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Living with lung cancer - Introduce yourself & come say hi

Lung Cancer | Last Active: Jan 22 8:18am | Replies (1013)

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@felix536

Thirty year survivor is quite encouraging. Have your tumors all been within your lungs and did they perform a lobectomy? How are they going to treat the tumor up against your heart? Thank you for sharing your experiences and I wish you all the best!

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Replies to "Thirty year survivor is quite encouraging. Have your tumors all been within your lungs and did..."

The first cancer was in another part of my body. As I said, it is surprisingly common that people get cancer at least twice in different parts of their bodies.

Yes, the larger tumors were all in my right lung. Directed surgery was successful for the two in the lung but the surgeon couldn't get all of the other tumor adjacent to my heart. For that, they tried intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), a radiation which is targeted at the cancer cells.

I was supposed to do this every weekday for six weeks but I had some complications midway through the treatment. Bottom line, they know it is still there but because it is so small, it won't show up on a CT. Protocol now for me is CT every three months. So far, it is good news because if they can see it, that means it is growing.

If that happens, I will deal with it just as I have in the past. It is so important to remain as positive as possible. I admit I had some days where it got the best of me but most of the time, I worked hard to stay positive. I am also blessed that I have a very supportive wife who has been my caretaker through all of this. On those days where I was falling down, she was always there to help pick me up. I can't say enough how helpful it is to have someone by your side as you go through this.