Stories of Hope

Iris Poapst Diagnosed in 1997 at age 52 Nonsmall cell lung cancer “I believe that they should educate themselves as much as possible and make decisions about their treatment. If they have a strong "gut" feeling about what they believe is right, push for it even if the doctor disagrees - at least, check it all out!!"

After about two years with a nagging cough, which was being treated as an allergy, I changed physicians and for a while continued with "sinus" pills for awhile. My new physician finally sent me for allergy testing and all the tests came back negative, but that doctor thought that possibly my pills for high-blood pressure were causing the cough. My doctor changed my prescription for the blood pressure pills and the cough stopped. This happened in October or November 1996.

I should mention that, at this time, my sister was going through treatments for breast cancer. She was diagnosed in April 1995 and had a lumpectomy but the cancer returned in May of 1996 so, this time, she had a stem-cell transplant.

Back to me, I had an abnormal mammogram and a core-biopsy in December 1996. The results were "pre-cancerous". Then, in January, my cough returned. At first, I thought it was just a flu bug but, after about 3 weeks, I no longer thought so. I contacted my doctor again. She sent me for some testing and, then, telephoned me on Friday, February 7th, 1997 to tell me that she wanted me to go for a chest x-ray before 5:00 p.m. that day which I did. The following Monday morning, she phoned again to ask me to come to her office as soon as possible. I went immediately and, while driving there, the thought occurred to me that there must be something wrong with the x-ray—and wrong there was!

She informed me that there was a "mass" showing. I asked if it could be TB (tuberculosis) because of our family history. She said that it could and, when I asked if it could be cancer, she also said that it could. However, she said she was going to refer me to the best she knew, and that she did!!! We (my husband Gailand and I) saw a thoracic surgeon at a major hospital the following Friday, February 14th. He assured us that I didn't have TB and said that he was 99.9 percent sure that it was cancer, but that he would have to do diagnostic testing to be 100percent sure.

Over the next month, I had brain, chest and abdomen CT Scans, Bone Scan, Pulmunary Functioning Breathing Test, Bronchoscopy, Mediastinoscopy and a Needle Biopsy. On March 14th, we saw him again and he confirmed that, at age 52, I had Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (Adenocarcinoma) and that the tumour which was located in the lower lobe of my right lung measured 8 cm x 9 cm x 10 cm. He recommended that the tumour be removed as soon as possible, so he booked me for surgery first thing on Tuesday morning,March 18th (our daughter's 23rd birthday). I was monitored in the Intensive care unit for 24 hours. Then, sent for an x-ray every day and what agony that was!!!

Although I'd had 3 children and several surgeries (i.e. gall bladder & appendics, hysterectomy), I was not prepared for this!!! Anyhow, I believe I went home on the 6th day after surgery. I'm sure you've heard all kinds of stories about trials and tribulations shortly after arriving home so I won't go into detail. Thank goodness for my primary doctor. She phoned me the day after I arrived home and arranged for home care. I had two terrific nurses, one of whom visited me on a daily basis and also a lady who came in to do the cleaning and laundry.

I saw the surgeonfrequently for the next 6 weeks and he was very upbeat and quite confident that he had gotten all the cancer. He also informed me that the pathology report on the tumour said that it was squamous cell carcinoma. Then, he arranged my first visit to the Cancer Clinic at the beginning of May. I saw a chemo oncologist and a radiation oncologist on my first visit. The chemo oncologist who normally handles lung cancer patients was away on a sabbatical so I saw the same one who handled my sister's stem-cell transplant.

Anyhow, we're sitting eyeball to eyeball and he tells me that they don't think they want to give me treatment because the chemo is going to make me really sick and my hair is going to fall out, etc, etc. and the survival rate for the type of cancer I have is only 20percent in five years so they don't want to put me through all that. I was stunned and somewhat upset, but told him that I'd didn't care that this was my body and, if they had it, I wanted it. They couldn't give me a definite answer that day, but did get back to me soon after and I started on chemo after the long weekend. The drugs they used were cisplatin and vinorelbine.

I had treatments every Friday for 3 weeks, missed a week and started over again for 4 cycles. The first treatment in the cycle was quite intense so I took medicine for nausea and wasn't sick once. We would take our boys to Ottawa with us for the second treatment and always went away for the weekend. After the third, treatment my counts were quite low so I had to stay at home or, at least, avoid crowds as much as possible. I had a supply of masks so sometimes we did go somewhere and I'd wear my mask.

Then, at the beginning of October, I started radiation. I had treatments Monday to Friday and my husband drove me to Ottawa everyday (about an hour and 15 minutes drive). I had my last treatment on November 3rd and, again, we took our boys who were 15 and 13 at the time to Ottawa with us and left for Myrtle Beach, S.C. for a week. I was pretty fatigued but continued taking my vitamins, etc., ate well and had at least 1 can of liquid food supplement daily.

I was extremely fortunate in that my general practitioner, surgeon and oncologists saw me frequently. I had frequent chest x-rays and, initially, 2 bronchoscopies annually. It seemed like they were always available. The support that I received from my family, friends and relatives, medical team, minister, home care workers, etc. was just phenomenal. I feel that it is so important for cancer patients to keep positive and never mind what the prognosis is - be determined to be in that group that makes it!! I also believe that some alternative medicine is helpful too. I believe that they should educate themselves as much as possible and make decisions about their treatment. If they have a strong "gut" feeling about what they believe is right, push for it even if the doctor disagrees - at least, check it all out!!

Anyhow, I saw chemotherapy oncologist on April 3rd. He said that I only need to be seen once a year from now on. When I asked what the chances were of this cancer returning, he said, "None"! I was on cloud nine. I think someone from our office telephoned the local paper and an article resulted. However, I saw my surgeonon April 26th and he disagreed. He said that there's a very small chance but he has seen this cancer return. He feels that I should be seen more frequently than once a year and booked me for another bronchoscopy soon. This news didn't break my bubble though. I still feel very confident that I've beat it. However, I'm thankful that my surgeon will continue to keep an eye on things.