Intro.

[Andrea S.]

Hello, I am new here and want to introduce myself. I've mostly been posting on the family/caregivers site. Anyway, my name is Andrea S., I am 30 yrs. old and my mom (age 55) was diagnosed with Stage IV. adenocarcinoma of the lung in April 2003. She has been on a clinical trial and has done amazingly well. Unfortunately, she was just taken off the trial due to the toxicity and has just started on a standard regimen of carboplatin/taxol. I guess my good news is that she has wowed us all with her progress. The tumor has been consistently shrinking and at this time, it is no longer visible at all in the mediasteinum area (sp?). The remaining sites are in the lung and the lymph nodes in the neck area, under the armpit and one node in the diaphram. Those areas have been shrinking as well. It's a rotten disease, but she's fighting it.

I guess I found myself over at this site because I'm trying to maintain hope and sometimes that gets hard. I am tired of people telling me to "enjoy the time we have left". I'm not trying to be in denial of the extent of her disease, but I have faith that she can (and will!) be here for a long time. I would esp. appreciate any positive stories of people fighting stage IV. cancers.

Hugs and prayers to all of you!

[Don Wood]

Andrea, your story reads like good news to me. My wife is Stage IV NSCLC, with bone mets, and is coming rapidly on a year since diagnosis. At present, she is doing well. Don

[judysdaughter]

My mom was diagnosed at stage 4. She immediately started carbo/taxol treatments and had 30 radiation treatments. They ran further tests in late August and determined that she went down to 3b. Her tumor shrank 20%. She had surgery about a month ago (upper left lobe removed and 3 ribs). It has been a rough month but she is doing better each day. She is 63, former smoker, and pretty healthy otherwise. If you asked us a month ago (or even a week), we'd say it's been hell. Funny how you forgot the bad with just a little good mixed in. She just met with her onc today and they were beaming at how well she's doing. Who would've thought?

I have to say that it has been a very intense time. Physically she was in a lot of pain and mentally it was just as bad. For me, her daughter and the primary caregiver, it's been tough. This board has been extremely helpful. In looking back, I don't really have any words of advice. I am such a source now (since I've had three good days). Anyway, I guess you just have to take it as it comes and try and stay focused on today. Otherwise, it is just too overwhelming.

If you guys can somehow view this as an opportunity to get closer to each, to God if you're religious, or to just enjoy life, do so. That's all any of us can do anyway.

prayers to you.