Finished With Treatments!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Finished With Treatments!

I had my final radiation treatment today. Now we wait. The radiation will continue to have a impact for a few weeks, so scans are planned for July 26 and I meet with the doctor again on July 28. Fatigue will last for at least another week, but then hopefully I will get my energy back and feel more normal for most of July.

It will be difficult to remain patient while we wait for scans, so we're very happy to have something else to look forward to. We are excited to be waiting for the birth of our first grandchild! The due date is July 4, so there could be news very soon. Bryan and Leslie are doing well and are excited to move forward with this new phase of their life. We are waiting to finalize travel plans, but will certainly make a trip to Chicago soon.

3 comments:

Unknown said...: Congrats on completing the treatments! We're continuing to pray as you await the tests and as you look forward to the new grandchild!
Jon and Jennifer Ferguson; June 29, 2010 at 10:54 PM
Laura said...: Yay!! No more treatments! Now you can put that journey behind you and instead, look forward to positive test results and a new baby! I'll be praying for good news all around!
Laura Sanders; July 1, 2010 at 9:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Great to hear you have completed all those scans!! Now for the fun stuff- grandparenthood!! It's great!! Be sure to spoil JJ as much as possible - it's your job!!
We'll be looking forward to the news - and we'll be keeping the whole family in thought and prayer!
LV,
Cindy and Bill; July 2, 2010 at 12:14 AM

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About Dick

This section provides background on how my cancer was discovered and a few key dates associated with the 2-year journey.

In mid-August 2008, I was taking a shower when I coughed up a small amount of blood. I would probably not have gone to the doctor for that alone, but I already had an appointment for allergy problems. I mentioned it to the doctor at the end of my exam. He thought it was probably nothing, but recommended that I go for a chest x-ray.

An HOUR after the x-ray, he called to say that there was a mass and I should schedule a CT scan immediately.

That led to a visit to the pulmonary doctor, who did a bronchoscopy and a PET scan. On Sept. 10th, he diagnosed me with "non-small cell" lung cancer. The tumor is somewhat larger than a golf ball.

For perspective, I have NEVER smoked. Only 15% of those with lung cancer are non-smokers, and less than half of those are men. Needless to say, I am in the minority in terms of people that get lung cancer. Never the less, it is very real and must be treated aggressively.

On Sept. 29th I had surgery to remove the upper right lobe of my lung, as well as three lymph nodes. The surgery took 2+ hours. I was in the hospital for four days.

On Wednesday October 1 we learned that the pathology report was not good. In addition to the cancer in the upper right lobe of my lung, there was also cancer in at least one lymph node. The pathology clarified that the cancer is adenocarcinoma. While lung cancer is normally associated with smoking, about 10% of the people with this particular type of cancer are non-smokers.

Following surgery, I had chemotherapy from Nov 2008 - Jan 2009, then radiation in Feb & Mar 2009. Scans from May 2009 - Feb 2010 were "clean" with no cancer. On June 2, 2010, an MRI showed a brain tumor. The older updates to this blog track the progress during recovery from surgery, as well as initial chemo and radiation treatments. The more recent entries provide updates on the 2010 brain tumor and treatments.

Dick Clark - Cincinnati

Tuesday, June 29, 2010