Kathy P.

Hi Kathy,
I had a stage 1A  lung adenocacinoma. I had a lobectomy and no furtther treatment was recommended. However, I previously had a stage 3, rare type of cervical cancer with a "dismal prognosis" (whatever that means). For that one  I had concurrent chemo and radiation and then, based on a second opinion, some additional chemo.  None of it was pleasant. I had side effects, including some that are permanent. I don't regret my treatment decisions, though, because today, more than 6 years later, I'm ALIVE (yay!) and no evidence of disase (double yay!). 
Chemo is indeed scary. it's essentially a poison intented to kill off the cancer without killing us. In my case it worked, and I'm grateful. My quality of life if good today, I'm  still able to travel (one of my great joys), I walk  a lot and I feel well. (BTW, I'm 72)
As to alternative medicine, I'm a believer in it as an adjunct to conventional treatment, not as a substitute. During and for a time after my treatments, I had frequent acupuncture , which seemed to me to help with side effects. I also took some supplements and made some dietary changes on the advice of a naturopath. Don't know if it helped with the cancer, but in any event I'm in much better physical shape than  I was pre-cancer. 
We each have to make our own treatment decisions. In my case, It's been to throw everything at the cancer.  I wish there was something gentler that worked, but I don't think there is.
Keep us posted.
Bridget O

Welcome here Kathy,
I've had a total of 18 infusions of Taxol and Carboplatin.  Like Susan, each infusion was administered in a three-week cycle.  My chief side-effect was joint pain (of course I lost my hair) and it was very difficult to deal with for about 3 days every three weeks.  Three bad days every 21 days, but, it worked.  After each cycle of six infusions, tumors disappeared.  I benefited from significant extensions of life.
In the nearly 14 years of surviving a lung cancer diagnosis, I've done an extensive amount of research.  I'm also fortunate to have a wife with a masters degree in dietetics and she's done a lot of research.  Neither of us could find peer reviewed literature in any respected medical or microbiology journal that suggests diet, juicing, organics-based diet, or GMO has any effect on any cancer, including lung cancer.  In fact, we found a lot of mis-information and sales literature aimed at cancer patients because we are such a "insult to injury" lucrative target.  Here and here are essays I've written about alternative cancer therapies and nutrition based "cures." There is benefit for improving one's diet, but the benefit does not extend to stopping or killing cancer.  
I completely understand your analogy about misery before death but in between, for most, comes extended life.  One of the real, recognized benefit from chemotherapy is extended life. Many on this forum are in the NED (no evidence of disease) zone because of chemotherapy, alone.  Some receive chemotherapy for years because it keeps knocking back tumors and adding to the extended life, thus treating lung cancer as a chronic disease like diabetes.  One lady I know well has been receiving Taxol and Carboplatin (one infusion every three weeks) for an 18 week treatment cycle every year for the last 10 years. 
I really wish there was something better as a treatment alternative. You might read The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee.  In this "biography" of cancer, Mukherjee describes the problem of killing cancer, our body cells run amuck, with chemicals as so difficult it is "like finding some agent that will dissolve away the left ear and leave the right ear unharmed." Indeed, that difficulty is precisely why we experience side-effects from chemotherapy -- cancer cells are of our own bodies.  I note you are awaiting biopsy results on your adenocarcinoma lung cancer that might show a response to one of the several new targeted therapies emerging from research. If your results indicate suitability for targeted therapy, you might receive a very effective drug that doesn't need to dissolve the left ear and leave the right unharmed to kill cancer.  There may be side effects, but their are much improved results.
More questions?  This is the place.
Stay the course.
Tom

Good morning, Kathy.  Treatment choice is a very personal choice; you have to decide what's best for you and your situation.  I decided to treat mine as aggressively as possible. I'm an only child with a father fighting lymphoma; I figured my mom has enough on her plate! I had a lobectomy in February 2016; cancer had also spread to seven of 10 lymph nodes they removed.  I followed surgery with four rounds of cisplatin/alimta (pemexetred).  I had chemo on Fridays and generally felt good until Sunday (when chemo steroids wore off). Monday and Tuesday were rough but by Wednesday, I was turning the corner.  I had three weeks between treatments.  This is not to say that I didn't have side effects; I did.  I had a recurrence earlier this year and had additional chemo (carboplatin and taxol) and radiation.  This round of treatment was much more challenging.  Again, I wanted to be as aggressive as possible.  In fact, I've told my oncologist to do whatever it takes.  I had my last radiation in May and my last chemo in July and I'm almost back to my old self.  
As for statistics, don't bother looking at them.  There are many, many wonderful people on this forum who, according to statistics, should be dead years ago.  Statistics are just numbers that don't account for your age, your overall health, etc.  
Keep us posted on your progress.