Hi, I'm Janet, age 55. Never smoked anything except a salmon. Diagnosed in May 2011 with stage IIIa adenocarcinoma, I had a large tumor in my lower left lobe, two hot hilar nodes in the left lung, and one hot subcarinal node, all poorly differentiated. The mediastinoscopy showed heavy vascularization between my lungs. I was unable to have surgery due to severe pneumonia at diagnosis -- I would have required a pneumonectomy, and the surgeon thought I wouldn't heal properly.
After 10 days in the hospital and weeks of IV antibiotics, I recovered enough from pneumonia to get 33 radiation treatments with 6 weekly concurrent carboplatin/paclitaxel doses, and one full dose of carbo/paclitaxel. Treatment finished in early August 2011. My first post-treatment CAT scan in late September showed the lymph nodes were almost completely resolved, and the tumor had shrunk by over 90%! I was feeling good, the CAT scan was good ... I thought I had a great chance at a cure.
In the following two weeks, I underwent several tests to determine if I was healthy enough to have the pneumonectomy after chemo and radiation. One of the tests was a PET scan, which found a hot spot on my right clavicle. A few days later two lymph nodes were removed and found to be more of the same cancer. So now I'm stage IV. Fortunately the brain scan was clear.
I may be getting radiation to the area near my clavicle where the lymph nodes were removed. I'm on a chemo vacation until January to recover from first-line therapy, unless I have symptoms before then.
Looking forward to getting to know folks here. I'm an engineer by training and a writer by avocation, so I hope to contribute something useful to the board.