Hi
My husband has an effusion that we think was caused by a bad fall. On the x-ray they found a 1 cm nodule and the doctor said in the last appointment that he wants to do a resection (? take the nodule out or even the whole left top lobe) at the same time he takes the water out.
The concern is because my husband had kidney cancer 10 years ago (encapsulated, just surgery).
We would like to know how one feels after this kind of surgery. He is not willing to do any other treatments besides surgery if it is cancer, so we want to know if he will be able to have a better quality of life.
He has been improving everyday since the effusion happened 5 weeks ago. He went from coughing like crazy, unable to take a decent breath, fever and exhaustion, to feeling pretty ok, almost no coughing, no fever, he can walk uphill slowly, work a bit in the garden or gather wook for the fireplace, etc. He is still tired and gets out of breath when trying to do more (like yesterday he was carrying to bags and walking uphill and that was way to much).

We would like to know if anyone has improved from an effusion without treatment even when they have cancer.

I am 52 and had a lobectomy in March and they told me the hospital stay would be 3 to 10 days depending on things such as complications etc. I ended up there in recovery 8 days because the 2 chest drain tubes were still putting out to much fluid to remove them. My recovery went well other than that. I was on morphine for about 2 weeks after that. To to the lobectomy they had to cut ribs and the thousands of nerves that run behind them. It was a couple months before it healed well enough that I didn't need some kind of pain killers at least some of the time. I still have a discomfort just under my lower right ribs and side that is like the sensation of tape stuck to the skin. That is probably caused by nerves that haven't healed yet. My surgeon said sometimes it takes 1 year or 2 for all the nerves to heal and he said he has some patients that the discomfort hasn't totally gone away years later. Also obviously you can't lift anything heavy for a long time after the surgery and sometimes even now when lifting something or twisting the wrong way it will still hurt. Hope this helps some.

Dave

Thank you so much for answering our message.
If you don't mind, my husband was asking what were your options besides surgery and if they have you in any other treatment. Did they find a nodule in your lung also?
It is so hard for my husband to decide what he will do. He is afraid that after each treatment they will say he needs something else and it will be a never ending thing.
Do you feel you can have a pretty normal life now?
Thank you again for taking the time. It is a scary moment and it is great to "speak" with others that are dealing with the same problems.

They found my lung cancer totally by accident during a CT. They were looking for prostate cancer that turned out to be negative. I had lung symptoms, some for years but as I was a lifelong non smoker the docs kept telling me it was allergies or valley fever etc. They found a 7 cm tumor in the entrance to the right middle lobe blocking it completely and at least partially blocking the other lobes in that lung. It was a fairly rare relatively slow growing cancer called typical carcinoid thats not caused by smoking and in fact they have no idea what caused it but they felt it had been there at least 7-10 years. There was no other option except surgery and a PET scanned showed no mets (at least none that could be picked up). The docs said another few months or less and I would have lost the entire lung. Carcinoid doesn't respond well to chemo or radiation so for that type of cancer surgery is the only way out.
I would not say things are back to normal, for instance I've been put on disability and I hate not working. Also there is a constant discomfort from the cut nerves etc. Its not bad enough to need pain meds etc but enough to remind me its there. Also last week I got very severe pain in my right abdomen and side near the end of the incision but deeper down and after a few days of it not getting better I ended up going to the emer room because both the surgeon and GP were on vacation. After spending 12 hours of mostly being ignored they did xrays, ultrasound, blood tests etc and determined it wasn't my gall bladder and not life threatening (but bo clue what it is) so sent me home telling me to see my regular doc (who is on vacation). I was worried it might have been something from the surgery or worse yet the cancer returning. I had a follow up CT 4 months ago and it was clean then. So I still don't know what it was and now its mostly gone away on its own and my surgeon will be seeing me Dec 4 when hes back. It may just be more nerve endings growing through as I did have several episodes of "phantom" pains in the couple months after the surgery as nerves regenerated. Going through something like this makes you seriously re-evaluate things and I doubt I will every be back the way I was normal. Its particularly scary for me as I live alone and don't really know many people where I know live. Also the thought it can come back anytime is always in the back of my mind. Although the survival rate is pretty good for this type of cancer if its all been excised studies show it can stay microscopic up to ten years before taking root again so followups are very important. The irony is that the radiation from CT and PET scans can cause new cancer to grow in the future so my surgeon agreed to let me get scanned with an MRI this next follow up as it has no known bad side effects.

Dave

Thank you for your quick response. My husband says "thank you, it really helps me to evaluate what is ahead of me".
So from what I understood you are ok, which is great, except from some discomfort and having to wait for a long recovery to "normal". I know that "normal" after cancer is never what it was before, but I mean that you can have a good quality of life. Did you have a very physical work before? My husband is a cook and he is afraid he won't be able to work if he has the surgery. He had just gotten a job he loved a few months ago...
If you don't mind, I would love to be able to ask you more questions, specially after we see the doctor on tuesday. It is kind of scary to make decisions just on what the doctor tells you because sometimes they say things that don't match reality (like for exemple telling my husband "go to work, by all means, you should be able to do it - and he couldn't even make his own food!)
Thank you so much for your responses. You have no idea how much it helps (or maybe you do!) to talk with people on the same boat.

I worked with computers as a field engineer and it involved lots of driving and schlepping sometimes heavy equipment around. Also from the stress I developed a problem in both eyes that causes blood plasma to leak into the eye fluid so its messed up my vision to where I can only get a restricted drivers license so I can no longer drive dusk to dawn or long distance. Between that and not being able to lift (at least not til the doc says so) they decided to put me on disability and told me I will probably never be able to go back to that job.
If all they need to remove is a nodule they may (or may not) be able to get it laproscopicly and recovery will be much quicker. If the need to take an entire lobe and cut rib(s) and thousands of nerves its much longer. My doc said the soonest he ever had someone make a "full" recovery was 4 months and its been as long as 2 years. He said with most people the discomfort goes away eventually but he has also had lobectomey patients that have had ongoing pains and discomfort. On the plus side I can breath better now than before as the tumor was affecting airflow to all 3 lobes and now the remaining 2 lobes are doing better. My doc said that because I walk 3 to 5 miles a day rain or shine it probably built up the left lung so it was doing most the work. My pulmonary function test was almost normal even before surgery and a messed up right lung. I even walked more than 3 miles the very day they let me out of recovery. I also used to have chronic bronchitis many times a year because the tumor was probably harboring the bacteria that caused it. So far I have only gotten bronchitis once since the surgery last March and I hope it stays away. Feel free to ask me more questions if you have any. Hope this helps some.

Dave

This helps a lot!!!!
It is great to hear a success story like yours. You still might have a little ways to go but you are already breathing better. And you have to make an effort to "be normal". I know that the fear is always there, as after my husband's surgery 10 years ago every sneeze was a threat.... After a while we started to relax and the whole thing went into the background. He did things in the preventive side - like diet (raw foods), tai chi and the program that Hulda Clark describes in her books "The cure for all cancers". But he is not very disciplined and after a few years he went back to his old ways. These kinds of things a great to support the recovery and make the body stronger. I also know of people that did the macrobiotic diet and got well without any treatment.
Have you ever thought of oriental medicine like acupuncture for your eye problem? That might help you and also with the recovery.
I sure hope that when we go see the doctor on tuesday we will hear that what needs to be done is the simple procedure.
I will contact you again for sure, since you walked that path already and if you have any interest in alternative things, I can probably help you with that.
Thank you again for being so available to help!
Have a good sunday.

Since the surgery I changed my diet quite a bit also. I've been eating much less red meats, more fish, lots of veggies like broccoli (know to help with cancer), and several natural type things like lycopene with tomato powder, turmeric/curcumin, cinnamon, grape seed extract and so on. The blood vessels that feed the optic bundle are so small that red corpuscles can't fit through them to seal them so there is no real cure for it. If you have just a few leaking they can seal them with a laser but I have to many of them leaking for them to do that. Only things that help are staying as stress free as possible, keep my BP down and don't take blood thinners.
I hope everything goes well with your husband and that it turns out to be nothing serious.

Dave

Hi-
I have read your postings and just wanted to say I have not had any knowledge since my husband has never had to have fluid built up, but wanted you to know I wish your husband a speedy recovery. Nice to hear he has had 10 years without cancer and sounds like the nodule is small enough so hopefully they can take care of it and he can live a long time with no other concerns. Has he made any decisions as what to do? What a tough decision to make given he has been thru dealing with cancer in the past.
And as far as you Dave...nice to see you are doing okay and think of you often and love hearing positive outcomes and such a great attitude you have! Hang in there!
Kim

Thank you for your message.
My husband has not decided anything yet. We are going to the doctor tomorrow to have the results of the CT scan and will talk about the possibilities.
The interesting thing is my husband has been improving everyday to the point tha he is about 80% of his normal and the only thing we are doing is I give him an accupressure session every night. He is able to walk uphill with no problem, was working in the garden this morning trimming bushes and his overall energy level has just been improving so much that it is hard to notice that there is something wrong with him.
So I will just keep my fingers crossed that it was actually the fall that caused the problem and the nodule was just inflamation.
I will post tomorrow and let you know what happened at the doctor.

I have been so dazed that i forgot about this thread....
The results of the scan are not good. There are multiple nodules in both lungs, all of them too small to biopsy. they gave the diagnosis of "metastatic disease" even without biopsying.
I'm still puzzled as to how that can be true at the same time that my husband improves everyday without any medical intervention. The only thing we are doing is I give him acupressure every evening. He is pretty much normal now. So I'm puzzled as to how you improve and go back to normal on your own if you have advanced cancer.
The doctors totally ignore us when we say he feels better as if we are in a state of denial. But it is true. He went from being unable to crush garlic against the cutting board because of the pain to being able to trim bushes in the garden...
At least my hubby is so calm that he just tells me it doesn't matter, because if they are right he will start feeling sick eventually and if they are wrong, then they are wrong....
I hope you guys are feeling well.