Hi, I’m Rosie. I just got diagnosed with stage 3 NSCLC. I’m a mom to a 4 year old girl, and work as a substitute teacher here in San Diego, California. I went through diagnostic tests and scans and was surprised at the results since I was a non-smoker and lived mostly a healthy lifestyle. I have a few small tumors on my lower right lung, and two enlarged lymph nodes on my right collarbone.
My oncologist gave me options for treatment, namely chemo, chemo-immuno combo and firstline immunotherapy. I chose to do immunotherapy, a combination of Opdivo & yervoy. I received my second dose of Opdivo yesterday, and had a bad reaction early into the infusion. I started to feel a sharp pain in my lower back. The nurse paused the infusion, adjusted my position and restarted the drip. A minute passed then I felt the pain start again, so I was given a steroid drip to ease the pain. We continued to finish the Opdivo treatment. I was told that I would need an IV of benadryl before my next infusion to take care of any side effects.
There are times I get depressed and worried that I wouldn’t be around to care for my daughter or watch her grow. Then there are times I would think about her, and I would feel a sense of resolve that I can endure the treatments, and that there’s hope at the end of all of this. I learned to treasure every moment I have with my girl. Now I’m holding on to hope that I’m on my way to being fully healed.