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Need Surgery on Cancer & Just Found Out I Have MAC! Help!
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Mar 21, 2023 | Replies (33)Comment receiving replies
Your plate is surely too full! I trust that your ID doctor will make the best decision about moving forward with the surgery. And no, my guess is that he/she won't start you on the big 3 until afterward. I, too, had almost no symptoms for many years, and even with the ones I have now (occasionally short of breath, a little more fatigued, still a non-productive cougher, a little more weight loss, AND a cavity in my left lung), I manage to live a fairly normal life (well, until the pandemic hit and I felt - and was advised by my doc at NJH that I needed to isolate as much as possible). Sometimes cavities less than 4 cm will heal on their own (or so I've read). Mine has not. Sometimes robotic surgery is done to remove that portion of the lung. But there are risks with that - none that I am willing to take at the present time. I am not on O2 and have never been. The surgery might mean that I would need to be. I remain active and don't want to lose the muscle tone I have or any more weight, so for me, at this moment, I have opted to live with the cavity and "wait and see" what the next CT shows in 3 months. All of my doctors (at NJH, and locally my pulmonologist and ID) have been willing to work with me and listen to what I want instead of following the protocol (even though one of my doctors developed it). I have learned that while I must be my own advocate. I also must be gentle with myself and know that whatever the situation is, it will be "blessed" or "blocked" as it should be. I do hope this is helpful, and I've added you to my prayer list.
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Thank you so much for putting me on your prayer list! It sounds like you're doing fairly well, and what's unbelievable to me is that I never thought I would meet anyone that had their entire colon removed like I have, a complete proctocolectomy, and then to meet someone else that had their whole corner move and have this awfully rare bacteria infection is really amazing to me. I have a couple questions what is 02? I'm not sure of a lot of the terminology used when describing some of these things. So I just have to ask! Also how big is the cavity in your lung? I hope that I don't develop any symptoms but I just don't seem to have much besides being short on breath sometimes. But it's not even all the time. The last couple days I've been breathing pretty good and feeling really good. It sounds like you have a great team of doctors and that makes all the difference in the world. The doctor I'm seeing for ID has really good reviews so I'm looking forward to seeing what he's going to tell me and I'm hoping that he still approves my surgery that's scheduled for next weekend and Saturday. I just want this cancer out of me because I believe it's part of the reason I got this infection to begin with. I really appreciate all your words of advice and encouragement and if you can tell me anymore I would greatly appreciate it. Also, I was going to ask if the medication makes you feel bad or if you're taking it and it makes you feel okay? I've heard different things. I hope you have a great day! I meant to get back to you yesterday but we had a huge ice storm in the Milwaukee area and I kept going outside to shovel my walkways so it didn't build up. Thank you so much!
Angela