Wow, I just realized it has been quite a while since my last update. Part of that is because it was a rough few months, but also, part of it is due to me writing for LungCancer.net. My apologies to those of you who follow my progress via my blog.
Let's start with my Lung Cancer. I still have scans every 3 months and thus far my Opdivo is working fantastic. Each scan shows either NO growth or slight shrinkage of my tumors. This is great news.
Now the not so great news. As I posted a while back, they discovered that I have Bladder Cancer as well. It is NOT metastatic. It is a separate cancer. In July, I had Bladder Surgery and the tumor was removed. The plan was for me to get six immunotherapy treatments which would be placed in my bladder via a catheter. I then I had keep it in there for 2 hours.
Well, as you know, my Opdivo is an immunotherapy. When my Oncologist found out, she freaked. She immediately called the Urologist to discuss what was going on. The final decision was that I was to stop the Bladder Cancer therapy because as we know there have been years upon years of studies on immunotherapies BUT NONE for people who are having 2 different immunotherapies at the same time.
Okay, so now what? Apparently there is a different chemotherapy/immunotherapy drug called Mytomycin that they decided would be a better choice. I began these treatments in August. The first two or three weren't too bad. A bit of pain for a day or two and trouble urinating.
Then the bottom fell out. On my fourth treatment, I was in extreme pain in my bladder. It was spasming. I felt a constant urge to pee!! And I mean constant. Then I broke out in hives from my neck to my toes. Between the pain and itching, I didn't know where to begin. This lasted 9 days. Of course, I called the Urologist and just my luck he was on vacation. The nurse did reach him and he said that I should stop my treatments immediately (just the bladder) and we would wait until my next scans in October to discuss what to do.
The probability of Bladder Cancer tumors coming back is high - even with treatment after removal. So I'm not sure where this leads me. Since these two drugs are the only options for me right now, we have to wait and see. At least both doctors are in agreement that my Lung Cancer is the priority.
I will update again soon, I promise. As soon as I know what is going on. In the meantime, I will just continue my Opdivo every two weeks.
