Still in Remission

[veecatz]

Its been a while since I posted on here, have been a busy bunny!! Just to give some hope to you guys out there, I have had quite a journey with the Big C - diagnosed 22 months ago with non small cell stage 3a. Unexpectedly I am still here to tell the tale. My cancer was inoperable, so had pretty heavy chemo and radiotherapy. It seems to have worked and I remain in remission at my check last month. i know each person is an individual and respond differently to the treatment. I sincerely hope that someone out there reads this and believes it is possible to survive. I have no idea what the future holds, and am curious to know if anyone knows what the recurrence rates are and in what time span.? I fully intend to be here after the 5 year survival period - but I also like to be 'prepared'!!

[LorraineD Partner Roy Castle]

Hello Veez

lovely to hear from you, glad you had positive news from your last check. It has been quite a roller coaster for you these last 22 months, so good to hear from you.

I will look into the stats you are asking about - it may take me to early next week to come back on the details. One thing to bear in mind is that statistics can never tell you what will happen to you. They always lag behind current treatment options as they will be based on people diagnosed in 2010 or before, so you need to think if you really do want the information and build in the difference between "on average x happens to x% of people" and what is likely/unlikely or worth being aware of for yourself.

best wishes

Lorraine

on behalf of the Information & Support team

[veecatz in reply to LorraineD]

Awwww thanks - I am curious - but am a very positive person so if its only 2% after 3years I'll be one of the 2%!!! Just like to keep my life in order - I like to know the far end of everything(put politely!!) many thanks for that!! x

[jillygirl]

Hi Vee, you stay positive, I am sure the key to surviving is your mental outlook. I am the same at the moment. Take care. xx

[JacquiDuncs]

Hi I am new to the forum - my Mum, 72, has an inoperable small cell cancer in her right lung, diagnosed Feb. She was advised that an aggressive treatment of chemo and radiotherapy was recommended, ideally having 4-6 cycles. She commenced a 21 day cycle of Cistplatin & Eptoposide (apologies if spellings wrong!) with 10 days of radiotherapy to the lung and her adrenal glands. She managed to get through the 2nd cycle but within days was hospitalised due to an array of terrible side effects and infections causing Mum to be bed bound for 3 weeks. I honestly thought she was going to die, she was so poorly and in terrible pain.

Thankfully she has slowly recovered and is back at home. She is still very weak but is now walking again and getting stronger every day. We saw her consultant this week and he said she cannot have anymore chemo as 'basically it will kill you', that her lung will be scanned in 6 weeks and then we will find out if the tumour has shrunk at all. Mum was so happy and relieved to hear she would have no more chemo but I am worried that she has only had half the recommended treatment.

It is lovely to hear your positive message, but did you complete all the treatment?

[veecatz in reply to JacquiDuncs]

yes - i did complete the treatment and I too was quite ill on it. However i had cistplatin and venoralbine(something like that!) i also had 25 blasts of radiotherapy which has left me with only 20% of the affected lung due to scarring - which continues for quite some time(up to 2 years) So the effects of the treatment can be worse than the disease. I really hope your mum has positive results when she is scanned. It all seems like a bad dream now - but it was a nightmare at the time! I am honestly not sure that if it came back - whether I would have further treatment. There would be no option for radiotherapy as there is too much damage. I just hope that i am cured - but I also know that the odds of it returning are high. I wish i could give you more positive feed back. What i do know is that a positive mental attitude is as important as the treatment. Fingers and toes and everything else crossed for you and your mum. xx

[JacquiDuncs in reply to veecatz]

Thank you so much for your reply.

Yes I appreciate that a positive attitude is essential but it's so hard when you see your beautiful Mum in such a deteriorated state with little quality of life. Hopefully she will continue to improve and be well enough to complete her radiotherapy.

I wish you well and pray that you remain in remission, thank you for your post, it has given me some hope.

Xx

[Jenco]

Hi Veecatz

I am really pleased for you and wish I could get in your boat. I was diagnosed with stage 4 non small cell lung cancer in October last year. I had no symptoms other than a bout of pneumonia . I had a pretty healthy lifestyle and was a keen golfer and gardener. My cancer was also inoperable as it had spread into my trachea. I had 33 sessions of radiotherapy and concurrent chemo - three days in a row - I was supposed to have that twice but because it made me so ill I didn't have the second three days. I seemed to be doing pretty well until about a couple of months ago when I started to lose energy,cough more and feel generally under the weather. A CT scan seems to show residual cancer so I have just had a PET scan and am waiting to have a rigid bronchoscopy to see if there is a chance of surgery now the tumour has shrunk back from my trachea. The results will determine where we go from here. Long may your remission continue.