Day 89 - Round 6: Taxol

Round 6 is now done and in the books. Hooray! I only have 2 more treatments to go. I can say that it feels like it has gone by fast. I wish that it went by even faster. So here's what went down on Thursday.

We dropped the kids off at Becky's and then stopped at Subway to get some sandwiches for later in the day. We got to the office and it was the regular blood draw and then wait for Dr. Luoh. While waiting for Dr. L, I checked my phone and I got a call from my prescription health plan. So I called them to find out why they called me. They were calling because of the Neupogen that Dr. L was trying to prescribe for me. It had to be cleared through the prescription plan, otherwise I would be paying a lot of money. So while I was waiting on hold for them to get information, I got called in the back to see Dr. L. Amazing, he was actually on time. So this time, Dr. L had to wait for me! :) I found out that the only way that I could get the Neopogen would be by mail order and that takes about 8-9 business days. In addition, it would be a $400+ co-pay for me. Um, no. Neulasta is cheaper!

Dr. L came in and asked how I was doing. We went over our regular "How did you do?" He was concerned about my last treatment with the taxol. To make a long story short, we decided to hydrate me the next day with 2 liters of fluids. Then the next step would be to take zofran starting Friday night and continuing for three days. I can take other stuff like compazine and ativan as well. Now with the Neulasta/Neupogen. I told him it was off the table and that I wanted to stick with the Neulasta. It was going to cost more to take the neopogen. Dr. L was just concerned that the neulasta was more than my body could really handle... cause it raised my white blood counts so high. So we decided that I would take the neulasta, but take only 4mg of the stuff. So I will be wasting 2mg or $2k of the drug. Oh well. He feels that the neulasta was making my side effects worse. And that is about all we talked about. We also talked about doing another ultrasound before my next taxol treatment. He says that the legion/tumor was going down. That's good news, but he wanted to take a look at it with an u/s. So that appointment is scheduled for April 24 after work.

Next it was time to get my taxol treatment. I was lucky... I only got 25mg of benadryl. Last time it was 50mg. So this time I wasn't falling asleep or getting really woozy. Treatment went as normal. Nothing special there. We did have the genetic counselor come by to talk about getting tested for the BRCA mutation. The mutation could be from just a sporadic thing or it could be that I always had a mutation. So the blood test, which goes to Salt Lake City, UT, will tell me if I am BRCA1 or BRCA2 positive (there are two genes that could have a mutation). I will know in about three weeks. If it comes back positive, then that means that I have a greater chance of getting ovarian cancer. It also means that the girls have a 50/50 chance of having the mutation. We will not test them because we will leave it up to them to get tested when they are of age.

I am also now "stitch-free"! I still had some left over stitches from my port placement that didn't dissolve because they were sticking up above my skin. So those were removed on Thursday. Now my necklace doesn't catch on the stitch. Hooray! And that's about it for Thursday.

Day 75 - Round 5: New Chemo drug Taxol

Here I am... drip, drip, drip. I have about less than hour for my Taxol drip. Three hours is really long, but not as long for Brad. Sitting in that hard visitors chair... while I have a comfy cushy one that reclines. However, I would not like to have to sit in this chair at all.

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Updated, I am now home. I got into a nice conversation with the couple sitting next time in my last hour of the the drip, drip, drip. We started talking about laptops. They are in the market for one and asked how much I spent on mine and what I had. They said that someone told them to get a HP. Brad and I kind of laughed at that because Brad's brother and dad had an HP that crapped out on them. I told them that they can get a Dell like mine for 549.99. They were shocked. I told them that I have 4GB of memory and it does all the stuff I like. She does more word processing and I said that it might be best to upgrade to something like Microsoft Office. I don't have it on the computer... I have what's installed. In addition, they want to Skype. I told them that I have a built in camera and it does the trick. I even showed them the pictures that I took with it and they were surprised as to how clear it is. I think I've got them hooked on a Dell. After that we started to talk about Chemo and why were were there. She first had breast cancer about 20 years ago and has recurrences since then. Makes me nervous. But she's a very upbeat woman and she's living with it. She is also dealing with lymphedema. Her whole left arm was swollen. She said back in 1992 she had a mastectomy and they took out 17 lymph nodes! 17! But that was the standard operating procedure back then. So she doesn't have any nodes to push on or get the lymphatic system going. Eva is her name. I think her husband's name is Rick. In any case, I think that with me they are going to take out half a dozen. I think that's better odds if I get lymphodema it won't be as bad as hers. Her cancer I believe has spread to between the two breasts. It was a beautiful conversation. I liked them a lot.

So back to my treatment.

I got there at 8:45a. At 9, I had my blood drawn. Then it was wait until 9:30. I got to go back into a room shortly around 9:30. Wow! On time. I got several texts... but one of them I was desperately waiting for... a text from Shellie, as she was meeting us in the infusion room. I got that text and she went and picked up some food for us... Subway... cuz I was hungry for a meatball sub. Just as I was placing my order, the Nurse Practioner came in, Sandra. We first talked about side effects from the new medication because this is the first time I was taking the taxol. Side effects include muscle and joint pain, kind of like having the flu, my hair may grow back (wowsers, cool. I have heard about this), neuropathy (where I get tingling in my extremities... this can happen at any time, but she says it normally happens with the 4th dose), finger and toe nails will be discolored (that's happening already) and skin as well (happening already). She said that my nausea should go away and I won't have it. Next on my list was post medications... she said that if I do get nausea, I could take any of my anti-nausea meds as needed. So that's all I have to do. She did say that I will be taking the dexamethasone (steroid) the night before I have taxol treatment from here on out. Sweet! Then I would get my neulasta shot 24 hours after my treatment. Okay, this is doable. Sandra said most women ask why they do the AC first... they say the taxol should be first. I laughed and said that is so wrong, it should be exactly the way it is because then one can look forward to having a good back half of chemo. She agreed. I like her.

I got out of that appointment at 10:04. I had to wait about 15 minutes to get into the infusion room. So they were running behind. I got my favorite nurse, Nicole. I like her a lot. My first order... saline drip. Then the next thing I got... 20mg of dexamethasone, 8mg of Zofran and then a 15 minute drip of pepcid. After that I got a 50mg drip of Benadryl. Ugh. Right at the beginning, Shellie came to visit us baring gifts of food (thanks Shellie!). That was awesome since I was soooo hungry. We talked about work, treatment and kids. Shellie said I looked great for just going through AC and chemo in general. Brad got a picture of us (will post later). I also got a picture of me and Jon which is a guy who is awesome and works there too. I told him earlier that I had a surprise for him... which was Shellie. They talked for awhile. It was nice because there were several people who came up to her and remembered. :) Reminder it's been nearly 4 years since she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Our visit was short, but well worth it. By the time she left, I was getting dizzy and tired from the Benadryl. So I took a half hour nap while I had to wait for taxol. When I woke up, it was time for taxol. They started the drip... I waited up for about 15 minutes, felt no change and went back to sleep. I was tired from the benadryl. When I woke up, I had about an hour and a half left. I went pee and that's when I got a new chemo neighbor. (see above for that) Chemo was finally done shortly before 3p. I was so happy to get out of there. That was a long day. My neulasta shot is tomorrow at 4p. Sweet night.

Got home and mom had dinner cooking in the crockpot. It is so nice not having to worry about dinner. Chicken and artichokes. It was yummy. After dinner, we all did our job with getting the kids in the bath and ready for bed. Now it's quiet and I am able to update the blog.

Brad is now running out to auto repair shop, because my car was starting to shake and shimmy on the way to our appointment. After a call to Chris, they think it has something to do with fuel in my gas take. This stuff that Brad is getting is supposed to dry up the water in the tank. If it's not that, it could be the fuel injector. We shall see.

Tomorrow, I will be going to work. That's something Eva and I talked about. She said that work helps her move on with her life. I said that is the same thing I feel. I don't sit at home and wallow to the fact I am sick. We also discussed in brief about our mortality. It was nice to talk to another person about breast cancer and other stuff. They were very sensitive and knew exactly what to say.

I'll keep you posted with what sort of side effects I have this weekend. Pray and keep your fingers crossed that I won't have the nasties. Oh yes, I forgot, Sandra said that the benadryl medication... they can decrease that dosage if they find I am not having an allergic reaction. That would be good. Less time in the infusion room!

I'm tired now and want to go to bed. Till tomorrow...

and I'll post pictures when I get them uploaded.

Day 74 - Round 5: Taxol chemo prep...

Nothing much new on day 72 and 73, hence no post.

Definitely at the halfway mark for my chemo treatment. Tonight is the eve of the new stuff. Tomorrow I go in to get my dose of taxol. It should be an interesting day. Tonight I have to take a dose of dexamethasone. My nurse called me to remind me. So I asked her why I needed to take the dex. Angie said that it's a rare occurence of people getting an allergic reaction but along with the dex and a dose of benadryl, it will ward off any allergic reaction. Interesting. Then I asked her what will happen tomorrow. She said that I will get my dose of zofran, dexamethasone, zantac and benadryl. The zofran and the dex are for anti-nausea and the zantac and benadryl are for allergic reaction. I won't get emend for anti-nausea! Hooray, I guess they are fairly confident that I won't be nauseous. So tomorrow I will be tired during treatment. I find that benadryl makes me loopy. This should be an interesting day. She guesstimates that if all goes according to plan I will be in the infusion room for about 3 1/2 hours. That's not too bad. Now I know that there's no guarantees because there are always delays. But hopefully all will go according to plan. I won't be seeing Dr. Luoh tomorrow. Instead I will be seeing Sandra who is Dr. Luoh's counterpart. Along with being one of the first people in the building, maybe there won't be such a delay. One can only hope. Angie said I'll most likely be out of the building at 2:30p! Yay, before rush hour commute.

My friend Shellie also will be stopping by. She wanted to see me and I told her that I will most likely be there all day long. She offered to bring lunch. Nice. Maybe I can con her into getting Subway because I am jonesing for a meatball sub with lettuce, tomato and bell peppers. It will nice to have visitors.

My mom is in town now. Picked her up at the airport last night and she'll be here for the next week. She is here to watch the girls. Becky is on spring break and was planning to be out of town and it was a great excuse for her to come out. So far the girls are loving having her here. :-)

Hats off, literally, to Monty a.k.a. Jen! I got a beautiful hat in the mail from her today. It's gorgeous and it fits perfectly. Thanks for spoiling me. It was funny because I was just thinking that I needed some new hats. And my wish came true.

Day 65

5DPC was a little better than previous weeks. It started off really ill. I was puking in the middle of the night. But it did seem a little better. I managed to eat quite a bit during the morning hours and held it all down. However, around 2p, it all started to go the wrong direction. Maybe it was because I had too much to eat for lunch. I have no idea. I do know that I was craving wonton soup. Brad was too funny, he said that maybe I'm "coming out of it" because I was craving chinese food. But I wasn't in the mood to venture out. So I had some White Castle cheeseburgers. I think that was my falling. It wasn't long after I ate those that I started to feel a little nauseous. So I took some compazine and benadryl in hopes to keep whatever I had down. It didn't help because I did end up tossing my cookies. I even took some atavan, but that didn't help much either. Finally I decided to make some white rice. That helped my tummy settle. Maybe I am just hungry and that's why I get so sick. I will have to remember to keep something in my belly. I have also found that when I drink water it makes my stomach sour as well. I have stuck to apple juice and Sprite. That seems to help a little too.

As for work, I am working from home. I did so for about 4 hours yesterday. It felt good to get things done. I got lots of work completed that I needed to get completed and I was able to watch over my agents from home. I made sure they were doing their job correctly. Thank heavens for VPN.

Day 64

Still riding the roller coaster. Today I took dexamethasone and a combination of compazine and benadryl. That seemed to keep the vomiting at bay. I only threw up twice! That's good, right? I felt sleepy all day though. I didn't do much at all. I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done. Now I just need to fold the laundry. But that will come later. Just laying low. I did manage to get a little food down. In the morning it was english muffin with peanut butter. For lunch I had chips and for dinner I had one of Elaina's left over chicken strips from lunch.

Day 21 - Round 1

Let me first say, Thank you everyone! Thank you for your support and concern as I go through this chemo crap. Secondly, I'm soooo tired right now (more on that later).

So I went into work today. I took a half day because my chemo appointment wasn't until 10. Got to OHSU and got in right away. They took my vitals, weight, blood pressure and temperature. All good. :) Then Dr. Luoh came in to talk to me. We talked about the chemo that was about to be injected in me. We went over side effects that Angie, his nurse had gone over with me the night prior. I also had a few questions for him... could I take tylenol or ibuprofen? Tylenol it is. I asked him to fill out a FML(A) claim for me and we talked about wigs. He said that he can write me a prescription for it. I told him that I needed a letter stating it was a medical necessity in order for my insurance to cover it. Whoop! Then he had trouble because the medical assistant who took my vitals weighed me wrong. So I had to get re-weighed. Then I had to get measured. See, in order for the perfect mixology of my chemo, they dose it according to height and weight. They don't want me under medicated or over medicated. Following that debacle, I had to undress so the doctor could take a look at the lump in my boob, armpit and neck.

Next... I moved to the treatment side. It was about 11. I got to meet John who was a hoot and holler! He took my vitals again. Following John, I got Net. She was sweet. She put my IV line in and also took my blood. While I was waiting for the results to come back, she started pushing saline into my vein. After that, it was anti-nausea medication. That was pumped in my IV. Then it was time for my chemo. I also took a whole bunch of pills for anti-nausea as well. (yes, all that was prep work). The first one was the adriamycin. It's red and it turns my pee pink. She started pushing it in (by hand). About 1 minute later my arm started itching. Uh-oh. She stopped immediately and called Dr. Luoh. I was having an allergic reaction to it. So then they put 50mg of benadryl in my IV. Uh-oh. That made me feel really really really light headed. I didn't feel so great. So then they let me wait about 20 minutes before resuming treatment. I had to take two vials of the stuff. The second time around it was better. During this reaction time, I was told that I should have a full stomach when I take the anti-nausea medication. Uh, that would have been helpful! So I ate my lunch while sitting there. After about another 15-20 minutes the nausea went away. Following the adriamycin, it was time for the cytoxin. That was through my IV. That was only a half hour. Dr. L came back to check on me to make sure I wasn't having a reaction again. He told me that I should start taking Zyrtec regularly for the remainder of my treatment to help stop the allergic reaction. If it doesn't work he may have to change my treatment. I was then told that I had to wait another hour after the cytoxin was finished because they wanted to observe me to make sure I was okay.

During my one hour wait, I got a foot massage. There's a wonderful lady who volunteers and gives massages to people getting treatment. We chatted for awhile and she told me that she's certified to give treatment for people who have lymphodema. Interesting. Lymphodema is a risk to patients who have their lymph nodes removed. The lymph nodes work to removed fluid from where ever and to filter the bad stuff out. So if it gets backed up, the arm could swell.

When my hour was up, I was ready to go. Since I was hydrating like crazy, I think I went to the bathroom about 4 times! My next treatment is on 2/16 at 12p. We'll see what happens then. We will also see what's to come in the next two weeks.

Oh yes, I did shed some tears while I was there. My IV was bothering me and I didn't know if it was bad. I became a hypocondriac. Every twitch is now a menace because it could lead to something else. My nurse was so nice though. She said it's okay. And when I left, she said that she took my chemo virginity! Wish I could take it back! I will celebrate Round 1 complete when I make it to 2/15.

Right now I am feeling really really tired from the benadryl, but other than that I am feeling good.

Tomorrow afternoon I have an appointment at 3p to get my Neulasta shot to boost my bone marrow to produce good healthy blood cells.

Well, I am pretty much pooped out... so until tomorrow....