Sara Riehle

@Tom Gallithank you so much for the feedback. I appreciate it all.

Hello. My Mom was diagnosed the week of Thanksgiving after some routine testing by her primary care physician. She was asymptomatic and was lucky this was caught when it was. Very quickly after finding out about her lung tumor, she had a VATS resection of her upper right lobe on the 15th of December. She had two tumors removed from her lung, a smaller one and a larger one. Although the hope was for a wedge resection, they ended up doing a lobectomy of the upper 1/3rd. She spent 5 days after surgery in the hospital and had several complications during that time including a failed chest tube removal, emergency replacement of chest tube, a dumb nurse accidentally disconnecting her chest tube causing fluid to fill up in her lung, she went AFIB, and we found out she stops breathing in her sleep, likely sleep apnea. Next week we will go for her (very delayed) post surgical follow-up where will will learn her stage based on whether her lymph nodes are positive or not. We do know there is no other visible cancer in her body though. This is not my first time as a caregiver for a cancer patient. My husband was diagnosed stage 4 colon cancer in June of 2020. He is thankfully NED now after several surgeries and specialized chemo. I am wondering if someone can guide me as to what standard of care is for chemo with lung cancer? Is it common for immunotherapy or targeted therapy to be added if possible based on genetic testing? Also, with lung cancer is there a tumor marker that is checked by blood work? (I am only familiar with a CEA test for colon cancer) Thank you! -Sara