On 2/18/2006 Thymoma 1996 to 2005 wrote:
Hi Joel, Thanks for the info My husband just wrote it down and will ask his doctor about it this week, He is 34 years old, and not able to have any more surgeries , He has not had any treatment at all since they stoped the chemo in May to start the first of 4 surgeries to remove the tumor from sections of his vertibral body as well as 4 ribs and tissue around his heart. They were talking about chemo in Dec but have put treatment off to let him get stronger and put back on some weight. He is not at all looking forward to any more chemo and hoping the doctors will have something eles in mind. Thanks for staying in touch I will write agian after this next appointment. I am so happy that you are feeling well, and sharing your story as it is one of hope. all good thoughts to you EB
Hi Joel, I have searched and searched for people on line that have thymoma and this is the most recent information I can find...and it's a year old. My mom was diagnosed with thymoma, stage 3 just 2 months ago. They had been tracking a mass that she had needle biopsied (and it showed nothing wrong) for over a year, but in November they saw that the tumor had grown. She went to IU Cancer Pavillion and had another biopsy...this time it came back with the bad news. We are all in shock but trying to deal on a day to day basis. It seems we take one step forward only to be knocked back two steps. She is on the exact same chemo treatment that I saw you were on in one of these e-mails. How quickly did your tumor shrink, and what stage was yours when it was diagnosed? What sides effects did you get. (Mom just had her 1st treatment this Monday and has that terrible metallic taste in her mouth and a dull headache. Thank God, no nausea thus far. Any hints on how to combat the nasty taste of metal she has?) Mom's tumor has started to wrap around a major vein/artery and the specialists at IU said they are going to try to shrink it enough to remove it. Her doctor, Dr. Loehrer is one of only a handful of thymoma specialists in the country so we feel like she is in good hands. However, if we could get some more information from others that have gone through this and are doing well now it would be quite encouraging, as we seem to read nothing but negative. Can anyone give us some hope? Thanks
Jo