Parting with Pneumonia

Apparently isn't very easy to do! The xray today (September 23) showed a big improvement in the right lung but the left side is still "full of crap". Even the radiologist can't tell if it's from pneumonia, cancer or scarring from radiation. Dr. Nixon did not prescribe another antiobiotic until they take another xray next week - it's a balancing act between killing the bad guys and building immunity to antiobiotics. Dr. Nixon wants me to take a metronomic chemo called cytoxan. It is an old chemo drug being used in a new way. You take a small dose in a pill daily instead of a big mega dose all at once. Dr. Nixon has used it on four of his own patients there at CTCA and has good results with each of them. It supposedly has very little or no side effects. It has not been tested on mesothelioma patients, so I will be a guinea pig. They will know in about 4-6 weeks if it is doing the job of cutting off the blood supply to the cancer cells. If the cytoxan works then they will add Celebrex, which is normally used for arthritis, but it seems it helps with this type of therapy as well. I must confess to being terribly nervous about this - even though everyone says there are no side effects (I heard that before starting radiation!!) I got a little emotional having been through chemo, then radiation, then recovering from radiation and then having pnuemonia and now trying a new drug - but I can quit any day I want to if there are side effects - so I really have nothing to lose. I'm feeling much better from the pneumonia, but my oxygen sats are still low so I'm tethered to the oxygen tank and still working on recovering from the pneumonia. Thank you for your prayers - I still need them until I'm safely on the other side! A special thank you to my babysitters this week for cleaning my house, rearranging furniture, driving to Timbuktu and doing my grocery shopping - you are so, so awesome!

UPDATE on XRAY RESULTS

With all the hoopla of the party, I neglected to let you know the results of the X-ray on the 3rd of September (follow-up to the CT scan on August 13th.) They found both lungs full of pneumonia. I was feeling pretty rotten and unable to breathe well (breathing is always a good thing), so at least it was nice to have an excuse for feeling poorly and that there is something they can do to treat it. I'm on antibiotics and oxygen full time since my oxygen stats were low. Until the pneumonia is resolved well, they still can't determine if there is any interstitial spread of the cancer in the left lung, but for now they know its an infection because it is in both lungs. I go back again for another x-ray on the 10th and then I'm leaving on the 11th for a trip to Lake Tahoe with my Dad, his wife, Jackie and my two sisters and one brother-in-law -- a tradition we had for many years and haven't done for a long time. I may have to take portable oxygen but I don't care - I'm going and they can't stop me!! I try to take all of these new adventures in stride - knowing that the Lord loves me and will help me through them all. Thank you for your continued faith and prayers - I feel your strength - especially when I'm in the temple!!