SATo

Thanks, Tom. Your reply helped give some much needed perspective his recovery.

Note - In case it isn't clear, he has had the surgery already. The breathlessness is post surgery. Just super tired.

My 79 y.o. husband finally got his clinical diagnosis based on the fine needle EBUS biopsy. His MRI and PET didn't show any indication of metasetses. So, for now, its a localized T3 N0 M0 Stage 2B spiculated 5 cm mass spanning two lobes within the right lung. Because my husband had a good pulmonary function test, the surgeon recommended a robotic VATS lobectomy and segmentectomy. The actual surgery only required the lobectomy and a wedge resection, which went well. Husband was in the hospital for two nights. After the horribly onerous chest tube was removed he was discharged. At home he's having a lot chest muscle pain and a lot of breathlessness while getting up from the bed and in doing any kind of walking. It affects his getting up as much as required to do the 30 mins a day walking. I reminded him that we are only 5 days out from surgery so not to get discouraged. We were told that the breathlessness should lift after a few weeks. While my husband is seeming to be a bit more mobile and getting every two hours during the day for a short walk around in the apartment, the breathlessness seems a bit more. Am wondering if folks have information they'd be comfortable sharing about whether the breathlessness gets better and how long it takes.

Thanks, Tom. I'll check out Minh's case. My husband's lung biopsy lab came back as non-small cell adenocarcinoma. Waiting for the call, imminent from the surgeon.

I have a question about bilobectomy. My 79 y.o. husband is awaiting his official biopsy / diagnosis results. The patient portal reports from the cytologist says his lung mass is preliminary malignant but the lymph nodes were negative or benign. The MRI/PET scans don't show any other cancer / metastases. He doesn't have heart issues or diabetes or high blood pressure, but he does have CKD stage 3b (stable). The original CT scan noted that his lungs show mild fibrosis and emphysema (which is weird because he has absolutely no breathing issues whatsoever - with a blood oxygen of 96). Generally he would appear reasonably health for someone his age. That's all good, I know, but I've been researching about treatments and it seems that there may be an issue in that his tumor (5cmx4cmx3cm) spans and is tethered to the fissure between the upper right lobe and the middle right lobe. Apparently this is not a usual presentation and I'm wondering if anyone here around the same age has had this type of lung tumor presentation and what your team did surgically to remove it, or if they didn't and what they did instead to treat it. Did you have a bilobectomy? Did they have to remove the entire lung? I'm trying to get ahead of my homework because the diagnosis treatment plan is coming up soon and my husband emotionally isn't doing well and I will need to help him figure out what he wants to do out of whatever options are presented.

Thank you for the responses. They were helpful in giving me some much needed perspective at this time of high stress. Re Judy's question about biomarkers - His biopsied tissue is still at the lab and they do run biomarker tests on it as part of their protocol.

Hi folks, I'm SATo. My husband just did his biopsy. He has a 5x4x3 cm lung mass on the right lung that transverses two lobes. Doctor said it was highly probable it was cancer and prob. stage 2 or 3. Biopsy cytology reports we got off the patient portal says it's preliminary positive for malignancy. Lymph nodes are negative for malignancy. MRI/PET reports say there is no other observable metastases so that's also good. Anyway, I'm here to listen and get/give support as we do this cancer journey. The shock has worn off but my husband is still roller-coastering emotionally between anxiety, high stress, depression and despair (which isn't surprising), and we're not even at the formal diagnosis/treatment plan yet. Speaking of which, even though it's great it's localized, the surgery for a tumor spanning the fissure between two lobes seems tricky from what I've read with not always great outcomes for someone my husband's age (79). However, that's for the surgeon to figure out. I'm worried for him mostly because he's made a few seemingly joking offhand suicidal comments about 'running into traffic' etc. I asked the doctor for psychosocial oncology support services and he said he would hook us up once the formal diagnosis is done but it's scary. I'm afraid to leave him alone for very long. Hopefully this forum will find provide some suggestions etc.