Hi All,
The latest event in Gordon's so-called "recovery" is pneumonia. He's been feeling more fatigued over the last month than he did the month before and we've been chalking it up to "recovery" and getting off the various narcotics (he's now off the fentanyl patch and tapering off the oxycodone - only taking 5 mg. 2X/day now).
A few weeks ago he said he felt like he had a chest cold. We went to his GP, who said there was a bit of mucous in his lungs, but it could be an allergy. He sent Gordon for some blood work and said if everything was OK, he'd send him for a chest x-ray. So on Thurs., we went to the dental dept. at the Cancer Clinic for his 3 month post-treatment check-up (at least he has no cavities!) and I took the opportunity to vent about the lack of follow-up after treatment ended. One of the dental assistants took us seriously and tracked down a GP Oncologist (lovely man, who we've seen several times) who agreed to see us. He listened to Gordon's chest, but said he couldn't hear any wheezing. He seemed to think it was a heart issue and sent him for an ECG. We both thought he was barking up the wrong tree, and asked again why Gordon had mucous in his chest. Anyway, we pushed for an X-ray, so he sent us back to the lab for that. Shortly after we got home, he called to tell us that Gordon had pneumonia, that he "didn't think it was related to cancer" (!!!!!), and phoned in a prescription for him. We went to Gordon's GP the next day and this time he could hear that his lower left lobe was "solid", as he put it. He didn't have the x-ray results yet, but also didn't think it was "cancer-related" (more exclamation marks). So, strong antibiotics for a week and we figure the poor guy has probably had this for a month.
Has anyone else had something like this? Why would it happen? Our biggest fear has been that the cancer has moved to his lungs, but given that the oncologists knew the state of his BOT tumour and that there was only 1 node pos., wouldn't they have done a chest x-ray before treatment if they thought it was a possible the cancer had gone elsewhere? Gordon has never smoked, and his cancer is, or I should say *was*, HPV 16 related.
We have the PET scan on Thurs. next week, and won't get the results until Aug. 3. It's going to be a hellish week.
Anne

Anne - CG to Gordon (59), non-smoker/non-drinker. SCC, BOT, HPV 16+, stage 3. Jan./10 - radical neck dissection to remove 48 lymph nodes, 1 node pos. Apr. 23/10 - finished 35 rad. and 3 cisplatin. Jul. 22/10 - PET scan clear.