ladyhawk

Wow! This group is wonderful. Thanks to all who have answered. I do plan on asking the onc about the weight and bad breath. I don't know why he hasn't wanted to see him sooner. I tried to talk my husband into seeing him sooner, but he said, "No way". He said he was doing just fine and for me not to worry. Yeah, right. Thanks welthy for your input, I will be interested in knowing the results of the scans. My husband (Bud) doesn't seem to have any swelling in the legs or ankles, but I have a suspicion that his distended abdomen is from fluid retention there. I know that SCLC can met to tumors in the abdomen. I am wondering if that is what is going on. I too have suspected maybe mets to the liver, but I know he would not tell me if he was having any pain there, unless it was severe. He doesn't want me to worry, and he is not going to tell me anything that would make me worry. We really like our onc and he told us to call if we thought there was anything different, but of course, my husband says there is not. I just feel so helpless. I am afraid the bad breath might be caused from something in his abdomen. It is not consistently really bad. I don't think he is dehydrated. He is on Keppra also, for the seizures, and that is the only med he is on other than diovan for his blood pressure. I know that his activity has waned considerably, but for the difference in the amount he is now eating, I just can't help thinking he should have lost some weight, but he has not. I wish I could get him in to the onc before the 25th, but he will have no part of it, and assures me that he is fine. Can anyone tell me how long it usually takes to recover strength after chemo? It has been 4 months for him and he is still very weak and very sob. Guess I better quit rambling.....you people are wonderful, I wish I had found this group sooner. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lorna PS the copy to the clip board suggestion is great, I don't know why i have never thought of that. The other tips were great as well, so there are ways around these stupid computer problems. Like one said, we have to train them, but I'm afraid mine has to train me.

Don't know exactly how to use this thing, so will do my best. Just found out you can't leave this page where you are writing to check on something and then come back to it. It will be gone. So I started out with more than I have the patience to rewrite. Sorry Last May, my husband, 64yo was diagnosed with extensive SCLC. He presented with a seizure, which proved to be caused by multiple-brain-lesion mets. He started chemo, Cisplatin/Ectoplatin (this I am not sure of and will correct later if wrong)When I tried to check this is where I lost all that I had written and couldn't come back to it. He had 6 rounds of 3-day treatments every 3 weeks. Also, he immediately had wb radiation for 10 days. He had his last round of chemo on Sept 07, 06. His last MRI of the brain showed only one tiny spot left, and his chest CT scan showed no more tumor there. We have not seen the doctor since those test results Sept 27th. We will see him (oncologist) the 25th of this month, and the tests will be repeated. He has been doing pretty good I guess, but he is still very, very tired and sleeps most of the time. His appetite is a lot less than it was before he became ill, but he hasn't lost weight. His appetite diminished with the first chemo and radiation and they had him on decadron which brought it back pretty good, and they took him off of that, of course. Then he still had some brain swelling and had to be put back on the decadron for a while, because of nausea. He got over that and was taken off the decadron again, and his appetite was just ok. He has always been over weight, but now he eats a lot less, but his weight stays the same and his belly remains very distended. I guess you could say that he eats adequately, but not even close to as much as he used to. He lost only about 6 lbs. when he first started chemo, but gained it right back. What I am saying is that I just don't understand how he can eat so little now, and not lose any weight. I know that is a good thing, but it all seems to be in his belly, which I am not sure is a good thing. I know the rest of his body is smaller. Has anyone else experienced this? Usually, weight loss is the problem, but not with him. He says he feels very full when he eats very little. This is very confusing to me. Also, sometimes his breath is so bad that you can't stand to be in the same room with him. It is not his teeth as he has dentures and this is when they are not even in, which is most of the time. He only wears them to eat. Does anyone have any ideas as to what's up with that? We are very encouraged with his results so far, but they have not changed his prognosis of 8 to 12 months. I read somewhere that mets only to the brain is as good as limited stage SCLC. Does anyone else know of this? Sorry for this being so long, and I really did start out better the first time and lost it all. Thanks for your patience with me. This has been so devastating as you all know, and the stress is eating me up. Thanks all, Lorna

Ahhh! Thanks to both of you. Was too stupid to try the glossary.

Hello all, I'm sorry I don't have time right now to tell my story (husband has sclc). I have been reading some of the posts and need to know what does NED mean and what is PCI? Thanks, and will fill you in soon. Lorna