I got some very scary news yesterday

[tomm2thumbs]

14. just some thoughts

My dad also died of lung cancer some years ago. So when more recently my mom was found to have it, I was freaking out. However, things have changed, even year to year, and they did the biopsy, went in to operate, removed a section of the lung (without even going through the ribcage) and removed the problem area. She stayed overnight and was home the next day. (Her hospital roommate had a more serious issue an had one of her entire lungs removed and was still out in 2 days!) Things have changed tremendously and you just need to be confident that finding it and dealing with it is what you need to focus on and not circling the what-ifs. Until you know, you don't know. Currently my mom is still doing well and about to turn 80. Doctors keep seeing her and kicking her back out every 6 months -- nothing new to report on her check-ups.

So although every case is different, I just wanted to let you know that things today are sooooo different than even 1, 2, or even 5 years ago. My only advice for now is that you should try and make sure to have a friend/advocate with you at all times possible just help ask questions, keep notes on the to-do's and information that may just pass you by with all the stress of everything happening at once. Hopefully you have family for this, but friends are just as good. Our doctor let us record everything on tape so we could revisit it later if we had questions. Made things a lot less stressful.

I hope for you the best of what comes, but definitely keep your wits about you and remember it is a new world as far as medicine is concerned. << big huggs >> and keep a journal if nothing else.... keeps the brain from locking it all inside and lets you vent and keep notes about every little thing that comes along.