Awesome news! So grateful. - 1254716

I have not been on these sites in awhile.....only because my mom has been doing amazingly well. I know when she was at her worst, I would always turn to this sites for hopeful stories and success stories to keep us going.....so I feel I should share ours.

My mom finished up concurrent chemo (Cisplatin/Alimta) and radiation at Cedars in Sept of 2011. In June 2011, for a completely different reason (she had NO symptoms), she had a CT of her chest which revealed a tiny 1cm nodule in the R middle lobe. They did a wedge resection in Wisconsin where she lives. During surgery, they said it was not cancer, but finally pathology revealed otherwise. She was diagnosed with NSCLC adencarcinoma (Kras mutation) Stage 3b after the wedge resection found a mediastinal lymph node positive. Although, it didn't light up on the PET scan or the CT, it was there.

She moved to California to live with my husband and I during treatment (she is a widow, we lost my dad to lung CA in 2007). The chemo and radiation were absolute hell for her. Pretty much any side effect in the book and then some, she took on. She couldn't eat AT ALL and we struggled to any fluids in her. It was 4 months of "pure hell" as she calls it. I honestly did not see a light at the end of the tunnel. She worried she would never eat again. It was very hard on everyone but especially her.

In November 2011, she had a bad bout of radiation pneumonitis which caused her significant problems breathing. We made it thru that and her first follow up PET/CT in Jan 2012 was CLEAR.

Then in June 2012, another clear CT scan. And now, in Jan 2013, yet another CLEAR PET/CT. She feels wonderful....gained back all the weight (and then some), and has no lingering problems breathing. Her kidney function is a tiny bit off (likely from the chemo and the fact that she has diabetes as well) and she also developed asymptomatic A-Fib requiring her to be on coumadin for life.....but her life is NORMAL as can be. HAVE HOPE!!!