Since starting Tarceva my breathing has worsened. I have had two episodes on consecutive nights where I have woken in the early hours fighting for breath, as opposed to struggling for breath. I wouldn't say it frightened me, but I will admit to being a tad worried! I told the District nurse this on her visit, and all hell broke loose!
She said she would contact my GP and sort out some inhalers, and also get me a nebuliser. After she'd left, Tina and I settled down for a quiet morning. An hour or so later there was a knock on the door, which Tina answered, and, lo and behold, there were two doctors from my practise to see me. Of course they totally ruined the effect by telling Tina they were here to see her dad!!! This may have made Tina feel good, but did nothing for me.
After a chat and an examination they agreed to give me a steroid inhaler and a broncho-dilator inhaler. Off they went, and we settled down again...... KNOCK! KNOCK! Another District Nurse with the nebuliser, but without any nebules. This meant a trip to the surgery and the pharmacy to get them. Finally, around 6pm a nurse from the Out of Hours service arrived to instruct me how to use the nebuliser and to ensure I had no ill effects from it.
All joking apart, it strikes me that this is the NHS at its best! I don't think the service I received could have been bettered anywhere.
The following day was my Day Centre day, and while I was there my lung nurse rang and spoke to Tina, who of course told her all that had happened. Within an hour she had rung back to tell me to stop taking the Tarceva, and later that day my oncologist's secretary rang to give me an appointment on Monday afternoon.
Based on my vast medical knowledge (I was brought up by a mum whose firm belief was that everything could be cured by a glass of boiled water every morning, or, for really serious things, a Beechams Powder!) I have deduced that one of two things is happening; it may be a side effect from the Tarceva, or it may be Horace and his kids kicking off. In addition to my breathing problems, I am again suffering with coughing up blood. This has happened on and off since chemo, and has a couple of times been bad enough to put me in A&E. We were hoping this had sorted itself out, but I started again yesterday, albeit at a greatly reduced level. We will hopefully find out more on Monday.
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