Living with Lung Cancer

I had my second chemo treatment yesterday. From the time we arrived until the time we left was 7.5 hours, and I thought you might find a description of the process interesting. Joanie was scheduled for an immunotherapy infusion for her breast cancer yesterday also, so we drove in separate cars. After checking in, we went into the infusion room, a large room with a lot of huge, comfy recliners well separated from each other. I grabbed some crackers and peanut butter and some chocolate Ensure from the snack area, and we settled into a couple of the recliners. A nurse drew some blood and then ushered us out of the infusion room and into one of my oncologist’s exam rooms. A short while later my oncologist joined us. She said my labs looked great and she wanted to add an immunotherapy drug to the two chemo drugs. We went back to the infusion room and settled into our recliners. Joanie had brought some crackers, cheese, and summer sausage left over after Sunday’s Super Bowl, so we feas...

I keep thinking I should post another blog entry but there’s not been much to write about since the last post, so this will be short. The debilitating fatigue from the radiation treatments that ended 17 days ago has subsided to where it’s not much of a problem anymore. I can’t be as active as I’d like and I take a nap or two every day, but I’m usually able to function pretty well both physically and mentally. And the issues from the Gamma Knife procedure have resolved themselves. Probably the most interesting thing that’s happened lately is that on Day 11 following my first chemo treatment, I started losing some hair. By now, on Day 16, there’s almost none left. For a few days I was losing handfuls of hair in every shower. This morning I lost almost none, so perhaps I won’t lose it all. Here are two pictures. The first was taken on Monday. The second was taken today, three days later. My chemo treatments are scheduled every three weeks with the next one scheduled for next Tuesd...