Andrea

Wow. Lots sand lots of prayers coming. Let us know how she is

Well I saw 2 oral surgeons today and my dentist who sent me to the oral surgeon b/c she was not sure what it is. The consensus is that it is a traumatic ulcer, but not sure how it got there. Both doctors suggested waiting two weeks before they biopsy it, they think I may have made it worse by "playing with it" each day. The doctors doubt it is cancer since it is so rare and I dont smoke or drink. I explained that after my dentist told me to watch it, I spent all weekend reading up on it and the fact that it is painless and not going away is troublesome. They both told me how dangerous the internet can be. I really liked one of the surgeons and he said that he does 100 biopsies a year and has only seen 6 cases of oral cancer and he strongly believes I am ok or he would biopsy me today. So I will wait out the two weeks for the recheck and then move on from there. If it is not yet healed, then they will do the biopsy then. Thanks for the good thoughts!!!!

I hope no one gets mad at me for asking for good thoughts for this.........I have a painless ulcer in my mouth that is a little suspicious for over 2 weeks, the dentist was watching it, and still not healed so she is seeing me at 1pm today and then oral surgeon at 2pm to possibly biopsy. I of course am scared, I read all about oral cancer, I never knew about it before. Thanks.

I stumbled across this website http://www.kidskonnected.org/ which is dedicated to helping kids whose parents have cancer

My mom had a port through chemo and surgery and it was wonderful b/c her veins were always hard to get

Nina, I hope you and my mom are one of those who are fine once treatment is done Katie--no new game plan since she is NED. Just wait and see and watch on the scans. I guess it makes sense that there aren't many (or any) clinical trials to try to keep NED around since it is hard to measure results.

Just an update, not much to report, but I always like reading about the treatment others "similar" to my mom are getting.........We saw the onc today and he decided to take her off of Tarceva for maintence. She has only been on 1 week. The reason is that her scans show pretty severe radiation fibrosis and her pulmonary function tests show her lungs at 50% capacity which is lower than they should be at. Tarceva can cause fibrosis in 5% of the people. Given that she already has it, it is likely that she is predisposed to get it, and the double whammy could cause major damage. Since there isn't much data on Tarceva, the onc felt the risks outweighed the benefits. So off of it she is

Thanks David for letting us know! Ihope she is home real soon. THank goodness she has doctors who are taking good care of her and checking everything! Now back to bed David, you and Karen need to rest

Is it a bad cough, like the kind where just listening to it hurts you b/c you know it has to hurt the other person; or is it just a quieter milder kind of cough that keeps happening? My mom has had a pretty constant mild cough, she was given some medicine to control it, but it just kind of stays. They said chemo can cause a cough, then surgery causes a cough, and now her radiation fibrosis is the cause of the cough. She took what Ry mentioned, the Pearl medicine, when it got bad and it helped a lot

Here is the CNN link http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/12/21/lu ... index.html

I remember a similar conversation on a post awhile back about how different we all are. Some of us feel a need to always talk about the cancer; others don't want people knowing at all. Some of us (like me) want people to ask all the time how my mom is; others don't want that at all. I guess it just goes to show you how different we all are. I am not sure why, but if people I have not seen or talked to for awhile don't ask how my mom is, I almost feel like they don't care. As for Beth's original post---I am feeling that way too, it seems that EVERYONE seems to have cancer. I even made up a silly song that annoys Brian about it :) It just is all over, everywhere. It especially is bad for extremely neurotic people, hence my visit to my dr tomorrow to restart on Zoloft.

Well tis the season for tipping and gift giving. Sometimes it can get overwhelming who to tip--the mailman, hair dresser, do you tip the manicurist, what about the gardener, house keeper, etc, etc. You can almost go crazy, and broke If you can swing it, remember LCSC for the holidays. If we all donate $5 or $10 for the holidays, we could raise a lot of money for the website which has done so much for us. I wish you all good health and happiness in the New Year. Here is to a CURE!!!!!!

Bahumbug, I do NOT miss those snowy days! I went to college in upstate NY and that is all it did was snow. I feel for you!!! I saw snow last week myself at Disneyland

Fay, I am so sorry to hear that! I hope it is nothing serious. Please keep us posted

WOO HOO!!!!!!!! That is awesome!!! Thanks for sharing Peggy :)

Excellent news

Sending lots of prayers and love your way!!!!!! Those sinus infections can knock you down. I got worn down in law school and couldn't shake one and needed antiobiotics for a month. Tell Karen to rest up and get well!!!! And if she needs me to kick her boss's tushy for any reason I would be more than happy to do so Take care of yourselves! I bet you are worn down from this round of chemo just from everything also.

Ginny I selflishly am glad that you have not left here. I love looking at your warm friendly smile when you post. I can only imagine how difficult this is for you and how not ok you are. I wish I had words of comfort. Just wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you!

The beast took another good soul. Alex was late 50s/early 60s and only diagnosed 4 short weeks ago. He was dizzy, doctor sent him home. Two days later could not get out of bed, off to hospital where they found SCLC Extensive, mets to brain and liver. He had brain radiation and was about to receive chemo this morning. The phone rang early this morning and it was his wife who is like my second mother--we worked together 4 years ago and remained close. I thought maybe she ended up needing help with transporation afterall. Nope, it was news that he passed on Fri night My dad is in the most shock b/c on Fri morning he met Alex for the first time when he picked him up from chemo orientation and drove him home so his wife could go back to work. My dad said he looked GREAT, he enjoyed talking to him, his attitude was wonderful, and he was planning to drive him to chemos in the future. It is just unbelievable how fast it can go! Apparently his lung collasposed, he was spitting up blood and he died at home at 9pm.

She is sooooo cute!

Angie, Send lots of love and prayers your way! Your uncle's diagnosis sounds like a close family friend a few weeks ago--he was a littlet dizzy,went to drs, they said no big deal; couldn't get out of bed one day, ambulance was called, turned out to be SCLC with mets to brain and liver. They had to do brain radiation first to shrink the tumor before they could start chemo. So he had 10 days of brain radiation and a week off and then first starts chemo tomorrow. So maybe with your u ncle they just didn't mention the chemo yet since it comes second.

I just saw this too, I hope that Bob feels better soon! Also glad that you are ok from the fall!

Have a safe peaceful trip!

Glenn--greetings from a former NewYorker I can't answer you b/c my mom had her surgery through a procedure called VATS, it was minimally invasive laproscopic and her pain wasn't too bad. She took vicadin j ust occasionally. But I am sure others will jump in and give their experience. I remember reading on this website taht such pain is pretty common and one person (I can't remember who) even said that he/she got severe pain just from sneezing.

Welcome I also would be wary of going to Mexico for treatment. I would do some research on the cancer centers in your area. To offer you lots of hope, my mom was IIIA last Nov and is currently in remission. Don't listen to statistics!! The thoracic surgeon at Cedars Sinai said it best to us, the chances are 50-50 for everyone--either the treatment works, or it doesn't