Laurel

If you don't feel you're getting enough support from your oncologist for the side effects, try your primary physician. My primary physician helped me through 2 bouts of pneumonia as I did chemo followed by radiation.

The waiting...The wondering is tough. Sending soft hugs and prayers.

I had muscle pain. Using salon pas lidocaine patches, along with my pain meds really helped.

A patient advocate helped me at M D Anderson.

I had two bouts of pneumonia...one during chemo and the other after radiation. I found that neirher the oncologist nor the radiologist were good with treating it. My primary physician helped me through pneumonia.

The stress is ugly. I go to youtube.com and do little 5 minute meditation videos. It calms me a bit. Soft hugs to you.

I found -Prevention oncology mouth rinse on Amazon.com. It was one of a few things that eased my throat that was being burned with radiation.

I'm so sorry you had to go through this.

After my last scan, I felt a lot of anxiety. I made it clear to my oncologist as soon as he came in to the room. I was almost in tears. He immediately shared good news from my scan. I had been ill....and with any illness...cancer rears its ugly head. These scans are stressful.

Yes....in November, 2017, I was stage 1b. I was told it was slow growing. After surgery, February, 2018, it was stage 3a.....not slow growing. Thank God my sister and a friend pushed me to connect with a patient advocate at M D Anderson who found out my files from my local oncologist had been lost...twice. The patient advocate pushed for an appointment.

Write down your questions and bring somebody with you. I find I would close down at times. Scans and waiting for results is tough. I've had 3 scans and each time was different....one drove me crazy waiting. I now know my oncologist gets the results the same day. So, I strongly request an appointment one to two days later.

After VATS surgery, February 2018, I was seen as "no evidence of disease". Since 2 of the 4 lympth nodes with cancer that were removed were in my esophagus, it was seen as cancer on the move. The thinking there could be unseen cancer and chemo and radiation were recommended. It was not a fun experience, but I chose to fight as hard as I could. I was taking no chances. After one year snd 3 scans, I remain "no evidence of disease".

I had the VATS surgery February 2018. I started out stage 1, but 3 months later after surgery removing upper right lung and several lympth nodes, it was stage 3. I was blessed it was not known to be stage 3 as surgery is not usually a choice. I had a wonderful surgeon at MD Anderson in Houston, excellent hospital and follow up care. Everyone has different experience with pain....I don't tolerate pain. It was well controlled with meds. Although I had chemo and radiation to follow, I believe the surgery is the reason for no evidence of disease....one year and 3 scans later.

Sending prayers and soft hugs to you and your dad.

For sore throat during radiation, I used Prevention Oncology Mouth Rinse from amazon.com. My radiologist had me use Calendula burn cream everyday. It was from amazon.com also. Bless you through these treatments. Soft hugs