Introduction:
Please,
tell us your first name, gender and your age and maybe a short
description about yourself, family, profession, where you live......
Answer:
My name is Jean. I am a 72 year old, caucasian, female, widow,
five children, eleven grandchildren, and five
great-grandchildren. I am retired (ceramic teacher) after
twenty-somewhat years. I was born in Orlando Florida, and
currently I live in Jacksonville Florida near most of my children and
grands.
Diagnosis:
1. How was your cancer detected?
Answer:
CT
scan showed a mass in my thymus gland. TEE showed the mass has
spread from the thymus, to veins leading to the heart, in heart, and
attached to the lung.
2. Did you feel any kind of pain or did you notice a change of your body?
Answer:
Severe right shoulder pain, fatigue, and shortness of breath.
3. Do you know your staging?
Answer:
The thoracic surgeon told me it's stage three.
4. Do you have a family history of cancer?
Answer:
No!
5. Did you have any kind of surgery before?
Answer:
No
Treatment:
Meeting with the oncologist in the coming weeks. The oncologist is wanting me to undergo chemotherapy.
6. What kind of treatment did you receive (be as specific as possible)
-surgery (was your cancer invasive? Which organs where involved?)
Answer:
The
thymoma is a widely invasive tumor involving pleura, the right atrium,
the right and left brachiocephalic veins, and the superior vena
cava. Therefore, this tumor prognostically has a tendency to
recur and/or metastasize.
-chemotherapy (name the chemo and write down how many rounds you received)
Answer:
-radiation (what doses did you receive)
-or a different kind of treatment
Answer:
Where there any kind of side effects involved in your treatment?
Answer:
7. Feelings - Emotions
What was your feeling when you heard your diagnosis?
( The answer to this question might be very helpful for all new patients!)
Answer:
I
was in shock! I never felt any fear! I did not want to die,
nor do I want to die. I have five wonderful children, eleven
grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. There's so much more
in life this 72 year young woman wants to do and accomplish in life.
How did you feel during your treatment
- For example: During chemo you might have felt nauseated
Answer:
8. What was the most difficult part during your treatment
Answer:
9. Where were you treated (name the hospital with the full address)
Answer:
Shands in Jacksonville
10. If you can recommend your doctor let us know his/her name.
Answer:
11. What tip could you give a new patient?
Answer:
Pray, Research, & Fight to be a SURVIVOR!
12. What bothered you the most during your treatment?
Answer:
13. What helped you most during this period?
Answer:
My close walk with Jesus, support and prayers from family and friends, and faith.
14. How're you feeling today?
Answer:
Positive about my chances.
15. Tell us a bit about your checkups?
- Where do you get your checkups?
- How often do you go for a check up?
- What do they do at your check up?
Answer:
Checkups are at Shands, every few weeks, and a basic physical examination.
16. How do you feel before you have to go to a check up
- Are you nervous, relaxed .....
Answer:
Overwhelmed
17. What do you do to make this time as easy as possible?
- For example: You take a friend or relative with you
Answer:
I
take my daughter with me to my appointments. She finds
interesting things to discuss and read while we wait. It's never
a dull moment.
18. Do you take any precautions to prevent the recurrence from cancer?
Answer:
I
eat less carbohydrates, more fresh fruits, vegetables, drink plenty of
water, milk, orange juice, vinegar, take multivitamins, enzymes, and
garlic, tablets.
19. Have you made significant changes to your life after you got cancer?
Answer:
To eat healthier, focus on the present, and continue to make wonderful memories with my family.
20. How 're you feeling about the disease
- are you optimistic about outcome from your cancer
- are you more afraid that it might return
Answer:
I
am optimistic about the outcome. I do want to learn more about
malignant thymoma with spindle cell. What could I have done to
prevent it? More importantly, what can I do now to prevent it
from coming back!
21. Status - how is your progress?
I.e. chemo didn't work, don't want to do surgery or radiation since it is too invasive at this point.
Answer:
I
had the surgery (thymus tumor excision, intracardiac tumor excision,
superior vena cava tumor excision, right and brachial cephalic vein
excision.
22. Ideas/recommendation ...
Answer:
Continue to monitor your health. Research, question, and be optimistic!
23. Leave your e-mail address in case you want to get contacted from other thymoma patients.
gators8@juno.com
