Caring4Cancer

Dr found a mass in my moms lung on1/23/08, on 2/7/08 she was finally diagnosed with non small cell lung cancer, we are still waiting on an appt. for a pet scan to find out what stage she is in. My question is how long does it usually take to be staged and plan a treatment? Tomorrow will be day 20 since the mass was found.

My husband was also just diagnosed with stage IIIA or IV squamous cell non small cell lung cancer. Tom developed a bad cough about 4 months ago and was treated for pneumonia. The cough was not going away so they decided to do chest x-ray and found a mass. That was on 1/14/08. The next week was followed by a CT scan, Bronchoscopy and a PET scan. He was diagnosed on 1/29/08. Tom started Chemo on 2/11/08 which is exactly 4 weeks from when they discovered the mass. Tom has a history of cancer in his family so for him it does not look good. His father was 66 when he died from lung cancer, his sister Donna was in her 50’s when breast cancer took her and his sister Marion died just 3 years ago from throat cancer. He is handling it like a trooper and I am trying to stay positive with all the advances in medicine. Tom went to work today feeling no ill effects from the first treatment. The last 4 years has been one health issue after the other and he bounces back every time. He has survived quadruple heart bypass surgery and an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. In April the mass was not there when they did prep for the AAA repair and in that small amount of time the mass has grown to 7cm with a questionable spot on the liver. They cannot biopsy the liver without risk of collapsing his lung so we are in a waiting game. If the liver spot shrinks or grows with the next couple of treatments then they will continue with just the chemo to control the symptoms. Good luck with your mom. Stay as supportive as you can and don’t forget to take time to nurture yourself so you can stay strong for your mom. She will need your strength. Denise

My mom has small cell carcinoma. It took awhile for treatment plan to form. Insurance companies seem to take forever to approve tests. I think it too almost two months before we had a treatment plan.   Take care and God bless.

 

                                                            From  Mocushla

My husband was found to have several masses in his brain on a Tuesday, July 3 2007, due to the holiday, he could not see a nuerologist until the following monday, but that doctor immediately put him in the hospital for further testing and we new what stage he was in before we left the hospital. Unfortunately, he was in stage 4 NSCLC, he is still undergoing treatments, but it has now spread to the bone.  Keep pushing your doctors, get involved and get educated.  that is what I did and I am able to understand most of what the doctors say and what I don't i ask several questions about then go home and research everything again on the computer.