raneyf

Congratulations Trish! I was just thinking of you and your buckets of Taxotere today - hoping I can have some of your good luck with it. Raney

I'm grateful for my mom coming each morning to help me get the kids breakfast and my big boy driven to school while I'm doing WBR.

I'm grateful that I've realized the first two goals I set out at diagnosis - I've seen the baby walk and my little boy started kindergarten today.

Great news - I like your picture too!

Hi KHTM, I'm happy to hear you've responded to treatment so well. I'm not real good at the watch and see approach either. Maybe now would be a good time for a second opinion? I'm 31 with 2 young children also. There are several young people on here with advanced LC. Keep being strong and positive. Take care. Raney

Thank you for your post. I'm having kind of a hard time right now, and that really makes me feel better. Raney

My son's preschool teacher asked me if "they were giving me good percentages and stuff." I'm like, for survival, no not really. People aren't mean-spirited for the most part, just horribly uninformed on how serious this is. I think because I look and act pretty normal, it's misleading too, but that's o.k., because I'm trying to fake the cancer out too.

Hi Cheryl, I hope the trial has great results for you. I wanted to post and let you know that you're the reason I requested an MRI 10 months after my initial "clean" one at diagnosis. It showed an asymptomatic 6mm met. I wanted to thank you for that, and let you know that you've helped me in that way. Raney

My thinking was that if they weren't calling me hours after my scan to tell me bad stuff (like they were after my PET when they were worried about my femur fracturing), then it probably isn't immediately dire. So, maybe still a met or mets, but not likely to be horrific news, hopefully. That's my philosophy anyways. Sorry about the pirate look for the trial, but I hope it's less annoying if you cover up the eye.

Well, I felt really bad when I learned I had the brain met, but after talking to the radiation oncs, I feel much better. They told me they would consider doing SRS for up to 5 mets at a time given my age and performance status. They also did not recommend WBR at this time, since I only had the one small one that took quite a while, relatively, to develop. They said, in the event that I do have to have WBR, they would go very slow to try to minimize any cognitive difficulties. The last thing was, that although median survival after brain mets in NSCLC is on the low side, they expected me to do quite a lot better than that because I was an "exceptional" LC patient. They think they can control my brain at this point at least. Oh, they also said SRS was at least comparable to resection, if not better, according to both rad.onc. and neurosurgeon. Also, if progression is only in brain, your chemo is still working, so that's good news. Hopefully it's just your medicine. When do you get scans?

I think that is really nice and a good tribute to your mom. It would have made me happy if I had been at the infusion center, so I'd say it was a great day. I think you gave at least 15 people a smile and made a difference in their lives.

Really, I'd say bet whatever you want, but at least you have a realistic chance. I'll trade with you today if you can figure out how to make it happen.

The only place I'm aware of where chemo doesn't generally help is the brain. There are some exceptions to that, with Temodar (sp?) and I think some say Tarceva crosses the blood brain barrier.

I don't know, but wish someone could interpret. If that's the case, I wonder what my kids risks are, since I was diagnosed young and a never-smoker. Maybe I should ask the pediatrician for spiral ct's.

I'm so sorry for your loss Teri. I could always tell by both of your posts how much you two loved each other.

Hi Robin, I think they do a lowered dose to give it to you on the weekly schedule. I think the doctor means they will give it to you until your blood counts are too low, other bad effects are too bad, or the disease progresses. I'm sorry you're having to go through this. I'm right there with you though. Just take it a day at a time and keep praying for a miracle - that's my philosophy anyway . Raney

How are you implementing this diet. I read Lori's blog too and have the Budwig diet books, but the diet looks really hard, even to find some of the stuff. What's your experience been?

My point in telling people I never smoked is to show them that ANYONE can get this disease. I'm trying to prove the point. I'm not judging or trying to set myself apart from smokers for any other reason.

Has anyone had progression in bones only? What happened as far as treatment? New Chemo? Had a PET today and apparently there's a new lesion in my femur . They "think" everything else looked good, but the report wasn't posted in the computer yet, so I'm not positive about that. I know I'm getting the femur radiated - just wondering if I'm not going to be on the Avastin only plan anymore.

I was already in treatment when I met with Dr. Carbone. I don't know about the option of having him be in charge but being treated in AZ. We asked about how it would work and he mentioned traveling back and forth to Nashville or moving there. The other option wasn't mentioned, but we didn't specifically ask either.

I met with Dr. Carbone at Vanderbilt for my second opinion. He is very smart and told me they pretty much do anything they think might help someone. He agreed with my treatment plan and told me to feel free to contact him when I'm at a point where I'm needing some more options. He was, however, very blunt and told me to get used to the idea of not seeing my children's high school graduation. I did not like that, but I guess the point was to remind me they couldn't cure me??? I prefer my doctor's one day at a time, open-ended approach, but other than that I thought it was a good meeting.

Hi Lilly, Did the manis and pedis - just went to higher end salons, not the cheap nails only places in strip malls. Also had them sanitize extra good. Buying your own tools is a good idea too. I didn't draw my eyebrows on, I'm not that good at it. They're back right now and they did start as little hairs, but didn't seem to take too long to make a pretty good showing. Don't know anything about the eyelashes. I had to use lots of Astroglide - worked better than anything else I tried. I was afraid of the estrogen cream too. I would use a lot of the stuff - and if it wasn't enough, stop and use more. Now that I'm only on the Avastin, I don't seem to need so much - not sure why, I'm pretty sure I'm still in menopause. HTH, Raney

Yeah Aaron - Good Job!

My head hair and eyebrows/lashes are back. No excessive facial hair though, thankfully. Back to shaving the legs daily too...

Tanner, I'm so sorry for you and your girls. I don't know why bad stuff happens. Praying for your family tonight. Raney