M felt pretty good when he woke up, a little pain but not too bad.
He went for his shot at 3. That night he began to describe horrible pain from inside his bones.
Category: lung cancer
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July 12, 2016 – First Chemotherapy
M’s first chemo day, he had to be there at 8:15 am and I picked him up at 5 pm…
He didn’t have much to say about it.
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June 30, 2016 – Chemotherapy Learning Session
Before actually starting chemotherapy M had to go in for a training session where he learned what to expect, where to go, etc.
Chemo will be every three weeks, Carboplatin, Paclitaxel, and Avastin (bevacizumab). Then, he’ll go in the day after for a shot of Neulasta (pegfilgrastim), he meets with Dr. K the week after chemo and gets blood work, and the third week he just gets bloodwork.
M’s never had so many appointments. I put a white board up on the refrigerator.
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June 22, 2016 – Medical Oncologist Visit
So, M went to meet with Dr. K, the oncologist he met with in the hospital. He was supposed to conference me in on speaker phone so I could hear what was going on but he didn’t. He didn’t remember the specifics of any part of the visit except chemotherapy will start after the 4th of July.
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June 16, 2016 – Gamma Knife
M and I had to be at the hospital in the city at 5:30.
He was done and we were headed home by 10:30!
The report says they treated a 1.4 cm x 1.7 cm tumor in the posterior right insula, a 1.4 cm x 1.5 cm tumor in the left posterior frontal lobe, and a 4 mm something in the medial posterior left frontal lobe.
M starts tapering off the dexamethasone which takes 21 days.
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June 13, 2016 – Consult for Gamma Knife
M went to see Dr. L, a neurosurgeon that is well renowned for the Gamma Knife. The Dr thinks M is a great candidate, “can you be here tomorrow?” Well, no, but it’s nice to have a doctor with a sense of urgency. At this point it had been a month since diagnosis.
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June 8, 2016 – CT Guided Biopsy
M had a CT guided biopsy and it went well and was successful. Because they use a series of CT scans to place the needle, they can make sure they get into the tumor to get a snip.
So now we have a type, non small cell, specifically a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma.
Now that we know that, M can see the neurosurgeon for a consult for Gamma Knife.
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May 26, 2016 – PET Scan
The PET Scan went smoothly. It showed the lung mass but none elsewhere in his body so hey, there’s a positive.
Still doesn’t answer the question of what type so we have no plan of attack yet.
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May 20, 2016 – Bronchoscopy
M had his bronchoscopy to try to get some of the tumor for sampling. He sailed through it, the pulmonologist was optimistic that they got a sample.
We found out a few days later that it was unsuccessful.
Still no information.
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May 12, 2016 – Radiation Oncologist Visit
May 12th was the first followup visit after hospial discharge. We saw the radiation oncologist. He said that treatment for the brain tumors would depend on the type of lung cancer. If it was small cell, it would be whole brain radiation which could be done there. If it was non small cell it would be Gamma Knife for which we’d need to travel into the city.
I got some measurements while the Dr was flipping through the MRI & x-ray:
- Lung mass: 26.5 mm x 11.9 mm
- Brain tumor A: 12.3 mm x 13.1 mm
- Brain tumor B: 10.7 mm x ?
- Brain tumor C: 2.5 mm x ?
M’s back and arm pain, that he’d had for weeks, has disappeared since starting the dexamethasone. It seems that the steroid has reduced the swelling around the lung mass which must have been pressing on nerves.