Tag Archives: adenocarcinoma

A Day of Chemotherapy

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It’s late in the evening and the hiccups have begun just as I lay my head on the pillow. Aside from that nefarious turn of events, the predictions for the remainder of my day were fairly accurate in my video diary, as hastily assembled as it was this afternoon. Journey with me, if you are curious and have roughly 20 minutes to spare, to see just what it is like to go in for my tri-weekly chemotherapy infusion.

Infusion Time!

Yes, I look a little tired; I was. And yes, there may be some sound issues; I was using a new app on my phone and rushed the whole process, and per the last sentence, I was also tired. Still, the record stands, more or less, and you can see just the extent that chemo has worn me down and crushed my spirit over the past year and three months that it has dominated my social calendar. In the spirit of this blog, I have tried to remain honest and straightforward in my appraisal of how the chemotherapy process works. While the video is clearly edited for time, it still drags at times, just like my poor, poor feet… Maybe one day I will trim a few minutes off and spice it up with music and flashy cuts. For now, this is the story of my day, more or less like it really happened.

[Edit: the original video has been replaced by one that really ought to be better quality. Also, follow up videos for the week will be posted below, so this post really should be called “A Week of Chemotherapy.”]

Monday:

More videos follow.
Continue reading A Day of Chemotherapy →

The Chemo Diaries: Year Two, Round Two

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Getting ready to fluff my pillow before the chemo drip begins.

The Chemo has been going pretty well since my first real extended break. By extended, I really only mean two weeks off from the usual cycle. The first infusion after the vacation may have left me a bit more tired than expected, but I wasn’t exactly super well-rested after a week of extra stairs and cross-country travel. It will be interesting to see how this round goes.

Chemo and Gratitude

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This isn’t about still having my hair, or not throwing up all the time. Maybe it’s a little about those things. But I have been quite fortunate with regard to all aspects of my treatment and to all the people involved with the process from initial decision making to treatment to support. Nowhere along the way was I met with an adversarial situation. (Huntington Memorial and my Nurse Navigator, the illustrious Christine, get special credit for that, having gone to bat with my HMO so that I would not have to. And the whole staff with my oncologist at Keck works diligently to ensure that I am shielded from most HMO related nonsense, as well.) Continue reading The Chemo Diaries: Year Two, Round Two →

Death in Threes and the Power of Words

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The common saying is that “they come in threes.” We’re talking about celebrity deaths, of course, and although this is typically the sort of nonsense that can be justified simply by shifting the period of inclusion so it always appears to be accurate, there is something eerily unique about this past week. Within nine days, we have had three prominent people of the same age whose deaths are blamed on cancer.

First, we had Ellen Stovall, age 69 and president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. Technically, she died from complications related to cardiac disease, but the cause of her heart trouble is traced back to treatments she underwent 45 years ago for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. According to her obituary in the New York Times, she had a recurrence of the lymphoma in the 80s and then also discovered that she had breast cancer — about this time she also discovered a pamphlet from the organization she would later be president of, which introduced her to the term “survivor” as a replacement for the word that had been commonly used to describe cancer patients: victim. This subtle adjustment of language helped to give her drive and focus and to become a force in the next wave of cancer awareness. She died on January 5th.

Next came the news on January 10th that David Jones, better known as David Bowie, had died after an 18 month “battle” with an undisclosed cancer just two days after his 69th birthday. While his family declined to offer details, it was reported by the New York Times that the director of Lazarus, Bowie’s Broadway collaboration, mentioned liver cancer in an interview with Danish media. Whether this meant the cancer originated in the liver or had merely settled in that organ is not clear, keeping in tune with the varied enigmatic personas the performer was known for. However, not knowing the type of cancer adds not just to the mystique of David Bowie, but the general fear and uncertainty that the word “cancer” conjures on its own. Continue reading Death in Threes and the Power of Words →

The Chemo Diaries: Year One Retrospective

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It has been slightly over one year since my diagnosis, and I am in my twelfth month of chemotherapy infusions. I find it fitting that this timing coincides with Lung Cancer Awareness Month. To celebrate, or honor, or whatever you do for these types of anniversaries or milestones, I have decided to take a look at the previous year in pictures. This isn’t so much a vanity issue, though you will notice that the pictures are basically just of me, usually smiling and trying to look presentable; the greater point of the images is to watch the progression (or, occasionally, lack of it) in my appearance from infusion to infusion.

In November of 2014, I received my diagnosis after several months of feeling ill (for mostly unrelated issues) and having little or no energy or stamina. Ironically, when the testing and scanning began in earnest in September, I had begun to incrementally improve. Every time I was irradiated for a glance within, I left the imaging center feeling better. My breath had been quiet short in August and September, but by October I was noticing an improvement — a small improvement, but enough of one to give me the notion that I was “getting better” from whatever was ailing me. Still, I wasn’t in the best of shape, and I had been spending the previous months worrying progressively more about just what could be going on in my lungs. I had spent more time doing research on the Internet than I probably spent in the college library system during my entire four-year stretch. (Okay, not just probably; I did not take advantage of the old stacks the way I should have, and that remains one of my biggest regrets about those college years — funny the things we grow nostalgic for as we “mature.”)
Continue reading The Chemo Diaries: Year One Retrospective →

Shine a Light on Lung Cancer November 8, 2015

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I was asked to speak at the Shine a Light event at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, CA. Below the video is a transcript, for those of you who like to read. The event certainly was not about me, and I will link to more info on the ceremony when it is posted and available, but in the meantime here is a small portion for your viewing enjoyment.

One year ago yesterday, I wrote my first blog post about lung cancer. I had just been diagnosed with inoperable metastatic stage 4 adenocarcinoma. That was a pretty long name for an ominous sounding condition that I knew relatively little about. People all around me — and it seemed everywhere across the Internet — were ready to express what a dire situation I was in. But I’m here to tell you that I feel great. Today is a fabulous day. Tomorrow I am going in for another infusion, a little bit of what I like to consider my “me time.” Granted I’m on maintenance therapy now and I kind of miss the longer treatment that I used to have, because it allowed me to get some work done on the blog or do some quality reading or catch up on my email. These days, my infusion happens too quickly to get much accomplished. But… I really can’t complain about that. Continue reading Shine a Light on Lung Cancer November 8, 2015 →

Lung Cancer Answers and Awareness Support

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As a frequent contributor to Quora.com, a website for asking questions and getting answers from people who are knowledgable about the subject, I have naturally offered input on issues related to lung cancer. After all, one of the first rules for authors is to “write what you know.” Here, in honor of lung cancer awareness month, I am collecting links to some of the answers I have supplied on Quora.

  • Read on below the links for more on Lung Cancer Awareness

Some of these questions have many answers and mine might be somewhere down the list, but generally all of them make for interesting reading and good perspectives. Popular ones may have been “upvoted” quite extensively (this could also be the case for older answers while newer answers with more merit may have few upvotes simply because fewer people have viewed them). Also, a lot of the answers are quite brief. Occasionally I do get a bit long-winded, but my contribution to the discussion could be just a few sentences or paragraphs. Overall, however, I think that these questions and answers make for good reading in a format more like a town hall meeting than a typical blog. Continue reading Lung Cancer Answers and Awareness Support →

November Is Lung Cancer Awareness Month

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I love autumn. My favorite season is marked by the changing colors of leaves, the cooler breezes and the fun of Hallowe’en. October has traditionally been my favorite month, marking the real onset of autumn. October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the advocates for this have done a tremendous job over the past decades, leading toward huge increases in funding for research and also leaps forward in treatment. The popularity of this movement, however, overshadows Lung Cancer Awareness Month, right on its heels in November. While the movement for Lung Cancer Awareness might not be as popular, the disease itself is equally entrenched and far more deadly. But the greater public has yet to rally for this affliction with anywhere near the fervor of other causes, in spite of an overall very small piece of the research pie.

“The American Cancer Society’s estimates for lung cancer in the United States for 2015 are:

  • About 221,200 new cases of lung cancer (115,610 in men and 105,590 in women)
  • An estimated 158,040 deaths from lung cancer (86,380 in men and 71,660 among women).

Lung cancer accounts for about 27% of all cancer deaths and is by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined.” (From cancer.org)
Continue reading November Is Lung Cancer Awareness Month →

My Frenemy, Dexamethasone

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When initially discussing chemotherapy treatments, most people begin with the thought that it is the chemo drugs themselves, those infamously toxic concoctions, that the patient would complain about most, or fear, or suffer from. And chemo does suck, what with the potential for nausea and fatigue and that notorious chemo brain. But do you know what really sucks, dear Reader? Steroids.

I recognize the importance of the Dexamethasone pills I take for three days at the start of each infusion cycle. And I appreciate that I am not taking Prednisone, which some of my friends have been saddled with for lengthy periods of time and which I had seen turn my father’s final years into a much less pleasant time than they should have been. I owe a debt to Prednisone, without which I would not have gotten ill enough to eventually lead to my cancer diagnosis, but I will never take it again. Dexamethasone, on the other hand, I can deal with. I don’t like it, but I understand the need to make my peace with the sleepless nights and mild dizzy spells and increased irritability, the hoarseness and seemingly endless peeing. Continue reading My Frenemy, Dexamethasone →

The Give and Take of the Support Group

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I met some nice people today. People who I would not normally have crossed paths with in my daily life. They were a happy, optimistic bunch, or seemed so to me, in spite of the circumstances that brought us together for the 90 minutes allotted this morning. Most of the small group knew each other, but were largely strangers to me when I walked into the room. It was my first time attending a cancer support group.

I had no idea what to expect from the meeting. The truth is, I had not been in any particular rush to attend; my impression of such a gathering was based on flimsy Hollywood portrayals, and that fuelled more by onscreen AA meetings than anything else. The coordinating nurse who ran the meeting was also the person responsible for setting me up with my oncologist and taking care of most of the administrative functions revolving around my early care from the point where my tumor was identified until I had begun my chemo drips. And she has been a part of the process since, if not directly, keeping tabs on me and checking in now and again. She had asked me on several occasions if I would attend a support group meeting and I had always put it off, thinking that I was doing fine and so, really, it wasn’t something I really needed to do.

Then she sent me a flier, with a personal note at the top, and I went and put the date in my calendar. And then there I was. Continue reading The Give and Take of the Support Group →

The Chemo Diaries: 10 Months

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Let me just start by saying I feel great. I just had another CT scan about a week ago and it is showing clearer edges to the main tumor, some puckering in the middle and overall indicates good progress. Yesterday I had my infusion of Alimta and for a nice change of pace I have cut my steroid use in half — which so far is going quite well for me. I am not a fan of steroids and this was one of my top objectives. The result has been a clearer head so far, a bit more sleep and less swelling of my feet, which translates to a nice win in my playbook. All in all, I am quite pleased with my week.

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The only downsides are things that probably won’t be issues for a while, possibly a long while. One of the effects of infusions is that slowly but surely veins collapse. I always had marvelous veins for drawing blood but they have taken a heap of abuse over the past year and a half. The labs approved by my HMO tend to use the biggest needles possible for the fastest draw and while that never bothered me before, the chemo had made it so that I bruised easily and had to rotate veins every few weeks just to avoid issues with leaking. It wasn’t until about eight months in to my treatment that a nurse in the infusion clinic asked me why I didn’t just request butterfly needles… The veins are much less prone to bruising now. Who knew?

Still, the veins are a bit of an issue. I still have plenty to experiment with, but we had to move from the arm down to the hand for this last round. My hand veins, possibly due to my normally low blood pressure, stay fairly plump most of the time, making them good targets. But it got the nurse talking to me about putting in a port one day, just to make things easier. Such a port would be under the skin just over my heart, kind of a permanent plastic plug right into my largest vein. Supposedly that would be good for a few years of constant use. Still, it isn’t something I am in a rush to do.

But a few years or more is certainly what I am looking at right now. While no one will put a timeline on anything regarding treatment, my oncologist did say that he expected I would remain on this current regimen for a fairly long time. That is pretty good news in its own special way. Of course, the main reason for switching off it would be the commercial availability of PD1 therapies. We are eager to try those, but not so eager to qualify for clinical trials, which would require progression of the cancer after the failure of my current chemo. For now, that wait is a good one.