excited family
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 2, 1999
Obviously I have decided to start my own thread after posting a lot of details on Rodeo's thread. I will do a quick recap of what I have already posted and then I will update. My husband had an annoying cough since November and on February 27th he had a chest x-ray just to "make sure it wasn't anything important". There was a mass on his lung so he had a CT scan of his torso on March 7th. We were urgently called in to our family doctor's office that afternoon to be told that my husband probably had lung cancer and it had spread to his liver. On March 12th, my husband's 50th birthday, we saw a specialist who reiterated what our doctor had said but gave a lot more details. My husband's upper left lung was collapsed and there was some fluid in his chest cavity. She arranged to have some large lymph nodes in his left neck biopsied, and she also drained some fluid which she also sent for testing. My husband also had a brain scan, which was clear, and a bone scan. The bone scan showed that the cancer had spread to his spine, ribs on both sides, and his left hip. It was confirmed that my husband has stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. It is adenocarcinoma.
We saw a radiation oncologist on April 6th at the cancer clinic in Victoria, which is a 2 hour drive away. He arranged for my husband to have 5 radiation treatments from April 10th - 16th. The goal was to shrink the central tumor in his left lung so that air could get through to re-inflate his left lung. It was also supposed to help with the back pain my husband was feeling. Up until this point my husband had been mainly fine. He had been working still but this all changed after radiation. He took the days off during radiation, the Tuesday after it finished, and then he went back to work on Wednesday April 18th. By Friday he was so tired and weak. On Saturday I was actually worried he was dying because he could barely move and he was asleep all day long. The same continued on Sunday, and his voice had also gone. He now croaks and is very quiet. I was so scared that I called the nurse help-line at the cancer agency that Monday but they said that as long as he was eating, it was ok. The radiation oncologist had also told my husband that there was more fluid in his chest which should be drained after radiation. So we saw the specialist again in town and she drained 2 liters! That made my husband feel quite a bit better and he could stand upright once again.
So he didn't work all last week, and mainly slept on the couch all day and then slept all night. He was slowly spending more time awake. His parents and sister came to visit from last Thursday until Monday. They stayed at a motel near by but it completely wore my husband out. He was not as bad as the weekend of the 21st-22nd but just sitting there talking was too much. They also took him out for a couple of quick meals, which he enjoyed eating but it exhausted him.
On Tuesday, 1st May, he had an appointment with a general oncologist in Victoria. This appointment had been made so late with the intention of having received all lab work on his biopsies. WRONG! The oncologist was quite annoyed that the lab still had not figured out if his cancer has any mutations. They are hoping that it does, because targeted therapy is the best course of treatment. Specifically the EGFR mutation. If that comes back positive then he only has to take a pill and life expectancy is doubled. WE WANT THAT MUTATION.
Because of the delay, the oncologist couldn't finalize a treatment plan. However, since there is a couple of weeks waiting list for chemo, he has arranged for that to be set up for my husband. If the mutation comes back positive, then we will cancel chemo and go the targeted therapy pill route. We should hear any day now. The best part is that either treatment can be done at the hospital in town, rather that 2 hours away.
We got the horrible survival numbers from the oncologist. Untreated the average is 6 months. Treatment adds on average 3 months. The only goal of treatment is to extend what life he has and make it more comfortable. The oncologist said that my husband "will die of lung cancer". The only question is when. My question that I forgot to ask is when do they start counting down from? Is it today? Is it from his first x-ray, which was 2 months ago?
I have told the kids everything. I can tell everyone all the facts. But if I start to think about what is going to happen, I start to lose it. My motto is "don't think". My Dad asked me some tough questions yesterday which I not ready to think about. It made me so sad that he has already started to think about what HE can cut back on so that he will be able to help me and the kids. Life is so complicated already. I am the sick one and my husband is supposedly the healthy one! Taking over all his chores is really hard. He did all the grocery shopping because I am allergic to chemical and smells. The cleaning aisles make the whole store stink to me. My kids are helping me figure out how to do everything.
My kids have been amazing and that worries me. I think we are all in denial and trying to not think about it. My husband is also starting to realize that this is happening. The oncologist being blunt about this killing my husband was needed to get mu husband to accept that this was going to end badly. Too many friends have been telling him success stories about cancer in their families and he was thinking he would have one too. I knew just from reading online about how bad the situation was. My heart is not ready yet.
I have received so much support already from posting on Rodeo's thread, and I am so grateful. It really helps which is one reason why I started my own post. Another is that I also get the feeling that people are already invested in my ongoing situation. It astounds me that you, Rodeo, have found the time to think about me and my family as you and yours go through everything which has happened.
I will try and update as I find things out.
We saw a radiation oncologist on April 6th at the cancer clinic in Victoria, which is a 2 hour drive away. He arranged for my husband to have 5 radiation treatments from April 10th - 16th. The goal was to shrink the central tumor in his left lung so that air could get through to re-inflate his left lung. It was also supposed to help with the back pain my husband was feeling. Up until this point my husband had been mainly fine. He had been working still but this all changed after radiation. He took the days off during radiation, the Tuesday after it finished, and then he went back to work on Wednesday April 18th. By Friday he was so tired and weak. On Saturday I was actually worried he was dying because he could barely move and he was asleep all day long. The same continued on Sunday, and his voice had also gone. He now croaks and is very quiet. I was so scared that I called the nurse help-line at the cancer agency that Monday but they said that as long as he was eating, it was ok. The radiation oncologist had also told my husband that there was more fluid in his chest which should be drained after radiation. So we saw the specialist again in town and she drained 2 liters! That made my husband feel quite a bit better and he could stand upright once again.
So he didn't work all last week, and mainly slept on the couch all day and then slept all night. He was slowly spending more time awake. His parents and sister came to visit from last Thursday until Monday. They stayed at a motel near by but it completely wore my husband out. He was not as bad as the weekend of the 21st-22nd but just sitting there talking was too much. They also took him out for a couple of quick meals, which he enjoyed eating but it exhausted him.
On Tuesday, 1st May, he had an appointment with a general oncologist in Victoria. This appointment had been made so late with the intention of having received all lab work on his biopsies. WRONG! The oncologist was quite annoyed that the lab still had not figured out if his cancer has any mutations. They are hoping that it does, because targeted therapy is the best course of treatment. Specifically the EGFR mutation. If that comes back positive then he only has to take a pill and life expectancy is doubled. WE WANT THAT MUTATION.
Because of the delay, the oncologist couldn't finalize a treatment plan. However, since there is a couple of weeks waiting list for chemo, he has arranged for that to be set up for my husband. If the mutation comes back positive, then we will cancel chemo and go the targeted therapy pill route. We should hear any day now. The best part is that either treatment can be done at the hospital in town, rather that 2 hours away.
We got the horrible survival numbers from the oncologist. Untreated the average is 6 months. Treatment adds on average 3 months. The only goal of treatment is to extend what life he has and make it more comfortable. The oncologist said that my husband "will die of lung cancer". The only question is when. My question that I forgot to ask is when do they start counting down from? Is it today? Is it from his first x-ray, which was 2 months ago?
I have told the kids everything. I can tell everyone all the facts. But if I start to think about what is going to happen, I start to lose it. My motto is "don't think". My Dad asked me some tough questions yesterday which I not ready to think about. It made me so sad that he has already started to think about what HE can cut back on so that he will be able to help me and the kids. Life is so complicated already. I am the sick one and my husband is supposedly the healthy one! Taking over all his chores is really hard. He did all the grocery shopping because I am allergic to chemical and smells. The cleaning aisles make the whole store stink to me. My kids are helping me figure out how to do everything.
My kids have been amazing and that worries me. I think we are all in denial and trying to not think about it. My husband is also starting to realize that this is happening. The oncologist being blunt about this killing my husband was needed to get mu husband to accept that this was going to end badly. Too many friends have been telling him success stories about cancer in their families and he was thinking he would have one too. I knew just from reading online about how bad the situation was. My heart is not ready yet.
I have received so much support already from posting on Rodeo's thread, and I am so grateful. It really helps which is one reason why I started my own post. Another is that I also get the feeling that people are already invested in my ongoing situation. It astounds me that you, Rodeo, have found the time to think about me and my family as you and yours go through everything which has happened.
I will try and update as I find things out.