Friends and Family,

It’s been a pretty wonderful six weeks since my last post. It’s not this way for everybody, but for me chemo is pretty easy when it’s just Alimta. It feels almost like I’m having infusions of saline solution. That’s a really good thing, since I will continue on Alimta every three weeks for as long as it works.

I’ve put back on fifteen pounds in the past few months, but for the life of me I can’t tell where they went. Not only that, my latest CT scan results show that everything remains stable, and my lab results are looking great!

The only fly in the ointment came up the day after my PleurX chest tubes were removed. An inguinal hernia popped up, probably caused by all the coughing the past few months. My surgeon wanted me to skip two rounds of chemo and four days of Tagrisso to have the surgery to promote better healing, but we just got this cancer under control, and I don’t want to let the beast loose again. 

I think the surgeon needs a little help with his priorities. My oncologist is having a second talk with him. If things go as Dr. Sanborn is suggesting, I’ll skip one round of chemo and one or two days of Tagrisso, which she doesn’t think will be a problem. Once the surgery is over and some healing has taken place, I’ll be back to hill walking (we’re way past mall walking these days), and eventually I can get back working in my yard.

In short, life is almost stable again. Sounds pretty wonderful to me.

Hoping all is well for you, too.

Love,

Dann

This post originally appeared on Dann’s Cancer Chronicles on March 18, 2022. It is republished with permission.