After my boyfriend's visit to the ER last Friday for shortness of breath, the oncologist decided to switch him to Taf/Mek due to the crazy cancer progression he experienced after 9 days on immunotherapy. He started Taf/Mek on Tuesday night, just 10 days after his first immunotherapy infusion.
Last night we returned to the ER due to severe shortness of breath. He's been at the hospital ever since. He has a blood clot in his left lung, a lung infection, and very large metastases throughout his right lung. They have put him on antibiotics and also plan on draining fluid from his lungs. Tomorrow hematologists will consult with his oncologist to decide whether blood thinners are also a good idea for the blood clot. They are leery of doing that because of his brain metastases and craniotomy from two months ago, since blood thinners would increase the risk of a catastrophic brain bleed. But the blood clot also doesn't look too good, so it's a hard decision to make.
Right now my boyfriend is on supplemental oxygen and will stay in the hospital for a few days. He's still awake and able to walk to the bathroom, fully himself in every way, he just can't breathe well and even gets fatigued from talking too long. Every doctor we speak to at the hospital looks at us like they're so sad for us, like his days are numbered and he's just a dead man walking. I keep wanting to scream "He's not dead yet!!" Nobody has told us yet that he's going to die or what his prognosis is, though. Sometimes it feels like all the doctors are keeping that a secret from us. Not sure if we want to know.
It's hard to feel any hope. We're both devastated. Hoping for some kind of miracle with the Taf/Mek drugs and maybe then he can return to immunotherapy.
In happier news, last Sunday we decided to get engaged. So he's not really my boyfriend anymore – he's my fiance 🙂 I love him so much and really hope we can have a wedding.
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