On Thursday, I went in for a CT scan (with contrast) and my usual nivo treatment. Before getting nivo, they give me some Benadryl because I broke out in hives once while getting my nivo. When I had a CT scan a couple of months ago, I started vomiting towards the end of my nivo treatment, and was really out of it for at least a day, so they started giving me half the dose of Benadryl during my treatments, and I have been just fine during every treatment since then.
This past Thursday I had the scan and the treatment, complete with Benadryl. During the treatment I started feeling cold and tired, which is not entirely unusual. I finished the treatment and they removed the IV. I went to the bathroom and started shaking from the cold. I went to gather my things and leave, when one of the nurses stopped me because I was shaking so badly. She looked at my eyes and immediately sat me back down, saying I was having a reaction. Getting another IV in for more Benadryl was a challenge because of the shaking, but they got it in and my reaction seemed to calm down. And then I started vomiting and fever spiked. Tylenol was no help for the fever, and eventually I was admitted to Hopkins, where I stayed until Sunday.
They checked all sorts of things, as I also developed shortness of breath while in the hospital and had to be on oxygen. The shortness of breath still comes about, but does get better everyday. They treated me with prednisone, and I have started to taper the dosage. I'm hoping this won't delay my treatments as it did for me back in March. My onc and I will talk later this week about how to proceed. At this point, it's safe to say something about the CT contrast isn't sitting well with me. But is it the contrast alone or when it's with the nivo… We don't know.
Have any of you experienced this? I'm just curious as to what my future scan options will be. My onc says he thinks we could try a CT without contrast, but that there are other options.
Im sorry to make a long post even longer, but the BEST part is the CT scan results…. GREAT NEWS!!! The tumors in my lungs and most lymph nodes are GONE! The mesenteric lymph node in my bowel is stable, no change… However, it is just barely larger than a normal lymph node, and may just stay the size it is now because it was so enlarged earlier this year. My onc seems to think if he were to look at it under a microscope, he wouldn't find any cancer. He says we will continue on the nivo and scan again in another couple of months, but that so far "everything looks great"! Even in the hospital when I was, of course, wanting clarification (in utter disbelief that the tumors in my lungs and other lymph nodes are just GONE) he said he would call this a POSSIBLE partial remission! I think he was trying to be very cautiously optimistic with me, but I just kept pressing and pressing!
I just read the CT scan report this morning and kept looking for the second page… It was so short! Here's to good scans, short reports, and a celebration without a hospital stay! Thank you all so much, I love the support I continue to receive through this board!
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