Went to Va for primary care visit. His NP (who is a very nice young man) looked over all blood tests and other tests unrelated to lung cancer. Diabetes three month test (A1C) was very good. Thyroid is normal.
He saw no reason no to go ahead with epidural for chronic back pain tomorrow.
September 8, 2007
Husband went for simulation and initial CT scan and placement of marks for radiotion therapy. Took about 45 minutes and will be "tweaked" on next visit after radiology oncologist and his staff - techs, etc. make decisions on treatment length and amount.
Dr. Randall seems very nice, soft spoken, and answering all our questions. He has not received the PET scan yet but looking over the written results and recommendations from the onocologist at the VA hospital he is considering treatments 5 days a week for 7 weeks.
Treatments are...
The Theraplan 3D Conformal Treatment Planning offered by Radiotherapy Associates gives patients the best of cancer control. After the patient undergoes a CAT scan, the anatomical information is entered into a specialized computer. The sophisticated treatment planning computer program helps define the technique for delivering high doses of radiation to the tumor while minimizing the dose to normal surrounding tissue. Your physician’s expertise coupled with advanced computerized 3D technology creates the possibility to control and cure of cancer with amazing accuracy.
Friday he goes for CT scan and "tatooing" where radiation will be administered. Hoping all goes well so he can start treatments next week. Sooner he does - sooner it is GONE!!
August 20 - extensive visit with oncologist to recommend path of treatment.
Paul has cancer in both lungs but oncologist has reason to believe it is two separate cancers - not spread from right to left. Therefore, he is going to start with radiation treatments - every weekday for several weeks to be determined by radiologist oncologist according to size and position of the two masses.
A newer CT scan is scheduled for Thursday and we can only hope nothing has changed. There has been no signs of spreading to any lymphy nodes or organs so far - hoping it stays that way.
More news later.
This journey all started in December, 2006. Paul had surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. Due to that surgery his medication had to be adjusted for his blood pressure several times.
April 18, 2007 - Last time it took him by ambulance to the VA hospital, Syracuse, NY. He had a virus but not serious - just maybe a little dehydrated and dropped his blood pressure dangerously low. In the emergency room they took an xray of his lungs looking for pneumonia. That is the first appearance of a "fuzzy" area in his right lung - so the journey had begun.
May 2, 2007 -needle biopsy of "fuzzy" area (now called a mass) in the upper lobe of his right lung. Inconclusive results due to a partial pneumothorax and doctor could not finish the biopsy. He was in hospital about 3 days with chest tube to reinflate the lung.
May 21, 2007 - CT scan showed mass had grown to about 5 cm. (not sure from what size).
May 31, 2007 - PET scan at North Medical. Results showed mass to light up enough for his pulmonary doctor to request another biopsy.
June 14, 2007 - Second needle biopsy went well but was also inconclusive for cancer.
June 25, 2007 - Dr. Kaul, his wonderful pulmonary doctor, did a bronoscopy on the right lung with positive results for non-small cell squamous cancer. At least we now know what we are dealing with. However, CT scan also showed a small nodule on left lung. The doctor said Paul would need a biopsy to rule out cancer in left lung to have surgery to remove right lobe and right lung cancer.
August 3, 2007 - Needle biopsy on left lung at Upstate Medical Center showed cancer has spread to left from right lung. Therefore, it is in the blood stream and surgery not an option.
August 20, 2007 - Appointment scheduled with Oncology at VA hospital to review and decide on treatment options.
