It’s been a while since my last update because aside from starting the targeted therapy, not much has been happening aside from trying to mitigate the side effects. It sounds like this is going to be the norm for the next two years. Unfortunately, I’ve had a pretty significant amount of joint and muscle pain associated with the targeted therapy and we are working to deal with that.
I had an appointment with my thoracic surgeon team last week and aside from a few minor hiccups, I’m graduating! Speaking of which, did you know you can lose your “stride” in breathing? I get shortness of breath when drinking because my brain thinks I can hold my breath longer than I can and I get confused. The same thing happens with swimming. I’m having to pay a lot more attention to my breathing timing to make sure I don’t end up breathing water or getting too short of breath. Other than that, I notice some shortness of breath with going up stairs/major exertion, but I’m doing great. I even played the baritone in church this past Sunday!
Graduating is, of course, great news! It means that they won’t follow me anymore, only oncology. The nurse practitioner I saw said she preferred graduating to discharge because I’m more than welcome to come back if I have any issues, but let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
I also had a CT scan, the first since surgery, and it came back as clean, no evidence of disease. This means that the surgery was successful in getting all of it and the targeted therapy has so far been successful in keeping it from recurring – GREAT NEWS!