Well, we're scared again. Dad completed his treatment a year ago in February. We've had a couple scares since then, but luckily they've turned out ok. Our concern is that he gets very winded now doing things that used to be no problem for him. Could possibly be his age and the toll the treatments have taken on him. They found a shadow on his lung the last couple scans, but they keep blowing it off as nothing.
The other issue is that he's had daily nosebleeds (1-4 a day) for over a week now. He went to the family dr who didn't see anything, now he's going to see his ENT.
Just wondering if anyone has had issues with nosebleeds that turned out to be something (or nothing). Any info would be helpful. Thanks!
The nosebleeds could be something or could be nothing. It's best to have it checked out like you're doing to ascertain what's causing them. Many other things can cause nose bleeds, and hopefully it's nothing serious. Being winded can be treatment related, proving that is another story, and may not be, and that too should be looked into, maybe by having a complete physical, blood work-up, stress test, etc, and the shadow in the lungs explained further by his doctors.
I had nose bleeds, but weren't connected to any recurrences. I probably lost at least 75% of my strength, endurance, just from chemo in 2009, which still remains, plus I lost over 110lbs, gained 50 back, mostly which was muscle, and caused or accelerated a number of conditions ahead of its time like neuropathy, eye disease, muscle paralysis, stage 4 chronic kidney disease, chronic anemia, orthroscopic Hypotension, etc.
Good luck with everything.
What I have found is that after treatment, my husband has lost quite a bit of his former strength and stamina and we are talking about one and a half years out of treatment. His blood pressure is low, though normal and his consistently has low neutrophils. It really does take time to recover.
When the metastases showed up on the lungs in my husband's scans, they were described as "having the typical seed-like appearance" of metastatic scc It was not just a shadow. They were small about 1.5 cm, but they did show up.
Thank you for your responses. I think everything has just taken a lot out of him. I'm going to try to think positive until we her otherwise. Thanks so much
[quote=SoSad26]
The other issue is that he's had daily nosebleeds (1-4 a day) for over a week now. He went to the family dr who didn't see anything, now he's going to see his ENT.
Just wondering if anyone has had issues with nosebleeds that turned out to be something (or nothing). Any info would be helpful. Thanks![/quote]
I had bloody mucous with every batch of chemo I've had. Not an active "nose-bleed," but a noticeable amount of blood in the mucous every time I blew my nose. I'm allergic to cats, and live in VERY close proximity to mine so I have a constantly loose sinus producing enough mucous to lubricate a small third world country.
Bart
This may not apply at all to the nosebleeds from cancer Tx but thought I'd mention in case it might be something to try. I had frequent nosebleeds from early childhood until I was 20. They would last several hours and left me weak and anemic. My mother took me from doctor to doctor but no one had an answer.Finally at age 20 I found a plastic surgeon who said that the veins in my nose were too close to the surface of the skin and that with even the slightest trauma, like blowing the nose would cause the bleeding. So right in his office, he cauterized the veins and the nosebleeds were a thing of the past. You might check with the doctor or a plastic surgeon to see what they think. I sure hope something can be done to help your Dad.
Thanks for your responses. He's had nosebleeds in his life, but these are different. They're much more frequent and there doesn't seem to be a cause for them. He sees the ENT tomorrow so hopefully we'll get some (good) news. I'll give an update when I know something. Thanks!