Tag Archives: kidney cancer

A Happy Update

After seven years of remission, the cancer had returned to my lungs. I decided to rechallenge with immunotherapy. After all, it had worked so well before. Even with the risk of an autoimmune reaction it was a gamble I thought worth taking. The big question was if and when the side effects would come roaring back.

My third immunotherapy infusion brought on fairly serious joint pain, especially in my left knee, leaving me hobbling and my wrists very sore.  This can happen — because the brakes are essentially taken off the immune system autoimmune side effects such as arthritis, colitis and diabetes are not uncommon. In my case the discomfort was bad enough that I decided to stop immunotherapy and focus on getting pain relief, so I started taking prednisone, 60 mg per day, after we returned from a long weekend in Chicago to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. (It’s been an eventful month!). 

CT Scans of my chest, pelvis and abdomen followed a few days later and nurse Virginia called me with the news from the radiologist report on my drive home to Keene from Boston. I was navigating traffic but the gist was that three tumors in my lungs are shrinking away. The actual wording in the report:  “Since April 19 2022 two previously large solid nodules have nearly disappeared and a third is substantially smaller. There are no new or growing measurable lung nodules.”

“It’s great news,” Virginia said. “You’re clearly very sensitive to immunotherapy. It’s somewhat unusual to see this strong a response after only three infusions.”

It was such a relief to hear her words, and Katharina and I savored that news. We will be monitoring the response and are hopeful that, like last time’s which lasted seven years, it will be a durable one. 

 

2. Slip-Sliding Away 

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If you’ve ever found yourself driving with no control of your car, you know that you experience every micro-second in slow motion. That’s exactly what happened to me one cold grey morning in late February of 2011, when I hit a patch of ice entering a roundabout on the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, just after a car ahead of me did as well.  Continue reading 2. Slip-Sliding Away 

18:  Toxic Treatment

 

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Looking bloated as Katharina works to get me smiling

I thought I was well prepared for Day One of HDIL-2.  Dr. James Mier and Nancy Weinstein had thoroughly explained the whole treatment process, and the hospital also had sent an information packet.

Most helpful were members of the online kidney cancer support group who had written about their treatment experiences.  One line from those posts distilled the essence of what was soon to come: “It’s like the worst flu you’ve ever had, times ten.”  Continue reading 18:  Toxic Treatment