First 3-Month Check-Up All Good!

I'm glad to hear you had a nicer more comfortable visit with your gyno oncologist  and losing 15 pounds with good glucose control and low cholesterol is awesome. 

Congrats! What a great check up. Time to celebrate for sure.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful news with us.

Love and Hugs,

Cindi

So glad your first 3 month exam went well. Not only in what you were told, but how it went. :-) A big relief for you, I'm sure. 

And well done on your weight loss! 15 pounds is a lot. 

Didn't want to start a new thread but this one looked appropriate. First off Woodstock great news on the check up! I know these are sources of great concern and anxiety for everyone but I can offer a different perspective that I have seen expressed here before.

I have been on my immunotherapy drug since June--dostarlimab. It seems to be holding me stable but I haven't had a scan since mid August, which was the first one to show positive outcomes. Although my large lung tumor growth slowed they still seem to be growing; and my med oncologist thinka the largest one against my left lung chest wall is causing a great deal of back and chest pain which I can mitigate largely with Tylenol and Aleve and maybe an occasional oxycodone pill. I consulted with the radiation oncologist a week ago who wanted an ASAP PET CT to get current status and see if SBRT is an option to shrink the larger tumors. So I am eager for the scan. It is next Friday--I guess that's what ASAP means in nuclear medicine! I know there is a chance I will not see good news but I feel good and think I'm at least holding stable. But knowledge is power so even if it isn't good I will know where I stand. I feel much more confident about the future of treatment if I have to stop immunotherapy--there are other options and sometimes it does just keep you stable for a while even with no infusions.

I get more nervous without scans although I did express some concern to the RO about all the radiation exposure and he said to me "that's the least of your concerns now." I have to agree with him. I'd get a scan every month if I could. I'm now on the 6-week cycle for dostarlimab infusions and it feels odd not to be getting blood test results every 3 weeks, looking for CA 125 numbers to come down (from 287 to 54). I am living with cancer so always want to keep an eye on it. My lungs sound clear and the RO told me "you look better than your last CT scan does". Had to laugh and take that as a positive sign.

So for all of us stressing over those periodic scans, knowledge is power.

Love to all,

Deb1

Stereotactic beam radiation therapy/treatment. Very precise, high radiation, almost 3-D. I think it can be used on up to 5 tumors at a time. I have been hesitant about radiation in the lung area but if those little SOB tumors are going to keep growing I feel I have to do something. Best outcome of scan is that everything is responding now and we do a wait and see. Worst would be that new stuff has popped up. I'm concerned about upper abdominal nodule. Doctors are funny. I asked about that one and since I'm not having trouble eating she says we'll leave it alone for now. So be it. I'm ok with using my body's signals for now but sometimes it's slow to signal!

Thanks Deb2! We all have our own fears and hopes. If I was told at one point my cancer was gone I would probably enter the 3-month checks with much apprehension. As it is, I look forward--mostly--hoping to hear that dostarlimab is working for me. Still lots of unknowns since it's so new.

Hugs to all!

Deb1

Deb 1,

You have gone thru so much already and with such courage. I am humbled by your tenacity. My hope joins with yours that dostarlimab treatment has succeeded in shrinking the tumors. The SBRT treatment sounds very hopeful as well.  ((HUGS))