Immunoglobulin Therapy

IVIG is made from the antibodies of blood from about 20,000-30,000 people or so I was told by one of the nurses who administers the infusion.  These infusions help boost the immune system of patients who have low immune system protection due to on-going cancer treatments.

In previous years, many of the people who died of cancer actually died from contracting other diseases as a result of a low immune system and not from the actual cancer itself.

IVIG stays in the body for about 3-4 weeks and I was receiving monthly infusions every month until the healthcare industry started experiencing shortages and my treatment was stopped because I was not experiencing a life threatening situation.

After about 18 months of not receiving any IVIG treatments and because I was getting constant infections, I was put back on receiving IVIG every other month which only had minimal influence.  My Oncologist last month said he was writing an order for monthly IVIG infusions and I will find out today if that order was approved.

Back Home

My early morning visit with the Oncologist had me back home before NOON toady with good news...  There has been NO PROGRESSION of my two cancers and a lesion on my lung has actually disappeared which is good.  The lesion on my liver is benign and seems to be a collection of blood vessels so there is no need to do a follow up MRI unless it starts increasing in size and it is doubtful that it will increase but one never knows.

My blood work continued to show that I am anemic, have a low immune system because of a low white blood count, and my platelets continue to be about 2/3 of what they should be...  so, basically I have remained consistent month-after-month for the last two years...  and, because of all the infections that I have been experiencing, my Oncologist wants me to receive monthly IVIG treatments and since it is too late for anything this month, and since I have a treatment scheduled for May, my monthly treatment will begin in June...

All-in-all, it was a good report.

What was really encouraging was the fact that apparently my gastrointestinal doctor sent my colonoscopy results (which included his concerns about a lesion on my liver) to my family doctor who in turn had corresponded with my Oncologist about those concerns...  and now, my Oncologist will follow up with my family doctor to let him know that the lesion on my liver is a benign collection of blood vessels...

I like it when the system works and doctors are interlinked and actually correspond with each other in order to ensure positive patient outcomes.

A New Week

Nausea has all but disappeared recently leaving me only with the symptoms of fatigue and night sweats and of those two, the former is constant while the latter is intermittent even though it seems like it is consistently constant as well.  My appetite seems to come and go and I have noticed that if I am busy doing something then I don't miss being hungry but if I am busy doing nothing but watching television or a movie then being hungry seems to always be around...  so...  it is my hands that need to say busy not necessarily my mind.

Infections seem to be happening more often as well these last few months.  Where my sinus infections seem to be ongoing, I am now developing an infection in my skin that has gotten down into the roots of my facial hairs, requiring me to take a pill twice a day to eliminate its persistence.  And, while I do not like the idea of taking yet another pill, I am concerned what impact (if any at all) this new pill will have on my internal organs.  The literature for this pills requires that ALL MY DOCTORS become informed that I am taking it.

My quarterly scan is set for Thursday of this week and since it is just a CT Scan there is no fasting requirements, but I will probably fast anyway since it is at 8:00 am.  I am interested in hearing the results the week after next because my colonoscopy doctor had informed me of a new lesion on my liver.

Hypochondriac or What...

As I have mentioned before, it was not until the age of 60 that I began my declining health and while I had a very healthy body at age 60 and it has declined, my overall physical health is still pretty good.  Over the weekend, I pruned trees for about a couple of hours and then carried all the cut off limbs across the street to be picked up by our garbage collectors.

However, since I contracted my second cancer and since I have had radiation, and since my age is no longer 60 but 73...  I made the mental decision at 70 to start bringing up what I noticed was bothering me at the risk of being considered a hypochondriac.  As a result of putting that into action, the doctors discovered that my cancer treatment had screwed up my thyroid.

Then, after stopping IVIG because of a national shortage, I was able to start it again but only every other month instead of monthly because I complained of on-going sinus infections and the doctors agreed that my treatments caused that as well.

Over the last several days perhaps 1-2 weeks or more, I have been putting polysporin on a knot on my penis that grew into an abscess and finally broke open but is still leaking.  During this same time, in the mornings when I blow my nose, I notice that there is a lot of blood that comes out which could be another sinus infection.  Then, this past Friday while taking a shower, I spit all sorts of died blood and I kept spitting blood for a couple of hours until I washed out my mouth with hydrogen peroxide 3%.  At first I thought the blood was also from my nose, but there was a spot on my gums.

During the last several weeks I have also notice my nausea returning as well as afternoon fatigue around 4:00/5:00 pm which may not be fatigue at all because it goes away somewhat if I eat a snack...

My concern is that for 28 days, I took antibiotics 3 times a day after being hospitalized for 6 days with a staph infections and could my body be now retaliating or trying to rebalance after being treated like that...  don't know but it is something that I am going to ask my Oncologist at the end of this month when I have my next treatment.

And, isn't is curious how all these infections are clustered together over these last few days.