June 1, 1996: Seeing a pulmonary specialist next week to determine whether my persistent cough is due to a viral infection or is a side effect of bleomycin.
June 7, 1996: That's it for chemo cycle #4 ... Preliminary results from Wednesday's bronchoscopy suggest that cough and shortness of breath are indeed due to the bleomycin, so I'm off the bleo and on steroids to reverse the inflammation.
June 21, 1996: Unfortunately, the latest CAT scan results indicate that my respiratory troubles are in fact due to spread of the cancer rather than reaction to the chemotherapy (the steroids have been effective in alleviating the symptoms, though). And some of the lymph nodes have gotten bigger this time. So I'm switching to a new set of drugs (ifosfamide and taxol, for all you medical types out there) that my doctors hope will be more effective.
June 28, 1996: Had an allergic reaction to the Taxol and was sent to the hospital for observation ... the reaction has passed, but while they've got me here they're going to drain some of the fluid that has built up around my lungs and heart (medspeak: pleural and pericardial effusions). I'll probably be in for at least a couple days and perhaps as long as a week or so, depending on which versions of the procedures they decide to do. I'm currently in room 12-B-40 at Brigham and Women's Hospital, (617) 732-4463 (I'll probably end up in a different room eventually; you can call the hospital main number if the info here is outdated).
June 29, 1996: Been waiting for surgery since yesterday morning ... they might fit me in this morning, but then again they might not. After surgery I'll probably be on 11-B (but then again I might not).
June 30, 1996: Finally got called down to surgery around 2:30 yesterday; the actual operation ran from about 4 to 6:30. They only drained one lung; once it's recovered, they'll do the other side in a separate (perhaps less complicated) procedure. Anyway, I'm recovering nicely; I don't have a phone at the moment, but you can call (617) xxx-xxxx to see whether I'm receiving visitors (I would love to see people, except when I'm sleeping, consulting with docs, or whatever; although the nominal visiting hours are 1 to 8 p.m., there is in fact no problem with coming earlier or later). I will probably move to a semi-private room with my own phone on this same unit, and you can call that same number to get the details.