Mary Corser

It is very comforting to read all the responses from other carers on this site. Thank you all so much. Sometimes I feel positive and at others the anxiety just seems to take me over, physically and mentally. My husband is mostly remaining cheerful and optimistic, despite the fact that he has recently been in hospital for 10 days with chest infection, then had 1.5 litres of fluid drained from chest cavity where lung was removed last year. This hospitalisation period has left him very weak and frail. He is so thin and the muscles in his legs seem almost to have vanished so it is hard for him to get up stairs. We are hoping to have a stairlift put in next week and he has seen a physio at the hospice today who will have given him exercises to strengthen his legs. I do hope that this will help him to regain his strength. Walking is fine but stairs are the problem. He still has problems speaking due to a lazy vocal chord, according to the surgeon, but should be having an appointmen for some speech therapy soon. Breathing seems better since the fluid was drained and he might have some more drained off next week. Will have to feed him up and give him build-up drinks in between meals. Mary

It has been very helpful reading all your thoughts regarding fear and anxiety, either as the sufferer or the carer. Geoffrey is having difficulty getting upstairs since being in hospital for 10 days as the muscles have gone in his legs and they are so thin. Not helped yesterday by tummy upset as we have no downstairs loo! But our local hospice here in Essex, U.K, are being very helpful and sending a commode round today plus a physio to assess his needs. Might need a stairlift fitted till he has built up his strength again. I am meant to be at work but staying home today to look after him. But I do have to go to work - needs must - so I am concerned that he might need some care at home. This is all getting him down at present and normally he is so positive and brave. I try to be but the anxiety gets to you sometimes, even at work, and especially at night. Mary

I completely relate to those of you who have expressed your fears about lung cancer. My husband has lung cancer and has a pneumonectomy in January 2008, followed by 2 courses of chemo. He then had pneumonia so no more chemo but has been on tarceva since November 2008. He has recently been in hospital again with a chest infection and had to have fluid removed from cavity where lung had been. He is recovering at home and I am at work. I try hard to be positive but sometimes feel consumed by anxiety and fear. His oncologist has given me a poor prognosis but my husband does not know this so it is hard to remain cheerful with him. I keep asking him too often how he feels and, apart from hoarseness, he says he feels fine. He lost a lot of weight while in hospital this time so I am trying to build him up again. I try to distract myself but then these feelings of anxiety return. We have no immediate family, but good friends, but I fear for the future. Mary

Thank you all for your support. Geoffrey has been to his gp today and was told that the cough and hoarseness are due to an infection so to continue on the antibiotics. Just hope he is right. I think his surgeon initially would have preferred Geoffrey to see an oncologist on the NHS at a cancer centre, but it was not convenient for Geoffrey and, as he has private medical insurance through his job, he opted to see an oncologist privately instead. In the U.K. the private doctors are not necessarily better than the NHS ones but most of them do private work as well as NHS, as is the case with Geoffrey's oncologist. He has only had one session of radiotherapy for the lump on his chest and the oncologist hopes he will not need any more. This was last week and he had the cough and hoarseness before that so the radio treatment was not the cause. In this country you do not always get a lot of sympathy for lung cancer if it was caused by smoking! Thank you all. Mary

Thank you so much for your replies which are reassuring. Yes, I agree we should get a second opinion and Geoffrey's surgeon did recommend this as he does not appear to have a lot of faith in the present oncologist either. However, when the surgeon phoned Geoffrey last week and suggested this he, Geoffrey, said no he would rather stick with the present one. So I have to go with what he says. By the way, I am in the U.K. but have not been able to find a simple website over here. Was so pleased to find this one and read the success stories, particularly in relation to Tarceva, which has been available in the States for much longer than U.K. My husband is having is treatment privately so was lucky to get Tarceva as it is not available to everyone here yet. Mary

My name is Mary Corser and my husband has NSCLC. He had a left pneumonectomy in January 2008 followed by 2 courses of chemotherapy. Unfortunately during the 2nd course he developed pneumonia and was in hospital for 2 weeks. Since then he could not have any more chemo so has been on Tarceva since November 2008, as a CT scan showed that there were cancerous cells in the chest wall. A recent CT scan showed no deterioration or spread of the disease but his oncologist has even so given me a gloomy prognosis which has really upset me. I know they cannot be sure so am hoping he is wrong. Geoffrey had radiotherapy last week for a lump on his chest which had recurred in the same place where he had a lump surgically removed last year. For the past 2 weeks or so he has had a bad cough, hoarseness of a lot of wind. The oncologist says the hoarseness is due to the big op last year but it has only developed recently so we are confused. I am so anxious about his condition and would like to hear from anyone else in a similar situation. I am encouraged by the success stories I have read about Tarceva and have to try to hang on to this. Mary Corser