During my consultation with the surgeon on my partner's birthday, 30th October, I was informed that the PET scan had shown metastases in the lung and liver areas, so surgery for me was no longer an option. I suppose I should have been disappointed at the news, but to be honest, all I felt was relief that I was not going to have the threatened urostomy and vulvectomy. I had been preparing myself to have this radical surgery on my own birthday, 3rd November, and was really not looking forward to yet another long stay in hospital followed by a long convalescence.
Apparently the only treatment now open to me is chemotherapy, as I had the maximum dose of radiotherapy back in 2004/2005 when I was first diagnosed. I have an appointment with the oncologist (is that what you call the doctor who deals with chemotherapy?) on 13th November, but the surgeon seemed to think I may just have tablets to take at home, and he didn't think I would lose my hair. I asked whether my cancer could still be regarded as curable, and he said one couldn't talk about cures with reference to cancer, but we could hope I would go into remission.
I am compiling a list of questions for the oncologist, amongst which is a request for some idea as to the time I may have left. I realise they can never predict, but I have a lot of affairs to put in order, not least of which is the need to marry my partner so he can inherit part of my house without paying inheritance tax and can also access my teacher's pension as a widower. I want to look into taking early retirement on the grounds of ill health as well, which requires my translating a form into French for the doctor to complete then back into English so the decision panel can understand it, so I am not going to have any time to get bored!! You see, there are disadvantages to being a patient of the best health service in the world, leastwise if one is not a native French speaker!
In myself I still feel quite well, so am expecting the chemo to make me feel iller than I am at present. I will post more about it when I know what they are going to give me. Something which puzzles me a little is that I have read that the secondaries are treated with the same chemo as was used for the primary. But surely, if the primary has developed into secondaries, that chemo was not particularly effective?!! Ah well, we shall see!
FormerMember
Bon chance, Debbie. You've come this far so my advice to you is to retire from work ASAP, marry your lovely man and enjoy life. I've got this theory that the happier you are, the longer you keep the cancer at bay. Well anyway, that's my philosophy and I'm sticking to it!
Am not sure if Ihad the same type of lung cancer as you or not the name seems familiar. I had secondary cancer in the adrenal gland and it was treated with the same chemo which was the strongest I could have unfortunately this time round I had bad side effects so had to have a less strong one and then an operation to remove it . I also developed three months after the operation a small tumor on the other adrenal gland which has now been successfully treated with radio therapy. I asked about why it came back and apparently it is a very aggresive cancer and also befor you have the treatment it probably has already put down seeds which are too small for the scans to pick up until they deceide to grow. I hope everything goes well for you. x
