Living with Lung Cancer

Great news!! I saw my oncologist this morning and got the results of yesterday’s CT scan. She said she has seldom seen results so good. She even used the word “unbelievable.” The mass in my lung has decreased in size from 4.3 x 6.6 cm to 1.7 x 4.2 cm. The metastatic lesions in both lungs, my liver, and one of my ribs have either decreased significantly in size or have disappeared entirely. I had my fourth chemo treatment after seeing my oncologist today and am scheduled for my fifth chemo treatment on April 20. However, my oncologist may have me temporarily quit chemo to give my body a chance to recover from the side effects of the four treatments. That would be great for me because the fatigue and recently the severe itching have become huge issues most days. The exciting and encouraging progress can be attributed to my oncologist and her expertise in developing my treatment plan, to a couple of “natural” cancer remedies I’ve been using to complement the official treatment plan, a...

Yikes – it’s been almost three weeks since my last blog entry. Not much has happened in those three weeks. I wrote the last entry the day after my second chemo treatment, and there have been almost no issues those whole three weeks. The only issue worth commenting on has been fatigue. There are days when I feel great and have no desire to take a nap all day. Then there are days when I need to take a nap after just taking a shower and brushing my teeth. It’s kind of crazy because there’s no way to predict when the fatigue is going to hit. My third chemo treatment was scheduled for tomorrow, but it got moved to March 9 when my second COVID vaccination shot got scheduled for tomorrow. The main thing I wanted to let you all know about is that I got the results of the January 22 nd Gamma Knife procedure. You may recall that one of the things the early scans revealed was a metastatic lesion in my brain. The Gamma Knife procedure used radiation to attack that lesion. Last Monday (Febru...

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...

My wife Joanie tells me that several people have requested more info about the Gamma Knife – what it is, why I needed it, and what it was like for me during and after the procedure. Gamma Knife is a non-invasive radiosurgery procedure that kills targeted tissue in the brain. Despite its name, it does not involve a real knife. It works by aiming up to 201 low-level radiation beams from many angles such that they all intersect on the unwanted tissue. Therefore, good brain tissue gets exposed to very low levels of radiation but the targeted tissue gets hit with the sum of all those low levels, destroying that tissue. Here is a description of the procedure from https://gammaknife.com : “On the day of treatment, the patient may be given light sedation. Next, local anesthesia is used to secure a head frame to the patient’s head…With the frame in place, the patient undergoes an MRI or CT scan…in order to locate the lesion in the brain to be treated. Using the imaging procedure, the treati...

I had two new experiences this week: my first chemo treatment and a Gamma Knife procedure. The chemo treatment Monday was a piece of cake. Before starting the chemo drugs, they infused me with three anti-nausea drugs. And to minimize the chance of developing peripheral neuropathy, they wrapped my feet in ice packs and had me keep my hands in a tub of ice water during the chemo. So the nausea that so many people dread with chemo never happened. I am, however, having some issues with my lower legs. No numbness or tingling, but a bit like shin splints. Friday was Gamma Knife day, and that was a fascinating experience. It began with an MRI that they compared with the MRI I got on 12/18/2020. The comparison showed that the lesion in my right parietal lobe had grown 20% in those 35 days. Then they moved me from the MRI machine to the Gamma Knife machine, put on some relaxing classical music, and I just laid there for probably 20 minutes. Then it was over. Today my right eyelid is very ...

Last week was easily the most difficult week since I began daily radiation treatments three weeks ago. The debilitating fatigue and the violent coughing spells are really hard to deal with. But I’ve whined enough about those in previous blog entries, so I’ll move on. This coming week is going to be busy. Here’s the schedule: Monday – get a port installed that will be used to administer chemo treatments, get my final radiation treatment, go to our favorite restaurant to celebrate the end of radiation! Tuesday – get my first chemo treatment (Taxol and Carboplatin) Wednesday – get a COVID-19 test required prior to Friday’s Gamma Knife procedure, see one of my two oncologists Thursday – sleep in and do nothing!! Friday – show up at 5:00 am (ugh!) to get the gamma knife procedure on the metastatic lesion in my brain. I’m a bit uneasy about starting chemo the day after ending radiation, without giving my body any time to recover from the side effects of radiation before it gets...