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DiscussionCarboplatin Alimta and Keytruda Treatment: What's your experience?
Lung Cancer | Last Active: Nov 1 3:15pm | Replies (29)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "Thanks for checking in with me. The PET scan not only showed pretty definitecancer activity in..."
This combo is the exactly what I was put on for Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (adenocarcinoma).
The first week totally sucked! I mainly had really bad fatigue and chemo brain. Kind of felt like I've been hit over the head with a baseball bat! Wasn't nauseous, so that was a surprise.
I think the worst side of that was the one that I didn't know existed on chemo, and that was mouth sores. It got so it was painful to my mouth to even drink water! We called the doctor, and he told me that it was not an uncommon side effect, and that there at Mayo (one of the smaller clinics), they had developed something that they called magic mouthwash. It changed my life. I was on that regime of every 3 weeks for five infusions. The other four infusions we're a little better, mostly because I had a better idea of what to expect. I knew when it was almost time for my infusion because I almost started feeling human again!
They sent me to get a PET scan, and my nodules had reduced by over a half, which I thought was pretty cool. They changed my regime by pulling the Alimta. 90 percent of my symptoms just vanished. I've had two infusions like that, and other than some moderate fatigue ,I'm feeling pretty good. I've read all kinds of terrible stuff about Keytruda as well, but I don't seem to be having any negative side effects from it, that seemed to all come from the Alimta.
I meant to send this as a reply to the original post. Didn't mean to bother you Doug!
So, there's my experience. Your mileage may vary.
Sandy
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@dougmck, I hope you are recovering from the biopsy. There's a lot of waiting through the diagnosis process, which isn't easy, but it can be beneficial.
I can share my own story but remember that it's just one example. My original biopsy was also taken from just a lymph node. There were enough cancerous cells in the lymph node to confirm that it was cancer. The pulmonologist felt there was no need to put me through the risk of going into the lung to get access to the mass. The results from my liquid biopsy did take two weeks to come back. At the time, I wasn't sure that waiting was a good idea. I even questioned if I should have some chemo while we waited. I was symptomatic and getting sicker. Now, I can appreciate the wait because I did have a targetable mutation. Because of that, I was able to avoid chemo and radiation. When I've had a few scares since then, I try to remind myself that unless I'm in the Emergency Department, I have some time to take a breath, review options, get second opinions, and wait (just a bit) for tests.
Do you know if molecular testing/biomarker testing was completed when you were diagnosed in 2008, or with any of your other nodules?