jasamarenumber1

Hi everyone, my name's Marianna. I'm 23 years old. My dad is a 7 month survivor of SCLC.

In June, he was having shortness of breath problems, they did a biopsy and said it was small cell lung cancer. They said it was one of the lungs only. He went through four cycles of chemo - carboplatin and etoposide. After the third cycle of chemo, they did a CT scan of his chest and there was no evidence of cancer found. But the doctor still gave him the fourth round of chemo. After that, my dad received chest radiation - this was hard for him because he had difficulty swallowing and painful. So his doctor gave him a break, and he continued chest radiation. Then my dad was having eye problems, and headaches. So they did an MRI of the brain, and saw that there is cancer in the brain. They were spending so much time on his chest radiation when there was cancer moving to the brain. why couldn't they have done the Preventative Brain Radiation like they do with other SCLC patients?? They should have done that instead of focusing on chest radiation when the scan revealed no more cancer in his lung. So he got brain radiation daily.

A week ago we took him to the ER because my dad wasn't able to walk well, he wasn't breathing well. They did numerous stress tests, chest x rays, ct scans, you name it. The heart doctor said there is blockage in his heart, so he did an angiogram. As soon as my dad was recovering from the angiogram procedure, his temperature went up and they said he has an infection. He somehow caught pneumonia in the hospital.

They gave him antibiotics but he's not able to walk or stand because he can't breathe well. His lungs are already damaged due to the cancer and this pneumonia is the last thing he needed.

He's home now, but he refuses to eat. he doesn't have an appetite and he says he feels like he wants to throw up when there is food by him. He just got back from the hospital so we don't know what to do. If we go back, he's going to get stuck there yet again and be tortured with all those tests. What should I do about this nausea - and that he doesnt want to eat?

We visited his heart doctor a few days ago and he said the heart is good. His oncologist said he wants to do a PET scan in two weeks. My poor dad, he was doing well and now he's so weak. All he wants is to get his strength back and walk. That's all. If anyone has any comments or advice, I would love to hear it.

And, If anyone could please give me links to SCLC survivor stories I would appreciate it. I am 23 years old, and I just want my dad to get his strength back and be a survivor! He is only 65 years old and this is so difficult for him and it's killing me as well. This is such a great place where we could give each other hope and love and share positive stories.