Pneumonitis

[Greenwi]

I had pneumonitis, a side effect of Radiotherapy, ended up in hospital for 2 weeks, my breathing is better than it was,down to 2 steroids a day, but still cannot do much without becoming short of breath, have a green inhaler 2 puffs once a day, also a blue one,anyone else had this and do you get back to how you were.

[2greys]

Yes, I suffered with some inflammation (pneumonitis) post SABR and had a total of 8 weeks on steroids, I was not admitted for it. The steroid component of my combination inhaler was also doubled. It is almost 10 months since completion of the therapy and my breathing has not recovered to the same state as before being diagnosed with the malignant tumour. I have to say that my breathing went rapidly downhill with the development of the tumour rather than from the treatment, but my breathing has now returned to the same point as before the treatment but not to before the tumour.

There was also a delay to the SABR treatment as I jumped through the hoops for surgery first, that proved to be too risky as I have severe Emphysema, FEV1 of 31% and Cardio Arterial Disease. The tumour is now 1/3 of the size it was and continuing to shrink. I fear that the tumour itself has caused further irreparable damage to my lung as my breathing has not improved with the tumour shrinking. All in all, still a better outcome than what would have happened had it not been detected and thankful that it was, so I chalk it up as a win.