Ladyintheglen

I don't know if this will help but this is what I told my husband when he saw the scary statistics...Someone has to be in the survival numbers and it might as well be him. He has as much a chance as anyone else of beating the statistics. Fight and beat the odds! Cheryl

Sandie, Welcome Home! The people here are amazing. Sit back and wrap the blanket of love and support around yourself. I am also new and thank God for the people here. Cheryl

Hello All, Well, apparently I'm a worry wart. The Dr. thinks it's probably due to the treatment and his coloring is much better today. Of course when the Dr. asked Jake questions Jake replied that he felt great. Which is a good thing. Thamk you all for the support and prayers. Sorry I'm an alarmist (I guess). God Bless. Cheryl

Hello All, Thank you so much for your quick responses. I mentioned to my husbands sister that he didn't look right but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then I noticed the coloring wasn't right. Then he made alot of mistakes converting a boat. Normally he is sooooo precise with anything like that. The worst thing he'll do is "torkinate" any screws or bolts and break them. (I've always called him the torkinator) But this time he made plans and changed things around. Then found out it wouldn't work that way and change them around again. This all required drilling holes in the boat. I will call the Dr. on the lamb as my husband will tell me that I'm being rediculous. Thank you again. Cheryl

Hello All, I have a question for you. My husbands coloring seems to be changing. More of a yellowish but nothing major. I just noticed it yesterday. Also he seems to be making mistakes that he normally wouldn't make. I feel like something is not right. Should I pull the Dr. to the side on Tues. and mention it or does it seem like I'm being overprotective? It's hard to know what to do. He's just entering his 4th week of radiation and has had 3 courses of chemo (etopiside and carboplatin). Cheryl

I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your mother. As everyone has already told you there is no right or wrong way to mourn. Just support each other with where you are at the moment. When my mother died many years ago I received an image of the journey that she took that I would like to share. It's what helps me to deal with death when I encounter it. Our loved one is on a ship that begins to leave. We are on the shore waving frantically, saying good bye and crying because we will miss them so much. As the ship gets smaller and finally goes out of sight we go on with our lives never forgetting the one that we love. But you see the ship keeps sailing (I like to think of it as a cruise ship). As it gets closer to the other side there is another crowd. They are also waving frantically. They are crying out, "She's here! She's here!" They are also crying because it's been such a long time since they've seen her and they love her so! She will be there waiting for you when you go on your journey to the other side. This may be an over simplified idea of things but it helps me and I hope that it might help you. My prayers are with you and your family. God Bless us all! Cheryl

Hello All! Just thought I'd let everyone know what has helped me on many days to get through this. Whenever I fall apart I wait to see how many pieces drop off...then I pick up the pieces and put them back on with scotch tape. (Duct tape is too irritating to the skin) The key seems to be to allow the pieces fall. I have a life time supply of scotch tape and am willing to send it out to anyone who needs it ASAP. You are all in my prayers. God Bless us all!

Hello All! I am not taking care of my mom (unfortunately) but am taking care of my husband. I tell people that I've hidden all of the sharp knives...the problem is I keep remembering where I hid them! My best advice is to take good care of yourself. We all have those feelings and are normal because of them. Do some little nice things to pamper yourself. You deserve it. Manicure or pedicure anyone??? How about a quiet walk in the park? God Bless us all! Ladyintheglen

Hello all. I am new to this forum but felt the need to point out a few things to Las so that he can better understand the smoking issue. This story begins when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My parents (both smokers) had some new neighbors over for coffee and desert. Trying to be the perfect little hostess I noticed that the new couple didn't have an ashtray near them so I quickly got one for them. When I proudly handed it to the wife she said, "No, thank you. We don't smoke." I was amazed and my reply was, "Why not?" You see, we came from an era where we were told that cigarette smoking was not addictive, did not cause lung cancer, heart attacks, premature birth, strokes, etc. I thought that all adults smoked. It was one of the things that made them adults. If you watch old movies, sitcoms or even an old news report you will see adults smoking. Bewitched, I Love Lucy, Batman, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Evening News with Walter Cronkite...The list goes on and on. Even the old cartoons had smoking. I am not saying that the media is to blame but if you think about it what habits have you grown up with because of the exposure it received? Do you drink plenty of water, exercise regularly, use the stairs instead of an elevator, cut back on sweets, eat more healthy grains, fruits and vegetables? I just wanted you to think about the fact that maybe you don't smoke because of the media exposure that generations before you fought so that the next generation could be healthier than ours. I hope that maybe this little window of a time that has passed will help you to understand a little of your Mom's era. Maybe it will help you to rid yourself of a little piece of your anger. After all, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. I hope your counselor will help you to find more bites to take at your understandable "elephant" of anger. God Bless us all. Ladyintheglen

Thank you for the immediate responses. I have taken your advice and posted my message on "Ask the Experts". I truly believe that the Dr.s that are caring for my husband are very good but I still need to see the information myself. The first Dr. and/or her staff made many mistakes and was not happy with me for pointing them out. As if we were to be quiet and accept anything that happened. I hate the fact that anyone has to go through this disease. God Bless all of us.

Hello and God Bless to all: My hubby was diagnosed with lung cancer on March 31. (Tumor on CT 8 cm.) The next day he had a biopsy. Before we had the results I made an appt. with an oncologist (the practice was highly recommended by 3 friends that had underwent treatment of different cancers). Biopsy results were reported as small cell. Many mistakes were made by this practice and we went to a major medical center. The biopsy had to be repaeted because there wasn't enough material to accurately diagnose. The new biopsy diagnosis is "undifferentiated large cell neuroendocrine lung cancer" with small cell features. Stage III-B. Trying to get information online seems to be so difficult. My way of dealing with this is to be informed. I feel I need to keep a close eye on everything to make sure that nothing goes unnoticed by the Dr. Hubby has had 3 courses of chemo (Carboplatin and Etopiside) and is currently receiving a 7 week course of radiation in conjunction with chemo. Does anyone have a website that they can reccommend that has accurate information? Thank you for your interest and information.