dutch

If he had bad hiccups, how did they do radiation? Today the machine's power was screwed up so they couldn't do radiation for that reason. But they said since he couldn't lie perfectly still due to the hiccups, they wouldn't have been able to do them anyway. If it makes a difference, his oncologist uses the IMRT machines - which I believe are the latest and greatest and require a lot of precision - they had him fitted for a body glove first to make sure the radiation was directed at the exact correct spot

My father has had hiccups since last night with no stopping. He couldn't do radiation today because of it. They gave him a presciption for it - hoping it will work. They mentioned it might be the LC spreading to his esophogus? Just curious if anyone has heard of this. He also lost another 5 pounds in one week. He is down to 128 pounds - normally 170ish.

My Dad was prescribed Megace but he has been too scared to try it due to the side effects listed on the bottle. His doctor talked to him again about that - hopefully he will be coerced. He is a tough cookie. This is a guy that never even took Tylenol if he didn't have to. He hates taking medicine. His radiologist did confirm the xrays are just to finely tune the target of the tumor - not to ascertain if the radiation is working or not. Whew! We'll see - the docs today were concerned he did not "feel" any different after one week of treatment - i.e. didn't feel better. That surprised me but since I wasn't there, I didn't get to say so. Just seems too soon to ask that question? My Dad did feel like the minor discomfort he was having (pain) is now better. So that might be a good sign. But the doctors still seemed negative that he didn't feel better. Thanks for all the info. It is tough to see him choose not to do chemo and to see how bad he feels. It makes me feel more in control of the situation (even though I know I am not!) to have all my facts correct. One disconcerting thing that happened is we found out my Dad did NOT have a brain MRI as we had thought. We were under the impression that he had one and all was clear with his brain. In actuality, it was a CT scan of his skull to diagnose a growth on the outside of his skull. The growth is benign but who knows what is going on with his brain and he won't do the MRI. Doesn't want to know since he has chosen not to do chemo. I am so frustrated with this - I just want him to have every test and fight as much as possible. I know that he feels lousy though, so I am trying to accept his decisions.

I am new to this board. My 66 year young father was diagnosed with stage 3b, NSCLC lung cancer the middle of august and was given a 3 to 9 month prognosis. He has lost about 30 pounds since the middle of July and seems to be wasting away. He does not want to do chemo (the docs said it wouldn't cure him anyway) but has agreed to radiation therapy in the hopes it will stop the progress of his mass in the lung. Right now the mass has grown enough where it is affecting his vocal cords and his voice is very hoarse and hard to understand. He started this past Monday and today will be his 5th treatment (he is to do this for 7 weeks, 5x a week). They are doing a scan or xray (not sure which) today. Isn't this early to do a scan? I am concerned he won't see any improvement after just a week and get even more discouraged. Also, is it possible the radiation could shrink the mass? It has grown but is in just one area of his lung. I live many states away and will visit for the 2nd time soon but so far, have not been there for any doctor appts. His weight loss has concerned me. I wish there was medicine to affect his taste buds! Thank you in advance. This is the hardest thing I have ever dealt with in my life. He hasn't stopped smoking as his opinion is he is dying anyway and he wants to enjoy at least being able to smoke. His spirits are very low right now.