Janet Frasher

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.  My cancer journey started a little over 3 weeks ago on May 27th. I certainly never imagined I would be using that phrase. I had been to the emergency room three times since the first of the year with severe right side chest pain. The first 2 times were about a week apart in late February and the diagnosis was pneumonia. The third time was around May 16th at which point they noticed on the CT scans changes in my right lung. A few days later I had a broncoscopy where they did numerous tests. Over the days that followed my on line medical chart “MyChart” had test results dropping in daily, all negative. After 5 days there were 15 tests that ruled out several things but did not give us answers. I was in a business lunch with 15 other business owners on 5/27 when I was alerted that I had another test result drop it. I opened it up and saw the phrase, “…highly suspicious for metastatic carcinoma…”, and my life changed. We had an appointment with a pulmonologist that afternoon. I knew the phrase metastatic was bad news. I asked about this and the doctor explained that once a cancer gets to stage 4, it moves through your blood stream to other parts of your body. My response was, “So are you telling me that I have stage 4 cancer some where in my body that has moved to my lungs?”  He explained that the next step was to get a PET scan to better understand what we were dealing with. That was scheduled 6 days later. So for 6 days Chuck and I suffered as we dealt with what was likely a devastating situation. We cried, prayed and he held me up as I could barely cope with the situation. On Friday 6/2 I sat with Chuck holding one hand and my dear friend Denise holding the other as the doctor told us the results…the cancer was only in my right lung and one lymph node!!! We still didn’t know exactly what we were dealing with. Over the next 2 weeks we had numerous tests done including a second broncoscopy. As of right now, we know that I have primary lung cancer that is also in lymph node 11 BUT no other lymph nodes and it appears that my treatment will start with surgery, likely followed by chemo and possible radiation. I have learned that this is the best possible outcome for a lung cancer diagnosis. I have a great medical team in place at Barnes and Siteman. My village is filled with so many that are raising my name in prayer and overwhelming my heart with love! Our next step is to meet with the thoracic surgeon on Wednesday of this week. I suspect we will set a surgery date at that time. We are eager to move forward with treatment and ready for whatever that is. Chuck has been my rock, my anchor, my best friend and my source of strength and love!!! My daughter Kayla, brother and sister-in-law, Craig and Dawn, along with my dear friends Denise and Joel have provided daily strength, love and support. I am so moved with all the calls, texts, prayers, cards, emails, flowers, fruit baskets, an amazing book, and so much more! THANK YOU all for your prayers, love and support. I will update the site as our journey progresses. With love, Janet