denn1don Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 My wife had a Cat Scan 12/29/04 and it showed significant shrinkage in her tumor, but 6 spots were seen on her lungs. They are very tiny but Dr wouldn't speculate on what they could be. My wife has finished 4 rounds of chemo ( she is scheduled for 6 rounds) and 35 days of radiation. This has beaten her up a bit. She has been in and out of the hospital with low sodium and or low blood levels. She currently is experiencing sever esophogitos and is having trouble swallowing food. The Dr has told her to build her stregth back up. In two months she will have another Cat scan and we will take it from there. Has anyone had a similar expeience? My wife is 55 years old and smoked until the day of her dx. Other than the cancer she is in terriffic health and her attitude has been A1. She is a little down due to these six new spots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Shrinkage is a good thing! I'm sorry to hear about the esphogatis problem. I have seen a couple people with it on the boards in the past. I don't remeber what they did to treat it. I'm praying that the spots are scar tissue! Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haylee_38 Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Shrinkage is great news ! Sorry to hear of esphogatis problems and hope she starts feeling better soon. Haylee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lamb Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Glad to hear of the shrinkage,that is good.The low blood counts & other things kinda go with the treatments but usually are doable.There may be medicines to help build the blood back up.Hoping more treatments can be done soon with little or no discomfort.Tell your wife to hang in there,this is hard to do but can be well worth while once it's completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addie Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Your wife's general good health AND that A-1 attitude will certainly be some of her best "allies" in this battle. I'm glad there has been reduction in the primary tumor but am sorry to hear there are other questionable spots in her lungs. It's too bad she cannot continue with the last two rounds of chemo right now...but encourage her to use that positive attitude to build her strength back up. Is she being given something to boost her blood counts? Like Procrit or Aranesp for the red blood cells, or Neupogen or Neulasta shots for the white blood cells? I have to assume if she's been hospitalized, the docs are taking care of this and her low sodium. But that esophagitis...once you have it....it does make eating tough. Try different things...see what goes down easiest and let her just pig out on whatever goes down easy! Has she lost weight? This isn't good...as she needs to keep her weight UP to retain some strength! One of our members said Oreo cookies went down the easiest...so she indulged in Oreos!! For some, cold things or room temperature food is easier to eat than hot foods. Everyone is a little different. I only had a mild short term case of esophagitis....so I maintained my weight easily. But again...your wife's good attitude is a GREAT asset to her. She's also lucky to have you and I'm glad you found this site as there is lots of good and helpful info. Hope those new nodules turn out to be nothing. It's possible, you know! When I was dx'd it was because I had two small nodules they were tracking and while the nodules were still there, unchanged...the lung cancer had shown up. I just had a scan this week. One of those two original nodule is now GONE and the other is unchanged....4 mm. in size. We continue to track it. I'm hoping the new spots in your wife's lungs turn out to be unrelated little "nothings". Keep us posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDianneB Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 First, shrinkage is a GOOD thing -- "significant" shrinkage is even better, so you know that the treatments are working. That was one of the scariest things of all to me at first -- when I was having all that chemo and not knowing if it was doing any good or not. Once I had that first scan after chemo started and it showed significant shrinkage, it gave me the kick in the seat that I needed to stick with treatment - no matter what. Esophagitis is just part of the chest radiation deal, I think. It does get better. Mine didn't last too long, and I got through it by eating lots and lots of popsicles -- they help a lot with fluids, and I was told that fluids are very helpful not only while having chemo, but especially with radiation. Bananas worked well, as did mashed potatoes, oatmeal, grits (yes, I'm a southerner, and there's nothing in the world better than grits!), mac & cheese went down ok too. It's just whatever tastes the best and goes down smoothest to her, I guess. The Radiation Oncologist told me to sip on Mylanta or something like that for the esophagitis. He said that just before eating a spoonful of that might help the food go down better. I tried it a few times, and I think it did help, but as I said, mine wasn't so bad, and I really didn't need anything once I figured out what was easiest to get down. She's on the same roller coaster as we all are now, and there will be many ups and downs. I see cause to celebrate the significant shrinkage though -- that's grand news in my book! Di Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelliemacs Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 are they sure the 6 spots are not scaring or viral instead of cancer? maybe they are not since the other tumor shrunk so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.