Some people count sheep.......I count aardvarks. For the last 6-8 weeks I'm averaging 3-5 per day........every day. A couple of weeks ago that number got to 12, and Mindy and Dasha convinced me to go to Plano Presby ER. Six hours later I'm heading home not knowing much, other than "your blood work looks ok to head home". A week later my count is back above 9, and I'm heading to Legacy ER where they did an abdomen CT scan, IV for fluids, and ran tests. (thanks to Thumper and Dr. Woody who went over and beyond taking care of me) I dropped off an aardvark sample the next day, and hope to get news back on that early this week. (Getting the aardvark sample in two cups, then to Legacy ER could be a blog in itself)
So here is what I'm dealing with......when you do immunotherapy, it takes a stick and puts it in your immune system and stirs it all up like a bee hive. Your own immune system looks around and wants to find things to "attack". Two of the favorite things for it to mistakenly attack are your lungs and colon. Both are easily irritated, and only snowball downhill from there. Being an overachiever, my immune system is attacking BOTH! Aardvarks have been WELL documented, and I have a cough that runs from annoying to choking and gagging myself........good times.
I've also been trying to get back down to MD Anderson to meet with the surgical team. That is scheduled for Jan 31st. I'm meeting with Dr. Ross and a surgeon from the head and neck team. Basically the plan all along was to do the nivo/ipi double treatment, surgery, then go on the nivo long term regiment. With everything going so well, it will be interesting to see what they want to do. I'll update next week!
Mike
