Saturday, August 19, 2006

Still Can't Catch a Break

V was in the midst of writing a blog update on her cats, on Jim, and on her 3 DR visits this week, when she got a call from Dr. Chemo. Now all that other stuff seems unimportant.

V had a CT scan of her lungs Thursday. Dr. Chemo said that what on X-Ray looked like a pulmonary infiltration (which V has come to learn means “something somewhat minor but we don’t know exactly what it is”), now with the CT scan appears more solid. What does that mean? Dr. Chemo said it’s a 2 cm area that’s not metastatic breast cancer but that may be lung cancer. This is in the upper lobe of V’s left lung.

Dr. Chemo wants V to consult a thoracic surgeon next week. The thoracic surgeon may do a needle biopsy or a bronchoscopy, where they go into V’s lungs with a scope and take a look around and excise tissue out for pathology. There is some basic information about diagnosing lung cancer here.

Some may ask how lung cancer can occur during chemo for breast cancer. This is just a guess. Chemo is targeted to a particular kind of cancer. The chemo for breast cancers may not affect lung cancers.

Any name suggestions for the thoracic surgeon? Cindy? You’re among the best at these names, although V’s former husband did come up with PT Bruiser for the physical therapist.

We’ll let you know how this goes. For the time being, we are devastated.

The left breast mastectomy had been rescheduled for September 8. Dr. Chemo said that the spot in the lung takes precedence.

5 comments:

Venita said...

Deb, so happy you signed up to comment and hope you will stick around. A Giz blog will be fun...maybe you can bring over some of "the best of FDMB" stories.

Max and Ennis look forward to hearing from sweet Gizmo.

~~V

Venita said...

Announcement of this development/responses on FDMB here.

Fairydragonfly said...

Hi Venita,

As always, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Hugs,
Sheree

Venita said...

Gizzy,

Mombean V said I could write to you here. Ennis is laying on his side in front of the AC duct. He thinks he's having womanopause.

I am at Mom's side all the time, although she usually doesn't like as much closeness as I like. I'm not sure why she doesn't want me to wake her at 3AM licking her lips.

Lily is here too, but I don't like that girly cat. When Ennie and I were young, Mom brought Lily to live with us. Ennie fell in love with Lily and didn't spend much time with me anymore. Since then I have done my best to terrorize her. And I have succeeded. But now we're getting old and I mostly just glare at her now instead of chasing her and beating her up until she screams. It scares her just as much and is just as much fun for me!!

PS, Giz, I don't dislike all girl cats. I think a girl kitty nicknamed Cujo would be a match (or better) for me.

Maxomine!!

Venita said...

:) Giz, you are the greatest! Yep, what's this about their not liking being stared awake. We know Mombean is waking up because she stopped snoring.
~~M&E


Giz and Mittsi, help me with these big boys. I'm just a little girly.
~~Lily