Newbie Here

keepingthefaith · New User Joined: 19 Oct 2009 Posts: 1

Hello all. My mother is 62 years old and was recently diagnosed with Stage IV Lung Cancer. She is having a port inserted tomorrow to make it easier for chemo treatments. She begins treatment on the 26th. Just a bit about my mom.

She smoked 1/2 pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years. Last month she decided that she didn't want to smoke anymore and kicked it cold turkey. Shortly thereafter she started coughing and a few days later my father took her to the drs and they said it was double pneumonia and to take her to the nearest emergency room. It just so happened to be a military base (my father is retired from the military). Please keep in mind that my mother was only coughing and had headaches due to not smoking and kicking it cold turkey. Anyway, at the ER they did a chest x-ray and there was of course "signs" of pneumonia and they said there were also a mass/tumor on her left lung so they ordered for a CT scan. CT scan showed mass/tumor in left lung and right lung and lymph node on right side. A PET scan and a bronchioscopy (? spelling) were ordered. The next week she had the PET scan done and the followng day she had the bronchioscope. Her primary care dr told us that the left lung was in fact cancer (from reading the PET scan) and that it was only localized the left lung and things would be okay. We were quite happy. However, he was soooo wrong. The pulmonary specialist said that she had tumors/lesions in both lungs and that it was considered stage iv because it has spread from one lung to the other. The PET scan does not show that the cancer has spread to any other part of her body or bones. She also had a MRI of the brain that came back clean.

We met with the oncologist last week and she didn't give us a "time" so to speak, just discussed chemo options.

My mother is still active as ever, nothing has stopped her and she does not appear to be "sick". All this is very overwhelming, but with the cancer only being in both lungs does her chances of surviving increase?

Just a little confused about all of this, trying to read up on this and attend her appts so that I can understand what is going on and to support my parents. Any feedback, advice, etc., is greatly appreciated.

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2853

Hi Faith,

Welcome to the forums. I'm sorry about this diagnosis for your Mom but it sounds like she is in overall good health and that will be helpful in the long run.

Pneumonia (or bouts of pneumonia) can often be a precursor to a lung cancer diagnosis.

The fact that it is confined to her chest could be good in terms of survival. I've heard that the less far spread, the better. Seemed to work for my husband, but he also was almost always on chemo.

A lot depends on the type, sub-type, and cell differentiation too. The less well differentiated the actual cancer cells are, the more aggressive it tends to be. Hopefully she will have a good response to treatment and handle it well.

We're here to help in any way we can, so feel free to ask questions. It's good to have a safe place to post your thoughts where others understand.

God bless,
PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

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