I was diagnosed with Mesothelioma when I was 31. I was told it was from second hand exposure. I was in stage III, the cancer was very aggressive. I had trouble breathing and each breath was painful. I was told I had pluerel enfussion in my left lung liner. I had up to 3 liters of fluid drained from my lung twice and then the third time was with a chest tube I had for seven days during surgery to stop the fluid buildup. During my hospital stay I met with an Oncologist who told me I could live a comfortable life with chemo treatments. He said possibly even years. I went thru chemo which made me very sick. I got worse after that and met with a surgeon in New York at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She said by my test results and pain she thought the cancer was to far to help me but she said she would go in and look and if she could get it all she would. Otherwise she would not be able to help me. I went in for surgery not knowing my fate, I ended up getting lucky and had an extraplueral Phnuemonectomy on my left lung. I had 5 lymph nodes removed, part of a rib, my whole left lung and part of my diaphram. Recovery was so hard, I had to walk a mile a day, every day. I spend seven days in the hospital then ten days later started thirty rounds of radiation. I had to continue walking a mile a day. I was very sick from all the pain medicines.
Janelle