My Diagnosis

I developed a cough this past summer that I could not shake. The funny thing is that, after years of trying, I finally quit smoking in February using a drug called Chantix. Over time, I became more concerned about the cough because, no matter what I did it would not go away.

I finally made an appointment to see my primary care doctor, George Nackley, for my annual physical. (When I was at Andersen, an annual physical was required; no employer I have had before or since, makes getting a physical a requirement. Employers should.) Dr Nackley ordered chest x-rays and I went for this the same day as my appointment. That was October 3, 2007. The next morning I received a phone call from Nackley, saying he wanted to see me immediately.

At our meeting, Nackley said he discovered a shadow in my chest x-ray that was disturbing. He wanted me to immediately go for a CAT scan and biopsy. Nackley arranged for me to go to Harbor Imaging the next day, where I had the CT-Scan followed by a biopsy. The following day, Friday October 5th, Nackley told me that I was confirmed, according to the pathology, to have adenocarcenoma - Non-Large Cell Lung Cancer.

The tumor measured about 70 cm in size -- about the size of baseball. Nackley advised me that he would refer me to an oncologist, Dr. Scott Lunin, and that it would be necessary to have a PET scan to see if the cancer has spread. We had the PET scan at Harbor Imaging that day, and I was set for an appointment with Dr. Lunin on October 8th.

Yoko and I met with Scott Lunin on October 8th. He explained my diagnosis and recommended that I begin a chemo treatment of cisplatin and taxol right away. He said he did not believe that surgery would be possible until the tumor was smaller. He explained that the tumor was in my right upper lung posterior adjacent to the mediasteinum. Scott said he was not a surgeon but he thought surgery would be out of the question until we "shrink" the tumor. Scott arranged for me to meet with Dr. Lary Robinson at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Scott said Dr Robinson was one of the premier surgeons in the country for lung cancer patients.

We met with Dr Robinson on October 15th. His view was, not only was I not a candidate for surgery at the moment, I would not be a candidate for surgery in the future either. He pointed out that the tumor was so en raped with other areas of the central chest, that NO surgeon would be willing to do surgery now or in the future. Dr. Robinson believed that the best course of treatment for me would be a combination of chemo and radiation. Radiation, I was told, is not something you want to do if you are going to have surgery, because radiation tends to "blur" the lines between the tumor and good tissues and makes "getting it all" more difficult. Radiation, on the other hand, is more effective when combined with chemo.

I had my first chemo treatment on October 18th, with a plan to follow-up with radiation the following week. Scott Lunin set me up with Dave Rice, a radiation oncologist that I had golfed with on a number of occasions. I am now undergoing a regiment of chemo once a week and radiation every day. This will continue for 7 weeks of chemo and 35 days (5 days a week) of radiation.