Hello everyone!
It’s been a while since I’ve updated since things have been very hectic with mom.
We started out about 4 weeks ago with carbo/taxol for chemo. A few days after the first infusion her stomach had gone down in size greater than 50%. We saw the doctor and she had lost 8 lbs in one week. The Dr and nurses couldn’t believe her response. She has had 3 more infusions of the chemo after that, but only lost 2 lbs since and has been holding steady at her current weight. Her stomach basically isn’t hard bloated anymore and is her typical size prior to all of this. She’s able to go to the bathroom normally (which Dr originally told us we didn’t have time to wait without chemo, the bowel blockage would kill her…) and she can finally lay down in a bed and function by herself. I really don’t believe the results myself….
During this time she had her 2nd infusion of ipi/nivo. She really had no side effects of it until this time. 3 days after the ipi/nivo, she became very ill (flu like basically), major joint pains and this redness began to develop. It started small on her neck, a few hours later it was on her leg, the next morning she woke me up in a panic. Her entire body from her neck to her toes was complete red rash. She wasn’t really itchy, but was severe red. We called the hospital who told us to come in right away. Having panic attacks and in tears we drove to the hospital. They drew more blood work and we waited.
When our Dr walked in, he took one look at her and said I know this looks bad and you probably think it is…but this is the best thing I could have asked for. Mom and I just sat there. Confused. We didn’t understand how a major sunburn skin look was a good thing. The nurse then came in and was all excited as well. She said this is the best news we could have asked for especially since mom showed no other side effects (other than losing hair from chemo…)…
She is currently on steroids to control the rash (Dr said it would go down after first dose…he was right it’s basically gone). I’m not entirely sure I understand what’s going on…Dr explained her immune system is doing its job and it’s basically angry to the point it’s attacking on surface now. So I guess we just wait and see. We will be going back first thing next week to see him (he requested we see him Monday which is unusual so we are a bit nervous).
Other than that…Nothing else new to report. Really praying that we get some good news here. I keep seeing stories of people posting how they are responding both to her treatment and keytruda, especially a lot of positive stories lately! Just hoping mom is heading down that path as well.
Thanks for reading! Just wanted to give a quick update 🙂
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