fionab
New User
Joined: 29 Feb 2008
Posts: 1
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 Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:47 pm Post subject: My dad has reached 10 month diag with SCLC |
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Hi all, I am new and was browsing this site looking for answers.
My dad is 63 [has smoked for 50+ years of his life] and was diagnosed with Limited SCLC on 26 April 2007. Underwent 6 sessions of chemo [1 week on 3 weeks off] starting on 16 May and which seemed to go quite well. Obviously all the side effects, hair loss, nausea, loads of weight loss, loss of appetite etc. The doctors then did 2 weeks of radiation to his lung - his tumour was the size of a man's hand and situated in his right lung pushing on his trachea. When diagnosed they gave him 6 - 8 weeks without treatment, but with treatment they could not say. They never want to say anything which is so frustrating.
Anyhow he finished chemo on 5 September 2007 and started 2 weeks of radiation on 24 October, finishing 2 November ... the doctors were happy and said that they wanted a follow up on 18 December which I took him to. He had had an x-ray and they wanted to give the results. Seemed like good news as the radiologists report said 'no sign of a lesion' ...
Everyone was over the moon, but I had done so much research on SCLC and knew how aggressive this form of cancer was, so I was quite subdued after the news. My dad wanted to celebrate.
Anyway the Oncologist said she only wanted to see him in March 2008.
At the 18 December appointment he mentioned to her that he had some discomfort in his abdomen - he wasn't eating and not drinking enough liquid either so we thought it had something to do with that. He grinned and bared it but eventually went to see his local GP who after examination, said that he wanted my dad to go for an ultrasound as he had 'felt something' around his liver or kidneys.
My dad eventually went for the ultrasound, the GP called to say that he wanted my dad to go back to the Oncologist. Saw the Oncologist on 15 January 2008, and she requested that he go for a CT scan of his chest and abdomen which he did the next day, and then saw her again on the 17 January where she confirmed that the tumour had reappeared in his lung, but had started spreading to his lymph nodes around the liver and kidneys. This was a huge shock for us all, and especially for my dad who had been so elated after seeing/hearing that the tumour had reduced.
She did mention further treatment but suggested that my dad think about things and discuss them with us all and that he should think about 'quality of life' as opposed to 'quantity of life'. She gave him the weekend to think about it and asked him to call her on the Monday.
My dad sat us down that afternoon [my mom, my brother, me and my husband] and told us that he did not believe he was strong enough to go for 2nd round chemo - he is a 6ft4 man who, before getting sick was weighing about 90-odd kilograms, but had been reduced to 69kg.
He said that he did not want to put us through further trauma, seeing him getting sicker and sicker. We all said that we would accept his decision.
I thought about things and called my dad on the Monday morning [21 Jan] and told him that I believed he should give further treatment a go - he did that in 2007 after being diagnosed and it had given him a further 9 months with us all, and perhaps it would be the same. I said that giving up was not the solution as then we may as well give up the day we are born as we all know we are going to die sometime, its just sad that he has been told it will be sooner than we thought. We had a lovely chat about it all and he told me that he agreed with everything I had said and that he would give it some thought and before he calls the doctor he will let me know his decision.
He called me the following morning to say that he had decided to go for treatment. I was over the moon.
He started treatment on 5 February - this 2nd round chemo we understand is quite hectic - he had to see a Cardiologist to make sure his heart was up for it.
He started feeling quite ill the following day and it has just got worse. He was in hospital for 3 days on 14 February as his white blood count dropped so badly and his blood pressure shot up to over 190 over something.
He was supposed to go for his 2nd chemo session on 19 Feb but because of the low blood count they postponed it to 26 Feb, but he felt that he wasn't up for it so it due to go this Tuesday 4 Feb.
I don't know how soon it is going to happen - I have been reading loads of the posts in here, and I know that 12 months is pretty much tops? If he makes it to the 26 of March, then he will have been here 11 months after diagnosis.
We didn't think he would be here for Christmas let alone my wedding on 29 December, but he was here, frail and in pain but he was here so everyday is an added bonus.
If there is anyone out there who can shed some light on things I would be most grateful.
I am trying so hard to be strong and positive for my mom and my brother but inside I am breaking as I cannot believe that this is happening to our family, let alone MY dad. His dad lived into his 80's and his mom is now 94 and still going strong, so we didn't think my dad would die in his 60's.
It just seems that Cancer is becoming more and more prominent and every person I speak to knows of somebody else that has had it.
On my dad's last day of chemo, 5 Sept 2007 I found out that my husband's aunt in the UK had that day been diagnosed with EXACTLY the same ... SCLC also in her right lung, but that it was already in her liver. The doctors told her that she was too weak for treatment and that as it was already in her liver there wasn't any more they could do for her. She died 4 weeks to the day on 4 October 2007.
I cannot understand that people are able to buy cigarettes over the counter which seem to do more damage and kill more people than what the hard drugs [cocaine and heroine] do ... so why is it allowed.
I am really struggling with this but out of everything, all I want is for my dad's remaining time with us to be painless.
He has started talking about funerals, what he wants done with his ashes, telling my mom that he believes he doesn't have much time left ...
He is walking with a stick now and I cannot believe how thin he is - I cannot believe that he can get any thinner.
The doctors I am sure know more than they let on - I know that they cannot give us a DAY or a TIME - that I understand but surely they can say 'the time is near' or something????? |
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pbj11
Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 1301
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| Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:44 am Post subject: Re: My dad has reached 10 month diag with SCLC |
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Hi,
I'm very sorry to hear of yet another sad story of lung cancer. My heart goes out to you. Once LD-SCLC reoccurs, it is ED-SCLC and there is no cure. It is similar to my late husband's Stage IV NSCLC diagnosis, we knew there was no cure, but we were trying to buy time.
The only thing that matters at this point is that the person being treated is the one making the decision for treatment. If this is too hard on your Dad, he may wish to stop treatment. Don't get me wrong, my own husband did every imaginable treatment, but ultimately his body was too worn out and he died from heart/lung complications related to the lung cancer. He was still taking treatment.
Spend quality time with your Dad and let him guide you as to how well he is feeling for visits.
There is no real answer for time. Only God knows when our time here is over. I know there are some physical symptoms to look for, but having my husband go downhill so rapidly, I really don't know what all of them are. The one thing I do know is weight gain is a good sign, weight loss is not. My husband stopped weighing himself about a month before he died, because we knew it was obviously going down fast.
I'm sure other's will post as to what signs to look for.
May God bless you and your family on this difficult journey,
PBJ
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Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.
Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 |
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