Hi,
What a great board! I wish I had found this sooner.
My husband was DX w/stage four NSCLC in April 2002. He went in for pnemonia and came out w/the DX of stage four lung cancer - it spread to his brain, his heart sacs, his lungs' pleura, his adrenal gland, and his lymph nodes near the originating lung tumor. It was bad enough finding out he had CANCER, let alone STAGE FOUR. I had gone from shock to disbelief to despair to hopeful and I have come to an acceptance level emotionally, and it is so hard.
We have two children, ages 16 and 14. My husband is 48 and I am 35. We owned a home and he worked full time making a very good living - well that all has changed. He had to quit working for radiation and chemo and the ill effects he suffered from radiation and chemo and he went on SSD, Medicaid, and food stamps. It was quite embarrassing at first, however, he was a HARD worker his entire life - since he was a young boy - so this is HIS money he put into Social Security and the government, this is how we choose to view it. We had to sell our home and rent an apartment...that broke our hearts...but, we have food, shelter, clothing and all we NEED...and we have all the material things we aquired over the years to comfort us and give us the sense of "home"...even in the apartment. It is a very large apartment - that helps but it is not the same as my four bedroom house was. Oh well...such is life.
Anyway...I am worried as the STATS are NOT good for stage four NSCLC but my husband has repsonded to treatment very well. He gets another CAT SCAN Tuesday and currently he is on Gemzar. He has not been able to follow the schedule due to his white cell count dropping so frequently, so I must wonder if the cancer is growing again, spreading more, etc. I guess we will know soon enough. He did have a brief (6 week) remission in the Fall...that was WONDERFUL. We were able to "forget the cancer" for those six glorious weeks and "get back to normal", or as "normal" as we could.
My husband tires easily, he is pale, yet he is not too thin - he eats well and he drinks Ensure or Boost. He gets a shot of Procrit every few weeks (I think it is every few weeks).
His oncologist is a bit too "laid back" for my liking. I suggested the Procrit and now he is giving it to my husband. Had I not suggested it I wonder if it would have even been offered...and he goes to the Ireland Cancer Center here in Middleburg Hts., Ohio...it is one of the best for cancer.
Well I just wanted to introduce myself and give a background on our situation.
We choose hope and we believe miracles happen.
Take care,