ChristinaMarie

If you are on Avastin along with other chemos you may need to get the nustala shot. My husband had to have it because his counts were so low he skipped chemo for 2 weeks. However Avastin alone does not mess with your WBC so there is no need for the shots.

My husband is on Avastin and he currently experiences slightly high BP (but it is controlled with medication), bloody noses, and it takes him longer to heal. Good luck!

YES! Its hydrochlorothiazide! Good to know there are other drugs out there! I hope its fast acting too because if we go to the onc on thursday with it still high, he will probably pull the avastin according to his fellowship intern person.

My husband's BP is 145/100 even while taking 25mgs of the "hydrochloro....." whatever. The Oncologist may take him off Avastin and that has me worried greatly since that is his maintenance drug after his 4 rounds of chemo. We are going to his PCP today to see if there is anything else we can do about the high BP. Anyone else have this problem and what did you do to get the BP under control???

I am so very sorry to hear this. My thoughts and prayers are with you and ms. dickens.

I am thinking of you and your husband tonight coni. I am so sorry to hear him not eating or drinking.

anyone else miss 2 treatments in a row? Today put him at 4 weeks after his 2nd round of carbo/taxol/avastin and his counts are still way low. Anyway, we are meeting with the onc next thursday which will put him 5 weeks since treatement. I am just getting anxious about our "end date" moving back further and further... we were hoping to be done with this by Turkey Day

I am so very sorry for your loss.

Coni, I would call the doctor and ask if he can get in sooner. It could be something simple as low red blood cell counts that is making him tired and they make medication to remedy that. See if you can get in sooner, I know it is killing you watching your husband like that. Best of luck hun!

I called my husband's oncologist's nurse today about this since my husband is adamant about taking his multi-vitamin that has 500% RMD of Vit. C. She said there are so many conflicting studies out there. She would run it by his oncologist but the most she would recommend is my husband not take his multi-vit the day of chemo and the day after. I really hated calling. I really don't want to be THAT person that calls after each article about a new "discovery" in cancer research.

I am so sorry shrimp. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this time.

Thank you so much for bumping this. Perfect timing for me.

That is great news. I have to admit, at the begining of all this when things were the darkest, your siggy gave me such hope. Congrats on still being NED!

Oh darn I was totally plannning on joining chat but then completely forgot! Ya'll do this every Tuesday?

Hi Grimie. I don't have much treatment experience to tell you about since my husband just got diagnosed last month with stage iv with bone mets. He just started chemo last week along with Zometa. This weekend he was really achy with bone, joint, and muscle pain... just a general flu like achiness. I assume its from the Zometa. He got treatment Thursday, was OK Friday, was real bad Saturday and Sunday, Monday he felt better but still not 100% but today he feels OK and is back at work. While other parts of his chemo cocktail may have caused or exasperated this, I assume it was from the Zometa based on side effects listed on their patient info. Welcome to the board! These folks are great!

Onc # 3 ordered an MRI to rule out brain mets so we could add Avastin to the mix. It came back CLEAN! ITs the first good news we have had in a while. He started chemo yesterday, so far so good, just a little tired.

Hi and welcome.. So sorry you have to be here. I cannot tell you much about what the pet scan found, I just wanted to welcome you as I have not been around lately. This place is great and has helped me tremendously. Christie

I can understand your frustration, bug. We went through something similar though not nearly as long as you. People kept telling my husband "I do not believe its cancer" and there was a waiting period and in that waiting period the tumors grew. We cannot help but wonder if the cancer spread to his bones in that waiting period. But I try to look at the positive side. That waiting period where we were sure it was not cancer gave us a few more months of "normal life". We had taken a wonderful trip to the Florida Keys and went camping in the Thousand Islands in NY during that waiting period. That would have been taken away had my husband been diagnosed sooner and honestly, the cancer most likely had already spread by then anyway. Again, I am so sorry about what you are going though. Christie

Hi bug I am so sorry you have to be here. I am pretty new myself having found out my 39 year old husband has been diagnosed stage iv adenoC just a few weeks ago. You definitely are in the scarriest part and once you get a treatment plan in place you will feel better. When I start to feel down I tend to come here and read the "survivor" and "good news" sections. It really helps me. Christie

I actually bought the essay from the newspaper website's archives. Feel free to delete this if it violates some copyright rules or something. Do not give lung cancer short shrift Meaghan Latone Meaghan Latone Guest essayist November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. What? You didn't know? How can that be? Didn't you know that lung cancer is the deadliest, and most common of all cancers? So, where is our national ribbon campaign? Just so you know, our ribbon color is clear or pearl. But unfortunately you won't see those ribbons prominently placed all over like the pink ribbons for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We don't have any spokespeople that I know of. Our research is 20 years behind other cancers, even though each year more people will die from lung cancer than breast, liver, prostate, melanoma, colon and kidney cancers combined! Why the lack of attention, of research? Because, like AIDS, lung cancer has a stigma. It is assumed that if we have lung cancer, it is our own fault — we smoked. However, let it be known that there is a growing number of people, including myself, whose lung cancer was not caused by smoking. It is believed that environmental factors such as radon, asbestos and pollution are contributing factors. Regardless of what causes the disease, the number of those afflicted each year is staggering — and while the number of breast cancer patients sometimes supersedes that of lung cancer patients, the mortality rate is significantly higher for lung cancer. How can you keep your family safe? The problem is that there is a lack of early detection. As of yet there are no proactive diagnostic tests or tools, like mammograms or breast self-exams for breast cancer. Lung cancer patients often show no symptoms until the cancer has already spread and pain surfaces elsewhere in the body. I had excruciating lower back pain. After a few attempts with medications and rest, I ended up in the hospital. After many x-rays and a spinal biopsy, a CT scan showed the cancer in my bones. The tumor had spread from the lung to my spine, pelvis, femurs and liver. My case is not rare. About half the people diagnosed with lung cancer are in the advanced stages of the disease. By then, treatment offers little hope for a cure. Most of us diagnosed in stages 3 or 4 will die within five years. This is unacceptable. I'm 36. I'm married with two young children. I have things to do. My whole life is ahead of me. I didn't deserve cancer — nobody does. Not at any age; not any type. I don't have the answers to try to reverse this scourge. I only know that until this disease gets the best of me, I have a responsibility to at least draw attention to it. The Pink Ribbon Campaign started somewhere, right? Someone got fired up enough to do something about breast cancer. Now it's my turn. I'll take the first swing for the team. November is our month. I ask for heightened public awareness. I ask for financial attention to research and diagnostic tests. I ask for tools for early detection. I ask the world to think twice before making an assumption that we caused our own cancer. My life could very easily be yours. I expect and encourage a collective outrage to bring about a "Rainbow Ribbon Campaign" in which all cancers get equal attention!

Thanks so much for all the suggestions everyone (and ned, thanks for referring me to Dr. West.) Onc #2 is back from vacation and I got my husband an appointment for next thursday! Next Wednesday we are driving to Buffalo to Roswell to get an opinion there as well so we will have 3 opinions total. All this advocating is exhausting! lol. It just so happened I called yesterday and the girl who answers the phones was on vacation so onc #2's personal secretary answered and told me he came back from vaca yesterday and was staying back. I am so glad I called!

Wow. This is where I live. My husband will probably be going to the same cancer center as her... so sad

I am so sorry

When my husband had his PET a week and a half ago, it was to see if the cancer has spread. It has spread to his ribs and pelvis. I am wondering if the PET also checks the brain? I am probably just paranoid but my husband has mentioned head rushes when he gets up from a seated position lately and one spell almost knocked him down. I mentioned it to the Nurse Practioner at the cancer center last week but my husband dismissed them as just head rushes so the nurse prac. didn't think there was any concern there. I am sure it could be a number of things besides brain mets, I was just wondering if the PET would pick it up if that was the case though. Obviously I will bring it up again when we meet with Onc#2 and #3.

Hi ned, here are answers to your questions: 1. He got a CT scan in April and July. According to the history on the PET it says "CT examinations on the chest on 4/1 noted a 2.0 cm indeterminate nodule in left lower lobe as well as 7 mm pleural based nodule at left major fissure and 4 mm opacity in left lower lobe. A 1.2 cm left hilar lymph node was noted. CT on 7/11 noted no significant change in left lower lobe but developement of a new 1.0 cm nodule in left mid lung and increase in left hilar adenopathy to 1.4 x 1.8 cm and an new 1.1 cm subcarinal lymph node." The part I bolded is the part that was biopsied showing cancer and that is the one that grew. However, the 2.0 CM also showed "prominent uptake". Its so confusing. The onc said that the tumor was "less than an inch" but according to pet he has several nodules that "lit up" ugh I gotta stop reading these things lol. However part of the PET has me thinking.... "There is an additional lesion at the left lung base medially which also shows abnormal trace uptake with max SUV of 4.3 and another area of abnormal tracer uptake more superiorly which abuts the heart border with max suv of 5.4 if it "abuts" the heart then we really should not risk it getting bigger huh? I have no idea if that is one of the new ones or one that didnt grow or what. Question # 2. Onc # 1 told us that it would not impact survival if we waited til after the biopsy results to begin treatment. If it was staged down, my husband would rather do surgery if possible and avoid chemo, however I would try to convice him to still do the chemo. I am just scared of starting with onc#1's treatment plan incase onc # 2 has something else in mind you know? But your questions now have me wondering if we can afford that luxury.