Our experience dealing with lung cancer has been a bit different from the norm.
Reading through some of your posts, I’ve noticed that a lot of doctors seem to avoid telling people exactly what they're actually fighting.
In our case, we knew practically from day one—including the patient himself (though, honestly, it took us a little while to actually wrap our heads around the truth, but that's another story entirely).
The patient was actually in total shock because the doctor just dropped the news bluntly, without any sugarcoating whatsoever. But looking back, we eventually realized that being direct is actually better.
But man, those doctors... nobody would say anything concrete about the chemotherapy or the side effects. Today, seeing my dad so weakened—he's dropped down to 60 kg, speaks so slowly, can barely move—I almost regretted him being on chemo (even though there isn't really another way out). We took him for an IV drip, then an enema in the afternoon—poor guy has to go through all this—and he still couldn't bring himself to eat anything until we explained that he could end up with a bowel obstruction and need surgery. Only then did he force himself to eat.
We knew chemotherapy was going to be brutal, but witnessing it is a whole different beast. It is so much harder to watch it happen than it is to just know it's coming. I try to comfort myself (as much as possible) by thinking this is just how it has to be, and that everyone goes through this. I sort of get why doctors hold back on the specifics regarding side effects; I guess it's easier when you don't know exactly what's hitting you. Personally, I think giving someone a detailed roadmap of all their future suffering might actually be counterproductive.
As for the prognosis... it's terrible. You want to hear everything, you really do, but nobody is going to give you the full picture. I've done a bit of digging through various articles, and I'm painfully aware that the general outlooks aren't great, but since no one talks about the specific details, we just accepted things as they were. Still, curiosity is a killer, and now I find myself choosing to focus on every single positive sign rather than constantly reading nonsense or hunting through heavy articles for some kind of comfort (let's be real, the chances of finding actual solace in those things aren't that high anyway).
And please, don't be too hard on the doctors. Sure, there are some catastrophic ones out there, but there are plenty of excellent ones, too. 🙂
