stand4hope

Happy Friday to all our experts, but I'm going to ask some questions even if it is the weekend. We got hubby's MRI & CT results today and there are a few things on the reports that I would like your spin on what they mean. The CT scan was basically stable, and I only have one question on it. What is radiation fibrosis and is this anything to be concerned about? The brain MRI showed two new lesions, one on the left side frontal horn, and the other on left side frontal lobe. We understand this ok. We don't like it, but we understand it. It also said: "There is an area of hemorrhage within an area of abnormal enhancement, representing a metastatic lesion. The metastatic is unchanged in size since the prior study." Should we be concerned about this "hemorrhage"? In addition, it said: "Both vertebral arteries and both carotid arteries demonstrate signal voids, indicative of rapidly flowing blood." Huh? This sounds more like stroke stuff to me. What does this mean? Lastly, the report refers to one of the new lesions as a "new metastatic lesion", but it refers to the other new lesion as a "new metastatic nodule". What's the difference between a lesion and a nodule? You are all so wonderful to make yourselves available to answer our questions. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Love, Peggy

Hi Catlin, I don't have any information about that treatment either, but I did want to say hello and welcome you to our website. You will find everyone here friendly and helpful. WELCOME! God bless you, Peggy

That was cute, Betty. Merry Christmas to you, too!! Love, Peggy

My goodness, Erin, you have had one big roller coast ride, huh? I'm so glad you decided to come here and talk to us. You've got a big load to carry. Let us help when we can. Love, Peggy

Cyndy, I'm so sorry. I'm sure that "trying to be brave" is hard to do. I've projected that in my own mind if it ever comes to that for us, and can't even imagine how you are feeling right now. Hang in there, hon. I hope you know we are all here for you. Don't hesitate to hop on here every day if you have to, or 10 times a day. We're here to listen and love you. Love, Peggy

ALL RIGHT, CHERYL!!!!!! I can feel your enthusiasm busting through cyberspace. Love, Peggy

Hi Pammie and WELCOME! This forum was a first for me, too, and so far it's my only forum. I have felt comfortable here, though, since the first day I got up the nerve to post. Heck, I never even participated in a chat session before. LOL! I'm pretty good on the computer, but just never got into any chit-chat stuff. I'm sorry you are having to deal with cancer, but you did come to the right place. Not only will you get all the support you need, but we also have experts participating that can answer technical questions, as well as many of our members could be called experts because of their advanced knowledge. So post away - we're all here to help each other. I'm glad to hear you have a supportive family. You might even find that you can vent a lot of your feelings here that are difficult to express around family members. I hope we can help. Keep us posted. God bless you, Peggy

Well, crap!!! (I would use the other more appropriate word, but Chief Historian Ry will write me up in the LCSC record books). Betty, you are such a wonderful person and so dependable to respond to everybody's posts. You are just such a big supporter here that I think we are all very upset that you got this news today. I know you must be terribly discouraged, and I wish I could send you a magic cheer-up pill. As you know from experience, after a few days, the shock of this bad news will wear off and you will be ready to fight the fight. You are such an inspiration! All my love and prayers, Peggy

Hey, Nell. We don't "bounce" the way we used to, huh? LOL! I am petrified when I have to walk on ice that I am going to fall. I hope your body heals quickly! I'm so sorry to hear that Bob is having more pain and that it is so severe. I hope the doctors work FAST to this taken care right away. Keep us posted on Bob and also on how you are doing. Love, Peggy

OH NO!! Oh, Lisa and Tariq, I am saddened to the depths of my heart to hear this. Lisa, I think you will go down in the record books as one of the biggest advocates and fighters that ever existed on the face of the earth. God bless you for your efforts to save his precious life. I am so sorry. Cling to your own quote and you will find peace: All my love, Peggy

At my old law firm someone "indescreetly" left a bottle of deodorant on an attorney's desk. LOL! It worked! No more stink! Peggy

Lily, Thank you for the Christmas wishes and a reminder to all of us to slow down and be kind to others. In all the hustle and bustle, we need to remember that many people have things going on that we aren't aware of. Don't worry about taking Christ out of Christmas. It will never happen. It is what it is. Christians know that Dec. 25 isn't Christ's birthday, but it's the day we choose to celebrate since nobody knows the exact date of His birth. And history also is what it is - it's HISTORY! LOL! And a little side note: Since Christ is the Savior, he doesn't need saving from anything. Merry Christmas, Lily!!! Love, Peggy

Sharon, I feel so sad to read this, but I am so glad that you have some peace. I am sending you my heartfelt condolences. God Bless You, Peggy

Oh, yeah, that's right. What TAnn said. Ditto all that. I forgot my husband got decadron before and after chemo treatments, too. He also had trouble sleeping, pee'd a lot, and TALKED A LOT and kept me awake because he couldn't sleep!!!! I don't remember him eating a lot like some of the others, but that's probably because he had so much other stuff going on. Who knows! He actually lost a lot of weight during treatment time. Peggy

THANK YOU EVERYONE! Wow, it is so uplifting to get all these responses. And, yes, Katie, I am feeling the effects of the prayers and am not nearly as wound up as I was last night. I'll be ok waiting it out. Your various stories about what you thought you saw in your films reminded me that in Aug. 2003 our son got mad and walked out of the hospital when he saw the MRI films the doctor was looking at. I think he stayed drunk for 3 days. He thought his dad's brain was almost solid cancer. What he didn't know was that what he was looking at was the edema. Once the edema cleared, the mets were quite small in comparison to those big blobs of white. Trying to read scans CAN be very risky business! I got the CD of the chest today and compared it to Sept. and it looks EXACTLY the same as last time. The pericardial effusion even looks exactly the same and that has been my biggest worry. I'm still concerned about all those white dots on the brain MRI, but my husband always says, "I'm not going to worry about. It's going to be what it's going to be." So, I've adopted that attitude, and yes, I will be more relaxed for the rest of the week. Thanks again!! Love, Peggy

Bo, We were very grateful for decadron when my husband was dx. He had horrible headaches for weeks before diagnosis. The initial MRI showed massive amounts of edema. In less than 24 hrs. after starting decadron, the headaches stopped and have never come back. He continued the decadron during WBR. I think he was only take 8 mg. a day, but I really don't remember. He then tapered off. After chemo and chest radiation, and an allergic reaction to Taxotere, he didn't have an ounce of energy for about 6 weeks. When the onc learned he was sleeping just about 24/7, he gave him a lose dose of decadron to "kick-start" him, and it worked. It think it was only 2 mg. a day. I think he took it for about a month before tapering off. I've heard of some pretty big daily doses of decadron from others on here, like 12 & 16 mg. a day for long periods of time, and I always think it sounds like too much for too long, but I'm not the doctor. Peggy

Shannon, I am so sorry for your loss. I bet she is having a good time doing that Tango and breathing without effort. God bless you, Peggy

TAnn, I am so sorry to hear this. We have had to do this three times over the years, and lost one to getting hit by a car. I was a basket case each time. I, too, stayed with Shelby, the last dog we had put to sleep. We had her for 15 years and it was a terribly sad time around here. It took our son a VERY long time to get over it. Our vet even sent us a sympathy card. It made me cry all over again. Hang in there, TAnn. Good news is coming your way soon! Love, Peggy

Thanks for the laugh, Cheryl. You have NO IDEA how much I needed that tonight. At least I will go to bed with that memory on my mind. I DO remember that, but I had forgotten. Poor Ray (I'm sorry, Ray, for laughing). I can identify the eye sockets. I can also identify the largest met which still has considerable edema around it. What concerns me is there are so many more white dots, which are what was pointed out to us before as the brain mets. In one view, I counted 13. In other views, I couldn't tell if they were different dots or just different views of the 13 dots I counted in the one view. I don't think I want to know. If it weren't for the laugh you gave me, I would have had a restless night. Thanks to the rest of you for the good wishes and prayers. Love, Peggy

. . . please pray for clean scans for my husband. He got a brain MRI today and Chest/Abdomen/Pelvic CT. I have the CD of the brain and don't like what I see. I do remember what the last one looked like in March. We get results Friday afternoon. Please pray that I am a lousy MRI reader. Thanks in advance. Love to all, Peggy

Cyndy, Sounds like things are exceedingly stressful for you right now. I pray that this pain medicine will make a big difference and Tim will be able to start the Alimta very soon. Cyndy, there is ALWAYS hope. You just never know what might happen. Does Tim know about these conversations? If he does, what does he think? If he doesn't know, then maybe you should talk to him about it and see what he thinks. Please keep us posted as often as you can. Love and prayers, Peggy

Hi Madison, I'm the one trying to hold back the tears in my eyes just reading how hard this is for you. I'm not good at grief counseling, especially since I've been able to cope reasonably well with the deaths I have had in my family, so I'm afraid I don't have any magic words. First, I was wondering how old you are. If your son is only 10, I expect your mom was pretty young, as are you. I think it's a lot harder when you are younger and you lose a parent. My parents were 69 and 76 when they died. I think a person adjusts a little better when their parents are older because it's just known that it is going to happen some day. In my case, both of my parents had been very ill with lung diseases for 10 or more years, so even though it was hard, it was expected and it wasn't a big surprise. I'm not saying that makes it easy, it's just not as big a shock. Second, please remember that what you are feeling right now is normal. Your mom has just passed, and this is going to take some time and adjusting. There's just no avoiding it. If after some time passes and you feel like you should be doing better, but just aren't, please, please, please seek grief counseling to help you. Last, always remember that all of us here at LCSC are here to help you if we can. This is a good place to vent your feelings, and oftentimes someone says just the right words that gets someone over a crisis. I hope we can be of some help to you. Love, Peggy

Dear Amy, I am so sorry for the loss of your mother. I know how much it hurts and I pray that God will hold you close during this difficult time. I will be thinking of you. Please stay in touch. Love, Peggy

Thank you, Ginny. I'm hoping that everyone in the family is doing ok, and that they are getting some rest. I remember how exhausting it is to go through this. I pray for rest and comfort for them all. Love, Peggy

Madison, I am so sorry that you lost your dear mother, and I know how much it hurts as I have lost both my mom and my dad. I can't add much to what Margaret said; she said it all so well. It's early, and you are still in shock. It feels like your world has caved in and it's hard to understand why everything is still going on around you just like before. It is going to feel this way for a while. As time begins to pass, the one thing I would suggest is that you try to force yourself to think about other things. There's an old saying that says, "What you think about, you bring about." That can be used in a positive way or a negative way. As time passes, if you let yourself continue to think about your mom not being here, about her pain and suffering, about how unfair it is, and how miserable you are without her, I can guarantee that you will stay depressed and miserable because you will be bringing about what you are thinking about. On the other hand, if you can focus on your kids and their lives and activities, getting your house spic and span, giving time, money or gifts to needy families, going out to dinner with friends, and smiling about all the fun times you had with your mom, you will bring about more of the same. Your dad has just lost his soul mate and needs you. When he sees you, I hope he sees a smiling face, gets a cheerful hug, and gets to laugh and play with his grandkids. It's probably a little early to expect much success with this, but try to begin to think in this way, and the healing will be more swift. I still miss my mom and dad terribly, and I sure do wish they were still here, but it doesn't hurt anymore because I just won't let it. I'm saying prayers to God that He send you His peace. Love, Peggy