UPDATE: I spoke to Dr. Ahmed this afternoon. She has cancelled my last infusion which was scheduled for Sept 2nd and would like me to go back on the Dexamethasone steroid. 1 pill of 4mg for 4 days.
I've been on steroids for the last 11 days to heal my lungs from inflammation due to pneumonitis. My symptoms were a bad cough and tiredness. My doctor slowly weaned me off the steroids hoping that my lungs would rebound.
Unfortunately, when I stopped the steroids on Sunday, the cough was back on Monday. I won't bother trying to understand what's going on. This is the second time I was on steroids and stopped only to have the cough return.
We thought that since the Chemo drug Paclitaxel is out of my system - I've been free of it for a month - that the toxicity would disappear. Hopefully it still will over time.
For the next 7 days I'll monitor things to see if or how it progresses. My goal is to avoid going back on steroids. I'll check to see if I have a temperature daily and also check my oxygen level with an oximeter. Only one more round of chemo, so it may go away on its own after that.
Below is more of a record for myself of my coughing history.
July 15 - coughing began. It was mainly a dry cough. Over the next six days, the cough worsened. I also started to feel more tired. I thought chemo was making me tired. I didn't realize it was related to cough
July 20 - Met with Dr. Ahmed. She said it could be acid reflux or taxel can cause cough but it goes away after treatment is over. She suggested I take Cetirizine daily which is an allergy medicine.
July 21 - I started taking Cetirizine daily. It didn't help with the cough.
July 31 - X-ray for lungs
August 3 - CT Scan for lungs
August 4 - Met with Dr. Ahmed. She said my scans shows that my lungs are inflamed and there are "particles" in my lungs. She cancelled my chemo infusion which was scheduled for the following day. She and nurse Katy thought it could be one of three things pneumonia, pneumonitis or COVID. Later in the evening I had a COVID test that came back negative
August 5th - started on steroids - Dexamethasone. 4 mg twice a day for five days. I took a pill in the morning and by the evening my cough was gone. I spoke with nurse Katy who said my symptoms and how I responded to medicine means I most likely have pneumonitis.
August 9th - last day for steroid
August 10 - met with nurse Katy who confirmed pneumonitis.
August 12 - the cough returned two days after stopping steroids. I went back on steroid, 4 mg twice a day. No end date.
August 19 - I started new chemo drug Abraxane. I also was told to wean off of the steroids. 2 days of 1 pill, then 2 days of half pill.
August 23 - last day of steroids - total of 11 days for this round. 16 days all together.
August 24 - the cough returned.
The old chemo drug Paclitaxel has been out of my system for 20 days. Abraxane should not make me cough. So why did the cough return?