New and confused, afraid...

[Lonnie in NC]

I have been diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer.  Test are on going to determine if other organs are involved.  Those will be done by Friday.  Then treatment will begin I guess.  I need to talk with people who understand how I feel...the fear, gut grabs that keep you awake.  I want to know what others have gone through and maybe what I can expect.  I need a community, badly.

[hillham]

Hi Lonnie,

One of the hardest parts is getting a treatment plans in place, but it will happen for you. I have stage 3 as well. Although it's indeed scary, there will be good days ahead. I was treated with chemo/radiation two years ago and am doing well. When I was diagnosed, I wondered if I could ever truly be happy again, but I'm relieved to report that many incredibly wonderful things have happened in my life over these last two years. Hang in there. 

 

Karen

[Chuck K]

Lonnie

I was diagnosed stage 4 about 20 months ago, was devastated. First thing on my mind when I wake up every morning was I have cancer. I needed support so I joined this group it really helped me.

Lonnie when you get a treatment plan you will feel better. My treatment is targeted therapy I take 8 pills per day .After 5 1/2 months taking this drug I'm NED (no evidence of disease) .Cancer treatment these days are much better. Try posting on introduce yourself forum you'll get more responces from other people.

Hang in there and keep us posted

Chuck

[Tom Galli]

Lonnie,

Welcome here.

We understand how your feel. We are all afraid. But my bottom line up front message is if I can live, so can you. Here and here are sumations of my diagnosed Stage IIIB treatment journey. The former is brief while the latter has all the details. I'm nearing 20 years of life after diagnosis and after treatments that nearly did me in. So keep you can live idea cemented forefront in your mind.

One of the most important diagnostic tests is a laboratory analysis of your tissue biopsy to determine suitability for Targeted Therapy and or Immunotherapy. These systemic treatment methods are game changers in lung cancer survival. I mention this testing because sometimes it is not performed. You should insist that it is. You may be a surgical candidate and surgery is our most effective curative method, but lung cancer is so very dangerous because it frequently recurs after curative treatment. One way to get ahead of recurrence is post-surgical chemotherapy. It is commonly performed after Stage II and III diagnosis but some I know did not have the post-surgical chemo and suffered a recurrence. You don't want to go down that path. If you have surgery, then avail yourself of the post-surgical chemo. It is inconvenient but recurrence is a nightmare!

Many effective treatments are now available to counter our beast. Multifocal precision radiation (treating 2 or more tumors in distant parts of the body) is now commonplace. I mention precision radiation becuase that is the treatment that led me to NED -- no evidence of disease. Once our world used cure to describe a good outcome but recurrence is so common that we've reset our language to accommodate reality. 

You might check out blogs on our Forum for information and inspiration. I started writing about lung cancer on the suggestion of a therapist who treated me for depression associated with my treatment mayhem. He said it is useful to read what your thought or felt months ago to help understand what is happening now. I agree. Writing what you feel about uncertainty and fear gives you power over those feelings. Put the words down on paper. Here is an assemblage of my blogs over the years.

You've found your support group. There are many online resources for lung cancer these days including social media sites. But this is a safe space. It is now your safe space. We know how you feel. You fit right in.

Stay the course.

Tom

 

[Karen_L]

Lonnie, 

Welcome to your new community. It feels scary alone to hear the diagnosis, then scary alone as you wait for your treatment plan. It's better to go through it with people who have been there. We have, we're here. We're glad you are too. Please keep us posted. And, please consider writing more! 

Karen

 

[LouT]

Lonnie,

Welcome to our community.  Sorry you need to be here, but glad you found us.  You are already receiving a lot of information so I'll just say "Hi" and we look forward to more updates from you as you progress through this journey.  You'll find folks here with all types of diagnosis and treatments so there is a great wealth of practical knowledge to be shared with you.

BTW, I live south of Charlotte.  Are you going to Levine Cancer Center?

Lou

[Kamoto]

Before you go down any "surgery" or "Chemo/Radiation" road, think about whether you want to confirm your Oncologists treatment plan with one of the nationally recognized cancer centers (IE, MD Anderson Houston, Mayo in Minnesota, Denver Jewish in Colorado, etc).  A hospital Oncologist has to treat every cancer which comes through their door, whereas the national centers have specialists who ONLY deal with lung cancer.  I'll vouch for Mayo Clinic, who did my esophageal ultrasound and mapped out where the cancer was so the local hospital could zap it with precision radiation.