mustard1

Nice to meet you. Well I am not to that stage yet I guess, I have or did at surgery time all clear margins, except the one where he wedged out one of the right upper lobes and the margin had some cancer at the cauthization site, no lymph node problem, all clear, mine is multifocal, is yours? They usually dont have much luck with chemo, you are one of the lucky ones. He said since mine was not really big that sometimes chemo can actually make it worse, cause it destroys the good cells too and I am at the point he said where he thinks its better to watch. And then if any growth that is meaningful, start on the pill, which he really is hoping I dont have to do. Did you start at stage IV, where was your cancer when you were first dx'd? and how big were your tumors. Mine in the lower right lobe was 2.8 and the 2 in the upper right lobe were very small. diane

I have recently joined this site and how nice to hear you have done so well... I have bac, so surgery is not a option. I had one surgery and they removed the right lower lobe and wedged out the right upper lobes, but one of the margins were not clear on the upper right lobe, but the rrest were and no lymph node involvement. I just had the surgery middle of nov of 08 and I will be getting a scan soon. My bac is multifocal and that means specs in the l ungs so that is why surgery will not really help. It is suppose to be very slow growing and its a watch and wait thing. If I get any growth, the only thing that helps what I have is Tarceva, the pill you were on and I know it does not work long term, but chemo he feels does not work on bac. I am so glad that your doing so well... its nice to know that some of us have beat this beast. diane

Yes I sign up for these sites and then cannot remember how to get on them. I had not a clue that my name here was mustard, how I came up with that is strange... Magazine2 is what I usually use. I am just always anxious and just cant seem to get over it. The scan thing has me really anxiouos as it will be my first one. I just read about all of the things everyone goes through and it breaks my heart and I am scared how I will be when I have to start doing treatment. I have to work and dont know how it is possible to work and go through all of this when you are getting tratment as I am alone. All of you are so nice and I am so glad I have this site to go to. diane

Well have they asked you to try the tarceva pill? As long as your doing ok, I guess you are making the right decisions. Dr West says sometimes you can overtreat bac, which leads to worse results. I have to get over this non acceptance so I can live my life again, but its sooooo hard. Are you doing alright? diane

Hi and thanks for the message, I was just wondering, I was told that bac usually does not spread outside the lungs, so I was surprised to hear you ended up with a brain tumor, I am glad that they got it all. Also that chemo does not usually work on this type of cancer. So now I am confused. It seems you have been thru alot, but I am so glad it seems to have turned out ok. I have aarp medicare complete HMO and it does allow for any type of trials I dont think. I have never heard of this vacine, I am so glad it is helping you. How long do you have to stay on it and its great no side effects. Have you been able to work thru this ? please tell me more about this trial and anything else that you think might help me. I am scared... its great that you have a family. I am all alone. My daughter lives far away, my one son does too, my older one works 6 days a week till 8pm, they own three bike shops, so with his own home, he does the best he can, but he lives over a hour away and there never seems to be much time. My whole life has changed and my outlook too... I just feel dead inside. Would love to hear back from you. Thanks so much for the email. My reg. email is dmaas22913@aol.com. thanks diane

I am not sure how to use this and to answer people, so I hope this is right. I was dx'd early Nov of 08, had a cough for 3 months, had a chest x-ray in Sept 08, clear, but the cough kept on, so had a ct and it showed signs of more like a pneumonia type not cancer, (that is the bac shows up I heard), so the pulmonary doctor did not treat it as a infection, even though he thought it was, but ordered a broncoscopy and it showed cancer. They then did a pet scan and it light up just on the lower right lobe and that was it, but there was something on the upper right lobe also, showed in the ct, but did not light up (bac usually does not) so they decided to surgery and remove what they could. I had the open one, as if he did the vats he could only get to the lower lobe, so when he went in he removed the lower right lobe, and wedged out 2 nodlules on the upper right lobes. When the path report came back it said that one of the margins on the upper right lobe still had cancer, but all of the other margins were clear and no lymph nodes were affected. They said that I had bac multifocal and surgery would not really help in the future since it had the multifocal specs and they could just stay specs or grow and also they said bac usually is very slow growing. So Nov 18th of 08 is when I had my surgery. I probably will be getting a scan very soon. I still have a cough and my back burns alot and also when I cough or take a deep breath My chest hurts still... I try and do deep breathing, but not as much as I should. I go back to work end of this month. My cancer doctor said they would just watch and wait and if any changes would put me on the tarceva pill .. which I am dreading. I am always anxious and have no ambition since this has happened and I feel alone and scared. So far that is my story. I am going crazy with the diet thing. I dont know what to eat , what not to.. I have been on so many sites and one says this is good for you and the next one says it is not. I miss my food. Are any of you on any special diet and do you think it helps with the cancer. Thanks for welcoming me, and like you said it is to bad I had to find this site or any cancer site. diane

Hi , I am diane and I have BAC and I was wondering how many people on here have that type of cancer or bac mixed. I just thought it would be nice to share stories and see if there is anything different I can do to help this horrible beast go away. So hope to hear from someone. Diane