I posted a couple of weeks ago about my Mom's stage 4 lung cancer
diagnosis. She's been in terrible pain for about 3 months now. 2 weeks
ago she was told the diagnosis after a week's worth of testing. An
oncologist (first time we'd seen one all week) came in at 8am that
morning and gave mom and I the bad news. By 1pm, she was discharged with
a morphine prescription. The Oncologist at the hospital said she had a
median life expectancy of 1 year. Which, basically means nothing IMO.

As soon as we got home I called Fox Chase Cancer Center (we're fortunate
to be so close, only a 15 minute drive from my Mom's house) and started
the ball rolling on getting her a 2nd opinion and treatment (if
possible) there. The Oncologist at the hospital she was diagnosed at
basically said the next step was a pet scan and that there wasn't much
they could do for her.

Yesterday was, finally, her first appointment at Fox Chase. Whenever my
mother sits in a regular/hard chair (like the kind in waiting rooms),
her pain is out of control. I warned her that there would be a long
wait, as a co-worker of mine had just been there for her initial visit
the previous week and it took 4 hours. To my surprise (and relief), the
longest wait we had was 15 minutes.

Mom saw two different doctors (both on the same "team" as they have a
team-based approach at Fox Chase). The first asked a series of
questions, about 15 minutes worth. At the end he said that unfortunately
they could not provide any answers/definite treatment options that day
because the hospital that had her records failed to give all of them to
us (I should have known when I was told by the records person at Fox
Chase "Just ask for her "forms and slides" and they'll know what to give
you." Turns out they didn't give us all of the forms.

So here's the deal - Mom has a known cancerous growth in her one lung,
about the size of a thumbnail. She also has a growth in her
pancreas/stomach. That growth has yet to be determined to definitely be
cancerous because the biopsy they did on that was inconclusive. That
said, the doctors were both sure that it was cancerous as well. Also in
her lymph nodes cancer has been confirmed. A bone scan shows no cancer
present in her bones.

My concern for my Mom has not been a "cure" - I know that isn't going to
happen and she knows that. Our concern is her pain. It's been
debilitating. She also has had severe constipation over the past month
and her idiot GP was useless (he's one of those "friendly" doctors, so
my Mom and relatives seem to think he's a competent doctor - long story,
but Mom was in the hospital just this past December with severe pain and
they claim to have done a chest x-ray and found nothing and said that
there was nothing wrong with her. This is why my Mom has suffered
through pain for so long, because she was seriously wondering if it was
all in her head).

The visit to Fox Chase was a positive one to say the least. They changed
her prescription and assured her that they can help her with her pain.
Also, they said they prescribed her something to alleviate the
constipation. I believe that was a definite contributing factor to the
pain as well.

I spoke with Mom this afternoon. She is feeling a thousand times better!
Her spirits were up big-time and she said she was able to sit and relax
and watch TV today for a little while and actually be able to enjoy it
without being buckled over in pain. I expected her pain to be lessened
within a couple of days, but so quick is a welcome miracle.

So, both doctors at Fox Chase told us that the reason they can't decide
on a treatment yet is because of the missing records (that we must get
and will asap). They also are having the pathologists at Fox Chase look
at mom's slides and they said that most likely the pathologists would be
able to determine where the cancer started - her lung or her stomach. I
didn't realize this was such a big deal but apparently it is, as it is
this very question that is holding up her treatment. Once they find out
whether the cancer started in her stomach or her lung, they will start
her on chemo.

The one doctor, Dr. Langer, said that my Mom is an excellent candidate
for a clinical trial they are starting. He said that he would rather
wait until next Thursday's appointment (her next appointment at Fox
Chase) to provide the details, but he did throw some percentages at us
and they sounded quite good as far as stopping the spread of the cancer
and also reducing the growths. And of course, reducing the pain. If I
recall correctly (and I probably don't), it was a 35% chance that the
cancer would be reduced drastically, a 35% chance that the growths would
be reduced by 50% or greater, and the remainder of patients either no or
minimal effect. For someone who was given a prognosis of about a year
just two weeks ago, they seem like great odds to me.

So next step is for Mom to get an MRI done early next week, and then her
appointment with the doctors to agree on a plan of treatment and to
start right away with the treatment is Thursday. Prior to meeting with
the doctors she will have bloodwork done as well.

I don't know if Dr. Langer was sugar-coating things or not, but he did
tell my mom that she would lose her hair on the chemo but the
side-effects would be minimal otherwise and that modern chemo is not
that bad at all. He also told her that to give her percentages for life
expectancy at this point would be pointless, and that he has patients
who have lived years with no loss of quality of life with her condition.
At this point, my Mom is so thrilled that her pain is subsiding, and for
the first time in a while her spirits are up, so regardless of the
probable reality of the situation, I feel indebted to this hospital and
these doctors at Fox Chase already.

I hope my long and probably jumbled post isn't too confusing.

mark