Cancer update - boring

Wow. It's been almost two weeks since I last posted. During that time I've had radiation treatment daily, and been in the hospital for two days for surgery. So let me update about that first, since I promised I would use this blog for the boring cancer news.

I have been suffering from superior vena cava syndrome, where the major vein into my heart is clogged with scar tissue from my port/catheter, in addition to being squeezed by swelling lymph nodes in my chest. I was given the choice of whether to radiate the lymph nodes to try to bring down the swelling, since I already had angioplasty to try to clear out the scar tissue inside the vein, and got no relief. I was ready to skip the radiation, but my oncologist thought it was worth the try, for a 50% chance it would help. Symptoms are swelling of the face, neck, and arms, because fluid cannot drain from the upper body. Also an increase in shortness of breath, which was my major discomfort, given that my right lung has given it all up, and I'm a fairly large woman to operate on only one lung.

Anyway, I was getting more and more short of breath, distressed trying to breathe, really uncomfortable. On Wednesday I realized that the sensation I was experiencing was the same as when I'd had the pleural effusion in the other lung. So, I told the docs I was pretty sure that's what I had, and he told me to wait another day to see if it improved any with the radiation treatments. On Thursday when I went in for radiation I told the doc it was worse, so they sent me over for a CT scan, and admitted me for surgery the next (Friday) morning. I had surgery where they drained the fluid plus put in a catheter for me to drain when I get uncomfortable from fluid building up, and on Saturday I came home. I was in the old section of the Cleveland Clinic this time, with a roommate who liked to keep the TV on all the time and had lots of visitors. Plus she needed nursing care in the middle of the night. Not nearly as snazzy as the brand new, private room with a view that I stayed in for the recent surgery in August. Yeah, this one reminded me why I don't want to be in the hospital, for sure.

I still have the remainder of the radiation sessions to complete. I can't keep up with what's happening when; I should probably make a spreadsheet. I will complete this round of radiation on Monday, then on Tuesday I have a brain MRI and an appointment with the neurologist. Then the following week, or maybe the one after Thanksgiving, I will start chemo, unless there's a brain issue that needs to be addressed first. Oh, bother.