Lung Cancer & hand swelling - 1253971

Hello, Welcome to Grace. I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's cancer. It must be quite difficult to be worried about symptoms but not feel free to call for help. I would have thought that would be the state of my relationship with my husband but I think since he was so sick, so debilitated, and so clueless about navigating the healthcare system he let me take over.
As you can imagine we can't say whether or not something should or shouldn't be worried about. That has to be discussed with his doctors and their staff. Anything unusual should be taken as worthy of calling the oncology office. Swelling can mean many things some dangerous others not so much.

Call the office, tell them who you are and just give them the info, no need to tell the story of your husband not wanting you involved. Please let us know what the outcome is.

Janine
forum moderator

I don't know of any cancer or chemo-related issues that would tend to cause hand swelling. It really depends how much swelling is happening to say whether it's something to be concerned about. If it's severe, it's certainly appropriate to get that checked out by someone.

-Dr. West

It's really hard to guess about this over the internet, but I can imagine hand swelling related to cancer or it's therapy. For example, if chemo leaked out during administration to a vein in the hand, it could cause swelling. Further, a blood clot could, theoretically, cause hand swelling particularly if there were a line in near the location. In general, it's always better to err on the side of calling the doctor over not. I frequently get calls from patients who are very sorry to bother me, but are just making sure that something isn't a big deal. When it is a big deal, the call can lead to doing the right thing, even saving a life. When it's not a big deal, it only takes a minute to reassure the patient/loved one, then we both go back to our day. Either way, the call is a good thing.