GranEM

GranEM, had to stop by after seeing your post regarding ports. I too have had my port almost three years having elected to keep it in because of the high rate of recurrance for my stage cancer. I hope we can both celebrate the removal of our ports in 2018. Take care.

Read your answer about the port and had to tell you, I too have elected to keep my port in , for the just in case. Have had mine in 3 years in Sept. and have the five year plan also. Hoping we can both celebrate in two years. Take care.

When the heck will I learn to look around before I start talking. I don't know what's going on and it's 330 am and I am dozing off. I will try to read more before I say much else but till then, please ignore my previous post, the one below this one. Just ignore!

XoxoX

Hey you! I know I haven't been on in a while, I since I am here is HAD to grab my purple crayons and write Hill Hon! How you doing? Happy 5 years! ! FIVE! WooHoo! I hope you partied and had a great time!

I quit smoking just as easily last time! Bugs the poo outta me that I didn't do it when my little girl asked! Makes me wonder if she ever would have started.

Anyway, I just wanted to say Hiya!! XoxoX

Your post about what your son said to you is heartbreaking. Not enough expletives for this stuff. Love, Chris

Hi, I'm sorta tired of the tirade in the question area but I wanted to tell you something you may or may not know. There are still raging medical battles over how or whether to use information gathered by Nazis. This includes use in the US & Canada and by the government as well as private parties. One of the sulfa drug experiments the Nazis performed has resulted in new sulfa based drugs which are in use today.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/naziexp.html

My real concern is that forgiving this type of treatment (a simple taking without asking) simply allows that sort of behavior to be repeated. At the time of her illness, Mrs Lacks could only be treated at a hospital which would treat a dark skinned person. There is question as to whether a white person would have received better or different care or have been asked about tissue removal before it was done.

Please look up the Tuskeegee Airmen who were,similarly, experimented upon without their knowledge. Im sure medicine furthered its knowledge but it did so without asking the men to volunteer to be subjects.

The U. S. military sprayed the San Francisco area (1970s) with hepatitis. The breast cancer immunized woman was Caucasian.

I just want, believe it is only fair and moral, to ask permission and to tell the truth about possibilities. If we do not insist upon this respect for individual rights, have we really come far at all from human sacrifice?

Have a great night & best wishes for recovered good health

Hi GrnEM. I'm glad your here. I have had radiation in the past and have been on chemo now for several years. I wish you the best. Let us know how we can help.

Hi GranEM,

Here is my story to give you hope.

https://www.whatnext.com/blog/posts/from-a-devastating-diagnosis-in-his-20s-to-23-years-of-surviving-and-thriving

Laughing my buns off at you running with crayons!!! Just don't run with scissors! I just noticed that you are in Spotswood, NJ!!! I grew up in EB and raised my daughter in No. Bruns. and Milltown! I saw the thread you started (Sorry, I don't see you using your crayons on threads LOL!!) about your doctor telling you that it usually recurs in three years. I think that there is so much info out there that is hard to know what to believe anymore! Aside from all of that is the fact that you are NOT a statistic!! You are Gran EM and you are different than any other lung cancer survivor!! You will create your own set of odds and they will suit you, and ONLY you!!

Being that I am out in PA now, 45 minutes outside of Philly, I don't know if I am still allowed to say this, but as long as I am saying to a Jersey girl, I thinkk I am OK.

When it comes to ANY of the numbers out there Fugetaboutit!!

I know it's hard. I am going for my long day Thursday. Lab work, CT scan, 2 hour wait so somebody can go over the scan and send my doc a preliminary report, see the resident and then the doc. It may or may not be the same resident or doc as last time. There are two medical oncologists on my team and the residents usually do a six month rotation in thoracic cancer before moving on.

When this all started I was going for this "long day" every 3 months. After 3 years it went to six and if all goes well next week at my 4 year scan (four years since my surgery a/k/a when I became cancer free!!) I will "graduate" to annual scans. In my eyes the longer it is between scans & visits the better the doctors feel about leaving you alone to live your life and not have it constantly interrupted by scans and the nerves that come with them. It's GOOD NEWS!!

It's even been a little scary just waiting 6 months between scans. It feels like we are giving things too long to grow if something does come back, but it CAN happen!! You CAN survive DECADES after going through a bout with lung cancer!! My buddy went through his bout 9 years before me and unless you see his scar when he's in the pool or something ~ you would NEVER guess he was a survivor!! He actually had the exact same Med Onc. and Surgeon that I had!! He TOLD me that I was going to Fox Chace Cancer Center in Philly even if he had to come to Jersey and TAKE me there LOL!!! He's a great friend!!

I hope you find a doctor that you can deal with soon. You have to be able to trust these people. You have to be able to trust them with your LIFE!! It's important to feel good about that!

Be well,
XoxoX
Mary

Sorry GranEM, I just saw your post on my experience!!

Thanks so much for your comment and congrats on coming up on 4 years!! I actually quit when I felt sure that the call was coming, which is also the date I use as the Dx. The Pulmonologist I went to for the biopsy had a bitch of a nurse who actually refused to let me know that she had the reports because I had called too many times in the week plus that went by between the actual procedure and when I found out ~ which I actually got from my Primary cuz the B*tch told me ... and I quote ~ If you are in such a PLEEB hurry call the BLEEP hospital cuz it ain't my BLEEP fault that they have not given me the BLEEP report yet!!!

I called the hospital and they said that the report had been faxed 3 hours earlier. I had her refax to my PCP and he called me within minutes and he was choked up to tell me even tho we probably only met 3 times... about the same number as this witch and I!

WOW, I just made myself cry.

Anyway, I think it was around the day of the biopsy that I use as the Dx. day as it was the quit day. I was online (again!!) searching for info on lung cancer and everything I read said ~ if the patient is otherwise healthy and a non-smoker, surgery may save them. OK, sorry, paraphrasing, but you get it. I saw myself reaching to light up and actually yelled at myself out loud!! What the ___ is wrong with me?? I am reading the same thing, page after page, and about to light up??? So I took my cigs and put them 5 feet away. I was only allowed to smoke in the garage cuz my hubby didn't want me stinking up the house 0_o
Those 5 feet were enough! Every time I reached for a smoke I reminded myself why I had moved them across the room. It worked!

Why didn't I quit all those times my daughter asked me to? If I had, would she have not started? Will her daughter be able to convince her when I can't ~ even after all this? Who knows. I can only hope!

We still need to remind the world that Non & Ex smokers also get lung cancer and no one is immune and everyone needs to look for it!!

Be well!!
XoxoX
Mary

I tried to reply there and it won't post, so I am trying here ~ sorry!

Hi GranEM! Welcome to WhatNext! We are really glad to have you here. From your journey, it looks like you will be an encouragement to those of us facing later stage lung cancer. That's fantastic! Please let us know if we can be of any help and we look forward to hearing more from you!

Hello and welcome, we are happy to have you with us. Please feel free to join in the conversations. Here is a link to our cancer dx page for your type of cancer. Take a look at it to get you started on some information. You will notice at the bottom of that page 4 of our active users who have had that journey already, you may wish to contact them for their experience and wisdom. Also, I encourage you to go to the questions page now by clicking on the questions tab at the top of the page and post what is the most pressing issue you have right now. This will introduce you to the community and get you started on the help you need right now.

https://www.whatnext.com/conditions/cancer/lung-cancer

There are also subtypes listed on this page to narrow down the type of cancer to match your dx.

Also, if you can take a few minutes and fill in some details of your journey so far, it will help others as they try to answer questions for you, it also helps others as they search through the data base to find someone like themselves. Confirming your email will allow you to receive updates and notices from the site when someone answers your questions or writes on your wall.

Thanks for being with us and let me know if I can help you find any information on the site. After you have an opportunity to look the site over and see what great things there are here, we encourage you to invite your friends, family or anyone you know that may be helped by the connections on WhatNext to join the site also. Just click this link to invite them to join. http://www.whatnext.com/recruit-a-friend

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GregP 3X Survivor
WhatNext Community Mgr.

Welcome to the WhatNext family! The WhatNext family is made up of people like you who are looking for help or looking to help others. To help you along your journey the WhatNext family has put together a Beginner's Guide to Cancer that I highly recommend you check-out here: http://bit.ly/10BQKCi. Also, please do not hesitate to reach out to others or ask for help.

Wishing you the best.

David
Founder, WhatNexter