bauner95

Hi, My husband is a patient at OSU East. This was his second opinion and it was the best move we could have possible made. I wanted to share his story with you so that you could see how hard his oncologist tried to help him and much help he really was. Please feel free to pm me for more information. My husband is a member of CSN also. As you will see when you read our story, it is so important to find an oncologist who is willing to be as aggressive as you want and are physically able to be. The James is great! We wouldn’t be where we are today without his oncologist. He never gave up and fought hard to find others who were willing to do the same. Good luck at the second opinion. I am the caregiver of my husband, Mike. We are both 34 and we have a son who is 11 and a daughter who is 5. Here is our story. First let me start by saying Mike is a veteran and we were dealing with the VA. Mike had a CT done in December of 2004. When his doctor called us in to go over the results, her exact words were "It can not be cancer, because with the condition of you lungs, you would already be dead." Well, we took that as good news. She then said; let's do a PET scan just to rule it out. We thought ok. We have to check out everything so we can find out what is really wrong. She referred us to Cincinnati, OH to the VA hospital to have the test done. Well, to our surprise, the large spot on Mike's right lung showed uptake on the scan. They say to us that the doctor will be in touch. Then we are 15 minutes from the hospital on our way home when his cell phone rings and it is the pulmonologist. They want to meet with us immediately. Well, it was a Friday afternoon and since we were 15 minutes away, the doctor did not want to wait for us to come back to the hospital. Mike said tell me over the phone so we don't have to wait until next week and worry. So they tell us as I am driving down the freeway that it is cancer and they want him to come next week to have a biopsy done. We go the next week for the biopsy. It comes back positive. We go the next week to meet with the surgeon, whose nurse tells us we need to apply for social security. Boy what a shocker! They schedule surgery for the following week. At this point, we are stage I. Boy were they moving fast. We expected for them to resection his lung, take the cancer out and be done. They told us that when they got in there, they would take some more samples and do quick freeze biopsies in the operating room before continuing the resection. They took Mike to surgery and I looked at my watch and said they should just be getting started. I no more got the words out of my mouth and the surgeon walks into the waiting room. First he says our name, only it did not sound like Miller. Still to this day I am certain that he said the wrong name. I did not even recognize him; remember I had only seen him twice. Finally my father-in-law says over here. The doctor stands across a waiting room full of people, me, Mike's parents, our 9 year old son and 3 year old daughter and two of our friends, and tells us that it has spread to his lower right lobe and that he saw a spot on the chest wall, but no biopsy was taken, and that the spots in the left lung are suspected to be cancer too. Still standing across the room and in front of my children, he continues to tell us there is nothing that can be done and that he has probably 6 months, and at best a year to live. How do you process this? My son is asking me questions, like mom, is dad going to die? How do you answer that? The doctor tells us they are moving him to ICU (procedure) and then he will be moved onto the floor in the morning. When we go back to see Mike, we realize that he does not know that they could not do surgery, so I have to tell him, my next impossible task. Well, we talk to him and he says the doctors don't know these things. It is not in their hands, but in God's hands. I am sure this is the right attitude to have, but that was really hard for me to hear. Mike recovers and goes home three days later. At this point we are stage IV. At this point I decide that maybe the VA is not the best place for us to get treatment. I call the cancer center near our house and try to schedule an appointment. The lady on the phone is telling me that they have no appointments until June. I am freaking out, because we can't wait that long. We have to do something right now. While we are on the phone scheduling the appointment for June, she says oh wait. Now there is an appointment on March 9th, the day after his follow-up in Cincinnati. This was my first realization that God was working with us and he was leading us to the right doctor. We go see the oncologist who is honest and wants to begin chemo the next week. I ask if we can wait until the following week, because he wanted to start chemo on Mike's 33rd birthday. Me thinking it could be the last, I did not want to spend it getting chemo. So he schedules Mike to have a port put in on March 16th and he has his first chemo on March 18th. After four rounds of chemo, Mike has a CT and the main tumor has shrunk over 60% and none of the other spots are showing. Praise God! He wants Mike to have four more rounds and then if the response continues on this path then he wants him to see a surgeon. Well, he gets four more rounds of chemo, (Forgot to tell you what, Taxotere and Carboplatin) and he adds Avastin to the treatment. He does a PET scan at the end of those and sees the same response. The tumor has continued to shrink with no other spots showing. He called hospitals all over to find someone who would even consider the surgery. Cleveland Clinic would not touch him; the surgeon said what if we kill him. OSU would not do it either. His next choice was the University of Pittsburgh. They agreed to see us. He referred us to a surgeon who did a wedge resection on November 11, 2005. He biopsied other spots showing in Mike's lung and all came back negative. He also did a biopsy of the spot on his chest wall, again negative. At this point, the surgeon says that Mike is cancer free. Mike’s last appointment was August 1, 2006 and he is still cancer free. His next appointment is November 11, 2006. Well, sorry this is long, but it is where we started in December 2004 until now.

Thanks for this.

I am so sorry. I will be praying for the family.

Lori, I am so very sorry. I don't have any words to help you, but I will be praying for you and your family.

Don, I am so sorry. I have no words for you. She gave us such strength when I fist came to this board. I am so sorry! I will be praying for you and your family. God Bless You,

Anything Chocolate. I love chocolate and I hate all the cheap suckers and things my kids get now. Back when I was trick or treating we got full size candy bars. Now they are lucky to get bite size.

Don, Just wanted to let you know that I am still praying for your family.

Don, I just found this message. I am so sorry that Lucy is not doing well. I am praying for all of you! You both have been such an inspiration to me during all of this. I hope that I will return this to someone when they need it. I will keep praying. Sorry I am so late in reading these.

Just back from Mike's oncology appointment. CT shows NED still! He wants to see him back in November. That will be the one year anniversary of his surgery! I am so excited! I have been really worried this time, but all is good still! I just had to share my great news!

Oh my Trish, how scary! I am here reading, but have been busy enjoying a treatment free summer.

Well, mine is not too exciting either. My son's name is Bauner and he was born in 1995. I did not think people would use Bauner way back when I first started on the internet, but someone had, so I added his birth year. Now he is setting up accounts online and he asked me just the other day, Mom, what should I make my user name because you already took mine. I hadn't really thought of that when I did it, but it is too late now. I have been bauner95 for almost 12 years.

Carleen, I am so sorry! It is so unfair! I wish I had words to help you, but I can only offer my prayers for you and your family. I will be praying for you! I can't even imagine what you are going through! I am sending hugs and prayers to you! Love, Kim

Carleen, I am praying for you both each day!

Carleen, I am so sorry. I have no idea how you were even able to type those words. I can't even imagine how difficult this all is for you both. Please know that we are all here supporting you from afar. I am praying for you both. I pray that he will give you both the strength you all need to get through this. I pray for peace and that He will allow whatever time you all have left to be peaceful and pain free. I will keep you in my prayers. I wish I were closer to you so that I could sit with you and help you through this. If I can help you through any of this, please let me know. Love, Kim

I wanted to pass this email that I received today from Stephi's son. I am not sure if he knew she was a member here or not. She had her hands full of caring for others. Please keep her family in your prayers. She had three kids, but I am not sure of their ages. I know that her husband had lung cancer and her mom had cancer too. Here is the email........ Hello Every One, For those of you who do not know me my name is Trey Smith. I am stephony's youngest son.I am saddly writing to inform you all that my Mom died today, Sunday, June 26 at about 5:30 PM. She was visiting her mother, my grandmother at Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans when she started to feel like she was having hot flashes of sorts. My Mom and Donna who is a cousin of ours told my grandma that they were going to get something to drink and then informed a nurse that my Mom was having trouble breathing and so on. And I believe that she knew that she was having another heart attack as well. They then informed a nurse and they put her in a wheel chair and rushed her down to the ER They worked on her for about a half hour to thirty-five minutes and then after not being able to revive her they called it. So now we have to deal with this loss whilst at the same time consol her husband, my step-dad Larry, and my grandma whom we told at about 9:00 that her daughter had just passed away. If any of you want to make it to the funeral services you can call me, or my sister Lauren and we will give you any info you might need. We aren't exactly sure when the wake and funeral will be but we are thinking Thursday and Friday tenitavely. And services will be held at the McNeely & Son Funeral Home in Hammond, La. On my moms behalf I thank you all for your love, support and friendship and I wish you all well. Thank you. ---Trey---

Ben, Don't give up! My husband was diagnosed Stage IV in Feb. 2005. They tod us he would only live six months, maybe a year if he did chemo. He is cancer free today! There is always hope. If that doctor tells you there is not any hope, you should find one that will give you some hope. It was a long tough road, but well worth the trip for us. You can read his story in thw my story section. It is under my sign on bauner95. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

I feel like I could have written your post myself. I went through all that you are talking about. I know how hard it is to be strong for your husband and strong for your kids, when you really feel like your whole world is crumbling around you. My crying time was always when I was on the computer talking to my friends who were and are going through the same things I was experiencing. It is ok to cry, and I think you have to cry. It is part of getting through this one way or another. I think what Carleen said is true. Even if our loved ones have not passed away, in some ways, we are already mourning for the life we have lost. I can honestly say that since Mike has stopped treatment and we are on checkups every few months, our life is not like it was before. We are trying to learn to live with life after a cancer diagnosis. It is a real struggle in some ways, because we have both changed since all this began and we are trying to find out who we are now. I still find myself crying at times. I am also taking medicine to help me, but it doesn't take away the saddness. It just helps me manage it better. I wish I could tell you it will go away, but I am sure you already know that it won't. I guess what I am trying to say here is that you are not alone. I've been where you are with your husband and your kids. I am here to help you if I can. You can PM me and I will listen and help you if I can. I will be praying for you, your husband and your kids.

I would check with the doctor about the swelling. Mike's feet, ankles and calves swelled when he was on Taxotere, Carboplatin and Avastin. He took a water pill. One side was always worse than the other too.

Don, Mike had Avastin and it does get faster. The first time it took an hour and a half for the Avastin. The next time it took an hour, then after that a half hour. That part should get better. For Mike, it was an all day thing everytime and we drove an hour each way too. Of course at the time it about killed us both I think, but now we seem to be saying it wasn't too bad. I hope things get better for you all. I know what you are going through. How is Lucy today?

STILL NED!!!!!! Everything looked great! The doctor thinks it is partly from the chemo and partly because Mike hasn't been sleeping well. The sleep thing is nothing new. He has always battled that. He changed his meds and we will see what happens! He will see us again at the end of June with a CT scan. He said stop worrying, relax and enjoy! Forgot to tell you all that they scheduled him to have his port removed. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers and crossing of all the things! Love, Kim

Mike is going through this too. His last chemo was in August and he just seems tired all the time. He called the doctor he was so concerned and they moved up his PET scan to last week and we get the results tomorrow. I hope it is just from the chemo still. I can't imagine starting again especially since he is already tired all the time.

We see the doctor in the morning to get the results of Mike's PET scan. They moved it up because Mike asked them to. He hasn't been feeling right lately and still having problems with what we hope is chemo brain! We could use extra prayers our way! Frankly, I am a nervous wreck. Scared to hear the results and tired of waiting to har th rsults. I know many of you have been there and know exactly how I am feeling.

Mike had the blood when he blew his nose and his feet and legs swelled up too. Sorry for the delay in responding. We just bought a house and have been movin.

I was born in Louisville, KY. Mike was born in Portsmouth, OH. I was a Navy wife. We lived in Memphis, TN, Jacksonville, NC, Richmond, VA and we now live in Hopewell, OH. Our son was born in Wilmington, NC because he was born at 31 weeks and I had to go to a bigger hospital. Our daughter was born in Columbus, OH because she was bron at 34 weeks and again we needed a bigger hospital.

Jodi, I don't have any information to help you, but I will be praying.