Running Girl

Hi, and welcome. I don't know much about cavitary vs non-cavitary lesions, so can't speak on that. but I was diagnosed with a 1.1 cm Adenocarcinoma of my RLL at end of August, 2022. I had a small area of invasiveness in the same lobe, and negative nodes. That's a stage 1, as I expect yours might be too. Did you have a lobectomy or wedge resection? So far, I am NED (No Evidence of Disease) at 9 months post-diagnosis. I did not require chemo or radiation, and since I have a history of smoking, I wasn't tested for targetted therapy. The 6 month CT scan (neck to knees) was negative. The surgery itself was difficult for me. The initial 6 weeks after the lobectomy were difficult, with many after-effects from the surgery including nausea, pain, low energy, bloating, a cough and shortness of breath. Most everything bad was gone by 6 wks. I still have some shortness of breath when i exercise or on "bad air quality" days. I had a month of physical therapy to regain strength and stamina which helped enormously. It's normal to be in shock and scared, but lung cancer isn't necessarily the beast it used to be.

I had a RLL lobectomy in August of 2022. I was discharged from the hospital after 3 days (day 4 post-op) with the chest tubes still in. It was too soon! My upper back and shoulder on the right side blew up with air (crepitus) and I looked like the hunchback of notre dam. I went to a local hospital less than 24 hours after discharge(not the one where the surgery occured. I hated the care i got there and refused to go back) through the ER and was admitted for a worsening pneumothorax and stayed 4 days there, until the chest tubes were removed. It was a long recovery. I was quite used to orthopedic surgeries (carpal tunnel repairs) and cosmetic surgery (a Tummy Tuck) and expected a similarly quick recovery. NOT! There is a lot of shortness of breath, even just walking in the house. I had lethary; unable to sustain any level of energy no matter how much sleep i got. That was frustrating because I had a lot of chores and really wasn't able to do them - more due to a lack of energy than due to pain or surgical restrictions. My energy returned gradually. I was about 90% by 5 or 6 weeks. I too was in good shape like you, being a jogger and not overweight. I am back to jogging but it took from September to now to (almost) regain my pre-surgery stamina for running. I still run a little slower and get winded a little faster. I worked hard at this, first walking a little, then a little more each day, then running a little in between walking, etc. Other annoying things I experienced in the weeks following the lobectomy: pain on the side of the surgery (no surprise there). Also weird abdominal pains that came and went. Numbness of abdominal skin. Nausea after every meal for several hours, every day for weeks. frequent episodes of hiccupping! I imagine the trauma from the surgery caused some sort of inflammation of the diaphragm? And a frequent dry cough which I did not have prior to the surgery. The good news is that all of this was gone by week 6 post -op. That's considered a fast recovery as I was told to expect it to take 3 months to feel normal. The cancer was stage 1A, so the cure seemed worse than the disease. But of course, necessary. I was lucky that it was caught early.

I had RLL lobectomy on 8/30/22 diagnosis stage 1A minimally invasive adenocarcinoma. The nodule was 11mm having grown from 6mm in 3 yrs and the PET was negative, done in July. Pulmonologist wanted to do another CT in a year. Only because a very close friend had lung cancer dx after negative PET, I "pushed" and was referred to thoracic surgeon who did the lobectomy. Yes, the only thing that truly avoids false negatives is surgical biopsy. I am overall doing better with both pain and shortness of breath but the tiredness, lethargy, is my biggest concern. Well that and the insomnia. Some days or parts of days I seem to have some energy but then I hit a wall and can't get off the couch. Not used to this! I was very active prior to lobectomy and tend to feel depressed when i can't get things accomplished. Forcing myself to walk and sometimes I get in a little jogging (empowering to be sure, but seems like I pay for it later!). Can't wait to feel healthy again.