Hello! I'm new'ish here, well, I set up my a/c and profile when I was first diagnosed on 11 June and had lobectomy via open surgery in July.
The mass was in my right lower lobe and was at stage 1, although the mass was 5-6 cm in size and had not spread.
Reading some experiences on here I have been very lucky with how quick it was dealt with. My emotions were up and down and I just couldn't get over that at the age of 54, I had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
It is now mid March 2021, and I feel I have been very, very fortunate to be honest. After the surgery, I was told by the surgeon he had got all of the mass whilst removing my lower lobe and it had not spread to the lymph nodes, etc. At one point, he thought it was worse when they discussed it in the MDT whilst he showed me the CT scan. When they rang me after the results came back of what it actually was, NSCLC squamous-cell carcinoma. I did not require any further treatment (chemo or radiotherapy). I have slowly got back to a kind of routine, as much as you can during Covid times. I am working part time (3 days a week) and this has helped me so much. I was made redundant a few weeks after my operation and was really down to begin with, then bitter. Now time has passed, I have calmed down and so glad to be doing a less stressful job, part time. My emotions are still a bit all over the place and I feel extremely lucky that I had the best result out of this as I could. I also have survivor guilt, I think that's what its called, and just can not comprehend that this all happened.
I have had my 6 month x-ray and check up (a phone call) and all seems to be still ok. Initially, my lung did not fully re-inflate, however, I put that down to I was so scared to cough (it hurt the surgery area obviously). My surgery scar has healed very well and my husband says he is going to tell anyone who asks, when we eventually go on our holidays, that its a shark bite scar!
I still suffer from a cough, its not too bad at times, but its there. I take antihistamine tablets to ease the coughing, but I'm not sure if they work or not. I didn't want to continue with the cough linctus as I got addicted to co-codamol soon after the surgery and didn't want to get addicted to this too. I have also had several chest infections, but strong antibiotics have helped.
My next check up is in July this year and fingers crossed that its still clear. I have come out of this stronger, although I am still a very sensitive individual, and my husband and daughter have been absolute legends, they have supported and loved me even when I was probably really blooming horrible!!! I have also learned that I have a few really awesome friends and found out who were not really my friends.
I will continue to keep positive and hope that my experience may help anyone who reads this. xxx
