golden275

I am so sorry for your loss. I feel your mother came back to comfort you. Take care. Hugs

Saw my pluminary specialist today. As usual, I get nervous having a dr's appt. He said my breathing sounds good and I look healthy. I lost one pound. Things just don't taste very good and I have little appetite except for pizza. He suggested I look around for a pizza place . Doesn't want me to lose weight I guess. I hate to cook. Wonder if the Tarceva is making me lose my taste. About once a year I ask hard questions. He brought up my getting a CT scan and/or PET scan , but I feel if they can't do anything for me , why should I put myself through that. He suggested I talk to my oncologist. Have an appt with him in 4 weeks. It seems I had a fast growing cancer 5 years ago which seems to be taken care of with chemo and surgery. But when it returned it is a different cancer. He told me I am very lucky and it seems to be a slow growing cancer this time. He is very honest with me but I get upset when told I still have cancer. LOL. No reasoning with me some days. I ask questions but want better answers.

Barb, I know just what you mean. I too have pains that haven't gone away since the procedure in Nov 2005 (although the numbness is now gone). Hearing that others still have pain, especially when they lift their arm, makes me feel that I'm not alone in this. And hearing others come home and get into their jammies makes me feel right at home.

Frank, you have a super great attitude.

I have no experience with these symptoms but hopefully someone else will reply. If it were my mother, I too would want to drop everything and go home. But that might not be the best thing to do. And probably is not what your mother wants for you. Can you call you aunt later and see what is happening before you drop everything? Hopefully, she'll have better news for you.

I had a cough and runny nose and a nasal drip for 2 months. Dr gave me Rx for my allergies and it pretty much cleared up. He said the nasal drip was probably causing my cough. Even my breathing is better now that I'm on allergy meds. Hope that's all it is for you too.

Paula, I was on taxotere in 2004. That was the worst stuff I ever had however when treatment was done, I felt better than I had in years. I keep telling my oncol that taxotere must have killed off most of the cancer. I am now on Tarceva at the minimum dose. Only get small reactions (intermittent rash and itching and some sleep disturbance) I had bad reactions to it at the highest dosage (rash, excema, very bad diahrea, very bad sleep disturbance) but I am now stable. So it must be helping me. I guess everybody reacts differently.

Thank you everyone for your support . I now think it is AARP causing the problem and not the drugstore but I could be wrong. It's probably both of them. I'm not even going to think about it until I need a refill. Then I'll be up in arms again.

Don , this is the only drugstore within a reasonable driving distance that bills medicare part B. I've called every chain and drugstore and this drugstore is the only one. I have a lot of choices for pharmacies but they don't bill medicare part B.

Don't know if this is the place to vent. I'm back on my nebulizer after being off it for months. this medication is paid by Medicare part B (not part D prescriptions) Got a new Rx and go to drugstore and get it filled. Showed them my last receipt (from them) Medicare pays 80% and AARP pays 20%. When I go back to pick it up, the drugstore says medicare will pay but AARP denied it. I had to pay the 20% if I wanted my meds so I did. Get home and call AARP who says they will pay the 20%. I went through this with that drugstore approx 2 years ago when I got my nebulizer. they made me pay the 20% and then I got a statement from AARP that they also paid the 20%. I had a hell of a time getting that drugstore to return my money. I had to argue with Corporate Headquarters. It's not a lot of money but still over $100 for the year is better in my pocket and not theirs. Good thing my purse was a catchall and I saved most of my receipts (paid in cash). They only returned the amount of my receipts and I think I was missing a few receipts so never got reimbursed in full. But they are the only drugstore in the area who will bill Medicare part B. This year AARP said they will take care of it and when I get my statement saying they paid the 20% to call them and they will call corporate headquaters and get it straightened out. AARP won't get involved until they actually get the bill from Medicare and pay the drugstore. Hope I get my money back. I don't think this is over yet but we'll see. Hopefully I have enough meds for a few months and this gets straightened out . I'll probably end up not getting totally reimbursed but as long as I end up not paying any more I don't care at this point. Stuff like this is so stressful. Sorry for the long vent.

Donna congratulations on 9 years. What wonderful news.

Dani, I too am thinking about you. I hope you can find someone to intervene and nicely tell everybody to stop bothering you. After what you've been through I can understand you being emotional. Hope your day is nice and you can at least enjoy a little turkey and maybe mashed potatoes or whatever you can eat. Try to have a nice day.

Dani, I too hope this is just a scare. I've been through this twice so can't tell you not to worry. Hope everything turns out well for you.

Geri, this is truly happy days. Congratulations on 5 years and being cancer free. Happy, happy days.

Mary, I've been taking Tarceva on and off since January 2006. It comes in different strengths and my oncol currently has me on the lowest (25 mg). True I had a lot of side effects at the highest dose but very few side effects with this dosage. Nothing I can't handle. If the side effects are very bad, your dr might lower the dosage. So far I have been stable for the past year.

Saw my pulminary specialist Tuesday. He took xrays and said there has been no change since the xrays in April. Which is really good news for me. And like other posters, I get nervous about having tests done. Especially when I don't feel well but he said it is probably my allergies. He told me I sounded all stuffed up ( I am) and said I probably have a nasal drip (which I do) and gave me a prescription for a nasal med and advised me to take my antihistamines every day for awhile. We had heavy rain today and some of the surrounding streets flood so I didn't go out at all and will pick it up tomorrow. Hate spraying things up my nose but anything to clear up this cough.

Dar, my family dr told me a lot of cancer patients get depressed. I'm normally a happy person but even I got affected and he put me on an anti-depressant. I won't stay on them for long because they affect me badly. The second sample he gave me was much better than the first. Also, he gave me a prescription for a nebulizer which I used every day, 3 times a day, for about a year. It does help. Now I do it once a day. I wanted a portable nebulizer and found out I did not need a prescription if I wanted to pay for it myself. You can get on online or thru ebay. However, the medication needs a prescription. Hope everything gets better for your mother.

Blaze, after a few years of CT scans, PET scans, and chemo, my veins started to collapse and the techs had a hard time find a good one. I suspect this is a common occurance. I dread having to do another CT scan with contrast.

connie, I can fill in my profile. My problem is I had a lot of notes about my illness and when my computer crashed I lost the notes on that computer. I do have back up disks that I made every once in awhile and just need to find. I have a new computer and just never bothered to copy data over. The only thing I copied to my new computer were pics of my dogs. (you can tell where my priorities are). Actually I have a ghost copy of my old computer on an external hard drive and plugged it in to my new computer just this week. I found I can access my old files but don't remember when I did the ghost copy so I might be missing about a year or so. I haven't checked it yet. My xrays are 6 months old and a new xray can be compared to the old ones. If my dr's want more info I will of course get a new CT scan. My oncol wants a CT scan done by the last place to do it which is the hospital. It's such a pain going there and you wait so long, but if I have to I will. My family dr takes care of me when I get a fever but it goes away before I even have time to call him. I see him in 3 weeks unless the fever comes back then I intend to call him. I see the pulminary specialist in 1 1/2 weeks. Thanks every one for your support and caring.

Welthy, I had a pleural effusion drained twice and a pleuradosis sp? done in Nov 2005. There are no guarantees. The success rate for lung cancer patients who are missing part of a lung is around 60%. Heart patients have a higher rate of success. It can come back but I was told it was better to do it than just keep getting it drained. I don't remember the reason the surgeon gave but he did say I should have had it done at least 6 months soon. I didn't realize that or I would have had it done sooner which might have increased my chances of success. Also, the oncol thinks it's not a lot of fluid. But it can come back. His doctor can give reasons why it should be done. The xray can be compared to the one taken 6 months ago. I am sick of tests and unless it's really necessary, I'd rather have an xray than a CT scan.

I'll say some prayers for her.

Saw oncologist today. He said my blood is fine. I complained about coughing up phlegm and had a slight fever with chills in September and kept getting a fever on and off. I told him my diagnosis was I had an upper respiratory infection . He examined me and said it sounds like I have some fluid around my lung. I suspected that might be true but was hoping it was not true. I already had a surgical procedure to help this but it seems like it is coming back. I have been short of breath. He wanted a CT scan but I opted for an xray and if needed will get a CT scan later. I see my pulminary specialist on 11/7 and will get an xray done then. Not too happy but at least I am still here, waking up every day, and walking my dog. And eating. All good signs.

Patscan, I had a pleural effusion and was drained twice, once in the spring of 2004 (was told cancer returned) and in the spring of 2005. In November 2005 had a pleurodesis. I swear that was worse than removing half my lung. It did leave me short of breath . I'm ok on flat surfaces but if I do too much physical labor I get short of breath. I do have some pain to the touch on my side but not much. I had numbness for most of this year but it is slowly going away. At least I can touch my side now.

If I slack off on my water I will get a slight soar throat in the morning. Ernie, I'm glad you posted . I did not connect my dryness with the Tarceva. I'm trying to sip water through out the day and it does help.

Joe I've been on Tarceva for awhile and I also have a drippy nose. I have allergies and just thought they were really really bad this year. Never connected it to the Tarceva. I also have side effects that when I stop the Tarceva , they go away , like bad dreams and interrupted sleep, as well as a rash.