I've been lurking around here for a couple of months; gathering the strength, courage, hope, faith, perseverance, and unselfish concern of all who contribute to this board. I thank you all and I thank God that this site exists.
My name is Oliver and I'm a 54 yr old male. I ended up in the Emergency Room on 8/26/04 with excruciating pain in my right side. I was admitted and a bronchoscopy was done. The pictures were excellent. They showed the violent red of infection interspersed with white 'specks'. The pulmologist informed me that I had pneumonia and pleural efflusion. When I asked what the white specks were, he informed me that I also had lung cancer. Needless to say, I was stunned. My first thought was, " not yet, I'm waaay too young. This is supposed to happen in about 10 more years."
I'm a carpenter by trade, and have been in construction for over 30 years. In that time I'v inhaled plenty of toxic and harmful items. Compounded by the fact that I've smoked all my life, I knew my lungs were taking a beating.
The hospital I was in was affiliated with MD Anderson. The first option was to remove the right lung. A biopsy was done on my lympth nodes before surgery and it came back indicating cancer there too. Stage IIIB. They installed a port instead. Before I was released 2 weeks later, I'd had my first chemo session. Taxol/Carboplatin. I ended up getting 6 chemo sessions; the last two requiring neuprogin as my WBC were way low. I received radiation at the same time, 37 times.
My 1st CT scan, 12/07, showed "significant improvement in aeration". My latest CT scan, 04/12, showed improvement in the lympth nodes but either fluid or mass in the right upper lobe and left upper lobe. I've learned to hate the phrase "interval change".
I'm in the process of switching oncologists; I found out about the interval change by getting a copy of the radiologist's report myself. I see the new onc. 5/13. It seemed to me that my first doc didn't even read my CT scan report before he came in and pointed to the word 'improvement' and then left.
I live alone, although my 26 yr old son and I are close, so it gets kind of scary when I start trying to visualize what the future holds. That's where this site is a Godsend. I read the signatures, looking for the people that have approximately the same stage as I, and I gather the hope that comes with seeing you all having active, complete lives. I'm still working full-time (I'm in a supervisory position, so it's not hard work). I definitely don't have much endurance for strenuous activity. I run out of breath very quickly.
I've tried to find out everything about my disease that I can; but mostly I wanted to find other people who were living with LC. I finally googled 'LC survivor' and that's how I came to find this site. I can't describe to you the relief I felt that 'I'm not alone'. So that's me. I'm on my way to take my son and his mother out for brunch and golf. Again, I thank all of you for being here. God Bless you all. And a wonderful Mother's Day to all you mothers.
