Hi -
May 2006 - During a routine, yearly physical, my 80 year old husband, Bob, was diagnosed with 111B Adenocarcinoma. There were no symptoms.
June 2006 - onc confirmed 8 cm tumor and lymph node involvement in the center of his chest and near the collar bone. He was given 2 to 3 months without treatment and 9 to 12 months with treatment.
He had 6 weeks of carbo/taxal, every Monday for 4 hours and 33 days of radiation during that same period. We picked Monday's for the Chemo so that if he had any side effects he would feel OK by the weekend. The chemo and radiation did zap him of energy and the radiation burned his skin very badly - front and back upper chest.
September 2006 - Pet scan showed the tumor was reduced in size to 3.7 cm.
January 2007 - Pet scan showed "lymph nodes were resolved" and he was NED. They did a biopsy on the "ground glass" in his lungs and there were no cancer cells. This was most likely from radiation. They drained 1 liter of fluid from his chest cavity. No cancer cells.
March 2007 - 2 more liters of fluid were drained from chest - no cancer cells.
May 2007 - 2 more liters of fluid were drained, again, from his chest - no cancer cells.
July 2007 - The Cardiac and Thoracic surgeon sent him for a routine echocardiogram and ekg.
He was immediately prepped for surgery because of excessive fluid around the heart. They drained the fluid from around the heart and also from his chest. He had a Pericardial Window put in and all fluid was checked - no cancer cells.
August 2007 - Bob had a Mediastinoscopy and a Thoracotomy to check lymph nodes and lung/chest cavity etc. Still having problems with pleural effusion - drained another liter of fluid. All test showed NED. There was no sign of cancer in the chest cavity. Surgeon recommended removal of left lung. It is not functioning. Leaving the lung in place he could have some serious infections and removing the lung could also lead to serious infections. So it is a flip of the coin.
After consulting with our Onc, Pulmonary doctor, Thoracic Surgeon, Cardiac doctor and last but not least Dr. West, we decided to take our chances and not do the surgery. If he does develop an infection we can handle that when the time comes.
January 2008 - Bob is still NED
March 2008 - NED
Bob is doing very well except for his Peripheral Neuropathy. He sleeps with a CPap machine (he has had sleep apnea for over 30 years). Bob started with Peripheral Neuropathy - feet and legs - about 15 years ago.
He wears a brace on his left leg and has gone from a cane to a walker. It is progressing but has nothing to to with the cancer. The chemo did aggravate it and we knew that was a possibility going into this.
Believe it or not -- I tried to keep this short.
April 2008 - next onc appointment and also one with the Pulmonary doctor.
