My father-in law has been recently diagnosed with Stage 4 non small cell lung cancer. We were told by his lung DR. that it was inoperable and terminal. He gave him about a year to live. He has two large tumors, one in each lung and in the lymph nodes. My father-in-law is 81 and in pretty good health prior to this with the exception that he has asthma pretty bad. He lives alone . His wife died about 6 years ago. We live about five hours away from him. He me with the oncologist alone the first time. He was very up beat and really liked the Dr. and couldn't wait for us to meet him. He was sacheduled for a MRI and then to meet with the oncologist again.A week later we met the oncologist and on first meeting really like him. He was very positive and encouraging. He told us the scan did not show any tumors in the brain and that that was all he had them look for. He assured us the tumor was localized to the right lung with no lymph node involvement.(Why did the lung Dr. tells us that the lymp nodes were involved)But as we got to asking him questions we became a little uncomfortable with his answers. When we asked him about the tumors growth he said it didn't really matter how much the tumor had previously grown, all that mattered was how it went from now on. (We already knew that the tumor doubled in size from November until January). We asked him more questions about the results of the scan. He finally started reading us the results of the scan which stated that the lymph nodes were involved and that the tumors had grown from 2 cm to 5 cm and from 2.5 cmt to 6 cm. We were confused as to why he gave us his first results that didn't match these. He explained the treatments, including all the ones that he couldn't do. He explained to us that this type cancer is usually treated with a large dose of chemo every three weeks but because of Bill's age and general health, he didn't think he could tolerate that so he was going to give him a lower dose, once a week for three weeks. Then he wanted to do another scan to see if this was accomplishing anything. We discussed this in length with me taking notes and him assuring us that we would do a scan in three weeks to determine the progress. He understood that we are coming every week from out of town and needed to make our schedules work with Bill's treatment. We asked about side effects. He told us that the only side effect that Bill should experience was hair loss. He would be getting drugs to conteract the other side effects and he didn't expect him to expeerience nausea or anything else.That sounded great. Because we have some experience already with cancer, we questioned when he should expect to feel any of the side effects. He told us probably on the 2nd day which was what we expected.
We questioned him as to what he expected the treatments to do since this cancer was supposedly terminal. My exact words were "What do you expect to accomplish by this treatment?" He asked me what I meant by that and I said. "Do you expect to slow down the tumor growth, put it in remission or cure him." He said he expected to cure him. My husband and I were somewhat surprised by this answer. He expounded on his beliefs and Bills attitude and all kinds of things in general and then right at the end He went on to say I have promised your Dad a 10% chance of survival for 5 years. That didn't sound like a cure to me. Regardless of our feelings, Bill was excited and ready to start treatment which was scheduled for the following Fri. We got out my Day planner and looked at the Dr. calender and scheduled that we would be here the next three Fridays. Bill would the have a scan, which we would not come up for as he was well able to drive his self to that. He left and said he would send in the chemo nurse to talk to us. He reminded us to stop by the desk and get the next appt. scheduled and pu lab orders for the following friday. When we got thru and went to the front we found out that the Dr. had scheduled the next appt for Monday the 17th at 4;00. we were not happy because he knew that Mondays were not good for us.
Bill called everyone when we got home to tell them that the Dr. expected to cure him and guaranteed him 5 years.
The next week (on Friday)we go to start the chemo. We questioned them some more about the treatments and what to expect because Bill was pretty nervous. They began to explain some of the side effects and Bill told them that the Dr. said he was giving him medicine and wouldn't get any except hair loss. The chemo lady told him that that was not true and that he would most likely experience some nausea and fatigue. As the treatments continued she explained that the symptoms would probably intinsify. We told her that we were anxious to get these first three streatments done so that he could get the scan and we would see how well this is working. She looked at us real funny and said she needed to check his records. She came back and said that Bill is not scheduled to have a scan anytime. He is scheduled to take a dose once a week for three weeks and then off a week and then start all over again. She explained that they never scan until at least two cycles have bee completed. ??????? What is going on???
The treatments went fine, and Bill said he didn't feel a thing.
Saturday morning he said he was a little tired and a little quessy, but no big deal. We left and came home Sunday morning. Bill hasn't been out of bed since we left, the naseau has stayed and the fatigue is getting worse every day. My husband is on his way back. I stayed at home because I could not get off work until tomorrow and we are concerned that someone needs to be there with him. He goes back for another treatment tomorrow. Should we be as concerned as we are? We do not have a lot of confidence in this oncologist but my father in law loves him because he promised him a cure. I need to talk to someone who can be honest with me. My father in law has booked a fishing trip with my husband and his best friend and his son for this summer. He wants to call next week and reserve a lodge in Costa Rica. Realistically we don't see this happening.
