Mally

[Mally]

Well im back from my holiday and had a fantastic time and tried very hard to block out my cancer and for the most part i did and was pleased i had no discomfort while flying and have never climbed so many stairs and didnt feel out of breath and now back to reality of treament yesterday with opdivo and thats the third dose and happy that bloods are all good and no side effects still and hope that doesnt mean its not working 

[LexieCat]

Hey, Mally!  Great to hear you had a wonderful holiday--stuff like that is absolutely essential to overall wellbeing, I think.  You sound like a whole new you!

Hope you continue to feel good.  Not everyone experiences significant side effects.

[BridgetO]

 Hi Mally,

I'm glad to hear your trip was a roaring success!  It sounds like you're really doing well and living life to the max. Yay for you!

Bridget O

[Tom Galli]

Mally,

I'm so happy you had a great vacation.  Looking forward to hearing good news about Opdivo treatments.

Stay the course.

Tom

[Mally]

Thankyou all for your replies and im getting a port put in before my next infusion so hopefully that will make a difference in the blood tests and infusions to be more comfortable 

[Judy M.]

Mally

Glad you had a good time. I had my 4th Opdivo infusion 2 days ago and so far I haven't experienced any side effects either. Was warned about possible loss of thyroid function but they test for that each time and so far it's remained normal. Hope this works out for both of us. They cut my infusion time from an hour to just 30 minutes as the result of some recent study. Easy peasy after 7 hours for chemo and all those side effects. My Medical Oncologist told me I was going to love this. I will if it works. 

Judy M. 

[Mally]

So glad the treatment is going well Judy and to be having half the time with the infusions ..i havent heard anything about having shorter time for opdivo ...do you know the likely schedule for ct scans with this ? Im so anxious to find out if the lymph nodes have shrunk even though ive heard from others that it can get worse before it gets better .....im getting a port put in next tuesday so hopefully no more finding veins for blood tests and infusions ....do you have a port ? 

[Judy M.]

Mally

My Oncologist's original plan was to scan after 4 infusions. But after my second infusion he had read some new study and decided to scan after 6 infusions. Ask what the plan was after scans. If they look good of course will just continue. If not he plans to try 4 more infusions in case it's the result of things looking worse before they look better. This does happen. And, yes, I do have a port. Ask for it before my first chemo infusion and glad I did. Though the people who do the scans aren't qualified to access it and never do. They have to be an RN and even some RN's aren't too good with them. Learned that on my only ER visit. My last CT scan everyone's favorite vein in my left arm blew. And they only want to use my left arm because of my breast surgery. Ask for some lidocaine cream. It's lidocaine/prilocaine actually. Put it on thickly about an hour before they access your port and cover it with plastic wrap so that it doesn't get rubbed off. Learned that from my infusion nurse. But I had to ask for that also. I find having my chest pierced more painful than having my arm pierced. But with the cream you don't feel it at all. My port is in my chest, but I've heard they can put them in different places. I think you'll be really glad you got it. Hope those little nodes shrivel right up. 

Judy M.