Wife w/ stage IV nsclc - Cancer: Lung Message Board

rwatson908 · 11-19-2005, 07:12 AM

I offer this note as hope for you all. My wife. a previous smoker was diagnosed with NSCLC stage IV/ Adeno in April 05. Her medical care team told me she had maybe 30-40 weeks, less if she didn't respond to treatment. It is now November and the orginal 5 x 8 cm tumor in her left lower lobe is all but gone! We walk about one mile nightly and her spirit is getting better. She isn't out of the woods, so to speek, but the aniexty of pending doom is waning. The cancer is in remission. I credit this to an agressive onoclogy team and prayers, prayers from you all here friends and family. I urge you, family and cancer patients to never give up, fight for your life and the lives of the ones we love. Ask questions, get answers you understand, research the new treatments and trials. And by no means suffer from the pain of Chemo, there are goods meds to help, ASK for them. There is no automatic offer, no protocol offered.
Sorry for this, get a good laxative, we found Polyethylene Glycol 3350, NF powder for solution, NDC 10572-810-03, this is a prescription required med, BUT IT WORKS better then anything we found.
My visits here have been slow, but I read your notes daily. I pray for you all daily as I am thankful for the time we have together.

rockie · 11-19-2005, 07:57 AM

WOW This is excellent news! I was just thinking about you two and hoping that the silence was not an indication of a worsening condition. Instead, now I feel injected with new hope for another remission for my husband who has been on Tarceva for one week. I have heard some very good things about it and am praying this will work better than the first line chemo did. We completed our move into our house and have been getting outside to work on the yard together and getting more excercise than we used to in our mobile home. Bud has established his music studio in our basement, and as I am typing this, he is fiddling with his speakers, mike, and various other gadjets (pardon my ignorance on this subject). He even had a couple of buds come down and jam with him for a couple of hours the other night and I know it did his morale a world of good (he sounds like Johnny Cash and does a great Elvis too). YEAH! We have a family get together tomorrow -- an early Thanksgiving -- with all of our grown kids and we will need to communicate to them the most recent developments. We hope to be able to do this in a manner that won't upset his youngest daughter (she's 21) who is very emotional as a whole.
I keep everyone here in my thoughts and daily prayers. Although it is really a sad thing that life has brought us to this place, I must thank God that we are here to help eachother through these difficult days, weeks, months, years. I have met so many wonderful people and truly miss stopping by here when my days get so busy that I don't get a chance to log on. As new people join us and as others leave us, it is my sincere hope that one day this terrible disease will be able to be caught so early in stage that the fight and therapies will allow for a complete cure.

Take care everyone and keep up the good fight.

Jan

Janmarie2 · 11-20-2005, 02:14 PM

Remission! What great words to hear. I am so glad that Bec is doing so well and will pray that others not now in a remission will soon join her as it is a good place to be. Jan, I do hope that Bud responds to the Tarceva as I have said many times my mom's lung tumor is all but gone since the Tarceva so when it works it can do great things. I think with the new drugs like Tarceva and Alimta out there the doctors are not really sure what to expect. Thursday is Thanksgiving and I know I am thankful that my Mom feels good so that she will enjoy it this year. Last year she had the pneumonia and UTI that made her feel rotten so while she joined us at my brother's house for Thanksgiving dinner she ate little and pretended to feel better then she really did so I am thrilled that this year she is back to being her old self and will enjoy the holidays. I thank god for everyday she is able to enjoy and pray that the Alimta continues to work its magic and with so few side effects too. It will be a hectic week coming up so if I do not post again in the next few days I want to say Have a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Enjoy your family and friends as they are what makes life important. Take a moment this Thanksgiving to tell them how much you love them. Best wishes to all of you and my continued prayers to you all in this battle.

JanMarie

Jan

rwatson908 · 12-06-2005, 07:48 AM

The time of remission is good, very good. But I think the change is coming, a couple of weeks ago Bec started to have headaches, of various degrees of severity, nothing regular, thank God!
She is still having lower back pain, mets at L-1,3,4 and 5, treated with Radiation back in April.
She has been getting an infusion q 3 weeks for 4 cycles so far, no better. The infusion was to help the bone strengthen and and grow,???. Now she is having bone pain in distal femurs, lower legs, R elbow and sometimes shoulders.
4th scan since end of chemo is tommorrow morning, chest and head scan is scheduled. I am uneasy about this one, I just worry alot.
You all have provided me strength and hope and I ask of you prayers, prayers for my wife. I pray the scan is negative and I prove to be a worry-wart, again. Thanks to you all, Ron

rockie · 12-06-2005, 07:59 PM

Ron, my prayers are with you my friend. You take Bec there and keep your chin up. Sometimes the symptoms are not the problems. I do not know how old she is, but as for myself at 46 trying to get all of the Christmas stuff up last weekend, I hope it is arthritis acting up in places newly healed. Keep in touch with us Ron. This is a tough time for so many of us. We can gain strength together and help eachother. God keep you and bless you and Bec.

Take care,
Jan