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 87 - The Fun Continues!

Fun times at Chemo High! LOL

I am at work and I look at my phone during my supervisor meeting and what do I see?? I missed two calls from my oncologist's office. Uh oh. I could figure out one of them... a reminder that I have an appointment on Thursday. (yea me! Not). The other one was what was puzzling me. Can anyone guess what the second call was about??? Ha, you'll never guess. Anyway, Dr. Luoh's nurse was calling because Dr. Luoh wants to change my post chemo medication - namely the neulasta shot. Yea, that's the $6k one. So what do they want to replace it with?? Neupogen. What's that you say?? I'll tell you in a moment.

Dr. L seems to think that the Neulasta was giving me the nausea. It's not necessarily a side effect, but he wants to give the Neupogen a try. When I went in for two Saturdays ago to the ER they checked my white blood count. Apparently it was through the roof. It was so high. I'm doing a great job by staying away from the sickies. But he seems to think that since my white blood count is so high, the Neulasta is doing too much. With the Neupogen, the medication will be given in smaller doses over the course of seven days. Yes, I did say seven days. That means that I have to stick myself every day with a needle. I have to give myself an injection. Like I mentioned... the fun continues. So it looks like it's going to be the battles of the Ns... which one will win? All I can say is that if I have the same reaction, I'm going back to one injection. I feel sorry for the people who are diabetic. Eh, it's all good though. The shot would go in in my tummy, arm or thigh... basically where ever - as Angie says - "pinch an inch." Right now the OHSU pharmacy is taking my medical prescription coverage to see how much it would cost me to get the Neupogen. If it's a small copay or not extremely high, then I'll be doing the shot each day. But I guess we'll discuss on Thursday.

Now I am sitting here on the couch watching "Tangled" for the upteenth time.