Small cell lung cancer

Hi

Sorry to hear of your husband's diagnosis and problems with treatments.  I have no experience in these treatments, my lung cancer was just treated with radiotherapy, but I'm sure someone who has or is experiencing this will be along with help and advice.

Best wishes.

Ann

Hello Nana61,

I had cisplatin and vinorelbine several years ago, I didn't have immunotherapy such as durvalumab as this wasn't in use back then. I also had episodes of extreme fatigue where I could hardly move or stand up and stayed in bed or laid on the sofa all day. I was younger at 58.

If you haven't done so already I'd contact his chemo unit and ask them for advice, they may well be able to give him something to help or adjust his treatment to reduce side effects.

I do hope you can get something to help him.

Hi

Back in 2011 when I was going through my SCLC treatment, I too had Cisplatin and Etoposide.  The positive is that this chemo combo is often effective in terms of shrinking the SCLC.  In my case, the negative was that it had a negative impact on both my red bloods cells and   white blood cells. 

When your red blood (iron) count is low you will experience severe fatigue and  difficulty in movement e.g walking.  This is because the body is very clever, it diverts the remaining 'good' red blood cells to the vital organs.. This means that  the limbs will feel very heavy and a bit useless (think a bad case of flu where everything is aching and you can barely stand).  

I had blood transfusions after both of my 3rd and 4th cycles of chemo.  I went in barely able to walk, and because I am a stubborn bugger, I would not use a wheel chair,  Each time, after two units of lovely juicy red bloods cells, I could almost skip back to the car!  It will take a full working day for the blood cells to be very slowly dripped into Hubby, This is so that it does not negatively impact on his blood pressure.  I promise you that he will feel much better after the transfusion.

I hope he gets the transfusions soon. 

Kegsy x