ilivebyfaith wrote:Hi everyone. Been researching about laser lung surgery in Germany and I really think it's the best option for my husband should he be qualified and decided to undergo laser surgery. Would just like to know the following:
1. How long do we have to stay in the hospital?
Depends on if there are complications. No complications then 14 days.
2. How long should he rest before we can travel back home to our country? How long should we stay in Germany for this?
You will have to get permission from the physician in Germany to give to the airlines to fly.
3. How much hospitalization budget should we prepare, inclusive of hospital accommodation, laser surgery, medicines needed during or after the operation and the professional fee of the surgeon.
When I did it, last yr. it was in the 30,000-40,000 euro range per lung.
4. Lung function wise, what can my husband expect after the laser surgery?
No one can truly answer that question because the lung function will be determined by where the mets are located. All porions of the lung to not contribute the same amount to ones aerobic capacity. This point I learned from a pulmonologist.
5. Are there follow up check up, lab tests required after the laser surgery in Germany?
Basically x-rays to be sure you are not walking around with a collapsed lung.
I had a collapsed lung that took 2 mos. to heal while in Germany. However, it is thought that this was due to radiation damage created here in the states before going to Germany. The other unirradiated lung healed fine and I was on my way back to the states in 2 weeks.
Your inputs will be of great help. We are considering this laser thing in the near future. Regards to all.
ilivebyfaith wrote:@mastan
Thank you for your reply. Good thing I asked, I saw in the net from a patient 2 years ago that it was 18,000 euros then, per lung. How significantly have the price for laser increased over 2 years, more than doubled.
Perhaps not. It depends upon where you go to have it done. I had it done at the University Hospital in Freiberg. I believe the lower price is for procedures performed in Dresden. There are multiple places in Germany to have this procedure done.
Anyway, I still feel that this laser treatment makes sense. My husband is starting to complain on the effects of chemo and how it makes him so weak
He will likely not escape that option even post surgery.
If it's ok, may I ask how many mets were they able to zapped out? And if you remember, what was the biggest met size?
I had 7 spots in the left lung and 6 spots in the right lung. The largest spots were about a cm. they biopsied each spot and one of the spots was primary lung cancer the others were mets. If I had not done the surgery we would have not known about the lung cancer spot and subsequent chemo would have done nothing to treat it.
Thank you so much. You will never know how much this message means to me and my dear husband. Thank you for making time to share your inputs.
Sophy wrote:And you may wish to consider this study done at the Royal Brompton and Royal Marsden hospitals about the benefits of chemo before and after laser lung surgery at their hospitals.
This clearly contradicts what all other oncs have told me that there is no benefit in chemo before/after laser lung surgery.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.118 ... ltext.html
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