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Lung CancerArrow
aged 71-81
Interview LC24  

Interview LC24

Age at Interview: 75
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 69
Background: Publican (retired), married, no children.
Brief outline:Diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer in 1997, followed by lobectomy (removal of lower and middle lobes of right lung). In 1999 recurrence in right upper lobe, treated with radiotherapy.


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After his lobectomy he found that inhalers and a nebulizer helped him to breathe more easily.

 



So how long was it before you could get outside again after the operation and walk around a little bit?

Oh only, I started going out after about a week and walking; first twenty yards, then forty and so on until I could, I could walk quite a fair distance. But immediately I felt the chest was tight for lack of breath I would stop and then return.

You said you feel breathless, what sort of advice had you been given in order to help you cope with the breathlessness?

Well I have inhalers and unfortunately of course I, since having had the operation and the radiotherapy I have become very prone to chest infections when I get a cold. So I do, over the last two winters I have had to have a nebulizer for a brief period of a week sometimes when it's got really bad.

Can you explain what that is?

Well that's just a machine that vaporises a drug that you can put a mask on and breathe into the lungs to help the tubes of the lung open up a bit.

Can you remember what the inhalers are called?

The inhalers I have Becotide which is a steroid inhaler that I take twice in a morning and twice at night and I have salbutamol which is for an immediate pick up if you find you're breathless when you're doing something and that can be used up to four times a day.

And were you told to do any particular breathing exercises?

Only deep breathing, deep breathing exercises. But like everything else as the years go by one does tend to become a bit lazy and forget these sort of things.
Karol Sikora - Lung cancer
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