Andrea

Curtis, I am so sorry But I am glad you had the experience and got your feet wet. Hopefully in a couple of weeks you can get yourself back on eharmony and find some new women to converse with. Just FYI--I myself had sucess with the Jewish on line dating website www.jdate.com and I am going to a wedding in Nov for my friend who met her match at www.christiancafe.com I am a huge fan in the on line dating. Best of luck Curtis and I look forward to hearing about new dating adventures in the near future. I know how much it hurts right now and how sad you are, but hold Katie close, and know that Becky is looking down at you guiding you to the one who will be the perfect match.

Dean, Now that I know you are reading this, I won't take up a lot of your time with a lengthy post. I just want to say however that in my mind you are the pillar/patriarch/icon/legend of this board, always knowing what to say and always giving us all hope and strength when you post.

I will check into it I have to see exactly what the invite said. Good idea!

My mom had her surgery at Cedars in LA (oncologist is at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach) Anyway, Cedars sent an invitiation to the 2004 Lung Cancer Suvivors Day Celebration on Nov 5. Just wondering if anyone else go the mailer and is planning on attending? If so, I would love to meet you!

Heather I am in awe and proud and honored to know you! YOU GO GIRl!

http://www.giftoflife.org/article.asp?ID=47 For all you caregivers/family members who feel so helpless in this fight, here is a link to upcoming bone marrow drives in different areas. It is not for LC of course, but it is for cancer Testing is noninvasive, a simple cotton swab of your cheek. If you check out the website you will see that donating bone marrow ifyou are a match is not as big of a deal as it used to be; the procedure if you are a match is virtually painless and no hospitalization or anything. You may also notice that the website is for a Jewish organization, but you don't have to be Jewish to show up at any of the testing locations. All religions and races are welcome (I saw just how welcome at the one here in Beverly Hills recently). And the COOL thing is that you are entered into a WORLD WIDE database. So while you may not likelybe a match for that particular drive unless you have a simlar ancestry, you can be a match for anyone on the list world wide!!! Also, it is free to get tested and I found out from my friend who worked at the Beverly Hills one that it costed $80 for each test!!!!! Gift for life tests you for free. It is almost a selfish thing to do b/c you get tested and you feel good knowing you made an effort to save a life. And then afterwards you feel guilty for being proud of yourself and then even further aferwards you are angry at yourself for being so naive about not thinking about doing it earlier

How did it go? I am sure you were the belle of the ball outside despite how you felt inside. I hope it wasn't too draining on you Nat.

only a measly 6.

Mona, Jamie's dad was IIIB at diagnosis, had radiation and chemo and then surgery if I remember correctl y , look for her posts Good luck!

Thanks Snowflake! It was a hidden string, so it wasnt me being t ypical me and not seeing it Lately I am losing it. I called the dog rescue today and said "hi we are the people who abducted, i mean adopted, buddy marshall"

In my lurkdom, I realized Angie posted on Sept 20 that her dad was having tests, she was worried, and no update. Does anyone have any news? Thanks

I want to ditto what Ry and Cat and others said....and I want to make a point. If you look at all forums regarding the # of views vs posts, you get the same figures. We all dont always post. I myself personally put in a hall pass request just to let people know I need to do some healing myself and work out some personal issues, so I cannot respond to all posts and will lurk and just post if there is an issue I can help someone with (ie, side effects of Iressa, etc) or send a PM if I can help. There is room for everyone here. At different times of this journey sometimes we need support from others; sometimes we can give the support; sometimes we need real hard information and not support; etc. I think it is really important to recognize how different we all are here, yet our common goal is LC. Jack, I am very happy to see you here back and I check every day hoping to hear some good news about Cheryl

Laurie there are attorneys who specialize in just helping you get social security and dealing with disability. Binder and Binder is one of them that i know is all over, you might want to check to see if they have a branch close to you in Arizona. I hope you feel better!!!

Oh I see, with my mom they gave carboplatin first, then the gemzar

Ellen so glad to hear about radiation! My mom recently went through it. A tip is for esophagus pain--liquid vicadin. The good thing about radiation for my mom was that just when the pain and side effects got bad, she was in the last week. It is like a cumulative effect and 5 weeks will fly by!!!! Also make sure pl enty of rest time, it made her tired. Other than that, nothing major to report.

Denise, it DOES suck. It is NOT fair. I wish I could do something to take away your pain :(

Some restaurants here in California (Ruby's Diner and Newport Rib Company are the two I know) will allow you to hold a fundraiser by handing out fliers and whomever brings in a flier, 15 or 20% of the bill you pay gets donated to any charity of your choice. Some examples from Relay for Life where I saw it sucessful: 1. Your kid is in a soccer team and after practice or a game, the whole team goes to lunch or dinner or whatever. That is a hefty bill and a good amount to charity. 2. You are throwing yourself a b-day party, anniversary party, or whatever---the bill is also hefty. My suggestion is to call restaurants to see if they will donate a portion of business you bring in on a certain day to charity and then have fun.

Katie, I was thinking of a benefit in the park, but I have hardly any family here. We are a small bunch. Only Brian, my parents, my inlaws, brother in law and a few of Brian's cousins. The family gets togethr like once a year. I love the idea, like a big party in the park, and you know what I decided, it does not ahve to be in Nov just b/c that is LC awareness month. Right now my parents would veto it b/c I have to work on some personal issues right now. However, if I get those personal issues taken care of, then they will be supportive and I can have a big picnic or something of the sorts. PS--Nat--Laurie now lives in Arizona.

As I said in the other post,the most minor cough, and it was only about three weeks. Most people would not have gotten a chest xray. My parents told the dr I would not let up. If I had not had that witchy ESP, who knows how long it would have taken.

My mom has the most minor dry cough. Miss Neurotic me sent her to dr. Dr sent her home as allergies. I insisted on chest xray. Dr laughed, but agreed, and here I am.

When you start a new post, on teh bottom there will be an option to add a poll. Put your question in there and for each choice of an answer, like a, b, c, d, keep clicking add option and it will show them all. I hope that makes sense.

Not quite sure if the order matters, but FYI my mom had Carboplatin/Gemzar week 1; Gemzar week 2; week 3 off

Hi Heather, that area is up north, maybe like 7 hours away by car. I think what really irks me is that this is Los Angeles/Orange County!!!! Don't the movie stars have relatives with lung cancer???? There are an overabundance of rich and powerful people in these two counties. There seems to always be charity events going on, but yet nothing on lung cancer. I don't understand. PETA charity events are huge here as is AIDS walks. The only cancer events I notice are either woman cancers (breast and ovaries) or prostate. And of course Relay for Life is HUGE out here. We have Relays in almost every city in Orange County. But I don't see events for brain, lung, pancreatic, kidney, etc. It is odd.

Does anyone have ANY info on ANY events in Southern California benefitting lung cancer? I tried to do an internet search and nothing. I want to get involved so badly. My family will let me get heavily involved, just not speer head it all on my own without a co-head or poeple. It is hard for me to comprehend with how large and vocal Los Angeles and Orange County are that there is just nothing. Thousands of AIDS walks and events, but no Lung Cacner.

Hi. Two seperate questions, curious if anyone else has experience. My mom stopped Iressa like a month ago. 1. Toe nails---The past few times she got pedicures, she had red polish on her toes asnd after a couple of days, the red became discolored. So we figured we would try OPI instead of Chanel and got a light pink in OPI. The same thing happened, the color became distorted after two days. So it is not the brand of polish. Has this happened?/ 2. My dad called an accupunturist today to see if she can help with the fatigue and stomach problems. I laughed at him, but then again I never tried it. Has it helped an y one? Thanks