glightfoot

Hi Fllover,

I’ve had some luck with diuretics — furosemide and spironolactone. I had edema in my legs and quite a bit of distension in my belly along with fluid in my pleural sac.

I hope this helps,

G

You’ll be in our thoughts and our hearts. Good luck with SF.

G

Hi Jamie,

I’ve had Neupogen many times. I had to inject myself daily. My doctor told me to take it until I get the bone pain signal — which could feel like a lower back — like you’ve tweaked pain or a pain in your breast bone. the pain didn’t last. If you had to keep injecting, then I would suppose you would continue to get the pain.

G

What wonderful news about the shrinkage!

G

Hi all,

My pleural effusion draining went smoothly. They got out about 900ml this time, just like the first time. I haven’t heard from them as to the composition of the fluids — whether or not it has cancer cells.

The pulmonary doctor told me there are two other ways to deal with the fluids. One is pleuradesis — it involves surgeons and several days of hospital stay. They would inject a talcum powder like substance into the pleural cavity which would irritate the area and cause pain. And as the area heals, the pleural sack should stick to the lungs and not leave an area for the fluids to accumulate. The last method would be to attach a drain where a family member would need to drain you every so often. Sixty percent of these people would get the scarring and attachment of the pleural sac. The other forty percent would just keep on draining.

I’m not sure how I feel about any of these options. Scarring and pain doesn’t sound like fun to me. Getting drained is no picnic either.

G

Thank you very much for passing on Jeff’s message. We all loved him dearly and can take heart in knowing that he knew how much he meant to us.

G

Hi Tiffany,

Getting a referral to Mayo sounds like a great step to take. Get second and third opinions. I think they should be offering you alot more options!

There are quite a few chemo drug combinations that people have had on this site as well as other targeted drug therapies like Nexavar and Avastin. There are also radiation treatments like sir spheres and theraspheres.

I hope your doctor can provide your with anti-nausea medications in the meanwhile. I know how despiriting it is to be losing weight, but that can be controlled with the anti-nausea medications and also there are medications to stimulate the appetite.

I hope this helps,

G

Hi Karen,

I have Long Term Disability insurance through my employer as well. The long term disability doesn’t kick in until a certain amount of time. But I get short term disability payments from my state — California which goes for one year. The FMLA is a job protected leave which is probably done at this time for your husband. You can probably apply for Social Security disability at this time. Usually the social security people are very helpful.

But all this is different than health insurance. Your husband’s company will stop paying at some point. It’ll be good find out when they will stop paying, and when you are eligible to add your husband to your health insurance. They usually don’t allow changes except in November unless there’s an “event” and you don’t want any lapse in coverage.

Companies vary in their policies and I would suggest that you call the HR or the disability manager to find out the particulars of yours and your husbands’s policy.

I hope this helps.

G