Nurse To Patient: Cancer Journey

It is amazing how fast time flies when you are marking  it at three week intervals. Next Wednesday will be the fourth and final of the Nivolumab (Opdivo) and Ipilimumab (Yervoy) therapies for my Stage IV Renal Cell Carcinoma. According to the oncology industry, this is "very well tolerated."  Studies show that  only a small percent of patient's had to stop treatment during clinical trials dueside effects.   As the triage nurse who hears from patients on a daily basis who are going through a wide variety of cancer treatments, I was  cautiously optimistic. Other than some serious itching and increased tiredness, the first cycle went well.  I had an occasional wave of nausea here and there, but nothing intolerable. About three days after the treatment I felt my worst but recovered after a couple of more days. The second cycle hit me a bit harder.  During the first week after treatment I did notice an increase in fatigue, but not much els...

As an oncology nurse I can tell you that cancer is no respecter of persons.  It doesn't care what your standing in the community or church might be or whether or not you are an unmotivated couch potato or leading a spin class.  Cancer isn't checking in to see if this is a good time for a life crisis.  Cancer doesn't care that you just landed a new job or got married or retired or booked a fabulous vacation for six months from now.  It certainly doesn't care if you've been taking care of cancer patients for the past 15 years. In 2013, after a successful total nephrectomy to remove a 10 centimeter tumor from my kidney, I felt I had dodged a bullet.  My tumor was well encapsulated and required no more intervention.  There were people I knew who had died from Renal Cell Cancer and others who were still going strong 10 years after a nephrectomy.   Fast forward five years.  During a routine screening mammogram something was found that cau...