pneumonia

Health and Advocacy Update

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First the good news: I haven’t had a scan yet, but based on my perception, the chemo seems to be working! I’m breathing better, coughing less and swallowing a little better. Good news! So very grateful for another extension on life!

I had my third round of chemo on Monday January 11, and brought in one of the amazing white ribbons that Heidi and Pierre Onda from Colorado have been generously making and sending out with love to whoever asks for one. This is an inclusive, unbranded campaign to raise lung cancer awareness, and it goes by the hashtag #TheWhiteRibbonProject. It has a growing presence on social media and at cancer centers across North America.

This exciting campaign is growing, and here’s a video (generously made by Katie Brown of LUNGevity) which gives you a small taste of the number of lung cancer advocates, oncologists, researchers and others who have keenly participated. If you look closely, you may recognise awesome Eastern Ontario advocate Kim MacIntosh near the end, and me with the chemo receptionist at The Ottawa Hospital. That first video got stuffed full of photo’s, so Katie started a second one, and then a third one for Canada, and she keeps adding photo’s as we send them to her! Everyone is welcome to participate!

There I go again: I was supposed to be giving you a health update but got distracted by some of the amazing advocacy work that is going on!

Healthwise, so far I have had several really rough days each three week cycle. I spoke with a nurse to get insight on how to better manage the symptoms. I’ll plan and prepare, and this will help me better cope next cycle. I’ll also keep managing my mindset. I’m grateful for Chris Draft who calls and encourages. He is a tremendous advocacy trainer, and offers helpful wisdom like, “We control what we can control”. He is a strong supporter of so many health advocates worldwide, and we are grateful.

Exciting news: my barium swallow study is scheduled for this afternoon (i.e. Tuesday the 19th)! Ordered back in November, I’m very hopeful that this will answer questions about what is happening when I swallow, and give us good information to help me avoid getting aspiration pneumonia again. I also hope to be able to eat more kinds of foods! I have eaten a LOT of soup since the summer!

I’m back from the hospital, and the study went well. I felt a little nervous beforehand, but very relaxed this afternoon and grateful for the support from my support team of friends and also The Ottawa Hospital team. Emilie, the Speech-Language Pathologist was very kind and knowledgeable. She got me to sample a variety of textures of food and drink with barium added in, then the x-ray machine tracked what happened inside. I didn’t choke on anything. We gained new information which informed us about which further tests need to be ordered. I’m being referred to more specialists, and that support is very welcome. I feel privileged to live so close and be connected to the tremendous resources at The Ottawa Hospital.

Here is my amazing Speech-Language Therapist who ran the test. She was eager to take a picture in support of lung cancer awareness, and very supportive of this person affected by lung cancer. I’m very grateful for our big lung cancer team!

Emilie, The Ottawa Hospital Speech-Language Pathologist
  • Chemo nurse
  • Oncology physiotherapist
  • Friend living with lung cancer
  • Awesome oncologist and advocate
  • Survivor advocate sisters
  • Strong support team member
  • Awesome Kim MacIntosh
  • Awesome Andrea Redway
  • Chemo receptionist
  • Chemo nurse
  • Representing the awesome team: Jordan & Kayla MacWilliam, the Bradford family and Kayla’s Fight Club

Friends make life better

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I’m so grateful for friends! Several of my friends are Speech-Language Pathologists, which means that they are experts who do tremendously important work helping people communicate better. Some S-LP’s are experts in helping people swallow better, and today a swallowing expert colleague of one of my S-LP friends came over to watch me swallow a variety of things and give me information about how to avoid choking or aspiration pneumonia. I learned that while swallowing is something we generally do without much thought, it’s actually quite complex and there are many ways it can potentially go wrong. I’ll need a barium swallow test (which involves ingesting radioactive food & drink, and watching what happens to it) to give us more insight into what exactly is going on when I am swallowing.

Many of these are definitely not on the “easy to swallow” list.

I was very grateful for the swallowing expert who came over today. She taught me about the mechanics of swallowing, and gave me a long list of practical tips to help things go down more easily. I feel more empowered to fuel my body better with less risk.

The very brief summary of the plan is to patiently stick with puréed soup and other soft mushy foods. Definitely worth it if that means avoiding pneumonia!

I’m so very grateful for friends and colleagues of friends!

My Roller Coaster Adventure Ride

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Well, that bump was bigger than expected! Sadly the radiation in October did not do the cancer-crushing work we were hoping it would. My recovery wasn’t going as well as anticipated, and tests showed I had pneumonia as well as cancer growth. My oncologist and I discussed chemotherapy, which is the only treatment option available to me currently.

My oncologist and I both reached out to some Canadian lung cancer researchers to investigate whether there might be a clinical trial suitable for me available in Canada, either now or in the near future. I was disappointed but not surprised to learn that there is nothing on the horizon.

There are some possibilities in the US, so I applied for the “ALK Second Opinion Program”, which is funded by some generous people affected by the same kind of lung cancer that is affecting me (ALK). I learned within a couple of hours that my application was accepted, so the program will pay for me to have an online appointment with one of the top ALK researchers in the world. I have met most of the doctors on their list, and it is a tough decision because they are not only brilliant but also very kind. I plan to go with the Boston team because, although Dr. Alice Shaw is not spending much time seeing patients there now, they may have a clinical trial appropriate for me in future, and Boston is much easier to travel to than Nashville or Colorado. My oncologist has very kindly offered to participate in the online appointment with me, and one of my dear ALK sisters has offered to walk with me through this process. I’m very grateful for the support.

I had my first chemo of 2020 on Monday November 30. It hit pretty hard, and I had to go to emergency with a fever which turned out to be another round of pneumonia. Antibiotics helped a lot, and I’m feeling much better. I’m still very tired, coughing a fair bit, and having problems swallowing (since August). Thankfully there is soup, and I’m very grateful for friends who have brought so much soup!! It’s great to have different kinds of soup that I don’t typically make, and it’s so nice to not have to make it myself!

My next chemo is Monday December 21, which will get me through the holidays, as my awesome oncologist noted. The following one is scheduled for January 11. Apart from the blood tests on the Fridays before, I’m hoping to not need any additional hospital visits! 😀

This is quite a change from the targeted therapy lifestyle, which tends to be much more smooth sailing, with fewer appointments and blood tests. I’m so very grateful for my many years of reasonably good health while living with stage four lung cancer. I never expected to live seven years past my diagnosis, and now I have much more hope than I did at diagnosis. I am hopeful for new treatment options. I hope that the chemo I’m on now will work more effectively with fewer side effects than the older harsher chemo I took in 2013-14. I hope researchers will develop new treatment options that will be available just when I need them. That has been my roller coaster adventure ride with lung cancer these seven years, and I hope for more! Oh yes I do!!

More than that, I hope for more research to extend the lives of many more people affected by lung cancer, because there are so many of us and we all want life and need hope. So if you know any lung cancer researchers, please thank them for the good work they are doing and encourage them to keep up the good work with diligence and urgency. So many of us are counting on them!

I’ve worked hard to keep doing light weights, stretching and walking through the Fall. My daily step count has fallen below my usual 9000-10,000, but I haven’t given up hope!

So grateful for friends, for so many delicious soups (and other yummy things!), and for so many calls and messages. This has really sustained me and helped keep me buoyed up.

I don’t talk about my faith a lot, and I would never want anyone to feel like I’m pushing Christianity on anyone. I want to be clear, please stop reading if you are feeling offended. My relationship with God means so much to me, and keeps me going. God is good all the time, and I am grateful for the love of God poured out through Jesus, and the ever-present comfort of the Holy Spirit. It’s the love of Jesus that motivates my advocacy, and any good I do is because of God working through me.

#hope