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Adenocarcinoma - newly diagnosed
Lung Cancer | Last Active: Jul 17, 2023 | Replies (164)Comment receiving replies
Hi nonobaddog, as I sit here hysterical reading your message, it means so much to me to hear from you and how similar we are on this wretched road. Just having a really bad day today - just found out how much radiation and chemo will cost, so working to possibly get my insurance plan changed. Not only do we have to battle cancer, but all of the nonsense and monetary outlay that goes with it. Please tell me how people stay so positive throughout this? The onco and surgeon have still not ruled out surgery, but I'm not convinced it will happen, especially since I'm 77. I was curious about where they would target the radiation - front or back, but you had both? Did you have a port put in for the Chemo? My onco says I may not need one if they can get the vein - I figure I've got 2 arms and 2 hands they can look for veins without having to go thru surgery to have a port put in 🙁 I will also be on immunotherapy but not sure if onco mentioned after the chemo & radiation or after the surgery...I also have thyroid issues - had the left lobe removed about 50 years ago, so being on medication for life was no big deal for me. I'm so happy you are through it all and having your f/u CT scans. And thanks so much for sharing with me...you def made me feel better! (p.s. assume you have a dog? we have a little toy fox terrier named Pixie..she is now 12 and I swear she knows I have cancer)!
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Hi Sandy,
I am 74 and I was hoping they could do surgery and remove this cancer. They didn't tell me my age was a problem but because of the involvement of the Mediastinal lymph node they said the surgery outcome isn't that great. That node is close to the spine so maybe that is why.
With the radiation, the beam does damage some good tissue on its way to the target tumor so they use beams from multiple angles that all meet at the target. That way is does most of the damage to the tumor and spreads out the damage to the good tissue which can then recover. There are also sensitive tissues that they have to avoid so they choose the angles carefully. I only had 3 angles but I heard of quite a few more. It seemed that the proton radiation used fewer angles than the photon radiation. The machines that do the radiation are pretty big and impressive.
I did not have a port put in, they just used my veins and I was happy about that. In total there were 6 sticks for chemo and 13 sticks for immunotherapy but these were spread out over 14 months so that wasn't bad.
I wish I had a dog but I do not and I sure miss that. When my last one passed away a few years ago I decided not to get another one. That might have been a poor decision. I do get to see my son's dog pretty often so that helps.