This is the beginning of our journey. My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer that metastasized to the brain on Oct 12, 2014. This diagnosis crushed me as we are very close, and she's only 50 years old. They told her she had a mass in her brain and one in her lung, both a decent size although I don't know the exact measurements. I researched stage 4 lung cancer and after reading the statistics, I realized that the disease could be a death sentence.
They performed surgery to remove the tumor from her brain which is what initially caused her symptoms. The surgeon said it was about the size of a grape but was luckily in a reachable spot. She was then referred to a thoracic surgeon who ordered a CT scan of her other organs to determine how widespread t he cancer was. When the results came back, he stated that there was no sign of the disease in her other organs. He said she may be a very rare case of stage 4 where when only 2 single tumors exist, and both are operable. He ordered a pet scan to see if other cancer could be detected. Once again the pet scan showed no further sign of the disease. He said her chances of 5 year survival went from 1% to around 25%.
She needed an oncologist. I researched our area to find the best doctors and made an appointment at Roswell. The oncologist agreed with the thoracic surgeon's recommendations and surgery was scheduled for Nov 24th. The tumor in her lung is contained to the upper right lobe which will be removed entirely. We're scared. However we are trusting the doctors and are going forward. Thank you for reading our story.
