update from eric

I don’t like hospitals. Between the constant visits from the nurses, constant trips to the bathroom, my body pains, the shortness of breath, and the horrible bed, I have not been sleeping well. It all makes me a bit grumpy. Unfortunately Monica, and the nurses take the brunt of my grumpiness. Once I received my medications and started feeling better, I had to make some apologies. The last week or so has been a big waiting game, they have been hammering me with antibiotics and performing tests to determine what it is in my right lung that is causing me pain and shortness of breath. The initial thought was that it was an infection or pneumonia. My doctor scheduled an Echocardiogram check the heart, and a Bronchoscopy to get samples from the lung. They determined that I was a little anemic so I received a transfusion of blood. The shortness of breath continues. This worries me the most, as it is a very uncomfortable feeling when you cannot catch your breath. I am on constant oxygen at high levels at this point . The Echocardiogram to look for Pericardial effusion (fluids around the lungs) and Congestive heart failure returned normal results. They Bronchoscopy results did not show signs of infection or pneumonia as was hoped or expected. They believe that the pain, the degradation in the right lung, and increase in shortness of breath is due to rapidly growing cancer in the right lung. This is not good news. Options at this point are:
Continue current chemotherapy treatments. The current treatment does not appear to be working. So I don’t consider this an option.
Experimental chemotherapy drugs. This is something that we can consider and we will look into these to determine if there is anything promising out there that might help.
Stop treatments altogether. It seems to me that you are just giving up at this point. So I don’t consider this an option.
Try a new treatment drug. Tarceva (a chemotherapy drug) has been identified as the next chemotherapy option that we will pursue. This is a daily pill, with the usual chemotherapy side effects.
Right now we need to figure out how to get me home from the hospital. I can’t leave until they can take me off the IV antibiotics, and get me to an acceptable oxygen supply level. Right now I am maxed out on my oxygen supply. It may take a few more days to get me out of here.

-Eric