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Showing posts from 2020

Six Month Scans

Around the middle of June I had a full body bone scan and chest CT scan and both came back clear. That puts me at six months cancer free. The last time I could say I was six months cancer free was..., October 2014. Great news! In late March I began having a difficult time breathing. Horrible timing on that one. Remember I had radiation for a lung nodule last May? One of the side effects that can occur up to a year later is radiaton pneumonitis, and that was the cause of my problem. The main treatment consists of steroids, but with the coronavirus going around my oncologist advised against them because they weaken the immune system. As an alternative, I performed breathing treatments with an incentive spirometer and a balloon. I also made sure to drink lots of water and took advil twice a day. Not sure if the water and advil part made a difference, but it took about a month to resolve and I have been good since. A week after my last post, my employer sent us all home, and I have been wo...

Treatment Complete

Long overdue for this update, but here it is. On my last update I was in cycle 5 and the plan was to go with 6 cycles of chemo, but since I was having problems with skin toxicity we decided to drop the dose back down to 30 mg/m2. During that time there was also some collaboration between my local oncologist and the one I've been consulting with in Cleveland. The oncologist in Cleveland wanted to go with another year at the lower dose with treatment every other month, and my local oncologist wanted to stop at 6 cycles. I decided to just extend it to 8 cycles and be done. The last three cycles weren't too bad with the adjusted dose, and I completed them without delay in early January. I had another clear scan in December which was awesome and made me feel better about stopping treatment. I have my first post treatment scan coming in a few weeks. Let's keep the clear scan streak going. Looking back at how this last chemo regimen went makes me feel uneasy. My big concern ...