RECAP + new lesion.

Ouch_Ouch_Ouch

Greetings, all. It seems like the only time I come here is when I am having problems. So, why should tonight be any different? .^_^.

RECAP:

2014 - Anal cancer diagnosed, stage 3C, local metastasis. Had Mitomycin, 5-FU, and radiation. It took me a long time to get through the treatment, much longer than 6 weeks. I was hospitalized 3 times with neutropenic fevers. I also had to stop several times for my skin to recover because of the terrible radiation effects off my "diaper area". The entire area turned a dead-looking black and began sloughing off in bloody sheets. I had a dose of Epogen and a kabillion doses of Neupogen. I ended up getting 2 units of blood and 2 units of platelets. It took about a year for me to feel fairly recovered.

2018 - An abdominal lymph node popped up on a routine follow-up CT scan (followed by a PET scan). The local oncologist said that it couldn't be cancer because it was 4 years later, too long, that it was scarring. I went to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for a second opinion. My case was presented during a medical board meeting and the consensus was that it was indeed anal cancer metastasis. The node was just beyond the zone of the 2014 radiation. Although it is rare for this to happen, it was obvious to them. My radiation oncologist had come from MD Anderson and had seen many such cases.

My gastrointestinal oncologist was horrified at went I went through in 2014. He said that he would never have let a patient endure that. I took Xeloda and had radiation x 6 weeks - I got somewhat nauseated by odors, and the Xeloda dose had to be ratcheted down a few times because of falling platelets, but it was MUCH, MUCH easier than 2014.

2019 - I was hospitalized twice with episodes of high fevers, including viral meningitis. I had several inflammatory bowel episodes (lost 45 lbs last year and another 12 lbs this year). The hospital found out that I had "near absent" immunoglobulin M.

2020 - I had to see an immunologist and discovered that I have multiple immune deficiencies. He thinks that I had it from birth and hypothesizes that my brother died from the same thing. I am awaiting results from genetic testing. I was put on IGG (immunoglobulin G) infusions every 4 weeks. The doc blames everything I've ever had on this deficiency condition - multiple measles, TB, cat scratch fever, mononucleosis, rheumatic fever, 2 cellulitises, 4 pneumonias, and (literally!) 57 bronchitises. He also blames it on the HPV-18 infection that caused all this cancer.

NOW:

2020 - Another routine follow-up PET scan and another surprise - a liver lesion. I COULD SPIT! (I also have some somewhat enlarged lymph nodes in my chest, but nothing is decided about them yet.) I will have a liver biopsy in about 2 weeks and if it's still small enough, they will do thermal ablation at the same time. No chemo needed. The interventional radiologist thinks it's probably another anal cancer metastasis, but the biopsy will tell.

I'm so very sick of being sick.