Hi, I'm new to this chat forum, having been diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer. I have adenocarcinoma in the right lung which has metastasised to both of my adrenal glands.
It seems like the journey has been quite long just to get to this point.
21/1/2016 Received a phone call from my GP to say that my latest chest x-ray had shown a difference compared to the previous one and therefore he was making a referral to get this checked out.
3/2/2016 Had a CT scan followed by appointment with consultant who diagnosed me with early stage lung cancer.
10/2/2016 Had a lung biopsy by Guided CT scan
17/2/2016 Had a PET scan
24/2/2016 Saw consultant who informed me that the biopsy had confirmed that I had adenocarcinoma in the right lung and that the scan had shown a hot-spot in one of my adrenal glands.
17/3/2016 Had MRI scan
29/3/2016 Another appointment, this time with a different consultant who informed me that the MRI scan showed that cancer had spread to both of my adrenal glands. Various options were discussed and I opted to undergo the new Sabre (high dose radiotherapy) for my lung cancer which was being offered by a different hospital. The spread of the cancer to my adrenal glands would then be dealt with by surgery.
14/4/2016 Saw Consultant at this other hospital who informed me that whilst they could offer me this treatment, that she didn't think this would be the best option and she recommended that I undertook chemotherapy first, and depending on the outcome of this treatment, they could then consider the Sabre treatment.
20/4/2016 Was informed by the Clinical Nurse Specialist that they wanted to perform another biopsy as the material that was collected for the previous biopsy, whilst sufficient for the diagnosis was insuffiecent for the gene matching that they wanted to perform.
22/4/2016 Saw Chemotherapy Consultant at my own hospital who said that chemotherapy treatment will start in two to three weeks.
9/5/2016 I have an appointment on this day to go through what the chemotherapy involves and have various tests such as a lung x-ray.
17/5/2016 I'm due to have my first dose of chemotherapy.
As of today (2/5/2016) I'm still waiting for an appointment for the second lung biopsy.
Of course, the above is only a summary and I'm disappointed that there have been times when I've had to phone the hospital and chase up appointments. I very much want to have faith in my local hospital but I'm afraid underlying my acceptance of the situation I do have concern about the length of time it has taken thus far, particularly as there has been some deterioation of my overall health in the meantime.
Therefore I would be very interested to hear from others as to whether diagnosis is usually this protracted?
Best wishes to all who are participating in this forum.
