Well, it was a long day for the family today but I'm happy to report Rich survived his surgery and they were able to remove the mass from his lung as well as some suspicious surrounding lung tissue. They also removed some lymph nodes and will be testing those to find out if they need to follow up with chemotherapy. The hope is that they won't have to because of the condition of his heart and the CHF. I think he has a few more days at UofM then he can hopefully go home. Ann Arbor is nice (especially right now with the colors changing) but as Dorothy said, there's no place like home...
As for my Mom, I think it's been a good distraction for her regarding her upcoming battle. Behind the scenes, I've been doing a good amount of research, getting names of doctors here in Michigan as well as researching some of the novel trials for small cell lung cancer. There are a couple of targeted therapies out there as well as the new class of drugs that actually starve the tumor, essentially cutting off it's food supply by preventing the necessary network of blood vessels that tumor cells need to survive and proliferate.
Don't get me wrong, this is going to be a tough fight. I think we have the best chance going at it agressively as possible right away. We'll know more after the PET scan and the pathology report results but don't think there's anything wrong with arming us with as much information as possible. Lung cancer is the number one killing cancer in the world I believe, you'd have to think there's got to be more experimental treatments out there. If there are, I will find them and my Mom will somehow have access to them. She and Rich are going to be with us for a long time if I can help it.
I welcome any input if you or any of your friends have any experience with this.
Thanks for reading once again :)
Chris
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