nodules can be biopsied by needle or bronchoscope. Because of the location of my nodule, they weren't able to biopsy it in any way other than lobectomy. I had a PET scan and nothing lit up, apparently because the cancer  was so small and slow growing.  But based on it's appearance, all the docs recommended the lobectomy. It turned out to be adenocarcinoma state 1a. 

I saw that you had posted in several places including this one on my individual profile. This is fine. But you will get the widest circulation if you post on the Forum called "Introduce yourself" because most people read tat one. If you have trouble finding or posting there, message me back here and I'll see if I can help.

Bridget O