Don M

All right! Maybe she can get out before 14 days. Anyway, day one is over. Don M

Great news. I think your body will gradually absorb the swelling. don M

Good deal Jim. I remember at my first surgery there was a snowstorm and the surgeon was 2 hours late. I got antsy. My wife also drove through a snowstorm. Don M

Thanks for the update. I will be looking to seeing Connie's posts again. but, wow ...one certainly gets an idea of the difficulty of the surgery. Don M

Jackie, I hope your dad will continue to e comfortable. Don M

Surgery is risky. It is not be worth it for something that is not cancer. I think it has a 50% chance of being cancer at this point. Waiting 4 months would probably not change the treatment. You might find a surgeon who would be willing to do a wedge resection using video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) which is minimally invasive and prbabaly less risky than conventional surgery. If they find cancer at the operating table, they will remove the rest of the lobe. What would I do? I would wait. Don M

Hi Amie: I think it makes sense to go off the tarceva after 2 years what with what Dr. West said all. Don M

Amy, please accept my condolences for your loss. Don M

Grateful that I stil feel good most of the time and grateful to offer support for Connie and others. I should re read David Steindl-Rost's "Gratefullness, the Heart of Prayer". I read it once many years ago and I think I need a brushup. http://www.gratefulness.org/brotherdavid/index.htm Don M

Good luck Connie. Don M

Harry has my prayers. Don M

I am sorry to read of your husband's distress. I think you can take some comfort in the likelihood that your hsuband has received most of the benefit that his treatment would give him. From this point on, the treatment benefit curve would flatten out. The last 2 weeks is just like the icing on the cake. Don M

I wonder if video assisted thoracic (VATS)surgery would be less of a risk? The recovery time and healing time is much less and the hospital stays are usually less. Maybe it would be less stress on the lungs? http://www.cancernews.com/category.asp?cat=12&aid=242 http://www.cshs.org/1526.html Don M

14 days... wow. good luck with your surgery Connie and it's all about the babies. Seeing babies in the checkout line in the super market can be the highlight of my day. My youngest grand child is a toddler now. Don m

The biopsies I had before my 2 surgeries were all inconclusive. The only way they could find out whether it was cancer or not was to do it with a resection and then do the lobectomies. A pulmonolgist should be the one who decides if your husband can do the surgery or not. I would think that your husband’s medical history should be a factor. I would be antsy too I think. I guess I am confused too. Your profile indicates a lung capacity of 56% I don’t see how a pulmonolgist would approve surgery then. Your insurance should allow you to get a second opinion. Surgery is the gold standard for 1a lung cancer. The cure rate is 85 to 90 %. There are alternatives. Your husband could have image guided radiation therapy (IGRT), which focuses on the cancer only and not the rest of the lung. Then he could have adjuvant chemotherapy. The chemotherapy would be much harder than the radiation. Your insurance would probably cover IGRT and adjuvant chemo. A more accurate and much more expensive alternative is cyberknife surgery which has similar results and accuracy as conventional surgery. Your insurance would probably not pay for it. Anyway, here is a link where you can visit a cyberknife message board that is run by radiation oncologists and they may offer a short opinion or advice. You could ask them about IGRT. http://www.cyberknifesupport.org/forum/ Dr. West is likely to give a more thoughtful and detailed response than the cyberknife docs. Here is a link to a facility that uses IGRT just to give you an idea what it is. There are many facilities that have the technology. Cyberknife is less common. Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is about the same as IGRT except that there is no on board imager to give near real time location of the tumor just before it is zapped. IMRT is even more widely available and may suffice. The link below takes you to a facility that also has cyberknife. http://www.swedish.org/body.cfm?id=1745 Here is a link to a manufacturer's site for an IGRT machine: http://www.elekta.com/healthcare_intern ... herapy.php Don M

Your dad has my prayers Jackie. Don M

hang in there Jackie and thanks for all you have done to support others. Don M

Welcome Kathy: I hope you are getting some shrinkage now. If one has a tumor spread from one lung to the other, that is considered stage 4, but it is not as dire as having distant mets I think. Technically, I probably have stage 4 disease, but it is all contained in my upper right lobe of my remaining lung. So, good luck with your treatment. don M

Welcome Stacia: I have never had brain mets myself, but I have read that they can easily be mangaged for years. Don M

Welcome Agent. If your mom can quit smoking , it will make her treatment a bit more effective I am told. I quit smoking 19 years before I got lung cancer. Don M

Forum: INTRODUCE YOURSELF! Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 1:25 pm Subject: New here and to lung cancer Ihave never joined a forum before and so will have to stumble around until I get the hang of the mechanics. I am about to have an upper left lobectomy. Does anyone know about video assisted lobectomy? Is it being done anywhere? My pulmonolgist says that video assisted techniques won't work for a lobectomy but i have seen some studys discussed on line. I guess I was into gathering information Don M

hi Granfan. good luck with your surgery and I hope you can eventually change your user name to Great Granfran. Don M

Welcome hopeful. I am still hopeful too. Don m

Kyle, please accept my condolences for the loss of your friend. Don M

I am very sorry Christopher. Please accept my condolences. don M