After my fourth good scan last week, I saw my oncologist this morning, who was also happy with the result. He didn't think a PET scan was necessary and said my next CT scan could be in three months, rather than two. This is all good news.
As for ongoing side-effects of the treatment, we discussed two things. First, I mentioned chemofog and he referred me to one of his colleagues, whom he said is a leading researcher into the phenomenon. She is away at the moment, but will contact me soon to discuss it.
Second, he pointed out the visible scarring of my lungs from radiotherapy. The damaged region comprises less than 10% of the total volume, but is still a significant amount. He said I will probably not win the Tour de France now.
Showing posts with label breathing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breathing. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Before and after
A tale of two scans
I've just realised that I never posted these amazing images. The first is part of my CT scan from 1st December last year and is two vertical slices of my body. The black path down the middle of each picture is my windpipe. Towards the bottom it divides into two (one bronchial tube to each lung). You can clearly see the growth (which measurements of its height and width) almost entirely blocking my left bronchial tube (though this is on the right of the image, since you are looking at my chest front on). This is why I was having difficulty breathing! In fact, I only really started having noticable trouble with my breathing a week or two later than this scan, when the growth must have been bigger. By the end of December, just before treatment started, this left tube was completely blocked at times (esp when I lay down).
Breathing easy
The second pair of images are from my most recent CT scan. This is the same region as the first scan. Notice the smooth sides of the windpipe and bronchial tubes. There is still a residual mass visible, but it is much smaller.
Cured?
This is wonderful - however, it doesn't mean a definitive 'cure', as I have mentioned before. I will continue to have regular scans every few months (another one is coming up in a few weeks). It is not until two years without any regrowth that they are happy to say that this growth has been beaten.
I've just realised that I never posted these amazing images. The first is part of my CT scan from 1st December last year and is two vertical slices of my body. The black path down the middle of each picture is my windpipe. Towards the bottom it divides into two (one bronchial tube to each lung). You can clearly see the growth (which measurements of its height and width) almost entirely blocking my left bronchial tube (though this is on the right of the image, since you are looking at my chest front on). This is why I was having difficulty breathing! In fact, I only really started having noticable trouble with my breathing a week or two later than this scan, when the growth must have been bigger. By the end of December, just before treatment started, this left tube was completely blocked at times (esp when I lay down).
Breathing easyThe second pair of images are from my most recent CT scan. This is the same region as the first scan. Notice the smooth sides of the windpipe and bronchial tubes. There is still a residual mass visible, but it is much smaller.
Cured?This is wonderful - however, it doesn't mean a definitive 'cure', as I have mentioned before. I will continue to have regular scans every few months (another one is coming up in a few weeks). It is not until two years without any regrowth that they are happy to say that this growth has been beaten.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Update: 24th Jan
The Psalms end with this invitation:
Today I had my fifth (weekly) chemotherapy and seventeenth (daily on weekdays) radiotherapy sessions. They have all been going smoothly, apart from a sudden reaction two weeks ago during the administration of one of the chemotherapy drugs. Although not uncommon, the speed and intensity were quite scary as within sixty seconds I flushed, became very short of breath and had intense back pain for a couple of minutes until I was given drugs to counter it. Since then, I've been given an extra-strong dose of steroids before each chemotherapy, which has prevented another reaction but disrupted sleep on Wednesday nights (and given me a big appetite - I am still putting on weight, having been told by my dietician to enjoy a high protein, high calorie diet (!)). Generally, however, my sleep has been better and our daily life has been fairly 'normal' during January, albeit a little slower than usual with both of us feeling tired much of the time. I have also sometimes been having difficulty concentrating and find my increased absent-mindedness frustrating.
Jessica and I have both started work for the year. Jess is working 3 days/wk in St Leonards as a social researcher. On Sunday I also began 3 days/wk (or some fraction of it, depending on energy levels) at All Souls Anglican Church, Leichhardt as a lay ministry assistant. I had energy on Sunday and enjoyed meeting new people. We're looking forward to getting to know and be part of this community at greater depth, as well as trying to reach out to the local area, particularly to those in the 20-30 somethings. If you're looking for a church around Leichhardt, feel free to drop in on a Sunday (10.00 am or 6.30 pm, cnr Norton and Marion Sts).
We've been thinking recently about how it's important for the cancer to not become the centre of our lives and routine. Life is a gift and staying healthy is a good aim, but is not the most important thing. More important is continuing to grow in our love for God and those around us.
For those who pray, we continue to appreciate and thank God regularly for your support. Here are some suggestions.
Give thanks:
• For continued improvements to breathing and the reduction in the growth.
• For new opportunities to work and serve, especially for the community at All Souls, Leichhardt and what God is doing amongst them, which we'd love to join in on.
• For unexpected acts of generosity and support from a wide range of people.
Pray:
• That the treatment would continue to reduce and remove the tumour with minimal and manageable side-effects and no further reactions.
• That as we enter new contexts we would both have energy to keep caring for one another and strength to build new relationships of trust and grace.
• That our focus would remain on the primary things (loving God and neighbour), with secondary tasks taking their appropriate place.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.I have plenty of reasons to praise God at the moment, since I am now halfway into my treatment cycle and my breathing is basically back to normal. Although it will be a number of weeks before we have any more scans, at this stage, it seems that the tumour is shrinking (at least my bronchial tube no longer feels obstructed). Things have changed a lot since Christmas, when I would wake every few hours to find my left lung wasn't getting any air! I have exchanged some of the direct effects of the tumour (breathing and coughing) for side-effects of the treatment (mainly tiredness and weakness, but also some difficulty swallowing, which will grow as radiotherapy continues).- Psalm 150.6
Today I had my fifth (weekly) chemotherapy and seventeenth (daily on weekdays) radiotherapy sessions. They have all been going smoothly, apart from a sudden reaction two weeks ago during the administration of one of the chemotherapy drugs. Although not uncommon, the speed and intensity were quite scary as within sixty seconds I flushed, became very short of breath and had intense back pain for a couple of minutes until I was given drugs to counter it. Since then, I've been given an extra-strong dose of steroids before each chemotherapy, which has prevented another reaction but disrupted sleep on Wednesday nights (and given me a big appetite - I am still putting on weight, having been told by my dietician to enjoy a high protein, high calorie diet (!)). Generally, however, my sleep has been better and our daily life has been fairly 'normal' during January, albeit a little slower than usual with both of us feeling tired much of the time. I have also sometimes been having difficulty concentrating and find my increased absent-mindedness frustrating.
Jessica and I have both started work for the year. Jess is working 3 days/wk in St Leonards as a social researcher. On Sunday I also began 3 days/wk (or some fraction of it, depending on energy levels) at All Souls Anglican Church, Leichhardt as a lay ministry assistant. I had energy on Sunday and enjoyed meeting new people. We're looking forward to getting to know and be part of this community at greater depth, as well as trying to reach out to the local area, particularly to those in the 20-30 somethings. If you're looking for a church around Leichhardt, feel free to drop in on a Sunday (10.00 am or 6.30 pm, cnr Norton and Marion Sts).
We've been thinking recently about how it's important for the cancer to not become the centre of our lives and routine. Life is a gift and staying healthy is a good aim, but is not the most important thing. More important is continuing to grow in our love for God and those around us.
For those who pray, we continue to appreciate and thank God regularly for your support. Here are some suggestions.
Give thanks:
• For continued improvements to breathing and the reduction in the growth.
• For new opportunities to work and serve, especially for the community at All Souls, Leichhardt and what God is doing amongst them, which we'd love to join in on.
• For unexpected acts of generosity and support from a wide range of people.
Pray:
• That the treatment would continue to reduce and remove the tumour with minimal and manageable side-effects and no further reactions.
• That as we enter new contexts we would both have energy to keep caring for one another and strength to build new relationships of trust and grace.
• That our focus would remain on the primary things (loving God and neighbour), with secondary tasks taking their appropriate place.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Symptoms
What effects does the cancer have? How does it feel?
The direct effects of the cancer are sometimes a little difficult to distinguish from side-effects of the treatment, however, there are a few clear symptoms of the cancer itself.
Voice
The first one to appear and which ultimately led me to getting the scan that discovered the growth was that I lost my voice back in October. At first, I had put this down to stress from a number of sources, but after a couple of months, I thought it was time to get it checked out. My voice had almost entirely disappeared within a week and then gradually came (partially) back. By having a tube stuck up my nose and down my throat (nasal endoscopy), it was discovered that my left vocal cord is paralysed in the 'off' position. In order to make a noise, my right cord has learned to compensate somewhat and so I do have a small voice. Importantly, I am not damaging my voice when I speak, so please don't feel guilty about making me talk. Furthermore, the growth is not in my throat, it is in my chest.* The effect on my voice is because the growth compresses (or has possibly taken over) the nerve that controls one of my vocal cords. This effect may well be permanent, since the radiotherapy is likely to destroy whatever might be left of that nerve. However, with speech therapy I may be able to recover some more voice than I presently have. Unfortunately, I don't think I will ever sing again as I once did. This is one of the saddest things about the whole affair so far. Please pray for my patience in expressing myself with less noise and ease than I once had.
*There seems to be quite some confusion over this, with many people asking me about my throat cancer.
Breathing
A second symptom of the growth itself was that since it had partially grown into my left bronchial tube (near the base of my windpipe/trachea), less air was getting into my left lung. When combined with some mucus build-up around the site of the growth, this would leave me quite short of breath upon even mild exercise (walking up a few stairs, walking above a dawdle) and often coughing quite vigorously. This symptom did not really develop until a week or two after diagnosis on 4th December, though by the end of December when I started treatment, I would often wake up at night to discover that I was only breathing on one lung. It was the severity of this effect that led to my chemotherapy treatment being started a week earlier than originally planned. Sometimes, the coughing would also lead to coughing up small quantities of blood as the tumour would get irritated by all the air movement. Since beginning treatment, my breathing has rapidly improved and now I notice almost no difficulty breathing. I still cough up quite a bit of mucus, but this is more due to side-effects of chemotherapy attacking the lining of my trachea than to the tumour itself. Praise God for the rapid effectiveness of the treament on this particular symptom!
Back to FAQ.
The direct effects of the cancer are sometimes a little difficult to distinguish from side-effects of the treatment, however, there are a few clear symptoms of the cancer itself.
Voice
The first one to appear and which ultimately led me to getting the scan that discovered the growth was that I lost my voice back in October. At first, I had put this down to stress from a number of sources, but after a couple of months, I thought it was time to get it checked out. My voice had almost entirely disappeared within a week and then gradually came (partially) back. By having a tube stuck up my nose and down my throat (nasal endoscopy), it was discovered that my left vocal cord is paralysed in the 'off' position. In order to make a noise, my right cord has learned to compensate somewhat and so I do have a small voice. Importantly, I am not damaging my voice when I speak, so please don't feel guilty about making me talk. Furthermore, the growth is not in my throat, it is in my chest.* The effect on my voice is because the growth compresses (or has possibly taken over) the nerve that controls one of my vocal cords. This effect may well be permanent, since the radiotherapy is likely to destroy whatever might be left of that nerve. However, with speech therapy I may be able to recover some more voice than I presently have. Unfortunately, I don't think I will ever sing again as I once did. This is one of the saddest things about the whole affair so far. Please pray for my patience in expressing myself with less noise and ease than I once had.
*There seems to be quite some confusion over this, with many people asking me about my throat cancer.
Breathing
A second symptom of the growth itself was that since it had partially grown into my left bronchial tube (near the base of my windpipe/trachea), less air was getting into my left lung. When combined with some mucus build-up around the site of the growth, this would leave me quite short of breath upon even mild exercise (walking up a few stairs, walking above a dawdle) and often coughing quite vigorously. This symptom did not really develop until a week or two after diagnosis on 4th December, though by the end of December when I started treatment, I would often wake up at night to discover that I was only breathing on one lung. It was the severity of this effect that led to my chemotherapy treatment being started a week earlier than originally planned. Sometimes, the coughing would also lead to coughing up small quantities of blood as the tumour would get irritated by all the air movement. Since beginning treatment, my breathing has rapidly improved and now I notice almost no difficulty breathing. I still cough up quite a bit of mucus, but this is more due to side-effects of chemotherapy attacking the lining of my trachea than to the tumour itself. Praise God for the rapid effectiveness of the treament on this particular symptom!
Back to FAQ.
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