Adenocarcinoma - newly diagnosed

One of my oncology doctors told me patients have told him the early weeks of the unknown are the hardest. For me it was exhausting and I felt at such loose ends. I do feel more calm now that I am in a treatment plan. I have two more standard treatments for this nsc lung cancer planned. Not that these months will be easy but each morning I think yay, I can get to my coffee.

Stay strong. I am newly diagnosed and having a pet scan Saturday. All I know is that my oncologist said, if this is stage 3A (if pet scan doesn’t show anything) then this is highly treatable if not curable.

Morning! Yay! Another person that loves coffee! Always the first thing I want when I wake up from a surgery! Unfortunately they wouldn’t let me have it, or food, for a couple days. That just made it taste all the better when I did get to drink it!
Anyway, I agree about the waiting time! I am now 6 days post op and waiting for the results of the lymph nodes that were removed, along with my segmentectomy and a wedge. They were supposed to be in yesterday but that didn’t happen. Kind of leaves the next phases in the air but I have learned after all of this just to be patient because worrying and stressing doesn’t do anything good. Hang in there! Good Luck to you! God Bless you and watch over you!
Cindy

Thank you. You’ve really been through a lot. May you heal well and speedily. Thank you for your encouragement.
Diane

It seems I now have, they think one of my cancers in the lung is the same thing. I’ve had the PET Scan awhile ago. On March 9 had bronchoscopy’s done on both and didn’t find out much after that. I set up appointment with the surgeon and got called today. Now he says they think the one is (sounded like the same as yours). Sounds like he wants to do more biopsies and I say no. What exactly did they tell you about it? This is crazy when you can’t find out much from the actual specialist.

I have only met with my Onco, Pulmonologist and Surgeon once each. All 3 seem to work together well. I have learned a lot by myself by googling (sometimes too much), but I also have email access to 2 of them. Since I am really new to all of this, it is, at times, very overwhelming and I'm still looking for answers but I do have trust and faith in my cancer team. I understand the reason they need to do a biopsy so they can confirm it is cancer and not an infection. I did have a lung biopsy which confirmed the NSCLC Adenocarcinoma and the bronchoscopy (which did not show anything).
The next procedure called a Mediastinoscopy is to confirm that the mass in my upper R lung has spread to 1 or 2 thoracic lymph nodes which was picked up by the PET scan - this procedure is considered a surgery and it is a day surgery at the hospital under general anesthesia. So I'm a little freaked out about it, but it is my hope to be able to have surgery to remove the mass and lymph node. I have learned a lot from this group but it seems like baby steps when in actuality, I was really just diagnosed in February so it is moving right along. Have faith, stay positive and ask your Oncologist questions. He/she should be the one guiding you. Sometimes we need to be our own advocate and be persistent! Good luck and by all means keep me/us posted!

We definitely have to advocate for ourselves. You’re lucky that you have places line the Mayo Clinic that specializes in most of the cancers. I find that the surgeons here are good at their job but definitely not at keeping you informed. My call with him was asking for total truth and finding out as much as I can. I told him that it’s like walking around in the dark. Very hard to find the proper answers. Sounds like it’s an aggressive one which it can be especially in the lungs. Since I have another (? Kind ?) it could be spreading like they say it can do. Seen as I’ve had several now, like I said no more tests, biopsies etc. I’ll try and enjoy whatever is left ( he said could be months to 1-2 years) if it doesn’t start spreading too quickly. I will definitely say a prayer for you! Good luck and try and relax.

Hi Sandy- It’s me, Cindy. Just want to be able to give some more words of encouragement. Today is my 7th day post surgery for my 2.4 cm nodule that was cancerous, believed to be adenocarcinoma. I feel great! No pain really, a twinge here and there and stiffness if I don’t get up and move and stretch. Yesterday I walked 1 1/2 miles with my husband. Spread over 2 separate walks. Inclines and declines as we live in a mountainous area. I do take the medications they gave me and starting to spread out some time wise and some I just take 1 a day instead of 4. My point is that I was so scared of everything at the beginning of this and thought I was going to be in horrible pain afterward. Almost like I was going to be laid up in bed for weeks. Didn’t happen! I have tried to think positive this entire time, even though I was scared, and I think that really helps you during and after. I just prayed and asked God to give my surgeons the steady hands and clear minds to get me through the surgeries. Prayers Answered! Keep your head up and remain positive. Just picture yourself walking around afterward.
Go Bless you!

What a shock I had when I got diagnosed with the same thing. No symptoms, never smoked. So that was September. Not even knowing what a nodule was I vowed to learn about everything. My insurance only covered in state doctors so choices were few. The one I was matched with was inexperienced and had only done 30 surgeries with a 33% bad outcome rate.
No way I wanted that. I could go out of state if I had a PPO but that meant I had to get hired by a company that offered that. When no hires you, you hire yourself so I formed a S Corp and offered myself the insurance I needed to go where the doctors knew stuff. Turns out I got the head of the department who actually wrote the book on robotic lung surgery. At the time he had done nearly 600 with a bad outcome rate of a little over 1%. He would take lymph node samples and while we waited for the results he would operate on another at the same time. If all looked ok then just the mid right lung came out. Checked in to a hotel Thursday, Friday surgery lung 6 hours, Saturday drain tube needed, Sunday went home and Monday went shopping cancer free. I fought cancer for only Thursday thru Sunday. The insurance fight was the scary part but I won. Stay strong and look forward to something. (it also helped that my nurse was a sweetheart and looked like Michael Buble and would blush easily)

God Bless you!