The chemo is having a positive effect on the various symptoms I’ve experienced due to the tumor. The 1st thing I noticed is the shoulder pain at night when first going to sleep that has been going on since February. This was first in the left shoulder, then the right, and then across the upper back. This has now been gone for over a week.
The next one is a little weird. When swallowing my morning medications and vitamins I’d normally just down them all in one go. However, for quite some time the swallow was fine but it felt like the pills were struggling to go all the way down and it was a little uncomfortable. I’m chalking this one up to some sort of compression obstruction. For a while I was swallowing the big ones one at a time now it’s back to all at once, no problem.
The shortness of breath is also improving. I can walk up from the lake to the driveway without being totally winded and having to stop to recover, over 75 vertical feet. I just did a single flight of stairs without even thinking about it where as previously I’d notice the impact.
The coughing may be a bit better, hard to tell. Taking a really deep breath I still feel that urge to cough and sometimes a little pain. I think it’s better, but not super sure yet. Talking can still trigger coughing and sometimes my voice is still weak.
Overall, things seem to be improving which leads me to belive that the chemo is having the desired effect, a good thing!