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patches

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Hi, I have been visiting this site quite often in the last few weeks & it has been extremely helpful.

On February 23rd I had a chest x-ray due to bronchitis. On March 1st my Doctor called to say the radiologist found a spot on my left lung.

On March 2nd I had a CT scan on my lungs which confirmed a suspicious mass on my left lung.

March 3rd I saw a surgeon; he said no need to do any furher tests or needle biopsy, he said either way it had to come out. He said he would not know for sure if it was cancer until he did a wedge resection and had the patholgist look at it while I was on the table, if it came back cancer he would take out the upper lobe of my left lung. It was cancer and he did remove the upper left lobe. When I woke up the first thing I wanted to know is if it was cancer or not; my family told me it was cancer and that I was lucky it was found so early.

I was told it was NSCLC stage 1A. My surgeon said I would probably have chemo but it was up to the onc.

When I saw the onc he said no chemo. He did a PET scan in April the area of surgery showed up hot, he said because of surgery. I'm scheduled for another PET in August.

All of this is new to me as no one in my family has ever had cancer of any type.

I am 47 years old, I did smoke for many years and quit two weeks before the x-ray. I was tired of getting bronchitis all the time. I know I will NEVER smoke again.

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Patches,

Welcome to the boards. I am so sorry that you have to be here in the first place, but am glad you found us regardless! Please know you have our prayers and our concern. Keep us informed and keep your positive attitude!

God bless,

jen

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Hello Patches and welcome.

I am sorry you have need to be here but am very glad you have joined us. This is the most wonderful site, full of great people who can and will answer your questions and sometimes even more importantly, we are here to help you and support you in this battle.

Congrats on quitting smoking! I personally know how difficult that is.

Let us know how we can help you and keep us posted.

Sending loads of positive thoughts your way,

Chris

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Hi my Minnesota Friend!

You found a great place to learn and get wonderful support here. I also will mention, being I don't know where you live, that we have an IN-PERSON lung cancer support group at Regions Hospital that meets twice a month. Please feel free to PM if you want more information on that group. We're a wonderful group of people, and we're of all ages, plus some of us were smokers and some of us were not. It's really not just a smokers disease.

I would wait and see about the PET scan, and then if it lights up and if it were me, I would do the chemo. Better to be safe then sorry. I would want to be very aggressive right up front if that was my lung. Holler if your in need of a phone buddy.

Hope you stay with us.

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Welcome. It's good to here the staging - allowed you to have the removal. Some recommend chemo under these cicumstances. You might want to get a second opinion and ask both onc why they would or would not offer the chemo.

Mary

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You are extremely lucky that it was caught early and that you wee able to have an operation. Only one in 4 can have the operation.

Stage 1A does not require chemo. You are very lucky lady.

Good luck, I hope you stay on here to support others who will need it.

Congratulations on giving up those nasty cigaretts. :evil:

Maryanne :wink:

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Hi Patches, welcome. I think most oncs would not recommend chemo for stage 1A. If your tumor was kind of big, I would consider doing it anayway. I think the cutoff point is 3 cm and bigger is stage 1b. If you had say, a 2cm tumor, you might want to do chemo anyway. Go to a comprehensive cancer center and see what they say.

I see it has been somewhat over 2 months since your surgery. I hope you are mending well. If you get to much longer than 2 months past surgery, I don't think an oncologist would recommend chemo.

You are probably ok anyway.

Don M

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I also want to welcome you Patches to this website. This is a very difficult time for you , I know been there, done that! Glad you found us. Like Connie I would also welcome you to our face to face group in St. Paul if you live in the twin cities area ( Go Twins !) Keep us posted. Donna G

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