Gwen’s Patchy Lung

School’s out for summer! Woo hoo! And also Gwen’s scan was today. I was able to go with her (and Justin) to listen to the results this afternoon, so you all are about to receive a firsthand account as opposed to the secondhand account you’ve been getting lately.

The scans showed that the cloud is slightly more dense than last month. The rest of her organs are clear, her other lung is clear, and her bone lesions look fine. The doctor referred to her lung as “patchy” (whatever that means) and the cloudy spots as “the cancer.” The cloud patches are not contained to one lobe of the lung therefore removing a section of the lung is NOT an option.

As I mentioned in the last post, Gwen is having some wheezing when she lies on her left side. This is apparently due to mucus getting trapped in “the cloud.” She has no other problems or symptoms, therefore the doctor told her that she can go climb the highest mountain she wants to!

As far as treatment goes, they are going to stay the course. Dr. G. says the other medication options out there right now aren’t as good as what she’s on now (sounds like there’d be side effects and such) and that in another 6 months there should be a few more medications that will be FDA approved that would be better options. So it sounds like, as long as there are no problems outside the lung and no symptoms, the Xalkori is still the way to go for as long as possible.

When the doctor left the room, Gwen said to us, “So I am basically fine, right?”

Justin’s response was something like, “Well that depends on your definition of fine…”

Justin and I were thinking along the same lines… uh… You have a cancerous cloud in your lung… Not exactly what we would call fine?

But apparently Gwen had been so nervous coming into today’s appointment – she was preparing herself for the worse, so slightly more dense but all contained in the lung was “fine” in her mind.

Dr. G. wants Gwen to go away for the summer and to not be anxious about all of this (easier said than done), but she does want to see her the moment she’s back in town. So the next scan will be in August.

In the meantime, here’s to hoping for a restful summer for all of us!

Gwen and Lachlen tubing real S L O W like.

We’re looking forward to seeing our northern friends! See you soon.