Adenocarcinoma - newly diagnosed

Thanks again Cindy. I will try and enjoy myself for sure. I’m so happy that you’re doing well! Keep it up and I will let you know what happens when I get the appointment with the Cancer Clinic. Take care and God Bless.
Joan

Joan - Oh, my! Hawaii! My most favorite place in this world! Sooo Beautiful! Have as much fun as you and your daughter can!
Concerning the SBRT, my Aunt had it done when she was 77. No side effects really, according to her. It was 5 days at 30 minutes a day. That was it. She could go shopping afterward or whatever. No real down time. I guess she got a little tired after one of them but she says that was it. She is now 82 and cancer free for the past 5 years. She had it done because her heart was not healthy enough for surgery. Hers was also small. It’s always worth looking into! Hers was called “Cyberknife” but it is also known as “True Beam” and other names. I hope it will be something you can do!
I had my check up today. Everything looked Great according to the surgeon. Praise Jesus! Lung is already expanding where they took the segments out. Have to go every 6 months for a CT scan , (for 2 years) and if those stay good then it goes to once a year. I feel really good and don’t really have any pain. A twinge here and there is about it. God answered our prayers.
I hope you have a Wonderful time and let me know if they let you do the SBRT. God Bless You, and Good thoughts!
Cindy

Cindy, Thank you so much. I have been very lucky for the most part. I’ve never really been on medications for much other than Vitamin D and an injection every 6 months for my Osteoarthritis. I hadn’t heard of SBRT and looked it up. I will be going to our Cancer clinic here in Vancouver, Canada and will ask about it. No idea of side effects etc. I’m lucky enough to be going to Hawaii with my daughter tomorrow for 10 days!! I will be trying to do a lot in the near future. From what the Dr said I could have months to a year and because I am in good shape hopefully longer unless it goes to another organ. All the best to you and prayer’s your way! Please keep me informed of your progress as well.
Joan

Soupy- you seem like you have been a very strong person to fight cancer all these different times! God Bless You! Have you had the SRBT treatments? I would hate to see you give up! I read your profile and you seem so strong and active! I don’t pretend to know your situation, but if your current doctors don’t have the treatments you need you should be able to check with your insurance and see if they can cover what you need, even if it’s in another state. I wish you all of the BEST Luck! Again, God Bless you!
Cindy

God 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)

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!

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.

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!

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.