I am Going insane

mynx · New User Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 2

I am going insane and need someone to tell me its normal, how I am feeling, these tests that I am waiting for I am expecting the worst, now they tell me that is normal, but if i have nobules and thickening on my pleura does that mean that my cancer has spread to my lungs? and if tht happens does that mean that i have lung cancer?? i have never smoked a day in my life but my parents were really bad smokers, my father dying of enphacemia quite a few years back.
3 years remission
stage 3 with 8 positive nodes and all the rest removed, told high risk have had 3 monthly check ups for 3 years

brainman · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:10 pm Post subject: Re: I am Going insane

[quote=mynx]I am going insane and need someone to tell me its normal, how I am feeling, these tests that I am waiting for I am expecting the worst, now they tell me that is normal, [/quote]

mynx, I think it is normal for any of us who have had cancer of any type to worry about recurrences. I know how it feels to ask if I am going insane with worries. You are in a place in your life filled with uncertainty.

[quote=mynx]but if i have nobules and thickening on my pleura does that mean that my cancer has spread to my lungs? and if tht happens does that mean that i have lung cancer?? [/quote]

The answer to both of these questions is "Not necessarily but possibly." The only way to tell for sure is to have a biopsy done. Your history of a moderately high Breast Cancer with metastasis to the lymph nodes does make it possible that it is now in your lungs. But the only way to know for sure is by doing a biopsy. I do not mean to increase your worry, just to express my own hopes for you to get a biopsy as soon as possible. If it has gone to your lungs, it will now be called a state 4 Breast Cancer. Many women live for years with stage 4 BC if they seek aggressive treatment options.

You continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.
_________________
Jim
Site Administrator and long-term cancer survivor
1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendoglioma grade 3, same location.
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
My Story Part 2: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8029
Blog http://jimhawkinsport.blogspot.com/

Barbara K · Regular Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 33

Rather than have chemo again, I went on the hormonal treatment with Tamoxifen, low-cholesterol diet and daily exercise on my recumbent bike.
I'm now up to 10 miles a day.

As far as I'm concerned, using chemo is like using a sledgehammer instead of a fly-swatter to kill a fly. Sure, you kill the fly but there's a lot of other damage involved from the sledgehammer blow. And, what if you miss the fly? You still have all that damage.

I had chemo in 2005 and then nine weeks of daily radiation. Both the chemo and radiation accelerated bone loss and I had to have a total knee replacement in 2006. Then in April 2007, I was told I was stage 4 terminal cancer because of the cancer cells found in my pleural effusion and that oncologist told me the ONLY treatment for me was chemo.

I went to another oncologist for a second opinion instead. He put me on the Tamoxifen treatment. I added the low-cholesterol diet and exercise program on my own as additional treatment.

May 2007, I had a pleural effusion around my left lung and my left lung was half the size of my right lung. When I would turn around in bed at night I could feel the fluid sloshing around like a water balloon beneath my rib cage.

During the first two weeks on the Tamoxifen, there was a tremendous amount of back, chest, arm and joint pain all over my body. Gradually, the pain settled down and finally went away after the first month. By the second month, I no longer felt the fluid sloshing around like a water balloon.

October 2007, I was X-Rayed again. I no longer have the pleural effusion and am currently in remission and cancer-free. I will continue to take Tamoxifen and remain on the low-cholesterol diet and exercise program.

My original oncologist gave me a prognosis in April 2007 of one to two years without chemo treatment and two to four years with chemo and he was looking at me as if I were already dead.

I intend to survive for another thirty years and laugh in his face.

My Mom had colon cancer. Her colon ruptured and the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. Her physicians gave her a prognosis of six months. She took the first three sessions of chem and then stopped the chemo because the treatments made her too ill.

Mom lived for another 13 years and the only reason she died was because after my Dad died, Mom stopped taking her insulin. Two years later when we found out and got her back on insulin it was too late because she sustained too much damage to her organs from uncontrolled diabetes.

Thank you for your concern.

Barbara K.

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