[Hello All-thanks]

Hello everybody, thanks so much for the support. This site is great. I'm not sure where to post the rest of...or another chapter about me. I looked in the General Posting but it seemed to be more for support than mere biographies maybe somebody can advise me on this. I posted originally under "Hello All". I was aslo a smoker for 20 years-1 pack a day on average. I was a professional musician for 13 years traveling up and down the east coast playing the Trumpet in cover bands, mostly blues/top 40. I received my Music degree and played with in local theaters and with things like Ringling Bros. Circus when they came to town. You know how much it sucks to be an accomplished Trumpet player with Lung Cancer? That is when it all sunk in, when I was in the hospital and realized that I was not going to be able to play the Easter Cantata. That was the low point but I was lucky I had a good nurse who talked and prayed with me. Of course the pain drugs helped with the moment as well, ha,ha. I had actually "hung up" the horn about 5-6 years ago for a full time occupation and am now a mortgage underwriter for a national lender based here in Richmond VA. Well enough of my life history. I pray for all of us.

David C

[Hello all]

Hello to everyone here. I sure wish I was anywhere else but here. I entered the hospital on 3/23/03 with severe leg cramps and chronic Bronchitis (results of low sodium level, side effect of SCLC). I had a biopsy performed on 3/25 confirmed SCLC and started chemo on 3/27!! I had virtually no chance for it to all sink in before I was started. It is in the Limited Stage with lymph node involvement however I have been told it is inoperable. I have gone through 3 rounds of chemo so far (Carboplatin and VP-16) with 1-3 more rounds scheduled and just finished 30 rounds of radiation treatments this past Friday. I have not had a 2nd opinion performed yet but will be going to Johns Hopkins if treatments do not come out the way we all hope they will. I have a CT scan scheduled for June 6th and I fully expect all traces of Cancer to be gone from my body or at least greatly diminished. The power of positive thinking is a powerful force. I have that and many prayers on my side. I have been praying everyday for God to grant me and my family the strength needed to deal with whatever His plan is for us and I know that he will. I am 38 years old and my wife and I returned from China on 11/2/2002 after adopting our (now) 20 month old baby girl named Faith. I am fortunate that I have a very strong support group including an older sister who works for the National Childhood Cancer Foundation and has assisted me with all my research. I have pretty much figured out that I really do not fit into any of the statistical groups that are published about survival rates. I started researching SCLC and statistics and got very depressed until my sister pointed out a very good article to me which can be found at http://cancerguide.org/median_not_msg.html

You may have to read it a couple of times to fully understand it but it is a very good article ( I had to read it more than a couple of times to fully understand it all, you will see what I mean!)

I am not sure where I am going with his posting. I am going to beat this thing. I have a family to raise. I have been having a progressively harder time with the chemo although the doctors and nurses all say I am doing remarkably well with the chemo and radiation, guess I can just feel it more as time goes on. This past round of chemo really hit me hard for the first couple of days with not being able to sleep but I feel really, really good today. Well I feel as if I am rambling now. Guess I just wanted to share my story with you all. This is a great site and I have been checking it out for several weeks now.

Till next time

David C