Living with Lung Cancer

  This is Joanie, Ken’s wife.   We had a wonderful visit with Ken’s sisters and brother.   We are so grateful we had that time together!   From that time on, though, Ken’s health declined dramatically.   His pain increased so quickly we ended up in the Emergency Room Thursday, July 10 th and from there to the hospital.   Within 3 days we were on Hospice,   and today we have a sad update:   Ken left us this morning for an eternal life of worship and joy.   We are grateful that he is free of pain.

Last Friday, June 18, MRIs were taken of my cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spines hoping they would point to the cause of extreme lower back pain. The expectation was that they would identify a pinched nerve or other nerve or muscle involvement that could be “fixed” simply with pain meds. Last Monday the 21 st I got my last radiation treatment for the lung cancer. At that same time Joanie got her last immunotherapy infusion for her breast cancer. It was a cause for celebration! Yesterday the 23 rd I got a phone call from my radiation oncologist’s nurse informing me that the MRI results show that the cancer has spread to my lumbar spine. The lower back pain I’ve been experiencing has been caused by those metastatic bone cancer lesions. Not much to celebrate there. This morning we met with my oncologist to discuss those results and develop a new treatment plan. That plan includes the following: Begin radiation treatments to my lumbar spine ASAP and increase the dosage of Fentan

So much has happened since my post two weeks ago that I couldn’t possibly detail it all here. So I’ll just try to summarize the situation as it is right now. The good news is that there’s no pain in my skull, head, right rib area, right elbow, or right arm. That’s probably due partially to an oral steroid (Dexamethasone 4mg twice daily to reduce brain swelling) and a strong oral narcotic (Percocet four times daily). But the main pain fighters for those areas are radiation treatments. I get two radiation treatments every Monday through Friday for ten treatments: one to my brain and skull, the other to my right upper rib area. The purpose of those treatments is strictly to relieve pain. I’ll get my fifth treatment tomorrow (Monday the 14th) and my final treatment Monday the 21 st . However, I’ve developed excruciating pain in my lower back and neither the meds nor the radiation treatments have been effective there. That pain really kicks in when I attempt to get out of bed, get into

It’s been 18 days since my last post, and my how things have changed in those 18 days! The pain in my right upper chest got a lot worse, and I developed a headache that has continued to escalate. Those symptoms led to my getting a bone scan two days ago and a CT scan yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to see a doctor yet about those two scans, but I have the reports and they are disturbing. The lesion in my right rib, which once was “tiny,” is now a mass measuring 2.0 x 2.5 inches. My strong hunch is that that’s what’s causing my chest pain. There are also metastatic nodules throughout both lungs and my liver. The headaches are pretty bad. Tylenol Arthritis doesn’t affect them. I see my oncologist Tuesday. She’ll review all the scans and, if necessary, formulate a new treatment plan. Then I’ll get a brain MRI Wednesday and see several other doctors over the next week. I’ll post another update next weekend after I’ve gotten recommendations from all those doctors. In the meantime,

Today I saw my oncologist and got a phone call from my new radiation oncologist. They were both incredibly happy with and encouraged by the results of my most recent scans. I told both doctors that over the last three or four days I had a sharp pain around my right breast. I was beginning to wonder if not only was I a non-smoker with lung cancer, but perhaps I was also a guy with breast cancer. Wouldn’t that have been interesting? But my oncologist suspects it was caused by my (defiantly) lifting a 40-pound bag of fertilizer at about the time this started. She suggested that if it isn’t better in two weeks, I should call and she’ll schedule a bone scan. My new radiation oncologist pointed out that the pain is precisely where the metastatic lesion in my rib is. He agreed with my oncologist that I should get a scan in a couple of weeks if the pain isn’t better by then. Concerning the three lesions in my skull and a new lesion on my C1 vertebra, they are tiny and they haven’t dramatic

This afternoon I saw my radiation oncologist to get his opinion of the results of my April 12 brain MRI. While the shrinking of the metastatic lesion in my brain is certainly good news, he is concerned about three small bony metastatic lesions that the MRI detected in my skull. Two of them require no immediate treatment, but one of them is close to my brainstem and throat and he recommended treating that soon with radiation treatments Monday through Friday for two consecutive weeks. Before he can start those treatments, he needs to design and construct a brace that will hold my head in exactly the same position for each of those ten treatments. And to do that, he needs a specialized CT scan. I was already scheduled for a PET scan tomorrow morning, and since it is in the same building in which his CT scan would be done, he arranged for his CT scan to take place tomorrow right after my PET scan. That’s very convenient. The ten radiation treatments will be targeted close to my brain