Shortage?!?!

Received a call today from the nurse practiciner at the oncologists office.  Evidentally there is a nationwide shortage of Taxol so I will no longer be receiving it.  Instead I will be receiving a similar drug called Taxotere (spelling unsure).  So instead of my weekly treatments at a lower dosage I will be receiving a treatment every 3 weeks at a higher dosage.  This means that the Neulasta shots are coming back.  I'm sure Brian will be happy to be giving those to me again!

I'm not really sure how I feel about this.  It's 3 treatments instead of 9, Yeah!  But that means the Neulasta injections are back, Yuck!  Hopefully the Neulasta will help keep my immune system up while I'm working, Yeah! Will finish treatment a week later than originally expected, Yuck!  And I'm hoping the side effects aren't felt more than they already are.  This was something previously discussed with the oncologist when I started the weekly Taxol, if we did every other week there was more of a chance I would feel the painful side effects than with the weekly injections.  I guess I'll have to decide how I feel after I get the treatment!

Just for something funny to add...Brian and I walked down the street to the field that used to have wheat in it to take pictures of the flowers now growing in it....decided to just pop a squat right in the middle of the flowers and let Brian take my picture...for those that haven't seen me in awhile, it's the first official BALD photo!!

Taxol

I am sooo sorry I haven't posted in awhile, it just seems life is getting in the way!!  I've been super busy now that work is back in full swing, and trying to get out and have a social life as much as I can.  And don't forget the trips out on the boat with Brian!!

Okay so week's 1 and 2 on Taxol were quite interesting..They give me 3 pre-meds to make sure that I don't have an allergic reaction, and the nurse sits in there with you for the first 15-20 minutes with a "kit" just in case.  The pre-meds are benadryl (I kinda miss that now that it's gone, it helped me take a few great naps both in the chemo room, in the car, and at home!!!), decadron (sp??) this was the same stuff I was taking in the pill form for anti-nausea with the AC but this was a larger dose via IV...my only complaint with this was the "burn" that came with it being injected!  And the last was a pepsid...after 2 weeks of those drugs with Taxol and no reactions I no longer needed them with this past week's infusion.  Oh there was 1 bad side affect with the benadryl, last week I had restless leg syndrome...I thought I was going to come unglued trying to sit in the chair reading my magazine!!

This week I was fortunate to have had Barb go with me...I wanted to give Brian a break since Friday's are supposed to be his day off and he was already scheduled to work from 5pm Friday to 1pm Sunday...we sat and visited and had a nice time.  Even my nurse sat in the room visiting with us for a little while.

I went back to my surgeon for a 3 month follow up.   He said everything looks good.  He showed me how to do a self breast exam with the expanders in.  Kinda creepy both he and the resident with him did my exam in the office, but hey I lost my modesty a long time ago!! I will go back and see him in November, then we'll go 6 months, and then it will be every year.   He put me in contact with a gynecologist so that I can start having my ovaries monitored until I decide to have them out.  I know the oncologist is hoping that will happen as soon as chemo is over, but I'm not quite on board with that yet.  In the meantime I will have blood work and ultrasounds and be closely monitored just in case.

Fair warning to everyone reading this who sees me on a regular basis, thanks to menopause #1 I'm very emotional, don't be alarmed if I cry at the drop of the hat, and over something really insignificant.  Just hand me a Kleenex and ignore it! :)

I noticed something kind of odd today.  For some reason the ONLY place I won't go bald is to Jazzercise, and I'm not sure why that is.  I usually wear a bandana when I'm there...today I was REALLY warm and should have taken it off but I couldn't do it.  I don't know why that is, I'm very comfortable there, and most of the time I can start to feel like the old me there (except I still can't work out as hard as I used to), but I get lost in the music and usually walk away feeling much better after the hour.  Strange that I feel I need to hide my bald head there....speaking of bald head, one of the nurses said I'll start getting a little fuzz grow back, but my hair won't grow back until the chemo is over...she described it like the fluff underneath a bird's wing.

Okay I need to wrap this up, I have dinner plans and then I'm heading out to say goodbye to a good friend of mine who is moving tomorrow.  But please understand, no news is probably good news where this blog is concerned...if I haven't posted it means there's probably nothing new worth mentioning!

First Taxol Treatment

Okay so of course there were lots of delays today so we were there FOREVER!!  The doctor got held up in a meeting so she was late seeing me, then spent some time going over possible side effects with the Taxol, the biggest one I need to be careful of is the tingling/numbness in my hands and feet.   But the good news was when she said the nausea would go away!!

Then we got into the chemo area and waited a little bit on the nurse to come in, I had a new one this time. I've been fortunate to have had the same nurse for 3/4 of my AC treatments, and the 4th one was with the same nurse that had done my first zolodex injection.  Then after she went over side effects and what to expect with treatment she ordered my premeds...for the first 2 treatments I will be taking ironically one of my anti nausea meds (this time IV push instead of pill), 50mg of benadryl and pepsid, all to help with any possible allergic reaction to Taxol.  After the first 2 treatments, if there is no reaction then they will do away with the pre meds.  Of course we had to wait for them to be released by pharmacy and then we had to wait 30 minutes once they were on board to start the chemo.  And of course we waited for the pharmacy to release the chemo to my nurse.  It was after 1 when we were leaving there today so a very long day.

The funny part for everyone else in the room was that as soon as the benadryl was on board I was feeling VERY loopy and kinda buzzed.  I wasn't allowed to get up and go to the bathroom by myself today because of it.  I managed to fight off the sleep while the treatment was being started.  The nurse stays with you for 15-20 minutes incase of reaction and has to take 2 sets of vitals.  But after she left I definitely couldn't keep my eyes open, when the IV buzzed that it was finished I think I jumped!!  I felt really groggy and totally out of it at that point, and had a little nausea but not the same feelings as with the AC.  All I wanted to do was just go home and crawl into bed.

I immediately fell asleep, but Brian woke me up awhile later to get me to eat some lunch.  As soon as that was over I fall back to sleep again.  I think I slept for a good 3 hours total this afternoon.  But as soon as I woke up I felt 100% better.  I am curious to see what the next few days will be like, if there will be any new side effects or not.  I know the tingling may not start for a couple treatments if at all.  But they were right when they said this treatment is much easier to tolerate (except for the benadryl!!!).

Something else I learned today, as we get into cold and flu season I will be required to get a flu shot, and they've even suggested Brian get one too so he doesn't bring it into the house.  But I have to be careful being around people who get the flu MIST, as it is a live virus and can float into the air from the nose after receiving it.  So if any of you that I see on a regular basis do get the flu mist this season, please let me know and I'll probably have to avoid close contact with you for a couple days.

As if..

This wasn't going to be a tough enough week, but let's throw some insomnia into the mix.  Had a really rough night Saturday night, hence the 4 AM posting on the last post.  Took a sleeping pill Sunday night and slept great...last night, not so much....I crashed at about 9 after a nice relaxing hot shower.  Then woke up at 11ish, then 1ish,  then 2ish, and then was wide awake from 4:11 until the alarm went off.   I have a 12 hour day ahead of me today...YIKES!!