BarbaraL

Greetings to all the survivors and caregivers here! I just joined yesterday and posted to a specific inquiry I found, but thought I should make a proper introduction. I've provided most important medical details in my signature below, so I'll get a little more personal in this message. I'm a 45-year-young self-employed graphic artist. For the first six weeks or so after my DX, with the round robins of tests, doctors, surgeries, tears and phone calls, I was totally drained. Then, my focus was on starting chemo treatment, since I'm considered inoperable. At this point I've had one full (3 treatment) cycle of Taxol/Carboplatin. Aside from days 1-4 of chemo, when I'm spaced out, drained and achy, I'm feeling remarkably well. My CT scan next week will show the results of all this thus far and, while I remain hopeful, I am also trying to be practical. My husband (of one month--a story for another time) and my close friends know the statistical prognosis (lousy), but my 71-year-old mother and 76-year-old father do not. The prospect of my dying before them (and leaving my husband alone) actually scares me more than anything else. My parents lost my brother many years ago, when he was 18 and I was 23, and having them lose another child brings me to tears. Hubby and I got married by the mayor last month, and we're having a 100-guest barbecue next weekend to celebrate our marriage. I've been planning and looking forward to this big event for the last six weeks, knowing that all the fun could be bittersweet. There will be some relatives and others attending I fear I may never see again. I guess the test next week is weighing heavily on me, even though I thought I had developed a "whatever it is, it is" attitude until about a week ago. I saw my onc earlier today, and he's very pleased by my lack of symptoms and tolerance of the chemo. Any words of wisdom and/or encouragement out there? Thanks in advance, Barb

Hi. This is my first post here. I have Stage IIIB adenocarcinoma, and it was the fluid on my lung that sent me to the doctor in the first place, though I didn't know what it was at the time. Severe shortness of breath and a non-productive cough for about a month led my doctor to send me for an X-ray one afternoon. Doc called back that same day, said my X-ray showed "complete white-out of my right lung"!, and told me to go to the nearest emergency room for immediate evaluation. Long story short, I was in the hospital for three days. The first full day they did a thoracentesis (removing more than 3.5 liters of fluid through my back) and some fluid was sent to pathology. It was determined to be a "malignant pleural effusion." I had another X-ray and a chest CT scan immediately after procedure. After the fluid was removed, I felt great. Problem is it took only about a week for the fluid to begin to accumulate again. I'll be happy to give you the total blow-by-blow, but let me stick with the fluid issue. The first thing my oncologist ordered for me was a surgical procedure called "pleurectomy," or removal of my right pleura. Turns out one of the top thoracic surgical groups in the country is here in central NJ, and they did the procedure using "VATS", or Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery. Four small incisions were made in my front and back chest area, where a video camera and surgical tools were inserted. The surgeons perform the operation viewing your internal chest through a video display. The whole thing took about an hour. I was in the hospital for three days, while a chest tube drained the incision. I was given plenty of painkillers, which did the trick, and I used them for a couple of weeks. The doctors all said that without the surgery, I'd have had a chest tube permanently, which is no fun. The surgery was completely successful, and my symptoms are gone. I've just finished my first complete cycle of chemo (Taxol/Carboplatin, 3 times every 3 weeks), and I'm scheduled for a CT scan next week to evaluate the results of the chemo thus far. I hope this helps anyone dealing with pleural effusion.