Mistaken identity
It’s routine for many of us with dysfunctional immune systems to catch colds and other minor infections. We smokers suffer bronchitis more often than non-smokers do, and this gets multiplied by our weakened systems. So when I began to cough and felt pressure in my chest I figured I was just fighting with another bug.
But it got worse and it became harder to breathe, so when I had an appointment with my oncology team I reported it to them. They agreed that the weakness I felt along with the other symptoms was probably one of the succession of infections I’d been experiencing. Over a few days things got a little better and so I figured I was getting the better of it.
Then heart palpitations began and my pulse and blood pressure went all over the map as I wrote about previously. They took xrays and found some damage to the lungs, but diagnosed extreme stress as the cause of my discomforts.
It wasn’t until my next oncology appointment when my oncologist was reading the xray report that he used the words Pulmonary Embolism. It’s one thing to hear that you have some lung damage, but another to hear embolism. My doctor pointed out that it was amazing the way I kept overcoming the challenges that Myeloma kept throwing my way. Not like it’s anything I do, I just luck out. But embolisms are a whole different kettle of fish than a simple infection.
Taking Revlimid makes us prone to DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis. That’s the medical name for blood clots. These clots form and create blockages, usually in the legs. But they often break up and travel through the body. They can interfere with heart functions, cause strokes, and block the blood as it moves through the lungs to the heart. This reduces the oxygen in the blood and causes the heart to beat faster and harder. The high blood pressure caused can then produce anything from stroke to aneurysm. Pulmonary embolisms are frightening things and they should be. They were the cause of the death of the Deadliest Catch’s Captain Phil Harris recently.
It’s a sad but true fact that a lot of the problems cancer patients face are attributed to the cancer. When you report to an ER doctor that you have this or that symptom, the common reaction is to blame it on the disease. The ER doctor I saw was good and attentive, and acted on what she knew. But she only saw the preliminary report from xray which described the embolisms as previous damage. When the full report came in, she dutifully recorded it in the record and flagged it for my oncologist. But it took a week before I got the news that I wasn’t just suffering bronchitis, but was dealing with clots in the lungs.
I’m asking for my oncologist to have a full workup done to see what my situation is. They have increased the aspirin I take to thin my blood, to try to reduce the propensity of further clotting. But the real lesson here is never to assume anything about the symptoms a cancer patient experiences. A case if mistaken identity can lead to serious problems.
