cat127
-
Posts
403 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Downloads
Store
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Blogs
Events
Posts posted by cat127
-
-
-
My sisters and I are big pro-cycling fans. There was a race last week out in California, the Amgen Tour of California to be specific. This is a youtube video of a sort of party crasher. I don't think you have to be a cycling fan to get a laugh, as most of my friends aren't and they've all said they got a real good laugh out of it. This video has me certain I need to go to CA and watch this race next year, and hopefully find some funny people like this guy and his friends.
-
Did anyone else see this? I don't usually watch her, though I often scan by with the remote. And I saw last night (or possibly the night before actually) that she had a little thing on about lung cancer, she also had Dana Reeves sister on there giving some stats. Here is a link to the video. The website gives me the impression that this may be on ongoing thing, news on lung cancer and lung cancer survivors, though the segment didn't necessarily give me that impression. But always good to see some press!
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestof ... cancer.cnn
I did a search to see if this was on the board anywhere else and didn't see it. Also wasn't sure what board was appropriate for this, so move it away if it is in the wrong forum.
-
If your mother had the tumor in the lung and the met to the brain, but no lymph node involvement, that met to the brain would be what is called a 'precocious metastases'. You should go over to www.onctalk.com and see what Dr. West has written about this.
-
If it is any consolation, I'm bothered by it too! Mainly as you said, how dare someone who hasn't been in those shoes, judge someone who is. Glad they are so sure they'd "move on", but what exactly does that mean. I've moved on, as in I get up every day and go about my life, have fun in it, plan for the future. But every single day, I miss my dad (who died 28 years ago next week) and my mum (who died 8 years ago last Sept). Sorry if that isn't what this person thinks I should do, but what the heck do they know? And I agree, if I were in those early years, when the pain and missing of them was so much more acute, those comments would have stung a lot more than they do now, and would have been no help in helping me feel better about my horrible loss.
-
Hey there. She's home and recovering slowly. Sort of bites that she's going through all the pain and recovery but without the actual lobectomy. But her spirits are good and she's ready for the next step. Which reminds me I should call the oncologist and make an appt with him for the same day that she has a follow-up with the radiation oncologist. The med onc was in several times at the hospital so he and I have already talked a bit about what the next move should be. The rad onc stopped in specifically on his day off to see her because my niece and I ran into him at a pub and told him she was in there. He is such a nice guy and just wanted to stop and tell Kelly to keep fighting and that he felt confident she'd respond well to whatever treatment we started.
Thanks for asking!
-
Actually the Harvard study showed the opposite. That there was no difference between the groups and in fact that a group that knew they were being prayed for had a higher complication rate. There are some interesting articles out there by the principal investigator where he says something about God not being impressed with their academic credentials. I remember the authors stating after about 10 yrs of study, that they could never control for the fact that people in the non-prayer group were likely still being prayed for by friends and family. As a scientist used to designing studies I remember thinking at the time - well yeah, how did you think you could control praying? They had religious groups praying for some patients and not others, but that doesn't mean no one is praying for the 'control group'.
That said, and even though I'm a scientist through and through, I'm also a Catholic school graduate and I pray all the time for Kelly to have positive results from whatever is going on at the time.
-
The main thing a surgeon will want to see from follow-up scans after your chemo/radiation is that there are no new sites and very importantly, that the lymph nodes, especially in the mediastinum, look clean. My sister was offered the option of surgery when her PET after chemo/radiation showed no uptake in any of the lymph nodes. they will want to be sure the lymph nodes are 'sterilized', ie, free of cancer. If you go over to Dr. West's board at www.onctalk.com, under the thread for 'locally advanced' is a post I made to him about my sister being offered surgery and comments he made, they may be of some help to you.
-
I think we all have been there and all understand how you are feeling. See for me, this is my job, not from a clinical aspect, but I work with cancer drugs and studies etc. Man, have I second guessed myself. Should I have pushed for a more agressive surgeon for my sister? Because I'm sure I could have found one. But at what cost, and how would I have lived with myself if my pushing had a negative not positive effect.
I wish I knew how to tell you to not feel it. I live with some guilt to this day over my mother's death from vascular disease. Woulda coulda shoulda is right. But I know I can't change what happened and I know in my head that so much of it is not really within our/medicine's control. But I second guess anyway. So while I can't tell you how to stop it, I can tell you that I think it is pretty normal.
But folks like me who work in this field, we have loved ones that get cancer too. And loved ones that die from it. And people I work with themselves have battled it, some have lost that battle.
It is the one thing that upsets me when I hear people say that those of us in the field don't want to cure cancer, because then we would be out of a job. Well guess what, I would give anything to be out of a job, as would all my co-workers. Because we want to cure it as much as anyone, and we don't get a free pass from it. But I digress and I'm taking the thread off course. I guess my point was, folks with much more knowledge than the average patient or caregiver also second guess themselves.
-
Awwww Katie, that stinks! Hope you are feeling better soon!
-
We have not talked to the cyberknife folks but I asked Kelly if she would like to at least go and talk to them and she said yes. So once she is out of the hospital and healing a bit more, I'm going to set up an appt as there is one in town. Not sure if she won't be very close to the max radiation that the field can take, but can't hurt to talk to them.
Just found out that our niece, who is a nurse at the hospital where Kelly is, managed to get her moved to a private room.
Good to have some connections. -
Thank you all! I spent nearly all day in the hospital with Kelly. Her mood was actually pretty good. I heard her tell a friend, well I'll just have to be one of those people that wows them with how well I do on one of these drugs. Her oncologist came by, and we do really love him. But he sat on her bed while she was in the chair and just said "well this was a little disappointing". Kelly said to him "oh it's way more than a little disappointing". He just smiled. The king of the understatement, I called him. He looked at me and said "so he wasn't willing to just go for it?". I told him no, and explained exactly why and he was OK with that. He and I talked a bit about the possible options and then he said to Kel, well you have a few weeks to think about it, take time to heal, then you can come in and we can make plans.
It's just so hard to see her in so much pain for what really is nothing. Though you are right Katie, we all just said "you had to try Kel, you had to give it a try or you would always have wondered what if". And she totally feels that way too. Though I think she'll feel it more when the chest tube, catheter and epidural come out.
I told her how many folks were passing on their well wishes and good thoughts and she asked me to thank you all!
-
That is just great news Mary. And I will definitely tell Kelly, I think your story will give her a lot of hope! And she'll be glad you are celebrating with wine!
-
Well unfortunately today did not go as we had hoped. I knew the minute I saw the surgeon at the waiting room door, it was too soon. When he launched into a short dissertation on the anatomy of the left lung, I was certain. The tumor was not able to be removed with just the upper lobe, there was some invasion into the lower lobe. And he would not do a pneumonectomy. Difficult news to hear for sure, especially given how difficult the decision was for Kelly to come to. But we had to try and get the tumor. I hope she doesn't regret having tried, because it was just something we had to try and do. Now, back to the oncologist and time for plan B. This is one of the many things I hate about cancer. The way it throws things in the road that make you have to stop and change direction. But change direction we will and we will keep on fighting. Still several drugs in the arsenal to try!
Thank you all for all the kind thoughts, prayers, encouragement and support you are giving Kelly! She's a bit new at the message board concept and it was a big step for her to come on and talk to folks. Maybe she'll talk more once she's home.
-
I let Kelly know what everyone said, she's very grateful for all your support and prayers. She kept busy today with two of our three brothers coming over and spending most of the late afternoon and evening with her. Our other sister is in town from Philly as well, so we were one brother shy of a full family.
-
Hey folks. I'm at Kelly's house now. We are to be at the hospital at 11:30 tomorrow morning. Just late enough in the morning for that caffeine-withdrawal headache to set in! Thanks for the well wishes and I will be by to update tomorrow. Thank you all for all the prayers and for all the help you gave Kelly!
-
Boy I wish I was a patient person! Sadly I take after my father,
who didn't have a patient bone in his body, while Mum had the patience of Job.
Mum would always say "Patience is a virtue, catch it if you can,
seldom found in woman, never found in man", when she was teasing my father.
(what a great looking dog!!!)
-
Hey Sharon, thanks for that info! Especially about going to Ireland, as Kelly and our other sister and I plan to go to Paris and we think that Paris in Springtime sounds wonderful, and perhaps a bit like a song.
-
It's Over.
in GRIEF
I was just about to ask you if you were Irish.
In the words of an oncologist friend of mine who in fact is Irish but knows nothing about being Irish, we Irish are funny about our funerals. Our poor funeral director didn't know what to make of my family when my mum died, but he loved dealing with us! I always figure if I can laugh rather than cry, I'll take the laughing. Your family sounds similar. Not that I don't do my share of crying mind you. So sorry for your loss Andy, but it sounds like you and your family will be just fine and will soldier on as best you can! My prayers are with you all.
-
double the scanxiety today, ouch! good luck to both of you, saying a little prayer right now for good results!
-
I find it a good rule of thumb that if there is blood where there shouldn't be, I get it checked out. Blood in the sputum definitely warrants a call to one of his doctors. Good luck!
-
No prob JB, thought I would comment in case anyone else had a similar sort of question. It really does take a team, doesn't it? Through all of this my sister never once has even met a pulmonologist, and her primary diagnosed her with COPD/emphysema over 4-5 yrs ago (hence my 'idiot' comment) and for the record, he is no longer her primary, now one of my childhood friends is! And yes, good luck to your friend Gail, it is nice to be able to at least help someone out a bit when they are first thrown into this insanity, we all remember how overwhelming those first few weeks were!
-
Seems to differ for everyone a little bit anyway. I agree with the idea that whoever ordered the CT scan will likely bring on board the next needed Dr.
With Kelly, her idiot primary care (another story for another day) brought in the thoracic surgeon after the CT and he then did the media and bronch to get some tissue biopsies. Once he found the contralateral node involvement, then we went and found the oncologist. (And with lung cancer you wouldn't have a hematology oncologist, those folks specialize in blood-related cancers like leukemia. This is a solid tumor cancer and would be handled by a medical oncologist who oversees everything and handles the drug aspect of treatment, then the radiation aspect of treatment would be handled by a radiation oncologist - just to clear up the question by JB
)Now we are back with the thoracic surgeon and in the words of the medical oncologist, he is 'taking a back seat' while the surgeon does his thing.
Seems that either a pulmonolgist or a thoracic surgeon would be the likely next Dr. called in for your friends case. I'm also of the school of thought that you can't get an oncologist on board too soon though.
-
Interesting question. And thinking about it made me realize how many things of both my parents I still have. But with time I did find that many things I couldn't part with when they died, I had no problem letting go of later.
I do still wear a couple of my mum's sweaters, and everytime someone comments on them I have to tell them they were my dead mother's, which I think makes most people a bit uncomfortable. I should work on that.
When Dad died Mum had to start using the bank account for the first time (Dad did all of that, so much so that he told my 2 sisters and I, never let a man do to you what I did to your mother
). I think both my sisters and I have kept a check written by Mum in those first few weeks, usually for something like $1.29 and in the memo line where it says "FOR:" she writes, $1.29. 
I guess no one explained to her the purpose of that line. But I still smile and cry a bit when I look at them.I wear one of her winter coats, but that first winter (she died in September) I basically left it in my car because it smelled like her and my whole car did that whole summer. But the smell eventually faded and I really miss that smell.
I have lots of other stuff, but those seem to come to mind first.
I guess no one explained to her the purpose of that line. But I still smile and cry a bit when I look at them.
Questions reference drugs.
in NSCLC GROUP
Posted
Snappy - your husband's history says that his biopsy showed squamous cell NSCLC? Well then I doubt he will ever receive Avastin, as it is labeled for use in only non-squamous cell form of lung cancer. The clinical trials showed an increase risk of bleeds that appeared more prominent in the squamous cell NSCLC patients (32% severe or fatal bleeds in squamous cell histology vs 2.3% when predonimant squamous cell histology was excluded). In fact, Avastin has a black box warning about fatal hemorrhage. My sister has mixed histology (adeno-squamous) and that also precluded her from being a candidate for Avastin. Just an FYI.