[Big Surgery Tomorrow]

Erin,

I am so sorry to hear the new news.

My fiancee's mother is in a similar boat (she was just dx'ed on Friday) and we collectively feel like we have been hit by a Mack truck.

I made a couple of posts today trying to find out what bone mets really meant. I was just going to see if any responses had been posted when I saw your note.

I have read about a BUNCH of people with stage IV mets to bone who are still alive and kicking or in remission (and even one or two who are cancer free!).

Has your mom had a PET scan? Brain scan? Does she have spinal pain? Have her ask her doctor about Zometa--I've been reading a lot about that (see Don Wood's posts).

You are in my thoughts.

Melinda

[New to site. Like everyone else, looking for support/help.]

Denise--

Thank you for your welcome and your mom's story. I am SO glad to hear that she is doing well!

It gives us hope. I forward every postive thing I find to them--and it seems to make this a little easier for them.

I am so very glad that spring is almost here in NYC--I think it might make these initial first weeks easier for my fiancee and his family (they all worked on gardening together today--something his mom LOVES and misses about not being in New Hampshire).

Chemo may start as early as Friday (one week from the dx!). That's good, right? Time is of the essence...

Your mom--and everyone else I have read about on this site--is in our thoughts.

Sincerely,

Melinda

[New dx IV with mets to spine and hip. What can be expctd?]

Hi, everybody--

Thank you for your warm welcome to this board.

My fiancee is really confused/scared about what mets to the bone actually means.

Right now he is trying to just spend as much "quality" time (watching funny movies, seeing friends, doing projects together) with his mom before she starts treatment--and my "job" (and natural bent) is to do what "research" I can and pass the information on to him so that they can ask the doctors more informed questions.

Is it posible that mets to the bone can be *eradicated* or is treatment simply "pallitiave"? Or is it somewhere in-between (trying to keep it stagnant)? I have read on this board that mets to the liver seems to heal in cases, but I know that the liver has such wonderful powers of regeneration. Bone, I'm sure, is a seperate case entirely. And I have read that it provides the cancer with a lot of what it needs to proliferate.

We are under the assumption that surgery to the spine/hip is not an option for mets to the bone. Would they ever consider a hip replacement for someone with mets to the hip?

We are also assuming that lung surgery is not an option for people with mets to the bone, based on the research we've done. Why exactly is that? Why don't they operate on the primary site (the lung) after an initial round of radiation/chemo/drugs to attack the bone mets? I'm sure there's a good reason, but to those of us who just learned about this whole darm dx on Friday 3/12/04--it seems like leaving a tumor in her lung/nodes is just a yet another ticking time bomb.

Most of the research I've done over the weekend on lc with mets to the bone was superficial. Frustrating.

Also, what side effects may be coming our way (bone pain to be treated be drugs--what drugs?)? Trying to avoid fractues and hypercalcimia. Anything else? Right now she has NO bone pain, whatsoever. No pain at all, in fact, except that she is tired from excessive coughing and she is hoarse. And scared by this mack-truck that just smacked into her last week.

Any insight would be most welcome.

Don, you sound like you may know a great deal about this.

Thanks.

Melinda

[What can be expected with mets to the spine and hip just dx?]

Hi, everybody--

Thank you for your warm welcome to this board.

My fiancee is really confused/scared about what mets to the bone actually means.

Right now he is trying to just spend as much "quality" time (watching funny movies, seeing friends, doing projects together) with his mom before she starts treatment--and my "job" (and natural bent) is to do what "research" I can and pass the information on to him so that they can ask the doctors more informed questions.

Is it posible that mets to the bone can be *eradicated* or is treatment simply "pallitiave"? Or is it somewhere in-between (trying to keep it stagnant)? I have read on this board that mets to the liver seems to heal in cases, but I know that the liver has such wonderful powers of regeneration. Bone, I'm sure, is a seperate case entirely. And I have read that it provides the cancer with a lot of what it needs to proliferate.

We are under the assumption that surgery to the spine/hip is not an option for mets to the bone. Would they ever consider a hip replacement for someone with mets to the hip?

We are also assuming that lung surgery is not an option for people with mets to the bone, based on the research we've done. Why exactly is that? Why don't they operate on the primary site (the lung) after an initial round of radiation/chemo/drugs to attack the bone mets? I'm sure there's a good reason, but to those of us who just learned about this whole darm dx on Friday 3/12/04--it seems like leaving a tumor in her lung/nodes is just a yet another ticking time bomb.

Most of the research I've done over the weekend on lc with mets to the bone was superficial. Frustrating.

Also, what side effects may be coming our way (bone pain to be treated be drugs--what drugs?)? Trying to avoid fractues and hypercalcimia. Anything else? Right now she has NO bone pain, whatsoever. No pain at all, in fact, except that she is tired from excessive coughing and she is hoarse. And scared by this mack-truck that just smacked into her last week.

Any insight would be most welcome.

Don, you sound like you may know a great deal about this.

Thanks.

Melinda

[New to site. Like everyone else, looking for support/help.]

Thank you, Mo--

Reading the "gentle cyber hugs" you all have given each other on this board have put me back together after I sucumb to a wave of overwhelming grief and disbelief. And being "together" is one of the most important things I can do when I am with my fiancee and his family. I need to be strong when I am with them--and then when I fall apart, privately--I can come back here for hope and support.

My mom is battling her 2nds breast cancer right now, which has been truly terrible--but there is so much more information/activism/proactive screening regarding that type of cancer. It just blows my mind that lung cancer does not get the same kind of attention (because it is viewed as a sin?!?!?!?!? cancer) when it affects *so many* people. I had no idea until Friday...

Still in initial shock mode.

Melinda

[New to site. Like everyone else, looking for support/help.]

Thank you, Ginny and Don,

Your warm welcome and stories/bios about your husband and wife, respectively, have given us much needed hope.

I am very glad I found this site--it is one of the most positive sites I've found on the internet thus far.

You are in our thoughts, as well.

Sincerely,

Melinda

[New to site. Like everyone else, looking for support/help.]

Hi--

My fiancee is simply crushed by his mother's recent diagnosis. I am looking for *positive* things/stories/survival stories to tell to him in order to keep him strong (so he may better help his mom/family) through this. They all want to fight!

Any *positive* stories from an analogous situation?

Fiancee's mom: 60; healthy all her life w/ the exception of a 'bout with shingles a few years back; never-smoked; lived in rural areas with "clean" air; very religious; strong family ties; no history of lung cancer in family that we know of.

Had a bad cough and was hoarse for about a month (12/03)

Was diagnosed up with walking pnemonia (1/04)

Was diagnosed with pnemonia and hospitalized on IV antibiotics (2/04)

No response to treatment

Found new and more aggressive doctor

X-ray viewed as suspicious (2/27/04)

Came down to New York; my mom got her an appt. with her oncologist who sent her to pulmonologist

Given CT scan and PET scan (3/9/04) at New York Hospital

Diagnosed with lung cancer with mets to nodes, spine, and hip (3/12/04). Doctor told my fiancee (but not her or his dad) it was "incurable"--she has maybe 2 years to live if it goes into remission.

Goes in for MRI to see if it has mets to brain next week.

Starts daily radiation and weekly chemo next week.

Insurance may not cover New York Hospital--may move to Sloan Kettering.

Family still in shock from dx on Friday.

Thanks so much. I just don't know how else to help him/them!

Melinda