Hello Bob and welcome.
Since we have another Bob, maybe I'll call you Scubob.
It helps me to remember the particulars of each person.

BC's seeing the pulmonologist sometime today.
I sure hope he doesn't get anemia. He had a late start with treatment and
had breathing problems long before.
It was found that he had pleural effusions; then after that was drained, he
was diagnosed with COPD and emphysema.
I think he still has little pools of effusions and is on broncodilaters.
He's had quite a rough time of it, I'm sorry to say.

The newsgroup is quiet these days; would you care to try to liven it up?
Perhaps a Roll Call post?
That way you could get to "meet" others and get to know them and perhaps
draw new lurkers in...
I usually tell them to delete what I wrote *in the Roll Call post) and put
their Type/Stage of cancer in the subject line.
Then tell us whatever they wish..treatment updates, family updates; trips;
moves..the good and the bad..

If not, that's okay. Perhaps I'll start one closer to the beginning of next
week
Regards,
J

Bob--

Thanks for that insight on the breathing. I had chemo #5 last Tuesday
Gemzar/Carboplatin. I get the 3-day delayed reaction. So FR/SA/SU the
recoil peaked. Today I'm just short of breath and have a strange pain in
the back of my throat, which I also had after the last chemo.

Now they give me some tablets called EMEND which seem to diminish the
after-effects of the chemo. I'm also getting an injection for anemia
every two weeks. It's Procrit or something similar. I have to check on
that.

Also last week I had another CAT scan. I saw the pulmonologist on Friday.
He had the film even though the radiologist had yet to read it. His take
on the new film was that there very little change from January. Tumor
remains "small" +/- 3.5 cm diameter--no change.

The pleural effusion seems to be slightly smaller than in January--mostly
gathered in the lower cavity--but a small loculated pool higher up.
Opinion remains as in January that thoracentesis is not warranted at this
time.

I had pressed the issue of radio therapy with my medical oncologist last
week, which was why they did another CAT scan now. I haven't seen the
oncologist yet to pursue the radio question further. The CAT scan was
only done on Thursday.

I asked the pulmonologist for his opinion on the matter. He replied,
"tough call." Radio does nothing for the pleural effusion, which
contained malignant cells back in September--the basis of the diagnosis
and staging at IIIB.

What are the chemo/systemic options? Does radio targeting the tumor make
any sense? Which is the larger problem--the pleural effusion--the tumor?
Has there been further metastasis?

More questions than answers.

Thanks again for the earlier feedback. Any further comments/insights
would be welcomed.

Best to all...

bc