Katester

Thinking of you with caring thoughts. Kate

My sympathy and caring thoughts. Kate

Thanks to you for leading the way in hopes that others can follow. I wish you much success with this treatment. Kate

Best Wishes Kate

My thoughts and prayers are also with you and your family. May the warmth behind all these caring thoughts lift your spirts and comfort you on the days ahead. Kate

Best Wishes for a Happy Birthday. You have such a great joy of life and I enjoy reading your posts. It causes one to do some soul searching as to what is important and where our priorities might get mixed up. Thanks for sharing your thoughts . Kate

Dan, Thinking of you also and hoping all these posts will give you support and comfort. Kate

Also glad that things went well with the surgery. Wishing you a speedy recovery. Kate

I also had this testing done earlier this year. It is an amazing technology. Unfortunately there are only 3 machines available in my surrounding area but that is better than none at all. My doctor said that the test is capable of diagnosing, staging, and from that calculating what treatment would work best based on what they find. He is also said that they are also having trouble training radiologists to use the machines and read the scans faster than the machines are being manufactured. Wishing you good luck on your tests. Kate

Sorry to hear about you Mother and hope things start getting better. You have come to a great place for support and information. As you can see there are many survivors, caregivers, and family members here who will help you through this. Hang in there. Kate

Hello and welcome. I can't give you any advice from on hand experience with lung cancer but I can tell you that you have come to a community that will be there to support you and give you endless information even if it is only in the form of an opinion at times. They will be your inspiration. I agree, stay off the web and reading statistics. You'll be far better off talking to survivors here than juggling percentages there. My best to you and your Mother. Kate

Hello Memere, Welcome and sorry you had to come here. You will find this community very supportive and if you have read any of the posts you will see that there is an abundance of information from many survivors. Wishing you the best. Kate

I am sorry to hear of your loss. Kate

My best to your and your Mother. Stick with this board and you will find what you need to get through this in friendship and support and the valuable knowledge from experience that all the surviors here will give to you. Kate

I just went through the experience of diagnosing but I was one of the fortunate ones who does not have lung cancer. I am currently only being monitored and my mass is getting smaller. It is an inflammation and not life threatening. My pulmonary doctor was pretty convinced that I did in fact have lung cancer but it doesn't always turn out that way. As a matter of fact I just saw him today for a follow up visit to check my stats and he said had he to do it all over again he would have thought the same based on what he was seeing on the Xray and subsequent CT scan. Let's hope yours is not ,but if so, this is the place you want to return to for support to get through each day. I know it's easy for me to say this now, but try not to predict the outcome right now. Stay positive the best you can. My best to you. Kate

I just recently had a PET scan . My instructions were a light meal for dinner the day before and nothing after midnight with the exception of enough water to take any necessary medication . No specific food type was ever mentioned to me at all. I too was instructed to not do any strenuous activity the day before. The day of the PET scan ,after the injection ,I was told to stay quietly in a recliner chair and the room was actually somewhat dark, no talking and no brain stimulation such as reading. Then during the test I was told to stay as still as possible. Being strapped down with velcro fasteners to restrict movement helped but the test will give more accurate results they said if one doesn't move their feet and head back and forth. I don't think I even moved my eyeballs during that test!!! Good luck on the results. Kate

I've been negligent about thanking God more than blaming him my whole life. Six years ago I had a mass removed from my left breast that "didn't look good" and it was benign. Try as hard as it may be to be positive about the outlook for your sister. If it is cancer, they have come great strides in breast cancer survival and cure. I personally know several women who have had breast cancer and have been treated and been cancer free for well over 10 years for all of them. I wish you and your sister well. Don't give up on her.... Kate

Hi everyone. I just wanted to post and let everyone know that I have received the results of my PET scan . Negative! They think the mass is an inflammation or an infection but I don't have any infection symptoms. I have now been scheduled for a CT for next week which would be 6 weeks from the original to see if the mass is the same size, smaller, or if it has grown. If the same or smaller then that would be ideal but if it has grown the doctor said that all tests then would be N/A and I would have to have the biopsy. That confused me but okay. Seeing that PET scans are supposed to have a high % rate of accuracy I am thinking I will be okay. My pulmonary doctor said he wasn't worried about this but you know the doctors always seem to have to interject the maybe medicine isn't a positive science and leave the margin for error avenue open. I have been following the support board and feeding my positive thoughts with all the encouraging posts that I have read along the way. No two stories are ever the same. They may start out with the words being the same but each journey is different . I have learned so much in such a short period of time and hope what I have learned I can share in my life with those who don't know what a reality lung cancer really is. I find it difficult to express in any words the way the experience for me and for all of you as well ,can traumatize someone. It is the most emotionally draining experience, bar none, that I have been through in my entire life. Even now , knowing at least the PET scan was negative, I still am bouncing back to normal and I don't know that normal will ever be a factor again. Some asked how I could be upset when I didn't know for sure of a diagnosis. I don't know. The threat of it I guess. The unknown, uncertainty, the future changing, life altering events, I don't know. All of you have displayed a courage and outlook of an appreciation and respect for life that I have never heard before. I applaud all of you. You are a special group of people. I also agree with I think it was DaveS that said that the support is needed most as soon as a person posts to the forum for the first time. That is so so true. I don't know that I would ever qualify for a support person that is going through lung cancer because I am not walking the walk but perhaps I can be of support to those who are just in the initial stages. I will post when the results of the CT are back. Thankyou all. Kate

Overall I am seeing that many tumors can be treated by surgery and yet some seem to have no surgical plans. Does the size of the tumor have any relationship to possible mets or how long it has been in our body? Are mets treated before surgery is possible? Do mets have symptoms or are they just found on the pet scan. And finally with all the questions, does where it is matter as far as being able to have surgery? Center of chest or far outside of lung or top or bottom of either lung. Have a safe and Happy Memorial weekend to all. Kate

Hi Diedre, I am in the process of learning myself so I am not at the point to give advice but I do want you to know that I have learned more through this support group than I have from anywhere else. Keep reading, keep asking and keep learning. Wishing you wellness. Kate

I have not gone through this experience and can't offer suggestions but just wanted to wish you good luck . I am sure many of this group will be able to give you the guidance you are looking for. Kate

I haven't quite figured out the board enough to know how to thank everyone separately but thank you for your support in spite of me not knowing definite details about what the lung mass is. One place calls it a nodule and one calls it a mass. I just know it is there. I was afraid that all of you would think I was crazy asking for comfort already. Within seconds of my doctor telling me he thought it very well could be a malignant turmor I had jumped ahead in my vision of this and was already in a recovery room somewhere and the worst was over. I seriously know it doesn't work that way or work that fast . All of you relay an inspiration of courage and determination Here all of you have gone through so much and I am just complaining for waiting . I humbly apologize for that. Again, Thankyou Kate

I think I have read every post on this entire site looking for a comfort level that I can not seem to get to. I'm not sure I even have a right to be on here with everyone. I haven't even been confirmed yet as having lung cancer but my main doctor is also a pulmonary specialist feels that this very well could be a malignant lung tumor. I am a life long smoker but quit two years ago this month. I have asthma and take daily medicine for it . I had gone to the emergency department for a stomach pain that just would not stop . After a chest xray and a ct scan of my stomach they gave me two little pills for stomach spasms and 20 minutes later I was on my way home as though nothing had ever happened. The next day I received a phone call from the emergency room physician that a nodule had appeared on my chest xray and the radiology department had advised him of such. He notified my physician and I was then scheduled for a ct scan. Within that week I got a personal call from my doctor stating he thought I needed to go for a biopsy. I went to his office to make the choice of how this was going to take place . He never reviewed the biopsy choices with me that day. He just switched over to the pet scan idea. I am scheduled for a pet scan for June 2. I have no symptoms but now I have learned that many people don't have the symptoms and many of these tumors are found by mistake. I feel my imagination running away with me over every ache and pain that I have now . I'm concerned that my lungs may not be strong enough to withstand the surgical procedure if I need surgery. I know that it is fortunate that this has been discovered now and that it could have gone un-noticed for a long time. I do have a good family support unit and good friends who would be there for me should I need them to be. I'm just plain scared. I've seen all your courage on this board and want it to come to me. Whatever the outcome of this is for me, I will always be a particpant in this support community. People need this encouragement.