Tom K

I gotta go with Don and say Time.

Spectacular!!! Take the family out and celebrate.

My condolences. I’ll pray the wound heals quickly and the happy memories last forever.

Thanks everybody for the responses. I guess this will take longer to heal than I had thought. I’ll give it a couple of more weeks and see how it goes.

Exactly 2 weeks ago, I finished 33 rounds of radiation to the esophagus and throat area (to kill cancer in a couple of lymph nodes). While the pain in my throat and esophagus is lessened, it still hurts quite a bit. I was wondering how long it took others to recover from radiation to this area.

Great News. Lots of prayers for you, Jeff and the kids.

The past week has been one heck of roller coaster ride. However, I do want to thank everybody in this group who urged me to consult with an oncologist despite the advice I was receiving from my surgeon, pulmonologist and PCP. I think you may have saved my life. Taking this group's advice I met with an oncologist for the first time last Thursday and we reviewed all the records including the PET scan taken on 1/18/06 which shows 2 lymph nodes lit up near the right mediastinum. He was pretty sure it is a false positive because it is inconsistent with the original pathology report and it was taken less than 6 weeks post surgery. He consults with the surgeon who agrees to do a mediastinoscopy. On Friday morning I was called at work and told that the PET scan taken 12/13 also showed lymph nodes in a similar location as the 1/18 scan has suspicious for cancer. We were aware of this, but had assumed the surgeon had removed those 2 specific lymph nodes. Imagine my surprise when I was told the surgeon had explored the mediastinum and did not see any abnormal lymph nodes so he only “sampled” the region. During this call I was also told that the Pathology report had been “revised” (I don’t know if they redid the examination or just changed the report) and that one of the lymph nodes removed during surgery now had indications of cancer. Furthermore, I was told my case was presented to their tumor board and they now agreed that the PET scan on 1/18/06 probably did represent active disease. I was encouraged to come in the office ASAP to begin chemo therapy. The oncologist seemed truly concerned that so much time had been lost and we needed to move quickly. Well after that call I contacted a friend who is a physician and he said the same thing, let them get the medicine in me quickly and I can change to another Medical team later if I am still uncomfortable with this team. On Monday I met with the Oncologist team again and they clearly understood my misgivings. They started me on Taxol/Carbo once a week for 6 weeks. Today I met with the Radiation Oncologist and he will start me on 30 shots of radiation as soon as he can complete all the models (probably next Monday). Both of these teams assured me they would pay special attention to my case. This facility does handle the most lung cancers in Jax but I will be getting a second opinion tomorrow from another Oncology team in another facility. If I had merrily accepted the advice of my doctors and not sought out an Oncologist opinion I might have been in a lot worse situation in a few months. Bottom line, I think the advice of this group may have saved my life. So in a way, my good luck is holding up. Thank You.

I had my first meeting with an Oconologist today. He was irritated that the pulmonologist had ordered a PET scan less than 6 weeks post surgery. Evidently, the healing processes can cause a false positive. He felt that was a real possibility because this PET scan was so inconsistent with the pathology report and my performance status. He told me he could not ignore these results and order another PET scan. He goes on to say I am an interesting case because a mediastinoscopy was called for but it was too risky to do only 7 weeks after the thorocotomy. But then, he called the surgeon while I was there, and when he gets off the phone he says the surgeon feels he can do it safely. He explains it will be more complex because of the sutures and scarring from the recent surgery but it can be done. I expressed concern that only a few minutes earlier it was too risky and now he was confident it was safe. He assured me that this particular surgeon would not have committed to the procedure if he wasn’t sure he could do it. I am being admitted to the hospital and the surgeon will decide after the procedure if I will have to stay overnight. The biggest problem is that the location of these lymph nodes along the mediastinum, if they are active then it would change my stage from a 1B to 3A and consequently the treatment plan and prognosis. So I agreed to the surgery on 2/7/06. I am praying my luck holds out and they are benign. My question for the group; has anybody ever heard that a doctor could not reorder a PET scan? It just seems strange that they would put me through a risky procedure rather than redo a scan.

I had a little frost on my car this morning, but by lunch it was sunny and 70. Having grown up in western NY, I agree the snow can be very pretty (just not when you have to shovel it).

Congratulations to you and thanks for sharing this great news. It give all of us hope!

I quit smoking 8 weeks ago and had surgery 6 weeks ago. In the past few days I have started coughing a lot. The coughs are very deep and mostly nonproductive. Has anybody else had this experience after surgery? Should I talk to a doctor or wait a few more days to see if it clears up?

Any of the original Star Trek movies.

Welcome. I have only been here a few days, but this is a great place to get some knowledge but also to get some great advice from those who have gone down this path ahead of us.

Larry, She sounds like a wonderful woman and I am sure the Lord and the Holy Mother will welcome her. I think the burden is with those who must stay behind, so I will pray for you the most.

President

100 years from now somebody will post our cancer statistics and they will be amazed that people actualy died from this stupid disease.

I registered a few days ago and immediately posted a note in the “Early Stage” forum. Within a few hours I started receiving several responses all with good and honest advice. While I never wanted to join this club, I am glad I have found so many people willing to help with information, knowledge, encouragement and hope. For me, things happened very fast; 2 weeks after the first symptom and 3 days after diagnosis, I was on the operating table. I didn’t really have time to digest everything I was being told much less validate the information. All I knew was that I had Lung Cancer and I would probably be dead in less than a year. Of course my doctors were very optimistic and encouraging, but I knew that was part of their job. After returning home from the hospital, I spent 3 weeks intensively researching LC and I discovered that I did indeed have a good chance for a complete cure. The web sites I visited all provided tons of useful information and statistics that helped me understand the nature of the disease and what some of my options were. They did not tell me what actually happens to real people. That is why I was so thrilled when I found this site. I reviewed many of the posts and found lots of people asking the same questions I was asking and real people expressing the same fears I was feeling. I was very encouraged by the number of survivors. Their stories offer hope to all of us. This site is great, my hats off to Rick, Katie and the directors.

Thank you all so much for the quick responses. Based on the consensus of this group I decided to move quickly. My pulmonologist agreed to see me late this afternoon and I expressed my concerns. He understood and agreed it would not hurt to get another opinion. He has recommended an Oncology group that has lots of experience with LC and he is sending copies of all reports to that group. He also thought it would be a good idea to get a post surgery PET scan which is scheduled for this coming Wednesday. He was extremely upbeat and told me how rewarding it was to have a LC patient that he could actually help achieve a cure. I think he understood my fears and wanted to do whatever he could to alleviate them. I have seen on other forums on this board that the fear of reoccurrence is one of the hardest parts of this disease. I will have to learn how to keep that under control. Thank you all again for responding so quickly and honestly. I’ll let you know which path I take.

This is my first post but I was delighted to find a forum with others that have faced this disease. I have a couple of newbie questions at the bottom of this post, but it would help if you understood my situation. I am a 49 yr old male in excellent health with a 35 year history of smoking and a family history of lung cancer (father). I noticed blood in my sputum on 12/2/05 (the day I quit smoking). I went to my Family Physician the same day and he ordered a CT scan because I had multiple risk factors for lung cancer. On 12/8/05, I was told the CT scan revealed a mass in my lung. In less than a week I underwent a bronchospcopy, a PET scan, several more CT scans, X-rays and blood tests. The results of those tests indicated it was adenocarcinoma and the tumor was 2.7cm in size localized in my upper right lung. There was no indication of lymph node involvement or distant metastasis. My family physician, a surgeon and a pulmonologist all recommended we proceed to surgery quickly. A thoracotomey (upper right lobe) was performed on 12/16/05 with no complications. According to the surgeon, the pathology report after surgery indicated the tumor was actually 3.4cm in size but the margins were "very, very good". He also told me 3 lymph nodes were extracted and all were clear of cancer. My Surgeon, Pulmonologist and 2 Family physicians have indicated the pathology report was so good that I do not need to see an oncologist. In fact the Family physician has strongly discouraged me from considering adjuvant chemo. He said the effects are dramatic and can be permanent. He is insistent that other than the size of the tumor all indications are for a low probability of reoccurrence. He thinks chemo would be do me more damage than good However, I have had 3 weeks to do a lot of research and I have seen the studies that indicate increased survival statistics for some NSCLC patients undergoing adjuvant chemo. Since none of my doctors have referred me to an oncologist, I will be contacting one myself for an opinion. I am in the process of collecting copies of all the reports but I do not know how to select an oncologist. I can’t find anybody in my area (Jacksonville FL) that uses that title. My insurance company does not list any oncologists in my area either. Do they go by different titles? Any advice on selecting an oncologist would be appreciated. Second question, is there anybody out there who has had to face the choice of getting adjuvant chemo and what did you decide? If you did go through chemo was it has horrible has I have heard and are their permanent effects. Where can I find more detailed information on the specific effects of chemo-therapy? Thanks for taking the time to read this. It is great to find so many others out here.