KC
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Posts posted by KC
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Thanks for the prayers Nancy. Thank you Don for your reply. Yes, my father is taking Hydrocodone (Vicodin), 7.5mg./750mg. every 4 hours. I don't know how much it helps, it help alot the first two days, but I guess his body adjusted to that dosage quickly. I try to get him to take two at a time and he won't. The prescription says he can. He's so stubborn, just like me. He is receiving radiation right now, 10 zaps, he is getting number 4 right now. The mets are small, but I guess they are in the wrong spot in his back (lumbar spine I think), so it's causing the pain. His onc. gave him a dose of Aredia for the bone mets last Thursday. He gave Aredia instead of Zometa. I'm glad to hear the radiation zapped your wife's bone mets, I'm hoping for the same with my father. Thanks again, Don.
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Thanks Jen and Laura for the encouragement. Jen, I doubt my father is going to change his anti-depressant medication. I can barely speak to him about medication anymore with him getting angry. He's sick of it all right now. I'll see how the next few days go, sometimes he'll just pop out of the depression on his own. I'll try and talk to him again about everything, sometimes he'll say something to me and I'll know he wants to talk. I'm waiting again for that opportunity. Love to all and thanks for the prayers.
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Thank you Becky. I know anything is possible and hopefully my dad will continue to fight. I wish you the best in your fight with this monster.
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Thank you Cheryl and Rich for your responses. You are both so kind, everyone on this board is. Rich, my father has been on anti-depressant medication for many years, even before his diagnosis. He take 40 mg. per day of prozac. I asked him to please consider upping it to 60mg. but he refuses to take one more pill a day. I wish he would join a support group or have a phone buddy, but it's just not for him. He's a quiet guy when it comes to sharing his feelings. So I have been relaying to him for the past 2 years all the positive stories or survivors and any other positive news I hear. I'm getting the impression after this latest blow, that he doesn't want to hear it from me anymore and it makes me sad because I don't want to stop encouraging him, but I guess he needs time to sort it out on his own, so I try to back off a little. I'm just praying that the radiation kills the bone mets and that everything else will stay stable. Who knows, god willing, maybe the TM will have kicked in by now, it takes 3 full months following the intial dose to take effect. That would have been the end of December. Maybe it will work for my father. I also asked him to ask his onc. for a prescription for Iressa if he decides to stop the chemo. Although he tried it in the past, he only had very slight progression and his onc. back then took him off. I have spoken with others who now say that they had slight progression too at first on the Iressa and continued anyway and remained stable, so who knows. It's better than doing nothing and now that it's FDA approved, I think my dad's insurance covers it, but we'll see. I hate this disease, it still feels like a nightmare to me that I'll never wake up from, even after all this time.
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Hello everyone. I have posted here before, but mostly just lurk and pray and laugh and cry along with everyone. My father has been battling NSCLC Stage IV since being diagnosed in December 2001. They say it is BAC. Surgery was never an option, although I begged for it because it started out with only 3 small nodules, 2 in one lung and 1 in the other. I couldn't find a surgeon to do it. He has been taking chemotherapy ever since diagnosis with a small break (about 10 weeks) on Iressa. Each time he tried a new chemo drug he had initial shrinkage and stablization and then progression, so it was on to the next. His latest chemo has been Cisplatin and CPT-11, he started that in July after they discovered liver mets. His last scan at the end of November showed shrinkage in all lung nodules (there are many) and 50% shrinkage in the liver! We were thrilled. He continued with the weekly Cisplatin-CPT-11, even though it knocked the heck out of him, but he figured it was working. I also had started him on TM therapy at the end of September. Lately his red blood counts have been taking a beating and he has had 2 transfusions so far along with Procrit. He had been having back pain on and off for a while, but finally told his onc. as the pain was not letting up as much and last week we discovered he has mets to his hips or spine. That is what was causing the pain. He feels fine otherwise, except for this pain in his back. He can't seem to get a break. When one thing goes away, something else pops up. He has now just received his first 2 of 10 radiation treatments. He is in alot of pain in his back and my heart breaks for him. He is so disgusted, depressed and just about ready to give up. I don't know what to say to him anymore, he needs to hear from people who have been there and done that. He doesn't really talk to anyone about what he is feeling or what is happening, especially me, since he doesn't want to worry me. I worry anyway. I'm worried and scared to death. When his friends or his brother calls he doesn't tell them how he really feels and I can see it in his face how he really feels. He said the other day that all he wanted was 7 more years. He has been fighting for his life for two years now. He has taken every treatment, pain and bump in the road with grace and dignity, more than I ever could. His courage is just remarkable. I live with my father along with my 2-1/2 year old daughter who is the light of his life. I know how badly he wants to see her grow up, at least enough so she will have memories of him. I think that is where he came up with the 7 year number. That is what breaks my heart more than anything. She can't lose her Grandpa, the most gentle caring, best man in the world and her biggest fan and I can't lose my Dad. He is only 65 years old. But all of this good news and then followed by bad news is taking it's toll on him. He can't even rejoice in the good news anymore, wondering what it too follow, it's a darn shame! I think my father believes that if he now has bone mets that the other tumors are probably growing too. But it's possible that they aren't, isn't it? If I tell him that, he just thinks I am trying to pacify him. Please, any words of hope, encouragement are greatly appreciated. I am going to print out the responses and let him read them. He really needs hope and encouragement right now more than anything and he needs it from someone other than me. I apologize for the lenghthy post. Thank you all so much and god bless.
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Hello everyone. I have posted here before, but mostly just lurk and pray and laugh and cry along with everyone. My father has been battling NSCLC Stage IV since being diagnosed in December 2001. They say it is BAC. Surgery was never an option, although I begged for it because it started out with only 3 small nodules, 2 in one lung and 1 in the other. I couldn't find a surgeon to do it. He has been taking chemotherapy ever since diagnosis with a small break (about 10 weeks) on Iressa. Each time he tried a new chemo drug he had initial shrinkage and stablization and then progression, so it was on to the next. His latest chemo has been Cisplatin and CPT-11, he started that in July after they discovered liver mets. His last scan at the end of November showed shrinkage in all lung nodules (there are many) and 50% shrinkage in the liver! We were thrilled. He continued with the weekly Cisplatin-CPT-11, even though it knocked the heck out of him, but he figured it was working. I also had started him on TM therapy at the end of September. Lately his red blood counts have been taking a beating and he has had 2 transfusions so far along with Procrit. He had been having back pain on and off for a while, but finally told his onc. as the pain was not letting up as much and last week we discovered he has mets to his hips or spine. That is what was causing the pain. He feels fine otherwise, except for this pain in his back. He can't seem to get a break. When one thing goes away, something else pops up. He has now just received his first 2 of 10 radiation treatments. He is in alot of pain in his back and my heart breaks for him. He is so disgusted, depressed and just about ready to give up. I don't know what to say to him anymore, he needs to hear from people who have been there and done that. He doesn't really talk to anyone about what he is feeling or what is happening, especially me, since he doesn't want to worry me. I worry anyway. I'm worried and scared to death. When his friends or his brother calls he doesn't tell them how he really feels and I can see it in his face how he really feels. He said the other day that all he wanted was 7 more years. He has been fighting for his life for two years now. He has taken every treatment, pain and bump in the road with grace and dignity, more than I ever could. His courage is just remarkable. I live with my father along with my 2-1/2 year old daughter who is the light of his life. I know how badly he wants to see her grow up, at least enough so she will have memories of him. I think that is where he came up with the 7 year number. That is what breaks my heart more than anything. She can't lose her Grandpa, the most gentle caring, best man in the world and her biggest fan and I can't lose my Dad. He is only 65 years old. But all of this good news and then followed by bad news is taking it's toll on him. He can't even rejoice in the good news anymore, wondering what it too follow, it's a darn shame! I think my father believes that if he now has bone mets that the other tumors are probably growing too. But it's possible that they aren't, isn't it? If I tell him that, he just thinks I am trying to pacify him. Please, any words of hope, encouragement are greatly appreciated. I am going to print out the responses and let him read them. He really needs hope and encouragement right now more than anything and he needs it from someone other than me. I apologize for the lenghthy post. Thank you all so much and god bless.
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Don't forget:
WHERE THERE IS LIFE, THERE IS HOPE!
My personal favorite.
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I am so sorry to hear that your father is still in the hospital and all that he has had to go through. That seems awful that he had to have his entire lung removed due to something that seems to be the surgeons fault. Why was there a big gaping hole in the sutures?? My goodness. I wish him a speedy recovery and all the best. In your signature you mention liver mets. My dad has liver mets also. What treatment are they using for those on your father? I thought that if the cancer has metastases it is considered Stage IV.
Please, My Father Needs Encouragement!
in NSCLC GROUP
Posted
Thank you all so much for your replies. You are all such kind, wonderful, thoughtful people. If the pain doesn't subside soon, I'll ask about the morphine, but my father, I'm sure won't be into that. He won't even take the two vicodin for fear of getting addicted. He was a marine and I guess they were taught to tough it out. It's crazy, I know, I hope I can change his mind. He's so difficult to talk to lately, he's very touchy and defensive and short with me, but I understand completely. Only, he doesn't know that I understand, it's been a difficult week. I know when I'm in pain, I have no patience for anything or anyone either. Linda, we have spoke before on the other list. Thank you for your support and I hope your dad is doing well. I used to post on this list way back when my father was first diagnosed, before it was all revised and fixed up. Then I moved to Florida last January and forgot about it, as I had the website saved on my computer at work. Luckily, I found it again and that is how I found out about the TM, from Cary's post on the alternative board. I thank god for this board and I hope that I can offer the same support to all of you that you have shown me someday.