Starlight

Thank you Norme! He went to the hospital last night and was diagnosed as having pneumonia. He is doing much better today, thank goodness. Obviously he's still in some danger, but they are pretty confident that he will get better since he's already showing major signs of improvement. We're just very relieved to have an answer.

My fiance's father has Stage IV NSCLC with mets to the adrenal glands. He could not have surgery. He finished his 6th round of Taxol chemo treatments on August 13. A couple of weeks after the last treatment, they did a scan and found that the tumors had all shrunk pretty considerably. The doctor said to go home and build his strength up over the next 6 weeks or so, then they'd bring him back in and decide on whether or not to try radiation or more chemo. Well, on Labor Day weekend, he had to be hospitalized because he was very weak, tired, and lethargic. They kept him for a few days, gave him fluids, and gave him a transfusion, then sent him home. Ever since then, his condition has gotten worse. He cannot walk more than a couple of steps without assistance and he has to be forced to do that. He throws up almost everything he eats. Today, they managed to get a home health nurse to stop by and evaluate him and she is going to tell the doctor to get a physical therapist and a nurse over there on a regular basis. After she left, his condition seemed to worsen a little. He's barely responding to anyone and cannot stand up at all even with assistance. They are going to watch him during the night and if he is no better, call an ambulance in the morning. Everyone kept telling us that 6 weeks or so after his last treatment, he'd be feeling a lot better. But he is worse now than he was during his treatments. We are just very perplexed. Is this common? Does anyone have any advice? Thanks for your help!

Thank you John! That's the exact information I was looking for.

My future FIL has NSCLC, Stage IV. He had his 5th out 6 chemo treatments yesterday and the doctor told him he was on his way to being in remission based on the results of the last CT scan. I'm just curious as to what happens as far as follow-up once the chemo treatments are over and he is officially in remission (assuming this doctor's predictions are true of course). He is not a candidate for radiation or surgery, so that's not something we have to deal with. When the chemo is over, that's it, at least for now. How often will he be required to go for follow-up tests? Will it take long for his energy to bounce back and his hair to return? I know it's probably different for everyone, but I am totally clueless, so even a general idea would be helpful. Thanks!

Thank you everyone. Unfortunately, I have lost this fight and we have postponed our wedding. My fiance's family is not getting much information at all from my future father in law's doctor about what he is supposed to expect from the chemo and after the chemo. They have not been encouraged to seek out information or a support group or anything. They are very stubborn and set in their ways and nothing I nor my fiance suggests is being listened to. What this boils down to is that if the doctor doesn't tell them, it isn't true, and the doctor won't tell them ANYTHING. So they think that because he is feeling worse right now (he just had his 5th out of 6 chemo treatments), and the doctor hasn't told them otherwise, that there is no way he will feel up to attending a wedding in October. My fiance and I have tried and tried to explain that the opposite is likely to be true, especially since the tumors are shrinking, but we are not doctors and so they won't listen to us. My fiance's mother is a very difficult woman to get along with anyway and she is already angry with me for even suggesting that we have the wedding in October as planned. So I chose to go ahead and postpone rather than upset her any further. If my FFIL wasn't ill, my fiance and I wouldn't back down. But he is already feeling bad enough and he is a good person and I don't want to make him feel worse. If we don't back down, she will nag him to pieces about it and I don't want to put him through that. My fiance feels bad about this. It's not that he won't stand up to his mother, it's just that he doesn't want to put his father through her torture, not while he is sick. Right now we are planning to wait until he gets the results of his next CAT scan in September. If the tumors have continued to shrink, we are going to set another date within the next couple of months. If they give him very bad news, we will probably wait a little while. Anyway, thank you again. I do appreciate all of your advice and support and while I do agree with you, I just don't feel I can go through with it if his mother is going to make everyone's life hell.

Hi everyone! My future father in law was diagnosed with NSCLC back in February of this year after being treated for what his doctor thought was a sinus infection for nearly 5 months. There is one tumor in one lung, and one on his adrenal gland. I am not sure if this is Stage III or IV, as my fiance's family will not ask the doctor. They are doing the treatments, but they don't want to know anymore than they have to. I don't understand it, but to each his own. Anyway, he has been having one chemo treatment a month since March. Last month he had a CAT scan and the doc said that the tumors were shrinking and have not spread! We were so happy. However, his family has still requested that we postpone our wedding, which was to have happened this October. I won't get into the hurt this has caused. My fiance and I are in our 30's and are not dependent on them, but my fiance feels we have to respect their wishes. Given the news we received at his last CAT scan, I don't understand their reasoning. If he had received bad news, I would of course have understood. Am I missing something here? He will have finished his last chemo treatment in August and will go for another CAT scan in September to see if the chemo continued to work. The doc says surgery is not an option, and neither is radiation. Right now the chemo treatments are causing him to be very tired and weak. The family thinks that 2 months from the time of his last chemo treatment will not be enough time for him to get his strength back up for the wedding which is why they want us to postpone (indefinitely, but they have mentioned next spring as a possible date). My fear though is that if we postpone, we are just putting ourselves at risk for him to be worse than he is now or will be in October. Does anyone have any words of advice? Can anyone explain to me how they felt two months after their chemo ended (assuming the chemo worked at shrinking the tumors)? If I'm being totally unreasonable, I need to know. I love my fiance's family and I understand that this is a terrible time for them. I just don't want us to make a horrible mistake. Thanks!