Strong Medication

One of the positives of my particular cancer is that it can be treated without surgery, radiation, or chemo. I am now taking a targeted drug called osimertinib (Tagrisso). It is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor which has been shown to be quite effective against my particular cancer’s genotype. I started the medication less than a week ago.

The first few days, I felt nothing. My fluid build up in my chest had already gone away for the most part. I was feeling pretty good. However, after about 4 or 5 days on the med, the side-effects kicked in. The most commonly reported are muscle and joint pain, which I had with a vengeance, primarily in my neck. That night while I tried to sleep, I would feel random body parts just ache and then later it would be a different part of my body. The incredible neck pain was the worst. I was having to take substantial amounts of ibuprofen to relax the muscles. I also had diarrhea but honestly that wasn’t too bad. There was also some fatigue.

Most of the side effects went away after a couple more days with the exception of the neck stiffness. That one seems to be sticking around for awhile. We will see if it goes away like the other side effects. One final side effect that TKIs have is they raise blood sugar. Despite being on a strict ketogenic diet my morning blood sugar was over 115 when it has been below 90. My hope is I will acclimate and this too will pass. I don’t want this med screwing up my diet and its effects.

While I think my diet, supplements, and oxygen therapy have achieved most of my progress so far, I also think this medication is beginning to work also. My heart rate has come down which is related to having all or most of my lung capacity back. My breathing is normal and my cough is mostly gone.

This is my first week back at work in a limited capacity and feeling much better each day. This is a long road, but I feel I’m off to a good start.

-Jeremy