Hello,
Over the past couple of months I've come to this forum numerous times for support. In February of this year my mom was visiting me helping me to pick out my wedding dress. While we were at the Bridal Shop she experienced chest pains.
After daily nagging from my father she finally went the doctor for a physical. They diagnosed her with Pneumonia and put her on an antibiotic. A month or so later she was still feeling extremely tired and went back to the doctor for a progress check. They noticed that the fluid had gotten worse.
After several tests later, they determined she had cancer. They told her that they felt very confident that it was contained to the right lung only and that they could go in and remove it. While in SX the sugeron did a biopsy of 2 of her lymph nodes in the middle of the chest and discovered the cancer had spread. They closed her back up without performing the surgery. She has been dx with nsclc stage IIIB.
They decided to treat her cancer aggressivly. She goes 5 days a week for radiation and once a week for chemo. She's been doing amazingly well. I couldn't be more proud of her.
My mom is a fighter and she just had her first progress scan. The radiologist oncologist told her that the tumor had shrunk considerably and that she only has 12 radiation treatments left. She also spoke to her oncologist yesterday and he told her that once she finishes up this round starting on August 22nd he'll start her on stronger chemo that she'll do every 21 days until November.
So after a very long explanation I do have a question. My mom asked her doctors if once she finishes up the treatment if the tumor isn't completely gone will they do surgery again. All of them have told her no. They said once it goes into the lymph nodes she is no longer a candiate for sx. I guess my mom and I are just confused. If none of the test are showing that the cancer has spread to any other spot of her body, why can't she have sx? Do any of you know? Or can any of you help me to explain it to my mom better?
I appreciate this site so much, although this is my first post, when I thought I was going to lose my bestfriend this site and all of you wonderful people were the only thing that gave me hope.
Thank you all and God Bless
Angela
