I have Large Cell Neoecrodin Non small cell lung cancer. It supposedly acts much more like SCLC than NSCLC and has the same first line treatment. So I tend to follow this forum the most. Had lower right lobe removed, Chemo (cis/etp) and adjunctive radiation. I should be NED.....will find out soon enough.
As for depression, I just finished treatment last week and almost immediately went to a dark place for a solid three days. By far the most depressed since all this started in January. Yesterday was the first day I felt mentally better since last week. No idea why, just glad the cloud has passed.
Wishing you all the best
Peace
Tom.
I was diagnosed in Feb 2019. Had a brain MET and some nodes in the lining of my right lung. It happened very fast. One day I'm shoveling snow and feeling good, next day I'm wondering what the heck happened and my life changed. I experienced shortness of breath, so they did scans and a thoracentesis (draining fluid from my chest), a biopsy, then they gave me the news. SCLC. They immediately put me on chemo with carboplatin, etoposide and tecentriq, which was recently approved for first line treatment. They found that I was allergic to etoposide, so they substituted paxlitaxel, and I still have weekly infusions of it to this day. One of my doctors suggested whole brain radiation in May, but we refused. Then the brain MET disappeared, which I think was due to tecentriq, but no one knows for sure. Only God knows. It's gone. For now. Paxlitaxel side effects are not pleasant, but I can still play some golf. I'm now a frequent flier at the cancer center and still not an expert on this disease. There are so many things going on now in research that I could never keep fully up to date. I rely on my medical team to be the experts, to be up to date on SCLC and to do their thing exceptionally well. I ask tons of questions and still make the final medical decisions. But I think the most important aspect of this disease is attitude! Positive or negative, that's the only thing I can control. I see some patients who are so depressed they make me feel depressed. That's not a good way to go through this thing. I've experienced this depression and can say that it's really ugly. I've even heard that negative attitude can affect not just the patient but also the disease. So I'm in charge of my attitude and rely on the help of family and friends to keep me positive. Avoid negative crap always. So that's the extent of my SCLC experience. I suggest that patients and supporters stay focused on positive attitude. Do whatever is necessary to keep your wife's attitude positive. That's a very, very tough task, maybe even tougher than the treatment of this disease.
This will be long so sit back relax and say I CAN DO THIS:
1. Had a long talk with the lord of course one sided, he choose not to speak. I explained that this cancer thing was alot bigger than I could handle and ask him to handle it. Said Lord, I know if I die that I will wake up and be in heaven and attend a real big family reuinon and I thought that was great. If I wake up here thats OK too. I have my wife, family, friends, my horses, dogs, cats, and maybe I can help someone else so you handle this. My promise to him was I would always talk to someone everyday about the lord, someone everyday about their cancer (not mine), and I would encourage people to quit smoking like me(3 weeks before I was told I had cancer). Well a friend gave me a coin with a cross on one side and the prayer from Mark on the other that said: With God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. Well I carried this coin in my pocket at all times and when I was scared, nervous, or unsure I would rub that coin between my fingers until I remembered that my faith was stronger than the cancer.Today I buy those coins by the box and pass one out everytime I go somewhere. Especially when I go and visit at oncology ward.
2. I had to realize that I wasnt punished just bad luck. I went to the hospital for radiation and chemo and I would sit in the lobby at Brook Army Medical Center and watch people come in without legs, arms, young kids from Iraq with their faces nose, ears burnt off. And I mean off. They are 19 and 20 and will walk the rest of their life with these marks. Hm can you see my cancer. Nope. So I would make it a habit to sit and talk with them over lunch and let them know that its whats inside that counts and again, the lord will take care of them.
3. Well after my pity thing was over I began to start a new life, a life with cancer living inside of me. Now you have a choice here: Let the cancer control your life or you control the cancers life. By now you know what I did..
4. Now here is the plain facts and its so simple.
I raise horses and cattle and I remembered a old saying of mine. Have you ever seen a fat cow die. NOPE. The skinny ones do all the time. So here I am with a fried throat from radiation and cant eat and the doc's want to put a tube in my belly. Hm, again not a chance that this is going to happen so for 4 1/2 months while I couldnt eat solid food I drank 4-5 ice cream shakes a day, bowls and bowls of ice cream, Nestle's milks of banana's, vanilla, 3-4 cans of boost and I went from 165 to 210 during that 4 months. Also and here is a biggie hint, I ate a half watermelon everyday. Has that old vitamin (Lycopene) that doc's are now figuring out that helps fight cancer. Gave me the water I needed also and is a natural stool softner for me and I love ice cream and watermelon so seemed like a wise idea to me. LOL. Boost has many many vitamins in it so that really helps. Now while I am talking about vitamins I asked my onc, if I take vitamins during chemo can you for sure tell me that the vitamins will not help to heal cancer cells like it does good cells. He said and I quote, no, I cant tell you for sure that it will not help cancer cells to come back. Well, Boost is made to help your system with vitamins so that is all I used. After chemo stopped yes then I went on to a multi-vitamin called Miracle 2000 wich just seem to have a good balance but also had high seleium which is good to fight cancer cells. Got it at GNC. During chemo you do not want to eat thin skin fruit. Like apples, grapes, and such. The dirt and pesticides can lay under the skin so if you have to eat them make sure they are cooked. Eat lots of bananas, cantalope, watermelon and thick skinned fruit. All meat should be well done and please eat more fish than red meat. When your counts are down from chemo you can get any infection there is and then some. After I could eat I had plenty of cottage cheese with green olives. Lots of salads, veggies, carrots, and made up for 53 years of not eating veggies LOL my mom loved it.
5. Drink one gallon of water everyt day. Each time you drink a glass think to yourself I am washing my cancer away. I am washing my cancer away. Positive mind picks up where the oncs leave off. I told myself that Cancer was a temporary inconvience and I believed it.
6. Lots and lots of green tea. Hot with orange blossom honey in it. Very tasty. Would drop a peppermint or spearmint candy in it now and then. At night I couldnt sleep like most of you so I would have a big cup of sleepy time tea then take my sleeping pill. Well after awhile you condition your body to go hmmmm sleepy time tea , lights out. Got off the sleeping pills that way. Condition your mind and body to work for you not the cancer.
They also have a Lipton Green Tea out now. Its a cold drink that has citrus in it and is very tasty. Remember Green Tea, GOOD.
7. Your body heals best when you sleep so sleep away. I would get up in the morning so I could go lay on sofa and take a nap. Buy a big screen TV and rent lots and lots of movies. Take care of yourself, make yourself the number one priority in your life for a change. When you get better you can pick up where you left off or maybe change your life altogether.
8. A pet is always a good caregiver. Will lay with you and give you something in your heart that will comfort you 24/7.
9. Walking. When you can force yourself to walk and help them muscles. My wife and I would walk miles and miles when I could get up. Better to throw up outside than in the house anyway. By the way, after all this I am not on oxygen either and I believe its cause I walked alot even when it hurt.
Well in closing this is not a commercial, ad or a must do. This is what I did cause I wanted too. I might die from a truck, a horse bucking me off, maybe a heart attack but I WILL NOT DIE FROM CANCER.
Take care and God Bless,
Don
Feel free to ask me a question but ask it here where everyone can read it.
