Out, damn'd stent! out, I say!

(with apologies to William Shakespeare)

After another few horrible coughing episodes, Dr.Krishna decided to go back in. X-rays showed the stent had moved a few centimeters in Jim's bronchial tube and he has been having really terrible coughing.  The procedure was early this morning. While he was under, they removed the stent, which had been causing a great deal of irritation. In your airways, irritation produces mucus, which is what was causing all the coughing.  After getting the stent out, they just let him breathe for a while, to be sure his airway could support itself. Remember, this is the airway where they had to cut a lot of it away when they removed the tumors.  Anyway, his was able to breathe so well on his own that Dr. Krishna decided to leave the stent out.  James has been breathing really well ever since and hasn't had any coughing episodes (knock on wood).

We were able to go across the street and have his radiation treatment early and then head home. He has felt really good today and we even ran a few little errands (knock wood again). Linda is bringing us dinner and we plan to just chill and watch a movie tonight.

This is not the cruise ship!

Tomorrow at radiation he will have a CT scan to determine the effect so far of the radiation. If the tumor has shrunk (knock three times) then they can further focus the radiation beams.  Assuming we get permission from all three doctors (radiation, chemo and pulmonary) we will be taking a cruise to Alaska before he starts his "real deal" doses of chemo in July.  More on that in an upcoming post!