lily55

Thanks for the reply Susan. My name is actually CJ, lily is just my favorite flower If they decide not to take out my left lung then the only real treatment plan that has been proposed to me is the "wait and see" plan. Wait a few months and have another PET scan and if it shows changes then decide from there. To me that's a little concerning that they'd wait that long to do another PET scan, especially since the last one done, on 6/30, show the new activity in my lymph nodes in the left armpit. I know people can and do live well without one of their lungs, the thing that's making me anxious is that all of my doctors seem hesitant to tell me whether they think it will actually improve my breathing. Again, I know there are no guarantees, but give me an opinion! I mean, they're the medically trained people and I'm not, I'm going to them for a reason. In the meantime there are things in my life I'm trying to plan like annual vacations and my wedding in February so I'd like to know sooner rather than later and the whole "wait and see" game is getting old. Thanks for the personal story, it makes me feel better about possibly having the surgery.

I was diagnosed with NSCLC of my left lung in September of 2016. I started treatment with an oral medication which helped a lot and then in January of 2017 moved on to IV chemo and radiation for six weeks. Once that was complete I started coughing up significant amounts of blood and discovered the tumor in my lung had torn a hole in my bronchial artery. I was in and out of the hospital for about a month dealing with it and continued to cough up blood until early June 2017. Because of the coughing and the blood and the fact that the procedures they did to try to repair the hole didn't work they started talking about removing my left lung. Two PET scans later and there's still "activity" in my left lung and now there's additional activity in the lymph nodes in my left armpit. They can't tell for sure whether it's cancer or inflammation, apparently. My oncologist, surgeon, radiation oncologist, pulmonologist, and other specialists are discussing my case today to make a recommendation about whether I should have the lung removed or not. I am super anxious because it's a huge surgery, I'm only 30 years old, and there are obviously no guarantees whether it will improve my breathing/quality of life.