Just diagnosed with NSCLC

[maggie1960]

Hi all I'm Maggie and I'm 55. I have been undergoing investigations for increased breathlessness over the last couple of months. I was diagnosed with COPD in November last year and thought this was just not very well controlled but no I have stage 3A squamous non small cell lung cancer in my left lung. Had hope to have surgery but further tests showed that one of the lymph nodes is also involved. Saw my Consultant today and she has recommended a very rigorous treatment plan of chemo and radio therapies to be given together for four weeks with weekends being treatment free. Which to be honest sounds a bit brutal but she is hopeful that it might cure this cancer.

I just wanted to ask if anyone here has had this treatment regime and if so how did they manage with it??

I would be very grateful for any information or tips as I believe that forewarned is forearmed!!

Hope you are all feeling as well as you can.

Kind Regards

[tilstongal]

Hi Maggie,

Yes I had exactly this aggressive regime for stage one LC diagnosed in May 2014 - a terrible shock as I had no symptoms. It is a harsh regime, there is no doubt about it and I was made very ill with the treatment. But....here I am over a year later and at the moment disease free. So it's got to be worth it hasn't it?

Hang on in there and if you'd like any specific questions answered please feel free to pm me either now or when you are in treatment.

I'm sending love and strengthening thoughts.

Tilstongal x

[maggie1960 in reply to tilstongal]

Hi tilstongal

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I agree that even if this makes me very ill (and it will) if I could be disease free afterwards it will be well worth it. Thanks for being so frank with me, I find I can deal with things much better if I know what to expect no matter how bad it will be. I have 2 - 3 weeks before I start the treatment and I intend to use this time to try to mentally prepare myself for it. I keep saying to myself this will be really hard but its only for a relatively short period of time (plus recovery time!) and I can do this. Thank you again and I will keep in touch and will probably pm you with more questions as the thoughts occur to me.

Stay well

Regards

Maggie xx

[Littleannies]

Hi Maggie I was diagnosed with non small cell lung cancer in January of this yr and also attacked my lymph node in my kidney. I had 4 sets of radiotherapy and 4 of chemo, ever since then the tumour has halfed it size and my lymph has almost gone I have stayed stable so I am feeling very optimistic about it and so should you it can only make u better not worse. Best wishes

[maggie1960 in reply to Littleannies]

Hi littleannies,

Thank you for your very positive response. I'm glad that your treatment has had some success and that you are optimistic for the future, I would be too.

Take care

Maggiexx