I would like to thank all my friends from INSPIRE for sharing your individual stories. I believe by speaking out you are empowering not just yourselves, but others who have been impacted by this devastating disease, lung cancer.
Now it’s time to update my own status.
I met with various members of my team last Wednesday. Due for a scan in two weeks, they bumped it up to that day after I described my growing anxiety over steadily worsening symptoms; cough, fatigue, and bronchorrhea.
Bronchorrhea is an uncommon symptom associated with the variant of lung cancer I have, mucinous bronchioalveolar carcinoma, and it is making bedtime miserable. The moment I lay down, my lungs start to crackle. For the next 30-40 minutes, I cough, hack and spit as I clear 2-3 ounces of frothy mucus from my windpipe. It is exhausting and at times frightening as well. There is no antidote for this sort of bronchorrhea, other than treating the underlying cause, the cancer itself.
Although some of my cancer is yet responding to treatment, it is likely that a new clone or mutation has been selected out for; one that is resistant to LDK378. This scenario is suggested by the appearance of my scans, as my cancer is returning in a very different pattern than it has previously. Rather than a gradual consolidation of diffuse nodules, much of what we are now seeing resembles billowing smoke, and is likely responsible for the bronchorrhea. However, the only way to confirm this hypothesis is to retrieve some cancerous tissue.
Fortunately, a biopsy is now considered doable and a core sample shall be removed from my left lung on 12/12/12. In addition, I will take my last dose of LDK378 on 12/11 and one week after the biospy, I will start chemotherapy; four rounds of Alimta/carboplatin followed by continuous maintenance with the Alimta alone.
When I underwent chemotherapy in 2005, I had a port installed. As it is a foreign body, there is a risk for infection and there are now a limited number of antibiotics that I can tolerate, so at least initially, I shall forgo the port. Should infusion through an IV prove too difficult, we will reconsider.
So that’s the scoop, from the medical perspective.
life and breath: outliving lung cancer 