wiesia
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Posts posted by wiesia
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Cisplatin/gemzar is the standard first line treatment in Europe. In US, it is Carbo/Taxol. Cisplatin and Carbo are very similar: carbo is easier on your body (like kidney) but has worse effect on your blood counts. There is some evidence that Cisplatin is better than carbo but this is mostly in lower stages of lung cancer not so much in stage IV. I did ask doctors why they chose C/G in europe and CT in US and the response I got was that
CG is slightly better but the infusion time plus a hospital stay (in Europe you stay a night at the hospital after infusion of Cisplatin) was financially too much for US insurance companies.
My father had C/G. He had no problem with his blood at all but had vomiting.
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Teri,
Unfortunately if the tumor is compressing the main bronchus, oxygen will really not help. But there might be other problems with the lungs adding to SOB and for those oxygen could help. Have you tried to get oxygen compressor ? My father was using one and it helped him. You should not need a prescription for those and they can even be borrowed. My father's doctor did not recommend oxygen either but we feel that it helped my father.
Did the doctor discuss putting a stent into the bronchus ? That is another thing to keep in mind.
Is it really compression or is there infiltration of the airways as well ?
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I have lost a lot of weight several times in my life (once from severe dehydration after I moved to Utah and forgot to drink water). And yes, I do feel cold when I loose weight. It is very unpleasant.
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Can the obstracting tumor be removed (at least partially) by a laser ? You can do that if the tumor is inside the airway. If it is outside you may ask whether a stent in the bronchus is a possibility. It is true that radiation does not always work.
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Red grape juice is often used by women on the breast cancer board for elevating platelets count. Worth a trial !
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I think the lower bound is around 150.
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5-Fu is a tsandard chemo used in many cancers. My mother had it in breast cancer and it worked very well for her. The third one is a platinum drug - those ahve the best results of all chemos for lung cancer (statistically only, of course).
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You might want to try Merinol. It is syntetic marijuana and often given to cancer patients to increase their apetite.
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keeping my fingers crossed for plan B !!
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Yup... after the war there was a hige increase in colon and stomach cancer in Poland. All atributed to the increased consumption of meat, especially cured meats.
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My father had shortness of breath that has progressed very rapidly (in about 4 weeks from first SOB episode he could hardly breath). I think now that we did not understand fully how dangerous that could be. If you google dyspnea and lung cancer you get some very good articles on what to do in such situation. the first thing is to try to understand what is going on and try to remedy it if possible. For example: airway obstruction can be sometimes corrected, pleural effusion drained etc. For the symptoms you could try cortisosteroids, bronchodilators, morphine elixirs, and oxigen. But I would arge you to explore whether this SOB can be corrected. It could be very dangerous.
As for the itching... you say that he has liver mets ? Liver problems do show up often as itching. I know because I have a chronic liver/gallblader condition. I do not know what to advice here besides maybe talking to an internist or a specialist in liver diseases. He might know what to do.
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Rib is a tricky place for a met because the bone is so thin. My father had bone mets in the spine (one spot) and the clavicle with no symptoms. My mother (who has breast cancer) has mets to a spot on the spine and a rib. On the spine the met was a nodule on the top of the bone. It never caused any pain but they radiated it anyway. The one on the rib is like a smudge and has detroyed quite a bit of bone. It was painful. They radiated it also. Now my mother says that pain is mostly gone (she also takes Aredia) but at the very end of the rib the bone seems tender. She is on femara also (as a chemo). Her tumor marker CEA dropped from 5.5 to 2.5 so it seems that the bones are healing.
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I did some research on that for my father. In his case we did not know the type of NSCLC he had. The original bronchoscopy did not check that and later our doctor did not consider it necessary to check. I asked about and he said that in Europe squamous cell is more common but even with it they use Avastin unless the cancer is centrally located and ulcerated
(bleeding) or there are brain mets. As for the usual types of chemo: I think there is practically no research on the activity in different types although recently there are some noises coming about treatments of BAC.
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Yup, my mother was taking Wobenzyme (sp ?) all through her treatments (breast cancer). They are big in Europe. The theory is that they allow both supplements and the chemo drugs to penetrate cells better (I do not remember the exact mechanism but something about "eating up" defensive shells ??). She was on a ton of various supplements at that time (anything that medline had positive results on). Whatever it was, something worked because she did very well.
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A friend of mine (age 60) was found recently to have many pulmonary embolisms. This was found after he was getting tired just from walking a bit. He does not have cancer that anyone can see. The doctors did suggest that it could still be a cancer but not visible at the moment causing the clots but they also directed him to a specialist in this matters (somewhere in NYC). That doctor suggested that it could very well be a genetic predisposition to embolisms in the lungs. He is being watched now.
Soooo, who know...
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how wonderful !!!!
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I am so sorry, Amanda.
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Dana,
I am so sorry.
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My father had Gemzar. First with cisplatin then alone (plus Avastin). He felt slight nausea for few days and was a bit tired but generally it was so so much easier than Cisplatin.
We were able to go every day for few hour long walks along Baltic beaches with no problem.
Good luck. I hope this combo will work for you !!!
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I think the doctors are still trying to figure that out. In the carboplatin/taxol +Avastin trial they used around 200/kg (I think) every three/four weeks. In the recent trial in Europe,
Cisplatin/Gemzar +Avastin they lowered that to 100/kg (and after a while to 70/kg). The results were similar. My father was taking 100/kg every three weeks.
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Tracy,
How large is this primary ? Cna they nuke it with radiation ?
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Ughhhhhh. I am so sorry about this. You should get some sleep and get ready for the next line of attack on Monday. If it is any concollation Tarceva did not work for many many people (they had progression while on it) but second lines of chemo worked very well. Is there a chance they could radiate that sucker in the lungs ?
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Soooooo, is he really cute or already getting old with skin hanging down ?
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I keep asking myself the same question. I have even "asked " my father to give me some kind of sign.
But nothing. Not even a dream. My aunt had a dream with him being very happy and my mother had an unusual dream: she has seen me jumping (to my death) from a tall building; she ran down and at the bottom of the building noticed my father on the pavement jumping up and down from joy; she yelled " are you nuts ! our daugther just killed yourself and you are so happy ?"; and he pointed at me: standing there on the sidewalk, healthy and happy. Weird, no ??
I guess it boils down to what you Mother believes as far as life after death is concerned. My parents are (in principle) Catholic but I do not think they really believe in God, heaven, hell etc. So it is difficult.
She's gone
in GRIEF
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I am so sorry to hear that. My sincere condolences.