Recently I learned that one of my
band mates had died, apparently quite suddenly. None of us knew he was
seriously ill. It occurred to me that with all the health issues I’ve been
dealing with over the past few years, my demise would hardly come as a
surprise. More likely friends would wonder: “Which ailment was it that finally
got her?”
The more I thought about it, the
more I realized that I’ve been playing Medical Whack-A-Mole. When I finally get
one illness under control, another one pops up to take its place. Many times,
it was the treatment for the first that caused the next one. Let’s start with
my lung cancer, which was diagnosed about two and a half years ago. I entered a
clinical trial through Yale, in which I received regular infusions of three
drugs: two chemo therapy and an immunotherapy, plus study pills that might have
been a placebo.
The program was to last two years,
but one year into it, I developed pneumonitis, a severe inflammation of the
lung. My oncologist and my pulmonologist agreed that the likely cause was one
of the drugs I was getting. There was no simple way to know which one. Pulling
any of them would take me out of the study in any case, so we stopped my cancer
therapy completely.
Mercifully, it appeared that the
year of treatment had halted the cancer before the pneumonitis popped up like a
mole. We whacked that sucker back down with a heavy course of Prednisone. For
those of you not familiar with it, Prednisone is a steroid. I was on it for
weeks, but it cleared up most of the lung inflammation. It’s a go-to treatment
for many ailments. I’ve concluded that it’s
one of three things every household needs on hand, along with duct tape and
WD-40.
But true to my Whack-A-Mole
analogy, the Prednisone gave me a major face rash and I blew up like the
Pillsbury Doughboy. I also developed edema in my feet and lower legs. An
ultrasound made sure the fluid retention wasn’t due to vein leakage and that I
had no blood clots. The edema was just another mole that popped up when we used
the steroids to whack something else.
An online search led me to taking
high supplements of magnesium to reduce water retention. Sadly that whack led
to a pop up mole of severe diarrhea. Needless to say, I decided to live with
the fluid build up. Fortunately, shortly after the course of steroids was
completed, that problem disappeared. Unfortunately, it did not mean I was
headed for clear sailing with my health.
Even with the pneumonitis under
control, I was increasingly short of breath. Tests performed by my
pulmonologist turned up two new “moles” to whack. Turns out I have a paralyzed
right diaphragm muscle, usually caused by an injury. In my case, there’s no clue
why and it might never be normal again. A few weeks of physical therapy could
help. More on that later.
The other “mole” was pleural
effusion, a build up of fluid around the lung. That was drained via a thoracentesis
procedure. My breathing improved immediately. Nevertheless, my pulmonologist
prescribed a steroidal inhaler to keep my airways clear. The mole from that
turned out to be a side effect of some hoarseness, but I can live with that. Back
to the pulmonary rehab, which I had two afternoons a week.
The rehab included education and light
stretching, leg and arm exercises, followed by time on a treadmill. At each
session, the treadmill speed and time were increased, but never to anything too
stressful. The morning after what would be my last session, I woke up with horrific
neck and back pain. Plus I also had a partly paralyzed right hand. I assumed I
had slept crooked and pinched a nerve, or something like that.
When the pain persisted for days, I
made several appointments with specialists. The last was with a neurologist,
who has ordered several tests. He also prescribed Gabapentin to address the
nerve pain. It has serious mole-like side effects. You can get tired and dizzy,
so I take it only late at night.
I feel like I’m in a fairy tale. If
I stopped dying my hair, I’d be Snow White, but I’m already most of the Seven
Dwarfs. Allergy season has me Sneezy. Though I’m certainly never Bashful, much
of today’s news leaves me feeling Dopey. I ask so many questions of my physicians
that I might as well be a Doc. Gabapentin leaves me Snoozy and Dizzy. Despite
spending most of my time playing Medical Whack-A-Mole, I’m rarely Grumpy and
I’m usually Happy. I won’t ask for more than that.
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