June 2007 my Husband was diagnose with stage 3a nsclc. This was shortly after our twins 3rd birthday. After seeing my Grandmother die from LC in 1993 I was naturally scared to death. We had 2 different doctors give us 2 very different opinions in the same day. The first Dr. said "Good news, stage 2 operable here is the phone number of a surgeon." One hour later the second Dr. (who specializes in LC) says "Stage 3 non-operable." The 2nd Dr. said it was non-operable because it was right on the Aeorta and there was no way a surgeon would be able to get it all. So we went with the 2nd Dr. since he specialized in LC and started treatment right away. We had chemo once a week for 6 weeks and radiation 5 days a week for 6 weeks. The tumor shrunk over 60% and on August 27th we had surgery. The surgeon was unable to save the lung so the left lung was removed. We are fortunate that John is not on oxygen. We were told that he would probably need it for the rest if his life, but he has not had it since about 20 hours after the surgery. I think it really helped that he walked a mile a day during treatment and we went with an organic diet. Having 5-9 servings of fruit and veggies a day. I even threw away my nonstick ccokware since I was told that at certain temperatures it could emit chemicals into the food. Since they found tumor cells around a vein during surgery, we were told that we would have to do more chemo. They did remove most of the vein but had to leave a small portion of it. We finished the 2nd round of chemo about a month ago and had a pet scan last Friday. We have an appointment today at 3:30 with the oncologist to find out the results. We are keeping our fingers crossed and saying lots of prayers.
I have also organized a walk for LC with the proceeds going to LUNGevity. I'm hoping to raise enough money to make a difference and hopefully find a cure someday. I will do this event annually until we do.
Barb
