My husband Danny fell and hurt his shoulder in November and the doctor ordered an x-ray on his shoulder to see if he had any damage or just bruised. His shoulder turned out to be bruised, but there was a spot on the xray that he wanted to have checked out. After visiting several other doctors and more xrays and CT scans they said he had a possible Thymoma and sent him to a Cardiovascular/Thoracic Surgeon. This doctor ordered a biopsy, which came back inconclusive. Since the tumor was so close to the heart they decided to do surgery (same as open heart surgery)on December 15, 2004 which would require him to be at home for 6-8 weeks and then get back to work.
Unfortunately they found that the tumor had invaded his right lung and was attached to the paricardium around the heart, they removed a portion of the lung and the paricardium (they did not get a clean edge on this side). While inside the Dr. decided to inspect the entire chest cavity and found a second tumor attached to the lower back of his left lung so they removed part of this long as well. Both tumors turned out to be malignant and he was classified as Thymic Carcinoma Stage IVC. We were referred to the Sylvester Cancer Center in Miami and we were fortunate to get the head of oncology as his doctor, who personally had never seen a patient with this type of cancer, but did a tremendous amount of research to formulate a plan of treatment.
Since February he is hospitalized every three weeks for a full week of ADOC Chemotherapy. He starts his last treatment Monday the 23rd.
He has a lot of problems dealing with the side affects of the Chemo, but so far there are no signs of the tumors returning.
My concern is the lack of information available on Thymic Carcinoma or even Thymoma for that matter. I have questions that the Doctor can’t or won’t answer regarding the his chances of surviving this, odds of tumors returning, etc.
Until this time Danny has never surgery or even hospitalized,has not been able to work since December,is severly depressed and most of all scared of the unknown. I wish that I could help him, but I know just enough to give the wrong answers so I say nothing. Mentally and physically we are both exhausted, and tempers are sometimes short but we will make it together.
If anyone has any sources on stage IVC Thymic Carcinoma I would appreciate any help I can get.
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July 2005
Danny finished his Chemo and the doctor wanted him to start radiation treatments. We went to the Radiation Oncologist who ordered another PET and CT scan before deciding on radiation. We got the results yesterday and he is cancer “Free” at this time. He has to have CT scans every 3 months but other than that he can get on with his life again.
Sorry for not checking in with the group for awhile, but Danny had a major problem with his last chemo treatments and was hospitalized for a week and then in the bed for another 2 weeks. Between running back and forth to the hospital and working I didn’t have enought hours in the day to much of anything else.