Anxiety waiting for immunotherapy response

Thank you so much for your advice.  I will certainly contact the insurance companies, I must admit I was getting fed up with the number of rejections I was getting for insurance, but I did get a couple of quotes one was £1000, and the other £800.  I did give up at that point, by I will contact the ones you mentioned xx

Hi Cindy, Shen I was first diagnosed, I phoned over a dozen before I got an actual quote, the others wouldn't even give me one. The first quote I got to go to Spain in Jan/Feb for 4 weeks was £9,000! I said they had to be joking as the whole holiday for two of us was less than half of that. It turns out 24 days was the maximum anyone would insure me for.The rest depended where you were going. I persevered and Eventually we got insurance for 21 days for £327. Worth it for peace of mind! Did you try clicking on the search button with the magnifying glass on left at top of the page, it is worth a look!

I have had a lot of luck with the company called insurancewith. I have incurable kidney cancer on immunothy and I just got insurance for a 1 week cruise from Southampton for £45. If you phone them their questions are very in-depth and they sometimes say they need to consult the underwriters so the questions may take an hour and you might not get an answer straight away but I have found it very worth the trouble if you have somewhere you want to go

I also got insurance for metastatic TNBC very easily and affordably through Insurance With. Very easy experience. An annual policy in my case, which I was easily able to update at nominal cost when my situation worsened. 

i think it was after about 3 moths

Hi Coddfish 

At the moment I'm also having pembrolizumab, before yesterday I had my second one. Two weeks after the first one, I started to have kinda the same symptoms I was having at the beginning of the cancer (cervical cancer) and I'm not sure if this can be from pseudoprogression. My oncologist doesn't think the tumor is growing, she thinks is reaction to the treatment (because my blood test seems fine ), but I'm still gonna have a pet scan next week. I'm very concerned about this..

Did you have pain or discomfort due to inflammation during your first pembrolizumabs? 

Hi Pet1968 

May I ask if you have any pain or discomfort due to pseudoprogression?

I had my first inmuno 4 weeks ago, pembrolizumab also. And 2 weeks after I started to have kinda the same symptoms of the beginning of the cancer, and I'm very concerned about it. I'll have a pet scan next week, but I also wonder if a pet scan can differentiate pseudoprogression from real progression.. 

Doctor thinks it's reaction to the treatment because on my blood test everything seems fine. Don't know what to think, I'm very scared

Hi Mashi93 

After (I think) the 3rd pembro, I had a rash across my chest, which was treated with Betamethasone, emollients and antihistamines. Other than that, no symptoms or side effects until I started to feel dehydrated earlier in the day when I was admitted to hospital with the acute kidney injury. However I have never had any obvious symptoms from my cancer so doubt whether pseudo progression would have caused any discomfort in my case. 

The no symptom thing is something I find strange.  Apart from a little fatigue which I think mostly comes from stress and not sleeping so well, I’m feeling remarkably well considering.  It’s hard to plough on with harsh treatments knowing they’ll actually make me feel ill.   Final pathology results due on Monday and possibly starting chemo treatment same or next day.  Mets to lung, mediastinum, axilla, pectoral and supraclavicular node, all on right side where I had breast cancer.  Cancer, the gift that keeps on giving!  It’s such a sneaky little B.

Hi Ochno, I know it seems strange not having symptoms and thinking about treatment of any kind but surely the time to have treatment, if you need it, is while you are well enough to cope with it and not wait until the symptoms hit!

Wait until Monday until you get your pathology results and then have a discussion with your oncologist before deciding what to do as you can only make an informed decision once you have ALL the facts! Please let us know how you get on!

How are you doing GreenCliffLady, Elliekate, and everyone else on this thread?