Hi all,
I had appt with consultant yesterday (actually it was Tuesday, as i didn’t post this after i wrote it)
The biopsy confirmed malignancy in my left lung, but they have other analyses still to be done on the sample.
As I said to him my expectations of the consultation were
a) It had all been a mistake and I had nothing wrong with me
or
b) yes it’s what we thought, malignant tumour so need to have surgery asap to remove it.
But he said they had rediscussed me and thought it would be best to treat it with intensive targeted radiotherapy, which they anticipate should get rid of it.
Because I hadn’t known that RT was an option (they’d initially said surgery should be enough and no need for RT or chemo) I hadn’t researched it or prepared any questions to ask.
There is a clear logic to their decision making…..if they surgically remove it, I will have to lose a certain amount of the left lung (they think 3 segments). The mass in my right lung is much larger and centrally located and will necessarily require the removal of a (not small) part of the right lung. So they will have more overall lung capacity to play with (so to speak) if I haven’t already lost part of the left lung. Given that rational I said I could see the sense of it….
So I’ve now been referred to oncologist with appt next Tuesday, to go down that path.
They’ve said they expect RT to zap it successfully….which makes me wonder why they didn’t suggest that, rather than surgery initially…..
Anyway, I am building up my list of questions to ask on Tuesday
thanks for reading this
Hi Rose
I am sorry to hear that your biopsy confirmed cancer.
It is always hard when the treatment that you were expecting changes. It sounds like the proposed radiotherapy will be more effective at dealing with the cancer and it is good that you do not have to wait too long to meet the consultant and get clarification.
Writing a list of questions is a good plan and one that I did myself on several occasions. I find that then they focus on the things that are important to you rather than what they think you may want to know. I remember taking a list with me to my radiotherapy consents appointment and it only took a few moments to go through them one by one. The consultant was happy to answer them and then reverted to other things that needed to be discussed.
I hope that Tuesday goes well for you but in the meantime if you feel like talking things through would help then please do give the Support Line a call. They are there from 8am-8pm daily.
Jane
