blwood

While we were on the college trip, since we were in the West, I decided to only listen to country music on the car radio all week. I discovered a great song, which is to be my anthem for awhile. When I came home I immediately downloaded it from itunes and put it on my ipod so that I can listen to it at least once each day while exercising. It's called "When you're going through Hell" by Rodney Atkins. Very uptempo and this is the chorus: Yeah, If you're going through hell Keep on moving, Face that fire Walk right through it You might get out Before the devil even knows you're there If you're going through hell Keep on going, Don't slow down If you're scared, don't show it You might get out Before the devil even knows you're there Not a huge country fan, but I truly love this song. I highly recommend that everyone immediately go to itunes and get it! Barbara

Hi everyone. I have been gone for awhile. We just got home from taking our son to college for his freshman year and I have been busy helping him to get ready. Just before our college trip, we went to Johns Hopkins to get a second opinion on chemo or no chemo. One of the two docs we saw was a geriatrician, which was very helpful. Their opinion is that he should have chemo but not cisplatin due to its effects on heart and kidneys. They believe that, especially given the neuroendocrine features of his original tumor, though, he should have carboplatin and vp-16. So, he got his port in last week and had a new set of scans. We're waiting for the oncologist to call and tell us when we can get started. I feel calmer since the JH docs were calm and focused and seemed to really believe that all of this is going to go well. Barbara

Thanks, Carleen, for the information on neuroendocrine features. I have had trouble figuring that part out, in particular, and what you said was very clarifying. I have to get that path report, I think. We visited our internist today to talk things over. She strongly recommended that we get a second opinion from either NIH or Hopkins or Georgetown, or some combination thereof. She was trying to remain very neutral, but I thought she was pretty concerned about the strain on Phil's heart and kidneys from Cisplatin. Meanwhile, she said that she thought it was okay to take our son, who is starting college, out to Arizona in August and take a week's vacation there. I called the oncologist and he also said that he thought it would be okay to wait to start anything until after we return. He seems to be on the fence again, saying he would prefer to try gem/carbo and that anything is better than nothing. I swear this is a different tune than he was singing Monday. I guess it really is just a very complex and difficult and personal decision. Phil said today was his best day since the surgery (June 9). He was up and active all day and visited with his son and grandaughter who are in from Colorado. No naps! It's great to have you all to talk to. Barbara

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. And for responding so quickly. I myself am a survivor of stage IIc ovarian cancer...8 1/2 years. I had carboplatin and taxol, so am somewhat familiar with the impact of chemo. I am quite a bit younger than my husband and had the chemo when I was 48 years old. He took such good care of me then and I want to do the same for him, so I really appreciate your help. I guess what is most frightening for me is that the doctor (of course) can't guarantee that even one cycle of treatment won't push Phil over some edge from which he can't return. The question is how much functional reserve he has at this point in his life. His brother, who also had heart disease, died of a heart attack immediately after a chemotherapy treatment for colon cancer when he was in his 70's. However, he was very late stage and his death actually came within the expected time frame. Still, it haunts me. Does anyone know or have experience with the "neuroendocrine features" issue? The oncologist says there is not very much known, but that one study suggests that this type of cell is more aggressive. Also, the oncologist said that once the cancer returns, life expectancy is months to a year. Some of the things I have read on the forum suggest that people are living a lot longer than that with late stage disease? The doctor did mention Tarceva, but seems to want to use this if the disease returns. I am wondering whether it would make sense to do another of the less toxic treatments, like Navelbine, and hope to get some mileage out of that despite the absence of research concerning it's effectiveness in stage II. Again, thanks for thinking this through with us. Barbara

My husband was diagnosed with stage IIA nsclc, with neuroendocrine features, after a left pneumonectomy in June. He is nearly 82 years old and has both heart disease (with two stents placed last Fall) and diabetes. He takes nearly 25 medications a day for the heart condition, hypertension, diabetes, asthma. At the same time, he is highly functional and very active. (We were hiking in the Andes in April! Not the hardest hikes, but hikes just the same.) The cancer was an incidental finding on an x-ray he had after tripping against the car and injuring his ribs. He had no symptoms related to the lung cancer and had stopped smoking over 35 years ago. He is recovering very well from the surgery, surprising the doctors, and was released from rehab after only 4 days. We have met with the oncologist twice. He says that cisplatin and etoposide are his choice for "mopping up" chemo...there is currently no visible evidence of disease. Two of 19 lymph nodes near the primary tumor were cancerous (adenocarcinoma, again, with neuroendocrine features.) He said however, that the idea of treating my husband with these aggressive medicines makes the hair on his neck stand up, and that he can also make a case for doing nothing further. He said that he would expect him to die of a cardiac event before dying of lung cancer and that perhaps quality of life should be the bigger concern. He also said that we could try a less aggressive treatment, gem/carbo or navelbine, but of course the cisplatin combos are the only treatments with a track record against this type of cell. Also, there are very few studies with any patients older than 75, and only a few, as far as I can tell about stage II patients. I would appreciate greatly any thoughts that people have about this situation, as we are really struggling with the decision. Thanks so much for taking the time to think about this. Barbara