Non small cell lung cancer diagnosis

Hi,

Just introducing myself, my partner has just recently been diagnosed with NSC lung cancer and I'm acting here and in general on her behalf. She's 48, never smoked and doesn't drink, went 6-7 times per week to the gym etc etc but since this year she's had tiredness (we thought it was the usual job stress she has) and recurrent pneumonia and chest/shoulder pains.

She's seen 5+ different GPs, none of them even remotely mentioned her current scenario, they were just keen to treat the symptoms and not the underlying cause of them. Eventually she was hospitalized with severe pneumonia and even then it took them a month or more after her discharge to do a CT scan, then 2 weeks wait for the result only for us to be told by the doctors that no one had done a report on her scan.... unbelievable.

However they did organize a bronchoscopy for the following week where they did exploratory biopsies, she then saw the respiratory consultant last week - twice, and the second time was given a diagnosis of inoperable adenocarcinoma...

Since then we've been to see the oncologist on Monday and she's due to start chemo next Tuesday, she also had a PET CT scan yesterday and was called today to go back to see the oncologist tomorrow for a follow-up appointment. If the cancer has spread then that would rule out her having radiotherapy, atleast for time being.

She's terrified and has been put on anti-depressants plus sleeping tablets. At the moment it's just a rollercoaster of emotions, it's hard for me to keep her spirits up as much as I try being positive.

I'm sure many of you have been there, done that.

Thanks for listening.

Gary

  • Hi 

    I’m so sorry that you and your partner are going through such an awful time. My family and I are going through similar. Our mum has also recently been diagnosed with nsclc. She’s also very healthy, non smoker and had no symptoms. Her diagnosis was picked up after 2 bouts of pneumonia in 2 months - both which resulted in hospital stays. She had a PET scan which confirmed the cancer had spread which we were devastated by and marker tests which confirmed that she has the alk positive mutation. Do you know if your parters biopsy has been sent for marker tests? That can help her consultant decide if she can have targeted therapy. 

    Wishing you and your partner all of the best. There are so many great cancer treatments available now and so many success stories on this site and I hope that you can both find some comfort in that. It’s an awful time though. Me and my family still feel in shock most  days! x 

  • Hi,

    I'm sorry to hear about your mum's diagnosis, it's just so unbelievable that the disease can progress so far without detection and then when it is....

    We don't know anything regarding alk nor whether the biopsies are being tested for that, There was talk about waiting for all the results from the biopsies so perhaps this was among them? Thanks for the heads up regarding the success stories, my partner could really do with speaking to people who've been in her position and survived.

    Best wishes

     

    Gary