Wow! I feel almost overwhelmed! There's so much to reply to, so i'll try my best...
First of all, thanks to all of you, you're so encouraging. My mother was doing fairly well when I got home yesterday evening. She was experiencing a bit of nausea, despite the anti-nausea drugs they had given her before the Cisplatin, so I mentioned what Carleen stated, that if it became severe they may be able to adjust her perscription so that it's a bit more effective. She was not expecting to be quite as fatigued as she was, so I reminded her that fighting cancer is hard work, and there's nothing wrong with feeling a bit tired!
She said they gave her two bags of fluid, one before the Cisplatin and one after, to make sure her fluids were up, and the nurses and my dad both were encouraging her to drink water throughout the treatment, so they seem to have that under control. She's also been perscribed an anti-depressant, which we're quite pleased about since her mood swings the last few weeks have been quite sporatic and unpleasant! We're trying to stay patient with her though. One thing that concerns me is that her blood count is already low from battling the pneumonia, which they said they usually don't worry about until you're a few weeks into treatment. They're going to start giving her Procrit to counteract that. Perhaps this, along with the chemo and stress of course, is what's making her feel so fatigued?
Both my mother and father were quite pleased to hear all of your stories of success and the encouraging words you all had, it really brightened our day. I wanted to share something encouraging with you all as well. My father ran into a friend yesterday. He had been battling cancer (not Lung, though. I believe his was Hodgkin's disease) for quite some time. He was in remission for a while but had a recurrance and was staged as a IV. He told my father it had spread everywhere and was just about as bad as it could get, the cancer was literally consuming his body. He kept hope and was persistant with treatments and today is cancer free. If that can't give you hope, I don't know what can.
God bless you all, I'll be thinking and praying about all of you.
Sarah