My mom was diagnosed with Stage IV Non Small Cell Adenocarcinoma last month at age 57. Up until this she was a very healthy, active, non-smoker, so this diagnosis hit our family like a ton of bricks. From what I've been reading it's not uncommon for someone to have this for a number years with no symtoms. She had a cough and went to the doctor who sent her for a chest x-ray. There was fluid on her lungs so the doctor told her she had pnemonia and gave her antibiotics. She went back for her follow up x-ray and the fluid was still there, so her doc sent her to a pulminologist who took one liter of fluid out with a needle. My dad took her to the emergency room the next morning which was a Saturday because she was in so much pain. The fluid was back again. They called her pulminologist who said he wanted to see her first thing Monday morning. When my mom went to see him Monday morning she was told the fluid had cancer in it and she needed to go straight to the hospital. She was admitted on 2/14/05 and didn't get out unitl 3/2/05. While she was in the hopital she went through so much, she had to have a chest tube to keep the fluid drained, numerous scans, an MRI and surgery. They discovered she had two blood clots. One in her lung and one in her left leg so they put her on heparin. They found the cancer had not metastisized to any other organ, but there was fluid surrounding her heart. She had surgery to drain the fluid from her heart and had a procedure done to keep the fluid from building on her lungs. During the surgery they also put her cath in for chemo. I'm not to great with spelling the procedures that she's been through so I apologize. After the surgery the surgeon came out and showed us a picture of her lungs. He said "I'm sure you all know her lungs are really bad, right?" We really didn't know how bad. There were bumps everywhere, we were all devastated. My mom didn't want to know anything. She is so scared and sad and we all can't beleive this is happening. She had her first round of chemo on 3/8/05 and while she was there her oncologist noticed her arm was red and swollen and sent her to the ER again where they found multiple clots in her arm and the clot in her left leg is worse. They admitted her again and changed her blood thinner. She got out of the hospital on 3/11/05 (my birthday) and I was happy for her. She hates being in the hospital. She is very weak and sick right now, which I'm sure is the side effects of the chemo. This is all so new to me. I love my mom so much and we are all struggling to make sense of this. My dad is with her day and night....he is her rock. I am starting to worry about him and I keep telling him he should talk to someone about how he is feeling but he just tells me he doesn't have time. My sister, my brother and myself are clueless on what we should do. We offer to come over and help him so he can take a break but he says she needs him there. My sister lives in Cincinnati and she wants to be here but my mom says she doesn't want her to come because she is too sick. My sister can't stop crying because she wants to see her but doesn't want to disrespect her wishes. Its all just so hard and we all have so many questions. I can't eat, sleep or think. My mom is constantly in my thoughts. I am so scared for her. Can anyone give us some advice??? Are there any survivors of this type of cancer in this late stage?
Thank you so much for reading!
