chemos

[Andrea]

Hi. I am going to be more of a lurker, and I promise to be careful in what I say, but I just had to share this b/c I thought it might interest people. I was reading a pamphlet called Living With Lung Cancer last night. I honestly did not know that that all of these new chemos are only about 5 years old. It said that gemzar, taxol, and a few other ones associated with lung cancer which I have written down at home, have only been on the market for 5 years. If you think about it, 5 years was 1999, that is like yest in my mind--the past 5 years flew. Now imagine what the next 5 years will bring.

Also, I was at the breast center yesterday and I met a woman who used to post on this board, but she found herself getting to "obsessed" with cancer and had to break away. Her mom is Stage IV, she is on Iressa and is completely stable for two years. She said her mom lost function in one lung, so for a month she had trouble breathing b/c the other lung had to adjust being the breather and they thought it was the "end". Then she bounced back and now she goes to yoga and goes shopping and is moving into a new beach house. It was nice to hear. And she has experienced zero side effects from Iressa.

[Guest Deb]

This is the kind of news that makes my ears perk up. I like hearing someone is stable after 2 years and them being a stage 4. It gives me hope and that is certainly something I need.

[Andrea]

Deb,

I can give you lots of real examples. My office manager also told me a couple of days ago that her uncle is on Iressa and he has been battling Stage IV for 5 years now. He was put on Iressa last year and he is back to work and normal, they forget about it. She mentioned it to me b/c she is new to the office, and I introduced myself as the office anxiety nutjob and I mentioned LC.

2nd chair opposing counsel in the trial I just had--his father had an entire lung removed 17 years ago for cancer and couldn't be more active now. Golfs, runs, practices law, etc.

Also, I think I had posted this, I found out that my great aunt, who was a great aunt and my favorite, was diagnosed in 1980s, had part of a lung removed and was fine, she had the rest of that lung removed in 1995 due to a recurrance and still was fine. This was my favorite aunt and I never knew she had LC at first, she kept it quiet and did not want the family to know until after. I do remember spending every holiday with her and that she was in the hospital for lung surgery. However, she was a go-getter and was always more active and moblie that my own grandmother. She lived in Brooklyn and walked everywhere, went to Atlantic City by bus all the time, etc. She ultimately passed away in 2002 at age 75 b/c of a recurrance. However she did refuse to quit smoking so it did not help matters and she survived about 20 years. I don't know the stage, but with a second recurrance, that has to make it advanced.