Friends and Family,
We just got the test results, and they are not at all what we had hoped. My surgeon just called and informed me that I have another form of lung cancer.
This is a different lung cancer than I had removed 4 years and 10 months ago. My surgeon is at a complete loss to explain how a non-smoker can end up with two different types of lung cancer.
The cancer is spread out evenly in small dots throughout all four remaining lobes of my lungs. Because there are no healthy lobes, surgery is not an option. From what I understand from what the surgeon told me, and from doing some of my own research, treatment for Stage IV is used to extend life, but is not expected to be a cure.
We won't know any more until we meet with the oncologist, and we won't know when that will happen until he returns from vacation on Thursday and sees when he can fit us in. I am also going to be scheduled for a brain scan, since the brain is the first place that lung cancer will usually spread.
I know of two people that have completely beaten Stage IV cancer. I don't know if I will be the third, but I do know that I will give it everything I've got. I beat Stage III, which is about the best preparation anybody can get for beating Stage IV. I will continue going to the gym, climbing stairs, walking (sometimes with golf clubs in my hands), eating healthy, and anything else that I can think of to beat this. I will also do everything I can to enjoy life with Genevieve, since we don't know how long we will have together.
There are two things that I want to ask of you that I found very helpful the last time I went through this. The first is to send your prayers/positive energy my way. The second is to offer encouragement rather than sympathy. Sympathy = giving up: Encouragement = hope, and energy to fight.
More news will follow as soon as we know more.
Love to you all.
Dann
We just got the test results, and they are not at all what we had hoped. My surgeon just called and informed me that I have another form of lung cancer.
This is a different lung cancer than I had removed 4 years and 10 months ago. My surgeon is at a complete loss to explain how a non-smoker can end up with two different types of lung cancer.
The cancer is spread out evenly in small dots throughout all four remaining lobes of my lungs. Because there are no healthy lobes, surgery is not an option. From what I understand from what the surgeon told me, and from doing some of my own research, treatment for Stage IV is used to extend life, but is not expected to be a cure.
We won't know any more until we meet with the oncologist, and we won't know when that will happen until he returns from vacation on Thursday and sees when he can fit us in. I am also going to be scheduled for a brain scan, since the brain is the first place that lung cancer will usually spread.
I know of two people that have completely beaten Stage IV cancer. I don't know if I will be the third, but I do know that I will give it everything I've got. I beat Stage III, which is about the best preparation anybody can get for beating Stage IV. I will continue going to the gym, climbing stairs, walking (sometimes with golf clubs in my hands), eating healthy, and anything else that I can think of to beat this. I will also do everything I can to enjoy life with Genevieve, since we don't know how long we will have together.
There are two things that I want to ask of you that I found very helpful the last time I went through this. The first is to send your prayers/positive energy my way. The second is to offer encouragement rather than sympathy. Sympathy = giving up: Encouragement = hope, and energy to fight.
More news will follow as soon as we know more.
Love to you all.
Dann