JB

Once Col's cancer was confirmed after the Brain Surgery, her treatment started in less than a week as well. She was supposed to be out of the hospital like 3 days after the surgery, but they kept her and started radiation right away and gave her her first chemo while she was still in there. So many different experiences on here, you should get lots of good advice, and it will all probably say push them until you get the answers you need, and I agree.

I can't go very far east living in PA, but even if I could, I would go west. Go west young man. SOmplace with fields and mountains and a whole lot of nothing. I'll ask Col and post her answer later. 10 bucks says she wants to go east, all the way to the jersey shore.

I like that idea. I think I'm going to look into it. Since DX i've been using email to get the word out. I usually only send an email after the results of one of Col's scans, but this would be a good way to just put on there some normal everyday stuff. Hopefully the next email I send out will have a carepages link on it. Thanks for the idea.

I'm going to say that you're moms reaction is normal. Colleen has mentioned this to me once or twice as well. She'll say to us, I'm sorry you have to deal with this, I'm sorry that you have to go back and forth to Dr's I'm sorry for this that or the other thing. She gets like that and has never smoked in her life. I attribute it to the feeling of helplessness that this stupid disease often puts us in. No one deserves it, regardless of what he/she has done. When Col starts in with that, keep in mind that I am a blunt person, and this is how our relationship works, I tell her that she has to stop thinking like that. I tell her we're here because we want to be here, and we love her and want to help her through this. It sounds like you are doing everything you can to reassure her. Just keep in mind that there will be a lot of different feelings that arise along the way, some of them crazy, some of them not so crazy, all of them normal. Perhaps some of the survivors who read here can speak to whether or not they've ever felt this way, but I'm sure that many have. Hang in there.

Where do we go to join, as I may still be here at 8 and wouldn't mind stopping by to say hello.

Definitely Jack who'll be three on the 26th. Whether it's his voice through the monitor, even if it is before the alarm, or him banging on his bedroom wall when he hears me get into the shower.

Hindsight is certainly 20/20, if not better. When I look back on it we had sign after sign after sign. All I can say, is that these feelings happen, we do everything we can to recognize them, acknowledge them, let them do whatever it is they do to us, and then try to get right back to what we can do now to get through this. Please don't let it overrun you.

There was a time where I probably would have looked the other way. But anymore, I would absolutely do it. Too many people running around doing crazy stuff thinking no one will do anything about it. Consequences are what make people think twice, if there are none, no one thinks.

I'm not going near this one either. I will say that myka's post made me laugh out loud. Sounds exactly like something my grandfather would say. He's not wierd, but he has done some crazy stuff. If i asked pap what he would do if his car ran off the road into a ditch, he'd say the same thing I did when I ran myself over with the truck (don't ask, it's true) crawl back in it and drive home. Or what about that time I broke my leg when I wrecked the moped. I just got back on that and drove home too. He's 81, and this isn't stuff that happened when he was 20, these things happened within the last 10 years. Gotta love this stuff.

Peachy, Can't speak for the Avastin either but Col did 6 rounds of that carbo/taxil. Not that I have tons of experience with chemo, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. SHe had no reaction. The meds they gave her to help her stomach worked pretty well for the most part. She'd be down for a couple of days, needed a transfusion after every treatment cause her blood counts kept getting so bad, but after the transfusion would gradually improve. She had a lot of other stuff going on at the time, just out of the brain surgery, radiation thru the first couple treatments, all at the same time, it would be difficult for us to blame it all on the chemo. Given where she is now a year out, bet if you asked her again, and guarenteed her she'd be where she is in another year, she do it again. Best of luck to you. Keep us posted.

I for one would love to hear anyone, actually everyone, come on here and type those three little letters that I Col and I can't type. I don't care what the dr's said, what the statistics said, I want to know what the people who battled it said. And if they say NED, faaaaget about it, I M thrilled. I know the stats, I know the challenges, we have a lot of info on that, heck, I even have some first hand experience with it with family members and extremely close friends of the family. Thanks to this site, I KNOW THE HOPE. I come on here as much to see someone else say NED. Being that I've only posted here in the last couple weeks, but lurking for a year, I will offer my opinion. That is you'll get a lot of OOOOOOHHHHH YEahs and thank you Jesus and way to go's than you will anything else. We all want one thing...To come on here and have the site be inactive cause no one has LC n e more. I believe that. Sorry all my posts are so long. But my emotions get the best of me.

Ok panicmom. Slow down, take a breath. NO ONE hear wanted to scare you. I was afraid of doing that with my post, and I APOLOGIZE, that I did it. I speak for me only here, but I still believe that we are exceptions. I wanted you to go get an xray, because in my heart I believe it will be NBD. That's no big deal for those of you who don't yet get the text messaging lingo. I'm still learning it myself. I didn't mean to insinuate that these symptoms are concrete. It goes a lot deeper, in my situation than that. We had WAY more symptoms than you described. It's just for us, hindsight is so clear. Remember that for us, every little thing will bother us if we let it. I'll also note that I had about 3 different things done after Col's DX just to set my mind at ease, because the what if's became worse than the symptoms. Guess what, all came back normal. Have the exray, come back and tell us it was nothing, and we'll all be thrilled.

Prior to Col's dx, a persisten cough would be described in my dictionary as any cough annoying you for over a year. Sounds funny, but that's what I would have said. Rub some dirt on it and get back in the game. Post DX, anything that scares you or that doesn't feel normal to you, or that has you asking questions. I agree with Randy, get an xray, especially if it is worrying you silly. Col had persitent cough and shortness of breath (SOB as I learn the terminology, as I used to think SOB was the guy that cut you off on the highway). Col's lungs sounded clear, and we were back and forth for months. hindsight 20/20 I can see things as far back as May '06. DX date of tumor is Oct '06. If not for a VERY DILIGENT eye dr, being cautious, no MRI would have ever been ordered, no brain tumor discovered, no brain tumor removed, no LC ever discovered, and worst of all, probably no Col. As it stands now, we got lucky, caught it, and are still here fighting it a year later. I'm not trying to scare you. It is probably nothing, and we are all praying to insure that it is nothing. My post is to convince you to have an xray, put your mind at ease, and go on being healthy. Wish you the best!

yet another unfortunate side effect of this stupid cancer. I remember last xmas, Col was just out of surgery, and in the middle of chemo, and beat down BAD. It hit me hard that day, as Jack opened his presents, thinking he's only two, he's supposed to have 100 of these with his parents by his side. I have those days too, she has them as well. Sometimes, we can be out somewhere doing something and I'll see her across the room and wonder to myself. Then I say, wait a minute, we're out doing something, and we'll keep doing somethings until we can't do something. Sorry to blab. Just trying to let you know that it's normal, and that I hope you work through it.

Bobby, must be the weather the last two weeks cause I've been feeling down lately as well. Spent a couple nights yelling at the stars, and delayed going to bed to breakdown downstairs where Col couldn't see or hear me. I'm sorry that you are feeling this way. One thing I will say is I think it depends on your personality before we all go into this whole mess. I would say if you were emotional to begin with, then I would expect to be more emotional. I could count on one hand the number of times I cried prior to being tossed into this. I lost count the first month post dx. It's bound to happen, and it won't do anyone any good to bottle it up. I think sometimes it's good to get it out. That being said, if it begins to "take over" I would think about searching out things to help. Medicines are great things these days, and you can get a thousand different happy pills from your primary care doc. My mother in law was a bundle of nerves before Col's DX, and I thought right afterwards she was going to literally loose her mind. Went to the Dr. he gave her something, and she's been doing well ever since. It's not to make the problem go away, but IMO it can go a long way to make it tolerable. That's my 2cents. In the mean time prayers that you are able to wrok through this are on the way.

Maybe different because Col only had one single, albeit large, brain met that was removed with surgery. Then WBR. then I think a scan every 3 months Thru June. Next one in end Oct. / beginning Nov. He would do them more often if we asked and at one point in there we requested one, but we're comfortable with our current schedule. If you think you need them more often tell them. If you think you would need them less often tell them that. We do lung scans every three months. Seems like you get a good comparison at that time frame, dr's opinion, but I agree. Plus it gives us almost two and a half months to enjoy life without SCANXIETY!!!!

I know Colleen did Arenesp, not sure about procrit. I try not to get too tied up in what the dangers and the side effects may or may not be. I try to be blind to that by focusing on the fact that we need to beat the cancer. Once we do that, we'll work on fixing the damage from the drugs that beat the cancer. May not be the best idea, but it's how I get through it. If i read all the side effects of everything she took, besides being bored and confused, I'd probably go crazy.

Kasey, Upper Pottsgrove is where we call home. We spent a year and a half in Bridgeport PA right after we got married. Raney. Amazing, I was typing a reply to Kasey when I saw your reply. Your Story and timeline is remarkably similar to Col's. Ages, DX, never smoked, not that that means anything, but just amazingly similar. Want to hear another crazy twist. Her sister just got married in August. My parents watched Jack and we PARTIED LIKE ROCKSTARS. I hope you can do the same!!!!!!!

Hello everyone. Although this is your first introduction to me, I've had the pleasure of lurking on here since shortly after my wife's DX. I spent the first 6 months post Dx roaming around in a fog, unable to think and even less to say, and questions that no one will ever have the answer too. I will say that once I did find this site, it was very helpful, and found there were many valuable points of view on here. Based on where we are right now, I figured I would sign in and share our journey as well as offer comfort and my point of view. You are all correct, that this is a site no one wants to be on, but you're so very happy you've found it. It's difficult to relate to others sometime, and when you're 31 your friends are having more children and just generally busy with the ins and outs of everyday life. Many have no comprehension what we feel on a daily basis. Our most recent stable scan came on the heels of a lovely day and a half spent in downtown Philadelphia. A bit of an early Anniversary present. We were married 7 yrs as of Sept. 16th. We stayed at an expensive hotel, had dinner at The Old Original Bookbinders, and even took a carriage ride through old city. Three things you could have never convinced me to do prior to Col's DX. Add that one to your how cancer has affected me positively post. While Colleen still struggles with headaches, they are daily, but at least not from brain mets anymore, she gets around fairly well. Not well enough to work, but well enough to enjoy herself, and spend time with our son Jack. It's our "new normal", something only the people here understand. Jack will be 3 on Oct. 26th. Born in 2004, we brought him home from the hospital on my 29th b-day Oct. 29th. Yep, up until Oct. 2006, October was a GREAT Month. Determined to put a positivie spin on it, we have one more thing to celebrate this year in October. Col will be one year out from DX. We're throwing a party, and we don't care what you celebrate, just as long as you celebrate. Once I get home from work today, I will try to update my profile a bit, and add some pictures, and adjust my profile some more. I just wanted to get in here and intorduce myself. I promise to be an active member of this support group, even though I at times find it difficult to add my 2 cents to others situations. I promise to be supportive, but above all else, I promise to try to bring some more good humor to thise board. If it wasn't for our sense of humor Colleen and I would have had an even more difficult time dealing with this. One final PS. Sharonjo, part of what made me feel at home here is you. You don't know me, but i spend 1 week every December in the abandon coal mines of PA carrying a gun with your brother Tommy, and pretending like we are actually hunters. You and he have both been in our prayers, and continue to be, as is everyone else on here. Oh one final thing. Cancer sucks!