LexieCat

I will call them tomorrow to see what can be done sooner


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I'll "weigh in". Pearl, Your doctor may have a medical situation in her family, but that should not put your medical situation on hold. Another doctor or nurse practitioner should order the needle biopsy at the hospital they are associated with. It's an outpatient procedure done by an interventional radiologist. Or they should schedule you for a PET scan at the facility they work with for those, but only a biopsy can confirm cancer. If they refer you to a thoracic surgeon, they can order the biopsy. If it is cancer and operable, that's who would do it. This is when you need to advocate for yourself and tell them what you need. If it is positive, you wouldn't be going back to a pulmonologist anyway. You would work with the surgeon or radiational or medical oncologist depending what treatment is decided upon. I know it's awful to be stuck in the unknown and scared and confused...and it's a holiday weekend. My center is open tomorrow even though they're closed Tuesday, but calling tomorrow is worth a try. Definitely Wednesday. Then let us know where things stand. You need to know that something else is scheduled sooner than another office visit at the no of the month. We'll be thinking of you.
Cindy

Sure, I'd be scared, too (and am, to some extent), but this is a very small spot right now--as far as you know the treatment might be very simple.  From what I understand the deal with most lung cancers is that they aren't discovered till after they have caused symptoms--which doesn't happen until it's pretty far advanced.
I'm not suggesting for a second that you have nothing to worry about, but try to maintain perspective.  Until you know more, the extra worrying won't help.  This is the SAME advice I'm giving myself.  
Has anyone told you what they plan to do to "test"?

Hi, Pearl!  I love that name--my mom was Pearl.
I'm sort of in a similar boat, though it looks a little more certain that mine will turn out to be cancer--slight growth since last year in a nodule they've been monitoring, and PET scan had that nodule "light up."  I'm scheduled for surgery in a week.  
Were you in a screening program with your annual CT's?  That's how mine was picked up.  I have a few other very small nodules elsewhere in my lungs, which have remained stable and didn't light up on the PET scan.  I was told there would be no point to a biopsy, because given what has been observed, the recommendation would be to remove it anyway.  I'm having the upper left lobe removed, assuming they determine during surgery that it is cancer.
I'm trying to look at it as something to be grateful for that it is small, evidently isolated at this point, and hopefully completely treatable with this surgery.  I know I will remain nervous about recurrences, but that's really something I have no control over other than to be diligent in keeping an eye on things.  Certainly I would be happier if I weren't dealing with any of this, but I'm trying to hit that sweet spot between appropriately educating myself and freaking myself out.  So far no freakout, but that could be subject to change in the future.
Teri

OK, false alarm.  At least I don't have to change the title of the thread.  Surgery IS scheduled for the 10th.  After I got no call back from hospital staff for whom I'd left messages, I called my surgeon's cell (which he had given me and urged me to call "any time").  He said when we first met he had them put it down for the 13th because there was a long procedure he had scheduled for that day, but that that had been rescheduled, so it WAS the 10th, as he had told me.
Whew--I am now reassured that I don’t have a brain tumor that’s making me hallucinate.  I was questioning HOW I could have imagined the wrong date!  

I don't have any knowledge/experience to share, so just sending a hug.

Thanks, Tom.  I just got my abdominal and pelvic scan results and they are NED, too! Next scan in 6 months. 

On the 24th of this month, I have my first CT follow up after my lobectomy in November. It's abdominal/pelvic as well as chest. I had an advanced and aggressive (Stage 3, grade 3) cervical cancer in 2011, with CT followup every 6 months. NED until last fall and I had become much less anxious about scans, when the lung nodule turned up. Fortunately, it was a stage 1A lung adenocarcinoma rather than a metastasis. (How often do you hear someone say "fortunately" about lung cancer?) But now the scan anxiety has increased some. I was going to be on annual CTs on the abdominal/pelvic, since I'm more than 5 years out on the cervical. I asked for them do do the whole torso, because I'm having some vague and dull discomfort. So now I have two cancers to be concerned about! Whatever! I'm taking my own advice-- or trying to. I'm hanging in there and have a trip planned to visit an old friend the first weekend in June.

Thanks, Bridget!  Tips like the foam wedge are GREAT--anything that will make the week or two following surgery more comfortable is welcome!  I live alone, but I'm spending the holiday weekend this weekend taking care of household chores so I come home to a clean house and don't have to change sheets or anything.  My neighbors are at home all day, so they are available for me to call on if I find I need any help or errands run.  I work from home when I'm not traveling for work, and my job is very flexible/accommodating, so I can work for a couple of hours here and there as I feel up to it, but don't have to do anything strenuous or drive or anything.  
I'm NOT underestimating the unpredictability of this disease, but I'm an optimist by nature and am encouraged so far by how things are going.  I'm especially relieved to have doctors I am EXTREMELY comfortable with/confident about.  I'm also grateful I'm in good health otherwise.  I need to get more exercise (rather sedentary lifestyle) but I've lost a lot of weight this year (COMPLETELY on purpose--I worked for every half pound that has come off) and all my recent lab results have been great.

Love OC--it's beautiful.  I'm in Camden County, right across the river from Philadelphia.  I'm being treated at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper Hospital--I worked in Camden for many years and have always liked Cooper and the Cancer Center, which is relatively new, is really awesome.  They have all the pros working together for a multidisciplinary response.  Some of my surgeon's other patients that I met had much more complicated situations with metastases, chemo, etc., and they felt they were receiving the best care available.

Hello Richard.
I was diagnosed with Stage 3B in December 1997.  I started my treatment with 2 chemo drugs and daily radiation. 
Later I was able to have a lobe on lung removed followed by more chemo.  As you may figure out this December it
will be 20 years ago.  I am NED since the Spring of 1998.   Keep us posted on your progress.
Donna G

I'm so glad that it worked out for you. I now have a PCP that is phenomenal and works closely with my Oncologist.
Thank you so much for doing the work you did! As a former Psychotherapist I worked with many victims of abuse and so appreciate all the members of the team to assist and support them.
I wish you the very best in your journey. There are so many great options for treatment and more being developed. There is many reasons to be optimistic!
Will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
Lydia
 
 

I am definitely a fan of screening. Especially because I requested a chest x-ray (I wasn't aware of the screening at that time) a year before my diagnosis. My Doctor asked me why I thought I needed one to which I replied that I had a 30+ pack year history (I had quit 15 years earlier). The Doc asked me if I was having any symptoms to which I replied "no". She said there was no need for an x-ray if there wasn't any symptoms. Needless to say I was quite angry when I was diagnosed with stage 4 one year later. I changed to a different primary care Doctor immediately. I still get angry when I think about it. Especially since 75% of lung cancers go without symptoms until stage 4. Now I tell everyone I know that has been a smoker to get the scan!
Lydia

Hi and welcome.  My situation is similar to yours sin some ways, but different in others. I'm a non-smoker.  I have routine CT scans due to another cancer which could metastasize to lungs. Last year a small suspicious nodule appeared in my right lung. In 3 months I was rescanned and it had grown slightly. The docs said it looked suspicious, but that it didn't look like a metastasis,but they couldn't be sure. On a PET scan, it didn't light up at all, but they said slow-growing cancers sometimes don't. Because of its location, it couldn't be biopsied without taking it out.
In November of last year, I had a right lower lobectomy by VATS. They also took out a bunch of mediastinal lymph nodes. The diagnosis was adenocarcinoma stage 1A. I'm one of the few people you will hear say thay they were glad for a diagnosis of lung cancer. If it had been a metastisis from my other cancer, the prognosis would have been much worse. 
The VATS surgery wasn't too bad. I was discharged from the hospital the following day with a chest tube in place. I was soon up and around, walking around my neighborhood.  I hid the chest tube and drain bag under an oversized raincoat. The pain was manageable. I took opiods for a few days and then tylenol. I learned how NOT to move. I had the chest tube for 10 days. Many people have them out sooner, but I had a small air leak. Once the tube was out, I had hardly any pain at all..  
My main recommendation to prepare for surgery is to get a bed wedge. I was advised to sleep with my head and chest elevated 45 degrees. At first I tried to do this with pillows, but ended up not sleeping well and getting a kink in my neck. A  12 inch foam bed wedge solved the problem. I used a small pillow on top of it and found a very comfortable position to sleep in. My second recommendation is, if you're discharged with a chest tube, is to get some chux (disposable underpatds) or have a thick towel under you in bed in case your tube leaks.
Best of luck to you! Feel free to ask any questions you have. People on this forum have a lot of experience and knowledge.
Bridget 

LexieCat,
Welcome here.
I'm a big fan of early detection for lung cancer and low dose CT scan screening.  It is the only reliable way of finding lung cancer before spins out of control and it appears you've done so.  First, one point -- if you are being biopsied for suspicious cancer, I suggest you include a medical oncologist in your stable of medical practitioners.  If the nodule displays cancer, a medical oncologist should quarterback your treatment team and finding one you are comfortable with and consulting before surgery might prove helpful (vital).
I unfortunately was diagnosed in an age before screening and consequently spent more than 3 years in constant treatment to achieve a no evidence of disease (NED) result.  NED is the term we use these day having discarded the word "cure" in the lung cancer community.  Lung cancer is persistant and if the pathologist's examination of your biopsy shows metastatic disease, you'll have a long tenured relationship with your medical oncologist going through recurring screens.  And these are vital.  I still see mine twice a year having survived now more than 13 years after diagnosis.
Have a look around the site.  I suggest while waiting, you read into the disease to become familiar with the nomenclature.  Here is a good place to start.
Questions? This is a good place for those. OBTW - spent summers of my youth in South Jersey -- Ocean City.  This in the heyday of Campbell Soup vegetable farms and before the Atlantic City Express way and casinos.  
Stay the course.
Tom