I saw an astronaut driving a tractor.

Max · Regular Joined: 30 May 2005 Posts: 25

One day last August while driving to work I began to cough up blood. I drove myself to the local emergency room and admitted myself there. I woke up from a coma 13 days later. The doctors had induced the coma using drugs because I kept trying to pull out the tube from my throat that they installed to keep me alive. It?s called a tracheotomy.

I have absolutely no recollection of anything for 2-weeks but from what I could put together afterwards this is what happened in the 13 days I was in a coma. I was admitted and given a chest x-ray. The x-ray reviled a shadow that warranted a CAT scan. The CAT scan reviled an abnormality, a mass or lump in my chest that warranted a bronchoscopy. The bronchoscopy had complications in that my lung collapsed so they did a tracheotomy and put me on a ventilator. The doctors couldn?t get the bleeding in my lungs to stop and phenomena set in. Then my heart began fibrillation. The doctors (I had 5 of which 2 watched me 24/7) had reached into their black bag of tricks as far as they could go and I was not expected to live. The lump turned out to be NSCLC and I was staged at 3-A. Because of the tumors size it was non-operational.

I was in intensive care that whole time which is not cheap, as you may very well imagine. The hospital bill came to $256,225.22. After months of radiation and chemotherapy my tumor shrunk from 5cm to 1.2cm, which made me a candidate for surgery. I had the surgery last February (tag on about another $150,000) the surgery is considered ?Curative? which doesn?t mean I?m cured, just that I have a chance of becoming cured if the cancer doesn?t come back. I?m in remission and the pathologist review of the lower right lobe, which was removed, showed all 0/6 limp nodes tested negative for cancer. I guess I?m lucky in a rather mind boggling sort of way.

Note: When checking into a hospital for anything be sure to finish your coffee and say your prayers or do whatever it is you would like to do because you never know if it may be your last time to do so. I was given a tracheotomy and hadn?t had a drink of anything liquid for 2-weeks. Needless to say that when I was finely brought out of the coma I would have killed for a drink of water, I was pretty thirsty.

When I left the hospital I started taking Celebrex 200mg 3 times a day after reading numerous medical conclusions that Celecoxib appears to induce apoptosis (A fancy medical term used to describe cell death) in human NSCLC. If you have cancer or know someone who has it get your hands on as much Celebrex as you can afford. I asked my oncologist for Celebrex and he told me he doesn?t prescribe experimental medicine. So I said my arthritis was acting up and he said ?well I can prescribe it for that as long as we understand it?s not to be used to treat the cancer? hehe RRRIIIGGGHHTTT?..

Celebrex is nothing more then aspirin with some very unique properties. IT HELPS KILL CANCER! Cancer is a strange sort of cell that doesn?t die like ordinary cells. It also releases enzymes, which create new blood vessels to promote its growth (angiogenesis), and spreads to other part of the body. Experiments show Celebrex plugs into a keyhole of cancer cells and triggers the cells death because NSCLC has an over expression of COX-2 and Celebrex is a COX-2 inhibitor. It also blocks the enzymes which cancer uses to grow new blood vessels. Celebrex is still experiential and isn?t without risk but when it comes to NSCLC I?m willing to take that risk.

Celebrex can be taken to prevent the reoccurrence of cancer and keep it from coming back.

Please reply to my post even just to say hello and l'll tell you the astronaut on a tractor story.

[url]http://jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/jnci;94/23/1745?fulltext=celebrex&searchid=QID_NOT_SET[/url]

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Max Crawdad

korusgirl · Regular Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 26

Hi Max,
R U out there?
I have just been diagnosed with a 2cm lesion which activated and lit up in a Pet Scan last Friday.
Sooooo, not being informed on anything at all at this point, (I go to a chest surgeon next Monday) pleeeeze
tell me more about Celebrex. i.e. where did you come upon this information and are they actually performing trials with it to help in lung cancer\?
Thank you and Be Well!
Joyce Upstate NY

Max · Regular Joined: 30 May 2005 Posts: 25

Hi Joyce,

I learned of Celebrex by searching the web using Yahoo and other search engines where I found out about http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/types/lung There are many studies which have concluded that Celebrex can be use to fight and prevent lung cancer in humans. However Celebrex is still considered experimental for use in fighting lung cancer.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has suspended the use of COX-2 inhibitor Celecoxib (Celebrex? Pfizer, Inc.) for all participants in a large colorectal cancer prevention clinical trial conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The study, called the Adenoma Prevention with Celecoxib (APC) trial, was stopped because analysis by an independent Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) showed a 2.5-fold increased risk of major fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events for participants taking the drug compared to those on a placebo.

As I stated, there may be some risk with taking Celebrex however I personally believe Celebrex saved my life and I?m willing to take the associated risks. I believed Celebrex helped shrink my tumor to the point where I became eligible for curative surgery and I don?t even want to think of what my chances would be without the surgery.

I will continue to take Celebrex for the rest of my life or until studies prove conclusively that there is no benefit for me to take it any longer. Only time will tell if I?m right or wrong.

Thanks for stopping by to say hello.

Max

P.S.

I have had numerous CAT scans. 2 PET scans. 33 radiation treatments (they tattoo you to line you up on the machine). Chemotherapy every week for 8 weeks, Countless blood tests and finely surgery to remove my lower right lobe. I Never lost a single hair and gained 20 lbs.

Never let your doctors see any signs of weakness, always be strong. If the doctors see weakness the let up on your treatment and that?s bad. Stay active. I took up golfing and I went golfing 3 to 4 times a week. Tennis will work just as nice too, be active everyday.

My advice to you would to be getting some Celebrex and start pounding down the protein. Prime Rib for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Find foods you like and eat them to excess like eat lobster at least once or twice a week. The more protein you eat and the more weigh you pack on the better. You can impress your doctors by stealing food from the oncologists break room. I used to have fun talking about food in the chemo ward and watching the others cancer patents get dry heaves and turn 11 shades of green.

korusgirl · Regular Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 26

I like your spirit!
I like your attitude!
and your Harrruuummmpph!
and lastly I love your Hutzpah! ( not sure of the spelling, but you know what I mean)
I had a cousin, more like a brother to me, who went through, what I have thought my whole life to be the absolute worst medical nightmares anyone on this planet had ever experienced. A year in Mt. Sinai after being transferred there from the local hospital, and then years of rehab. But you Max, certainly are neck and neck with him in your experiences! I am so very glad you are doing well and youo will be in my prayers, I promise!
Thank you for the info fon exercise, activity and nutrition as well as data on Celebrex.
In my entire life, I have eaten so little meat its unbelievable. Just never liked it .... but I guess that is gonna change. Is protein good for fighting cancer? I am assuming sugar and carbs are bad because these items or glucoselike substance is used in the Pet Scan to pick up cancerous cells gobbling up the sugar. AM I correct in thinking this way?
And lastly, Max, have you ever used selenium? I have read on the net that 1000mg. each day is also good for lung cancer. My friends husband has had Non Hodgkins Lymphoma for four years and it still has not entered his blood. He takes lots of vitamins, shark cartilege, etc. but he swears by NONONONO tea. Have you any experience with that?
Thanks again and I hope I am not asking too many questions of you, but I feel like I know next to nothing scared to death, and somehow I am going to a chest surgeon on Monday for what, I really don't know. I*'m in a daze.
Joyce from Upstate NY.

korusgirl · Regular Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 26

Please write about that experience, Max.
Joyce Korus
Upstate NY

Max · Regular Joined: 30 May 2005 Posts: 25

Greetings Joyce,

I?m glad to hear you?re going to see your surgeon next Monday. Being a candidate of surgery is very important because chemotherapy is not curative and radiation?s cure rate is very low, surgery?s cure rate is extremely high by comparison. Ask him what his survival rate is (mine surgeons was 99/100) and if you?re a candidate for curative surgery. It sounds like you are. My surgery was considered curative.

I have not heard of selenium before but I have heard of people taking vitamin E to help fight and prevent cancer. I did a search of selenium [url]http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/4_20.htm[/url] and this article seem to reach the conclusion that selenium and vitamin E are both able to prevent prostate cancer but had no more benefit over the placebo in fighting or preventing lung cancer.

I should point out the placebo has a 10% cancer cure rate. So even if Celebrex doesn?t do anything it still can prevent the cancer from coming back as long as I believe it will, which I do.

Surgery was a piece of cake. It only took an hour and I was up and about that day. Coughing hurt a lot. It?s important to get up and start ventilation. Find something to do to promote deep breathing. Take up anything that will get your breathing rate up, anything is better then nothing. Like I said, I golf, which works real good for as a breathing therapy but it don?t really mater what you do, just do something you enjoy.

Oh, and go buy yourself a Harley too.

[url]http://www.buffaloharley.com/[/url]

P.S.

Be careful not to step on your bladder catheter line. That hurts a lot too. The Chinese have a word for this, it?s ?YEHOWWW!!? Spelled with all capital letters and double exclamation points. It will defiantly make your eyes bug out.

SGrrrl · New User Joined: 16 May 2005 Posts: 4 Location: USA

Dumb question perhaps Max but I am living in Canada...........and your hospital bill is very frightening.

How on earth does one cope with the illness and then the stress from such payments in America?

Our health care is for the most part covered up here, although a recent decision to overturn a case by the supreme court has opened us up to a two tier system so I hear stories such as yours and I cannot understand how you all deal with that on top of being ill.

How on earth does someone even pay such bills? Crying or Very sad

Max · Regular Joined: 30 May 2005 Posts: 25

I didn't receive an invoice before entering the hospital and I?m glad I didn?t because I might not have gone into the hospital if I did. Looking back I?m glad I did and I would do it again even if they had told me it would cost a million. If I hadn?t gone into the hospital when I did I wouldn?t be alive today. I wouldn?t be writing to you right now. I?m only 47 and I want to live at any cost!

Today I had great fun; I went to the practice round of golf at the US Open in Pinehurst NC. Tomorrow morning I?m going golfing with some new friends and then I?m going to tear up the town riding around on my Harley and next week I close on a house. My advice is to screw the costs, live for today and be happy.

I ran into Tiger Woods last week at the Moore County Airport. It seems he likes to come to Pinehurst on Sunday evenings while no one is around to see him arrive. I was there trying to steal a Skyhawk but after I saw his Cessna Citation I got to thinking that maybe I'm not setting my sights high enough.

Being the only one at the airport at 8 o'clock at night I guess he thought I worked there so he rode up to me in his golf cart (with his new wife) and asked me where his car was parked. I pointed out were the rental car parking lot was and said to him that if he left me with the keys to his jet that I would be happy to park it for him (of course I didn?t mention which country I planned to park it in). I think he figured out I didn?t work there and rode off without saying another word.

Because I was working at the time I was stricken I was eligible for Medical, which picked up the entire tab (around $400,000). I also became eligible for California Disability, which paid $730 a week. I guess now you can see why California is going broke.

I applied for everything (and I mean everything!!) I could when I got out of the hospital including Social Security. My Disability Social Security was awarded almost imminently which made me eligible for my pension, which was also awarded. I?m now 47 and retired with an income of $30,000 a year, at least temporarily. I?m scheduled to be re-evaluated in Jan-2008 at which time I hopefully will be cured and have to return back to work.

Piss and run, life is fun.

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leo · Site Admin Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 1574

Dear Max and others,

While Celebrex and drugs in that class have been shown in vitro to have an effect on some types of cancer, there is no definite evidence that it helps, and it is not being used clinically for that purpose. In addition, as you have seen, drugs in that class have been taken off the market due to concerns about strokes and heart attacks. So talk to your doctor about this before using these drugs indefinitely. These drugs are not risk-free. In Medicine, we are taught first the "do no harm" rule, so our duty is to protect the patients.

best regards,
Leo
_________________
Leonardo F - Webmaster Cancer Forums
Disclaimer: this information is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice.

Max · Regular Joined: 30 May 2005 Posts: 25

It's true that Celebrex more than doubled - and sometimes more than tripled -- heart deaths, heart attacks, and strokes in people enrolled in a [xxxxx] study, research shows. Dec. 17, 2004 -

You can read more about it here at WebMD

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/98/104848.htm?z=1728_00000_1000_tn_01

However, to say that drugs like Celebrex have not been use successfully to treat people with cancer may not be entirely correct.

You can read more about this at CureToday.com

http://www.curetoday.com/backissues/v1n3/department/earlydetection/

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leo · Site Admin Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 1574

Dear Max,

What I meant was that we as physicians are not recommending it yet. As the article correctly mentioned:

[quote] ?It?s still preliminary?? Dr. Altorki explains. ?But the results have been very encouraging.?[/quote]

So we can not prescribe COX-2 inhibitors to prevent or treat cancer before we have clinical trial evidence that it is more beneficial than harmful. I am aware of all the experimental evidence out there, but to take from the research setting to the general public it is a huge deal.

best regards,
Leo
_________________
Leonardo F - Webmaster Cancer Forums
Disclaimer: this information is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice.

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