Tuesday, June 22, 2010

My New Favorite "L" Word


I decided to add a nice double rainbow here today because, rainbows are a sign of hope and I got a bunch of that today!
So, today I went to see the radiologist. I really didn't expect much because I didn't think he'd have the test results he needed to help me figure out what's next. Turns out I was wrong. I need to back up a minute or month or so and explain that the kind of cancer I have ( small cell lung cancer) isn't "staged" like other cancers...of course it isn't, I have it don't I? Most cancers are staged from 1-4, 1 being very treatable and 4 being not so good. Well my cancer only has two stages, limited and extensive. Limited meaning the cancer cells have stayed where they started and not messed with anything else and extensive being they all got on the train and took a ride around your body. The bone scan I had yesterday was to see if we had any rail riders in our midst and I found out today I DON'T. This means my small cell cancer is LIMITED and this is a very good thing.
The only kind of "down " thing that I learned is that this tumor is very big, something like 11 inches long and about 2 inches wide so they want to do more chemo to shrink it as much as possible before they start zapping it with radiation. I was told that radiation can't differentiate between good and bad cells and they'll have to "zap" some lung to get to the tumor so the smaller the tumor the less lung tissue I end up losing. Works for me.
So I will do another round of chemo and then some scans and then we'll start radiation in July, 5 days a week for 6 weeks. I'll have chemo at that time too. ( Make note I may be crankier than usual at this time).
I'm very glad to finally have to answers to the questions I've been waiting for and I have to believe that all of your good karma and prayer and positive thinking helped make this journey this far. So thanks for helping me work on kicking some cancer butt !
Coming soon, the nutrition speech , hopefully a pic of my new favorite t-shirt and who knows what else :)

6 comments:

Fred said...

That is positive news, will be praying that it shrinks away.

Landra said...

It's about time you got some good news! I know it ain't going to be easy, but I feel deep down that you're going to beat this thing!

Anonymous said...

Have you named the miserable growth? I think a pageant name is appropriate. Let's think here. Hmmm.

So glad to read this. I'm a believer!

Sue said...

We could have a name the tumor contest and then make t-shirts "kill ( insert tumor name here ) " or if we wanted to be PC "shrink...". If it was a pageant name it would have to have 3 names :)

~~Sew Happy Designs~~ said...

Awesome news for sure!
Blessings and sunshiney thoughts~
Cindy

Barbara Backus said...

I'm glad to hear that the news is good. I know from experience that a positive attitude and a sense of humor can be pals during a time like this. My good thougths are with you, Sue.