Well its 4 weeks tomorrow since I had my left lung removed due to a large squamous tumour I. The centre of the lung. My breathing is a bit hit and miss, but I have managed a couple of one mile walks, with extra panting. I have my first hospital appointment tomorrow not really sure what to expect.
Bit concerned that a bit of a niggley cough is developing, hopefully it’s nothing to worry about. Seems that cancer gave me paronoia.
Hi,
I would just like to say good luck with your appointment.
Keep positive.
To be walking a mile is really impressive.
Take care
Sonia
Well done Colin on your recovery so far. You're doing really well - be careful not to overdo it - sometimes our bodies have a knack of reminding us they're trying to heal and we're pushing them too far especially if we've always been active. Steady activity is the name of the game..
It's also normal to think that every symptom we have after our diagnosis must be linked to our cancer but it often isn't. I found a book really helpful with this - it's called 'cancer is a word not a sentence' by Dr Rob Buckman and it helped me put my thoughts into context. good luck for your appointment and continued recovery.
Hello Colin57,
It sounds as though you are doing very well after your surgery and as JanetteR57 has said just be careful not to overdo it as it is still early days. After being through this type of surgery, a cough or any symptom which appears can cause anxiety and worry. Any questions you have discuss them with the surgeon tomorrow, it is always an idea to write questions down then you won’t forget on the day
Kind regards
Roy Castle Helpline
Hi ,Be sure you are not alone cancer no matter where it pops up makes you paranoid, you are probably fine it is early days and it sounds like you are on track. No doubt you will have a chest xray and all will be well ,I have had anxious moments since lung surgery some of them founded many just me been anxious .I have to say I have always been a very laid back person throughout my life .I am still trying to get that person back she is in their somewhere . Hope your first check up goes well keep walking and moving swimming was helpful to me once the scar had healed .Take care keep positive ,Diane
Hi Colin, my partner had his left lung removed in February. They told him that his right lung will produce more mucus and it certainly does. He has been told to cough up the mucus which he does regularly, helped by medication to thin it. He has just had four rounds of chemo to mop up any stray cells. This certainly put back his recovery from the operation. He is just now feeling better. It's a long job though. Good luck.
Thanks for that Roz, It helps me to hear the progress of someone in front of me yet on the same road. I wish health and luck to you both.
Your doing well to walk a mile 4 weeks after having whole left lung removed.
This cheers me up a bit, im having half left lung removed this monday 20th aug. If i can walk a mile in 4 weeks after op i will look on that as good progressxx Hope you continue to progress and be well
Thanks for your comments, and good luck with your operation! I’m now six weeks in and continue to walk just over the mile. I should be clear that I do get very out of breath whilst doing so. My worst enemy todate are stairs, but it is early days. At the moment I await a start date for chemotherapy, and can only wonder what input this will have on my improvement. Good luck again keep us posted on your progress.
Thanks for replying. It is early days to not be feeling breathless. Ive read stuff hospital gave me and it states it can take up to 3 months to be yourself. I hope all goes well with chemo.x How did they find yours, was you having symptoms or was it by chance?
Hope you’ve had a good day, and welcome to the club know
one wants to be a member of. In answer to you we spent the first two months of this year travelling in the Far East. Towards the end of the trip I developed an annoying cough. On return it persisted initially we put it down to air conditioning units whilst travelling. At first I was given an inhaler which did no good at all, then a chest X-ray was carried out. On the 25th March I was summoned to the surgery to ‘discuss ‘ the X-ray. A shadow had been found then followed a confirmation scan for cancer. I had a large stage 3 tumour which had also attached to the sack which surrounds the heart.
I was amazingly lucky that they were prepared to operate, there really was no other option. So there we have it left lung removed on American Independence Day, loads of lymph nodes removed and a patch on my heart! And as I said I now await chemotherapy.
Again I wish you well, and if my limited knowledge is of any use don’t hesitate to ask.
Thanks fo replying. They have told me that only 12% of people going through respritory clinic can have surgery the other 88% can not have surgery. The way its come across to me is i am lucky. Mine was found after chest infection and having xray. It is a shadow thats been there from feb time. In this time ive had cat scans pet scans bronchscopy. On all these tests no cancer cells have been found . The latest cat scan showed no change in shadow. The shadow is near an old tb scar ive got from years and years ago, they say it is now understood cancer can form in old tb scar tissue. They think it is early cancer and the only thing now to do is remove old tb scar and shadow, so half a lung has to go.
Thanks for listening to me and answering my questions. I sometimes feel im going mad x
Anytime.
It’s the not knowing, and constantly trying to second guess each stage. I made the mistake of visiting the university of google. Big mistake! Let me know how it all goes.
Thanks. I also visit know everything Google lol
Well done on all the activity - I recovered well after my surgery - returning to swimming 130 lengths at a time within 3 months of surgery and going onto swim much further but stairs continued to be a bit of a bugbear for a while. I read on one of these forums of a patient who practised/improved their fitness by going up and down their own stairs at home. It is a case of conditioning - as I'd trained and conditioned for swimming for many years but needed to be able to climb stairs without being breathless. Even now, if I can't get in a rhythm with swimming (7 years post losing half my left lung) or if climbing stairs or trying to have a conversation whilst walking put me in a more breathless state than my normal, I often find it's an early sign of something (more often than not an infection of some sort). The surgery low percentage is that too many people are detected when it's already spread to the lymph system or the tumour/s are in a position too close to the heart of major veins/arteries. Therefore I always feel blessed that I 'qualified' for surgery and know others are not so fortunate. Re the pandora's box that is google' the main issue is that so much stuff is out of date, not validated by experts and a lot is simply opinion not evidenced. Better to use trusted sources such as the cancer charities' websites as they do make great efforts to ensure the information is accurate and is also checked by patients (I'm on the Roy Castle patient review panel) for 'readability' so probably better to use these if you can't resist the temptation of the internet. good luck.
Good advice!
worried and anxious 
Stage 4 NSCLC with metatasis to brain 
NSCLC EDFR Migration Stage 4 LC at 37.
