karenb

Thank all of you for your replies and input on this situation.. I'm trying my best to get up to speed on this new and unwelcomed development in my dad's ongoing saga !! I can't tell you what an education I receive from all of you and your insight. It is so invaluable. Thanks for your openess and for sharing your experience. TAnn, per your message I did PM you to pick your brain a little more regarding pleural effusions. Thanks for your willingness to educate me on this. Take care and may God mightily bless you all!!

Wonderful news!! I'm always so excited to read such encouraging posts. Thanks for posting it!!!

I'm new as of this weekend to all of you and looking for insight here. My dad just got results back from his latest scan and the lymph nodes are not showing up and neither is the tumor on his lung which of course sounds like excellent news right??? Well then the pesky issue of fluid around the lung comes up. What is this all about?? He has had two full rounds of carb/taxol as well as 33 radiation tx. Could that have caused excess fluid?? Has that happen to any of you. The doctor said it could have cancerous cells but he doesn't guess that it does. What is pleural effusion and how is it treated. If pneumonia, how is it treated and how serious can that end up being?? I want to be happy but I';m still a little reserved and unsure about this fluid situation. How many of you have had this situation?? I would love to hear input from anyone who has been there. Thank you so very much!! Blessings to all!!!!

I guess my question I posted didn't come out the way I meant it (I must have stage fright or something because I've never posted on a message board before!!!! ) I know that the scans are the ultimate authority (in most cases) as to whether or not chemo is working. I was just curious if some of you, who have been on a few different types of chemo drugs, knew that the drugs were not the right one for you even before you had proof of it on the scan. For instance was there just maybe a lack of side effects from the drugs or perhaps to many side effects that made your doctors decide not to give you that drug anymore. Does that question make any sense??? I'm just trying to brace myself one way or the other for the results of this scan based on how my dad has tolerated this particular combo of chemo drugs. He has lost all of his hair, he has been weak(not terribly weak but weakened,)and is WBC has taken a nose dive and so has his RBC. So I'm just wondering if this means anything at all or should I just not go there on trying to predict the completely unpredictable!!!!

I already posted on the NSCLC forum so I wanted to make a formal introduction. I began my acquantaince w/this dreadful disease in Sept. 03' when my dad was first diagnosed. I have never felt such an overwhelming sense of sickness of body and soul as I had on that day. It's almost to unbelievable to comprehend as I'm sure all of you can relate to. I am the youngest of his 7 children and we are as close as a family can get even to our extended relatives also....(We Italians like to travel in packs; safety in numbers I suppose!!!) We are all so worried for him because of what we have seen him go through already (hard times w/radiation) and what he may go through in the future as well. This board has been a goldmine of information for me along the way. I've been the one out of all my sisters etc that has been the main "researcher" of this disease and the treatments he has received etc. and I've gotten more info from all of you than on most of the information sites!!!! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences they are so helpful to the rest of us. I've tried not to let this nightmare completely overshadow the blessings that I have in my life ( a brand new baby girl 10 wks old and 2 hilariously funny boys 2 & 4 and a great husband). I'm grateful for all of it but still have such a heavy burden for my dad. I know, however that all things work together for our good!!!! I pray the Lord will find favor on all of you since you are so kind and courageous enough to share yourselves and your stories for those of us out here who need it!!!!!

I'm new to this board but have been lurking around for some time now. My dad, as you can see below, was diagnosed in Sept. 03 and has been on chemo/rad ,then just chemo, ever since that time. His test results are due this Tues. 3/9. My question to all of you is how have any of you ever known that your chemo is doing its job or not??? I;ve seen some of your profiles saying tried a certain chemo and it wasn;t working so had to try something else. How did you know it wasn't working; was that based simply on your scans or did you have no side effects from it (hair loss, wbc problems) or too many side effects. How did you know. I know there probably is no one good answer for this question but I'm desperate to hear some hopeful news from at least some of you. I admire all of you so much and you have no idea how much you have been helping me and my dad and rest of the family with the info I've gotten from you on this board the last few months. If his doctors can conclusively find that the lymph nodes have been reduced to almost nothing then they consider him a candidate for surgery. It was so depressing after his first PET when the nodes were still glowing although they just weren't sure if it was scar tissue or not so just to be sure they sent him off to chemo again just to try and seal the deal I guess!!! So now we are back to scan time and I'm needing input from anyone on how they figured out there chemo was or was not working. I would appreciate any info you can share with me on this topic. Thanks to all of you!!! "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid."