New side effect

I have had this really dry bronchial cough every evening for several days. I must admit, at first I thought I was just picking up some run-of-the-mill virus because of my low white cell count. But as the cough got worse and worse, I started to realize something was up. Losing my voice to the irritation for a day was just the cherry on top.  A friend of mine, visiting me this week, has an asthma inhaler and that is the only thing that managed to alleviate it. 

I called my doctor to get that inhaler by prescription so that I could actually sleep at night. But nothing is easy. 

It turns out that bronchial cough is a known side effect of the immune treatment Keytruda, and even though I already had 6+ treatments, like all chemo it has a cumulative effect and it seems that now it finally kicked in. 

"Immune checkpoint inhibitors may cause pneumonitis, which is inflammation of the lungs that can cause a cough or trouble breathing. Pneumonitis is uncommon but may be serious." per doctor Google. 

Leave it to me to get the uncommon side effect. Just my luck, right?

My doctor requested that I go the hospital for an emergency lung scan to see if I had gotten any inflammation before prescribing the regular steroid inhaler.

Nothing like a little medical drama to spice up my birthday week!