tess

Hi everyone, We are excited that Rob is going to get the 3D radiation on his rib mets, starting this week!! The pain is becoming so bad right now. Sat. night he hurt so bad, he was crying. (I was crying with him) He said he has never has this much pain in his life. Last Friday, we went to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue Wa to see a new radiologist. He said they have all the latest technology from the University of Wash. there. The Dr also told us that he will have us get in touch with the head lung cancer Dr. at the UW med center to plan our next line of defense. Then if the chemo quits working we will have a new plan of attack all set to go when we need it! I like that Dr! It is going to be well worth the 130 mile drive each day. Rob has been so miserable for the past 3 months, its time for some relief now, and time for the cancer to go! He gets another CT scan on 3/29. So far no other mets! Thank you God! The Dr. said he thinks we are doing the right thing by coming to Overlake Med Center. We told him that we had to be our own advocates. Robs Onc. says "We will do whatever you want" WEll yeah, its a good thing this forum is here, you all have helped us tremendously! Thank God for the internet too, or we would not have known about the 3D, IMRT, Zemeta, etc. So thank you EVERYONE!!! This site it outasite! Tess

Just remember, your mom has no more sorrow or pain, and she is with your dad and brother now, looking down on you and she is very happy! They are always with you and watching over you. Look for the signs that she will show you to let you know she is ok. God bless you. I know how hard it is to lose loved ones too. My sis just died 2 years ago of breast cancer. I also had two brothers who were (in 1969) only 17 and 21 who died on the same day from two separate accidents, two blocks away from each other and a half an hour apart! It actually made my faith in God stronger because I knew it could not just be a coincidence! It was more like a heavenly miracle to me. Take care, and time will help heal you until you meet your loved ones again some day! Remember to take care of yourself now! And come back to the forum when you need to talk or read, it;s good therapy!

Well we all need to vent. This is a tough job we caregivers have. Its so hard watching my husband be in so much pain. I just feel so helpless. So I keep praying and wondering why these things have to happen to all of us. We are the caregivers is this senario of life. Coming to this site does make me feel like my problems are no worse than anyone elses and sometimes makes me thankful that I could be a lot worse off than I am! My sister introduced me to my husband. After we were married, she came and lived with us, she was dying of breast cancer. She had hospice care in our living room because she wanted to be here with us, not in a hospital or nursing home. Well she died two years ago. Now my husband has stage IV nsclc and the Dr says" maybe 1 or 2 years left. We have only been married 2 and a half years! Everyone says how sad that I have to go thru this again (cancer). I don't know why except that I am here to take care of people and love them and comfort them. The rest is in God's hands. I am beginning to realize that the more I pray for people, the more comforted I feel. I guess if (or when) I need someone there for me God will make it happen....................

Thanks for the encouragning words. Rob is on morphine oxycontin 30mg, but after a while it seems to lessen the pain.MS contin doesn't work much at all anymore! (morphine sulphate) I guess one becomes immune to the effects.? Well I got a hold of the Overlake Hospital and they do the bone mets there! I just hope it will take away the horrible pain Rob has. We'll find out on an appt after the Dr office contacts them and we will update the findings. Rob will also have another CTscan on March 29th, and we find out the results on April 2nd. Thanks for all the prayers too!

Well, we just found out the the Dr we made an appt with next Monday is not going to help. He specializes in 3D but not for bone mets. They say they are close to doing it, but as of now, they are not ready. I don't understand what the difference is if you get the 3D on an organ or on the bones?? So now we are going to see what we can find out up in Bellevue at Overlake Hospital Onc. Radiology center. Wish us luck! If we can get rid of Rob's bone pain, it will be well worth the 65 mile drive everyday. He is in so much pain all the time, and the pain meds just don't work good after a while. It gets so discouraging We will never give up fighting! Thanks to everyone's support here. I am praying for God to help us all in this battle.

I was married for just two years when my husband was dx with Stage4 lung cancer also. It just doesn't seem fair or real! My husband is 48, first marriage for him, second for me. We had so many plans to grow old together, but now this nightmare............. Just take it one day at a time, and ask God for help. He will comfort you, he never gives us more than we can handle. There are so many young people on this site with lung cancer and have never smoked. I feel sorry for them, they haven't even had the chance yet to really live. I guess all I can say is that I am thankful for having my husband, and he is thankful for me being here for him too. Just do what you can do for him and love him for as long as he's here.

My husband has mets to his spine, rib and hip. Cancer filled up his T12 Vertebre. There was no pain yet, he did 25 or 30 doses of radiation in the his T12 vertebre, hip and Lung. It took away the pain in his hip after 2 or 3 doses! (It barel showed up on the scan) His vertebre still doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, as soon as the radiation was done, this is when his rib started to hurt. (This didn't even show up on the scan) This was back in Oct. 2003. We just got another bone scan done this last Tuesdsy. We go the the Dr tomorrow and find out what's going on. He has not had any fractures that we know of yet. (?) Just make sure your son doesn't do anything to get a fracture. My husband's Dr says with the weakened bones, its real easy to fracture a bone. Good luck to your son!

You are so right Fay. My dad told me he learned to smoke in the Navy back in 1945! He finally quit after 38 years of smoking. Keep up the great research you do. You really help make a difference here! Thank You so much!

NO ONE DESERVES TO GET LUNG CANCER!!!!!!! I JUST WISH OUR GOVERNMENT WOULD FESS UP AND DO SOMETHING INSTEAD OF ALLOWING IT TO HAPPEN AND BENEFITING FROM IT

Thank God! He does answer prayer!

Cy, Everyone who has quit smoking knows how bad this addiction is. If you need help, I reccommend this website, "whyquit.com" it is a great place for information to stay strong and get off the nicotine for good. Using the inhaler is only prolonging the addiction. It only takes 3 days for the withdrawls and then its all mental. Check it out, I had success with it and so have a lot of other people around the world. Maybe your friends should check it out too! There is a website for support too, called "freedom", but you have to be quit for 3 days first to join. Just read all you can and it will help you overcome this killer addiction! This website just may help your friends and you more than you can imagine! God Bless!

TAnn, My husband is going thru Chemo too, taxotere and paraplatin. He is doing really well, and we think its because hes taking supplements, they are doing wonders for him. He hasn't even lost his hair. He only feels a little bad, and he loses his appetite a few days after Chemo, but thats it. He uses Mannatech. Even if you just take a good multi-vitamin it would probably help. If you want more information on the Mannatech, go to the web site and look around. My husbands cousin had breast cancer, with a 60% 5 year survival. She started the supplements and is now in remission. (4 years now) She has since given birth to her first child at 40 years of age. So There is something there. I don't know if anyone has read anything about plant sugars, but they have a patented item called Ambrotose. My husband takes this and the vitamins and amino acids, and his latest report was no new mets any place. He tolerates the Chemo great. I think it would be good to check it out ! Mannatech.com.

Glad you are feeling better. Things get much better when you get to go home! my husband also has NSCLC, he is 48. He didn't get surgery, the Dr said it was already stage 4 so no need to go thru all the pain of surgery. They did radiation, it was real hard for him to take. You sound like your spirits are good, and you have a great sense of humor. Laughter is the best medicine. Good luck to you in the future! You know I can't believe that your Dr was worried about getting addicted to pain meds? Why should you be in any pain? My husband's Dr says there is no reason for it, and we agree. Tess

Thanks to you who wrote back. I forgot to tell you that Rob is 48 and that his CTscan showed his primary tumor in the lung was originally 5cm, but now has shrunk down to 4.2cm. He is also taking supplements called Mannatech. He is doing quite well and tolerating the Chemo great! Tess

Hi, I've been reading for quite some time now. My husband has stage IV NSCLC, (left lung) with mets to his T 12 vertebre, his left hip, and now one right rib. His diagnosis was on Sept 25, 2003. He has gone thru radiation (30 doses?) and is currently going thru the third (4 total) round of Chemo. Taxotere and Paraplatin. He was almost instantly relieved from the bone mets with the radiation.(still has his hair!) The spot on his hip was so small, two doses of radiation and he quit hurting there. It was so small it didn't show up on the bone scan, but the radiologist caught it because of the pain. He finished the radiation and got pnumonia, not sure if it was from a virus he got from me or from the radiation. His rib began to hurt right after that, so we thought it was from plural effusion maybe. A few weeks ago, he got another Ct scan done. No mets anyplace new and the Dr says the pain in his rib now is from the bone healing itself. We go back to see her in about 9 days. He (Rob) is also getting zometa. What we don't understand is if the rib is healing, why is it still hurting so much?? We are going to request IMRT (Intense Modulated Radiation Therapy) on the rib to relieve the pain and hopefully kill the cancer. Rob has a hard time with the pain, he takes 30Mg of Oxycontin twice a day. He has just kind of lost interest in doing much at all these days. We have our own remodeling business, and we have a great crew working for us, so Rob doesn't have to worry about working steady. We are just lucky and thankful to have great people working for us. Sometimes, I just wish I could wake up and find this was just a bad dream. We both used to smoke, but I quit last summer. Rob quit the day he found out about the cancer. He smoked two packs a day. He has done a documentary for a high school to get kids to realize the dangers of smoking. He hopes to maybe help some one to quit or never start. I just can't believe how many young people here have lung cancer and have never smoked! It makes me wonder why does this happen ? I guess only God knows the answers to that. Anyway, to sum it up this is our story in a short but brief story. Thanks for reading this, and God Bless everyone who has to endure this demon. My husband hasn't read anything here, I keep him informed, but for some reason he doesn't want to read any posts, so I just keep telling him what I read, and remind him there are a lot of people a lot worse off than him. Tess My prayers are with you all. I'll be back....