Round 3 Day 5 and Some Good News

I've been in the hospital receiving my third round of chemotherapy for the past five days.  Since they started running the IVs on Monday afternoon I've been on a 24 hour drip the entire time I've been here. As I mentioned before this is my first experience with this version of my regimen that isn't distracted by me being intubated or recovering from other procedures, so it's my first unadulterated exposure to these drugs.  It's been an intense round of treatment so far.  I can tell by how I feel that the medication I'm receiving is really strong.  Originally it looked like I may get out of here this afternoon.  Now it may be tomorrow afternoon.  But either way progress is being made and I'm happy to be moving along.  Then I'll get to go home again and really rest.

Yesterday morning I had my second CT scan since being diagnosed back in June.  The first scan was performed the day I checked into the hospital.  It revealed the mass in my upper left chest and it showed  how it had grown around my trachea, restricting my ability to breath.  Shortness of breath was the number one issue I was having that lead me to go to the doctor in the first place.  And it was pretty bad.  When the doctors saw that first CT they were extremely alarmed.  In fact, they were surprised I was even able to walk around and function as I had been.  They rushed me into surgery to biopsy the mass and get a diagnosis so they could start treatment immediately.  I had no time to react really.  It was like being unexpectedly tossed into a raging white water current.  Thankfully, it turns out I had a life jacket on.  

I was wheeled down to Interventional Radiology yesterday morning for the second scan around 8am, but it was mid afternoon before I had a visit from a doctor who was able to share the results with me.  She showed me the scan itself and the radiologist's report describing their findings and comparing them to the first scan.  The second scan showed none of the mass that had been so apparent in the first scan.  My trachea is no longer obstructed.  There is no fluid around my heart or lungs as there had been when I first came in.  And there is very little visual evidence of any remaining cancer whatsoever.  In other words, the scan could hardly look much better!  

This is amazing and encouraging news.  It means that the treatment I've received so far has been very effective.  It's important to keep in mind that it's very early on in this process.  The original plan for my treatment included six months of high dose IV chemotherapy followed by about a year and a half of maintenance therapy.  I'm not sure if this progress will change the course of my treatment or not.  I don't have any idea whether things will look the same or better or worse in a month or six or a year.  But I will admit that I felt optimistic before this scan was performed that it would show positive results based simply on the fact that I can breath normally again, and am feeling in better condition in many ways now than I did when I went to the hospital the first time (chemo side effects aside).  So it wasn't a surprise to me to find out this good news, but it was certainly a huge boost emotionally.  I've received a ton of encouragement, 'you can do this' type of messages.  But there is something really concrete about this that has helped me shift into an even more positive place.  I know that a full recovery is truly possible, and may even be likely now.  And I'm really really really happy to be able to share this news with you.  

Here's a little medical mumbo jumbo from the radiologist's report that confirms the positive findings:

1. Only minimal residual thickening of soft tissues in the anterior mediastinum and aortic-pulmonic window remaining fromt he bulky adenopathy that was present on the prior study in these areas.

2. Wide patency of the tracheobronchial system is now present.

3. No residual disease in the chest, abdomen, or pelvis.

This means that the tumor is largely gone, my airway is clear, they can't see any further cancer throughout my torso.

This is just a preliminary result.  But it's an extremely good one, much better than could be expected.  And every person on staff here at the hospital who I've talked to about it has confirmed their excitement about how things look.  My nurse last night told me the CT results made his day.  Thank you to all of you for continuing to support me, and for being so encouraging along the way.  Staying positive, believing that I can overcome this and that I will, those are hugely important factors here and you have all made a significant contribution to my ability to do just that.  

Love you all,

Chris