My first thought was "Shit. My tumour is growing. My cancer is back."
My oncologist got me in for a stat X-Ray and CT Scan and they came back clear... PHEW!!!
However, there was still the mystery of the cough: I didn't have any other symptoms of being sick but clearly something was wrong. I was referred to a pulmonary specialist who decided to shove a camera down into my lungs and take a look around. Here's what he saw:
Yes, I know, I always have to be the guy that says (right before being sedated) "Hey can you print off some of the pictures for me?"
Anyways, since I was sedated I don't recall if he saw anything of significance down there (the pictures look fine to me) but I'm seeing him again next Friday so I'll find out then. In the meantime he got me to start taking Salbutamol before I exercise, which hasn't helped so far. He also got me in for a pulmonary function test today, which showed perfect lung function.
So as of now, my cough is a bit of a mystery. Luckily it seems to have gotten a little bit better over the past week but when I ran Finlayson yesterday it made it worse so who knows...
I guess there is also a chance the cough could be related to this next issue:
My bone marrow isn't working properly.
Here are my blood test results from yesterday:
As you can see, my body is no longer producing neutrophils. This means I am extremely susceptible to infections; in fact, I am even in danger from the bacteria that lives on my skin and in my mouth. The last time my neutrophils were this low was following my stem cell transplant and I was semi-isolation at Vancouver General Hospital, getting antibiotics at the first sign of a fever.
Weirdly enough, my neutrophils have been less than 0.5 for several weeks now and I haven't had any signs of infection or sickness even though I've been scraping up my legs while hiking, out in crowded public places, and hanging around my wife who caught a cold in March. I guess the other parts of my immune system are still working well!
My stem cell doctor in Vancouver said that sometimes after a stem cell transplant, the bone marrow can take time to figure out how to do its job again. Also, the antibiotic, Septra, I was taking for three months can sometimes suppress the bone marrow.
My oncologist in Victoria said he thinks it's the result of a bad virus I caught. I'm not sure about this though, because I haven't gotten sick!
My doctor in Vancouver got me to take two G-CSF (Neupogen) injections last week which he said should be enough to kickstart the marrow into producing the neutrophils.
When I talked to him on the phone today he said it was "very puzzling" that the injections hadn't worked, so he and my oncologist decided that I should give myself the G-CSF injections for the next 2-4 weeks (thank-you Pharmacare & Blue Cross for covering the $8000 cost). They also want me to get a bone marrow biopsy (my third since 2012) on Monday so they can try to figure out what the hell is going on.
So... here's a summary:
- I've had a mysterious cough for a month and a half
- I don't have any other symptoms of illness
- Salbutamol pre-exercise doesn't help
- A pulmonary function test showed healthy lungs
- I had a bronchoscopy which may or may not have shown anything
- My bone marrow has stopped producing neutrophils
- It could be the result of a bad virus
- It could be the result of an antibiotic, Septra
- It could be my bone marrow is being "lazy" and just needs a good kickstart
- It could be a condition called Myelodysplastic Syndrome (let's freaking hope not)
That's about it for now. I will do another post hopefully next week when we know more about what is going on.
Thanks for reading,
Christopher
