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First appointment with surgeon!


Melanie86

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Hello Everyone,

My surgeon's office has just called me today for the first time! I'm so glad she's finally gotten in touch with me!!!

I have my first appointment to meet her this coming monday the 11th!!!!

I'm soooooooo excited!!!!!! I'm going to finally find out my lab and ct results, find out if it's spread, and find out the plan for my surgery!!!!

I'm so pumped!! That's the update!!

Sincerely, Melanie

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Melanie, I love the way your turn every step in this journey into excitement. You personify what we tell people when they come here and that is it all settles down into some new normalcy when the gameplan is in place. That's the root of your excitement, you see the gameplan moving into place. Keep those spirits high and keep us posted.

Judy in Key West

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God Bless You honey....You have a wonderful attitude for being so young to start this journey...I have no doubt in my mind that you will be just fine....I hope all the news is good news from your surgeon.....Keep in mind it's a tough road....one we are all traveling...but with the Grace of God as you can see from many here...IT CAN BE DONE...no matter what.....Keep the faith and God Bless...I will be thinking of you on the 11th...please keep us informed..

hugs...nonni

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Okay..... 10 hours until I get CT results, blood test results, all sorts of things... plan for surgery, everything.... trying to keep calm... a mix between scanxiety and excitement and general nervousness...

I'll let you know how it goes.

Sincerely, Melanie

PS. Thanks for everyone's support and encouragement and advice so far!!!!! it's really brought me a lot of peace along the way.

Sincerely, Melanie

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Hello Everyone,

I've met with my surgeon today.

She said nothing about my lab results, which I heard no news is good news.

As for my CT, it showed that my middle lobe has collapsed. They also saw a lymphnode in the upper lobe that needs to come out.

She said she's not sure they can do VATS. She also isn't exactly sure of the location of the tumour in the middle lobe. She said if any of it is growing into the lower lobe, that makes it a lot more complicated. She said they'll save as much of my lung as they can, and they'll do VATS if they can, but nothing is certain right now. She said most of these things will just be sorted out during surgery.

She said she's going to try to book my surgery for a few weeks from now. I'd like it to be sooner, but I'll take what I can get.

Good news though, is that, it doesn't look like it's spread outside of my lung!!!!

Also... while i was talking about the surgery with my DR. she mentioned a catheter, and an epidural.... DO THESE HURT???

sincerely, Melanie

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Melanie-

I cannot give you any information of surgery since I never had it but many others here I am sure will be along soon and give you the lowdown.

It WONDERFUL that it hasn't spread outside of the lung.

Keep up your GREAT attitude - it goes a very, very long way in this fight.

Keep us posted!!!!

Hugs - Patti B.

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Melanie,

I had an upper left lobectomey, I woke up from surgery with a catheter and an epideral already in place. Didn't feel a thing a catheter is great because you don't have to get in and out of bed or lift your fanny for a bed pan. Epidural was awesome I didn't feel it and had very minor if any pain from the surgery. If they do the epidural one thing make sure you still have bowel movements, they put the epidural too low on me it stopped my bowel movements and could have been very dangerous. Other then that I was very pleasantly surprised at how painless it was. Congrats on everything being inside your lungs. You will do great.

Dana

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Hi Melanie - great news that it is contained within' the lung. As to the epidural and catheter - I don't recall having any big issues with either of these.

I do, however, remember that I had some significant pain from the chest tubes; however, once they were out it was fine. I had a reaction shortly after surgery (an overdose actually-we found that I don't need alot to keep me pain free) to the pain meds and they actually had to give me a drug to counteract the pain meds. Thus, I went from feeling really happy and pain free (albeit not breathing at times although I didn't know it!) to no pain meds and severe pain within seconds. So, my pain from the chest tubes could have been legit; however, it could also have been from that incident.

In any event, I remember through it all chanting to myself about how "lucky" I was (and I still consider myself very lucky) to be able to have surgery.

This hurry up and wait stuff is definitely hard! I hope the time passes quickly for you and before you know it the surgery date is upon you.

Take care,

Linda

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Hi Melanie,

Great news that it appears not to have spread outside your lung. Hopefully you will get the surgery scheduled soon. I admire your GREAT attititude!!! My prayers are with you.

For me they started with the VATS and ended up needing to do a thoracotomy to remove my RLL. They gave me the epidural in pre op and I had that for 4-5 days. I did not have any problems with either that or the catheter. The epidural helps manage pain a lot, but I still used a morphine pump for the first few days along with vicadin. I took vicadin for a few weeks post op. Hope this helps.

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Same story here - started as VATS, ended as open surgery and epidural. And the constipation. Curing that was my primary goal when I got home - got me off the heavy meds in just a few days.

It's a very weird experience. I hope you have a good care system - place to go home to where you can do as little as you like, get lots of rest for a few days (or more) and someone to cook for you and keep an eye on you? It is a good time to accept lots of TLC.

Best.

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Great to hear that the tumor has not spread beyond your lung. I had an upper right lobectomy in July, 2005. I did have an epidural and catheter. I did not have the VATS but the open surgery. After you get home they will give you pain medication. I stopped taking the prescription medication made me feel dopey and kept me constipated. I took ALLEVE instead. I learned to take the pain pills BEFORE the pain set in. It worked for me. Wishing you the best!

Carol

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I had two surgeries with the epidural and catheter (Both VATS - one on each side). Painful but doable with the medication - don't let the pain take over - let the painkillers do their stuff at first so you can heal without the pain. Thankfully (if there is a thankful) - you are young and ready to fight the battle. The new stuff can be so overwhelming - be sure you ask if you need to ask - ask your doctor - ask here - just don't be afraid to ask questions - you need to know all the answers to fight this thing.

Best of luck - can't wait to see surgery and recovery and NED posts from you as you get further into this.

Annette

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