Just last week, my FIL was told he has tumors on his spine, he had loss of feeling in his legs. They did surgery to remove it, they could only remove some of the tumor and found 3 more little ones. It came back as cancer. Then they found out it came from his lungs. We are all truly scared and do not have any answers. We dont know what stage he is in or anything.
He is in Rehab right now becasue he still cannot walk and has lost function of his bowels and urine.
He is having radiation in 3 weeks and then doing a PET scan.

Can anyone tell me what their expierences were? He is a big smoker and has been feeling crappy for about 6 months now.
Thank you.

Tammy

*bump* ???

Tammy,
I wish I could offer you some answers to your question...sorry to be of no help. I will add you and your FIL to my prayers....
My husband has the SCLC spread to many, many places in his body, but not on his spine so cannot offer any experiences in that area. As far as chemo each person is different and depends on the chemo. What type of chemo is he taking? Find out and look it up on the Internet...very good tool to use to get info on stuff like that. As far as the radiation my husband also has not had that, but know people that have had and it can make you very, very tired and feels like a burn. One of my friends who had breast cancer and had radiation is still in pain from it on her chest...but each person is different. I do hope your FIL is strong enough to endure all the treatments and he will beat this disease! I can understand the feeling of being scared and understandably so, but as far as not having answers please ask a lot of questions and do research. Why the loss of control of bowel movements? Did the doctor share with you why?
You take care,
Kim

Thank you so much, Kim, for your response. It really made a difference in my day! :)
We are not sure what type of chemo yet. I guess they are waiting until the incision on his spine heals. The loss of control of bowel movements, the Dr's are contributing to the nerve damage on his spine when they removed the tumor. I guess its still very swollen and they are hoping the swelling will go down with time.
Thank you again, kim, I will add your husband to my prayers as well. We have never had to deal with cancer before and we are all very scared. And none of us know what to excpect.
I will keep doing my research. ;)

Tammy,
Sorry to hear about your FIL.It is very scarey to just be starting out journey with cancer, We have all been there so can understand what you are going through. With NSCLC any time you have tumors outside the lungs you are Stage IV, or if you have pleural effussions you are at very least stage IIIB or possibly even Stage IV, those seem to be two things that just make the stage an automatic thing.

I hope the swelling in his spinal cord goes down soon so he has control of his bowels and urine. Do do your research and feel free to ask as many questions as you want as many of us have been dealing with lung cancer and the chemo, radiation, surgery that can come with it for awhile now.Just keep in mind that everyone is different and responds to treatments in different ways. I think most tend to learn alot more by coming here and posting then they do from the doctors. I will add you FIL to my list of prayers.Take care and keep us informed.Use us to just vent your fears if you like, it really does help. ;) JanMarie