chesney

Thank you all for your wonderful words of advice. I knew that I could count on the wonderful people here on this board for guidance with this issue. My dad has recently been put on anti-depressants with everything that has been going on. I just didn't know if this was or will be the right path for me. Sleeping has been easier lately because I am soooo exhaused and drained after working 10 hour days then cooking and cleaning for mom and dad, then cooking and cleaning for my husband. But it's not about me. It's all about mom and making sure that she is happy and has everything that she needs. This week has been especially hard with the latest developments. Mets to the spine now. Her Onc Dr. pulled me aside and we talked about all of her medications that she is on, etc...and for the first time he said "just be prepared, she is going to go soon". This absoultely ruined me. Obviously we know that this will be the eventual outcome at some point in time, but to hear the words out of his mouth was sooooo hard. I know that we shouldn't always believe what the Drs. say but to hear him say it was devastating. I am just so glad that he didn't say it in front of Mom. She has been so postitive and gung-ho ever since she was diagnosed. I do NOT want her attitude about all of this to change. Thank you again for the words of advice and encouragement. Just being able to talk to those going thru this horrible disease and all the family members and caregivers who understand and have been there is a blessing.

How do you you guys cope with a family member/loved one having lung cancer? I know that's a strange question but I feel that now after almost a year of going thru all of this with my mom, that I am no longer the strong one. Co-workers have suggested seeing my Dr. to get some Zanex or some anti-depressants. I really don't want to have to go that route, but if it helps me keep my sanity then I may have to. It was also suggested seeing a counselor or a therapist. I am not sure who, what, when, where, etc... I don't even know what insurance will cover/not cover. I guess that I am just looking for ideas on how to handle the stress and sadness of this horrible disease in a healthy way. Thanks!

Luckily I also work for a company who has been very supportive about giving me time to spend with Mom and take her to her appointments, etc... But I do feel that there may be one day that I will have to take some sort of leave. I have talked with all the powers that be at work and they have made me a back up plan for the day that I may have to take leave. They are definitely about family first. And there is no way that I could every repay them or thank them enough for giving me this time. It's definitely a tug-of-war situation with balancing work, bills, house, etc... plus a ill family member.

Mom had a shot of procrit when she started on Alimta. We found out about the FDA black label after she had had the shot. We asked the Dr. about it on the next trip and he said that it only is dangerous when they have to give a high dose. Now what they consider a high dose I have no idea, but Dr. said not to worry.

UPDATE: 10/4/07 So we saw the raditaion dr. 10/3 (Wednesday) and got the low down on the Mets to the brain. Mom has 2 mets, 1 "medium" size tumor located on the left side and one very, very small one in the back of her brain. The one that we are concerned about of course is the "medium" one. It did show a considerable amount of swelling around the tumor, which of course was causing the loss of use in her left hand. They have her on 4mg Decadron 2x a day to help ease the swelling and regain use of her hand again. This time around Mom is very receptive to me going to her appointments with her, cooking for her, etc. I asked soooo many questions of the Dr. I almost think that she was getting annoyed! This board really helped me gather my thoughts and questions that I wanted to ask the doctor. We are doing 15 rounds of Whole Brain Radiation, 1x a day for 3 weeks. The Drs. seem VERY optimistic that this treatment will control and even eliminate these Mets. We haven't spoken with her Onc. Dr yet about whether or not he is going to continue with Alimta chemo treatments or stop them. We will find that out next week. Thank you to everyone for your support and prayers.

deepest condolences to you and your family

Hi All - It's been awhile since I have posted, but things had been pretty stable with Mom. Since things had been ok, we had all decided to go on a family vacation the week of Sept. 23rd. Mom had been experiencing loss of use in her left hand fingers. Dr. said to call if it didn't get better. I had done some research and found that this was common among patients that have had Taxol. So we chalked it up to that. Well, she never regained use and on the 20th she went to the Dr. He ordered a Brain MRI and it came back with Mets to the brain. We are absolutely DEVASTATED! Her ONC Dr. had told us that we are fine as long as the cancer doesn't go up. And now it has. We decided to go on vacation anyways, against drs. orders. Mom kept billing this as her last vaction so we had to go. I have been reading all the posts regarding Mets to the brain and WBR just to get more info. She has an appointment for Wednesday 10/3 with the Radiation Dr. to see what the plan is going to be. Just Looking for Prayers and Support....

I just have a couple of questions about some of the drugs/chemo that my mom has received/will be receiving this week. They have given my mom shots of Procrit. One last week and then one this week. She says that it makes her feel worse than the Chemo as far as being tired/fatigued etc. Has anyone else experienced this with Procrit? Also, she is starting a new Chemo this week called Alimta. I have had trouble finding anything on the internet about this drug. Has anybody used this? How does it compare to say the carbo/taxol combo? Thanks for all your help!

Ok so the results are in...this is the only info that I have gotten out of her so far about her drs. visit. "Little to no change from the April scan, except for a 1 centimeter "density" on my liver. He said he wasn't worried about it at this point . I'm going to have a chemo treatment next Thursday with a new drug (Alimta). It only last 2 hrs. I got a Procrit and B12 shot today and have to start taking folic acid tablets every day." I will visit with her this weekend and try to get more info from her. I did talk with her after I first posted on her about not knowing anything. She did respond pretty well and said that we could sit down and have a good talk about it this weekend. Another question I have is, if it never changes (which it hasn't since we started in 12/06), will we just keep going round and round with Chemo? Will they ever just say "Ok we have done all we can do"?

Thank you for your resopnses and questions... As for why they said no surgery, the only response that we got from 2 Pulmonary Surgeons was "It will not improve her quality of life". I think that maybe they are trying to shrink the tumor first then re-evaluate surgery options? Not to sure since I have not talked to Drs. myself. The two Chemo drugs that she had been taking were Taxol & Carboplatin. Last month, after 11 treatments, she has the reation to the Taxol. Drs. said not completely uncommon, but that usually patients have a reation around 5-6 treatments not 11. She goes back to the drs. today so hopefully we will have good news. I have to say that getting on here to see that people are surviving and living with this cancer is very uplifting. When mom was first diagnosed, I went on the internet and all I read was negative statistics. Thank you all for your inspiration.

Hi All! I have been lurking on this board since January and finally decided to sign up. My mom was diagnosed in December 06 with Non-Small Lung Cancer. Some of the details that I know are in my signature below. It's been very frustrating and there have been many sleepless nights over all of this, including every night for the past week. I thought that maybe if I had someone to talk to that I can help get it out. The hardest part of all of this is that she wants to do all of this alone; going to treatments and doctors appointments. That's why I don't have more information posted, b/c she won't talk about it. Thank you for your time...