Surgery and chemo

Hi Lezel
I had my operation (open surgery on removal of left lower lung and a section of top left lung) in July last year and it wasn't until October that my oncologist suggested chemo, he recommended 4 cycles but unfortunately I only had 3 cycles and he suggested I should stop the chemo as it was giving me more bother than doing good! I.E. I had 2 one week stays in hospital due to infections.
I have yet to speak/see my oncologist to see how well the lung is.

Hello Lezel, I had this after surgery in 2014. Here's a response I posted to the same question from another menber some time ago which I hope is helpful. 

I was in exactly the same position in 2014 following surgery to remove my right lung and at the time it was a bit of a shock as nobody had mentioned chemo before. My oncologist explained that this treatment is recommended based on numerous factors including staging and examination by pathology of tissue removed during surgery. I was told that, although surgery is by far the best treatment for a cure, there can be a further 5 percentage points added to survival rates by chemo. 

I thought about it very carefully and decided that, after all I'd been through so far, I wanted to take all available chances to increase my prospects of survival. I also thought that, if I declined and the cancer returns somethime in the future, I didn't want to also face the regret of not having chemo when it was too late to go back.

Chemo isn't nice but I found it doable and it's a long distant memory now. I also considered at the time that it's not compulsory and if at any time after I started it I could stop if it turned out to be really bad or I couldn't tolerate it. I don't have any regrets at all but it's a personal decision each of us must take supported by family as necessary. Unfortunately the treatment should start relatively soon after surgery which doesn't make things easy when deciding and this was the same for me.

Don't hesitate to come back if you have any further questions, and I hope your treatment is successful.

Thanks for sharing your experience excavator, I was thinking of doing the chemo, I don't know but I expecte it won't be very nice but after what I've been through to get where I am now it could save having a repeat in the future, after all if the doctors recommend it who am I to disagree. Thanks

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Sounds like chemo depends on the individual how their bodies cop with it and you don't know until one tries it. Sounds like you didn't have a good experience with it on top of an already stressful time. Good luck with your upcoming appointment with the oncologist.