What's new: 3/29/25

I am happy to report that by the time you read this, I will have made it to my 74th birthday (March 30). Praise the Lord! So I'm now counting down -- day 365 -- to my 75th. It just feels like a really significant milestone (three-quarters of a century!)  and it gives me something to focus on while I'm dealing with this infection and ongoing cancer battle.

Yes, the "cavitating left upper lobe mass" in my lungs has been determined to be an infectious bacteria. The infectious disease specialist I went to see still can't identify it; the only thing he said was "it's like TB, but it's not TB." What? Are we talking about tuberculosis here? No, it is not TB because I don't have any of the symptoms associated with TB (fever, night sweats, increased coughing). The specialist said he couldn't pinpoint the bacteria because neither the needle biopsy nor bronchoscopy went far enough in getting a good sample for them to do a six-week culture to see what grows; they only got "stains" that were not specific. So he sent me back for a second bronchoscopy and also asked me to submit a sputum sample, which I couldn't do because I'm not coughing, and when I do it's usually non-productive (doesn't produce phlegm).

I went for the second bronchoscopy on Friday, March 28, and don't have any results yet. But the pulmonologist who performed the procedure told me was that she talked to the infectious disease specialist directly to see what he was looking for this time that he didn't see from the first bronchoscopy. So she did three "washes" to get enough of the infectious matter to submit for a culture, and it will be at least six weeks before they know what specific bacteria is growing. All of this matters because the growing nodule could impact my breathing function, which is already impaired due to the cancer.

What the pulmonologist and the infectious disease specialist agree on is that if I have the not-TB bacteria they both suspect, the treatment will be three different antibiotics that I will have to take for at least a year. So be it; I take a handful of pills now so I'll just have to work another three into my daily regimen. And in a year's time, I'll have another birthday!

I will see my oncologist again on April 7, by which time I may have a preliminary report from the bronchoscopy that will at least shed some light on how my cancer mass is behaving. The targeted therapy tablet I take, akin to chemo but taken orally, has kept everything "stable" in my lower left lung, where the cancer is concentrated, and other places. I certainly want it to stay that way, which is described as NED -- no evidence of (new) cancer.

I'll try to update at least once between now and when I get the culture results, which will be about six weeks.