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!!

The AC Treatments are Officially Complete!!

So Friday I received my last AC treatment!!!  I was soo ready for those to be over.  Of course this weekend has been exhausting and I have my usual nausea.  However I have gone almost 36 hours without my rescue meds.  For the most part I've been able to control the nausea with food intake.

I have officially added another side effect to the list...I am no longer having periods, so I guess I'm officially in my first Menopause..I say first, because at 32 I know I'll be going through it again in my life!!  Unfortunately that combined with the chemo has caused a considerate weight gain.  I will be so happy when all this is over and I have my own body back.  There have been soo many outside changes somedays I don't recognize myself.

Along with the menopause weight gain I've had some days that were very emotional.  This weekend included.  It's been a really rough couple of days, I'm hoping that tomorrow (well I guess technically today since it's 4:00 am) will be better!

My Apologies

I have to apologize to everyone for not having posted in awhile.  Brian and I bought a bought 2 weeks ago and we've been busy getting it running and enjoying it out on the water!!

So the last chemo went about as well as the previous 2 have gone.  I of course came home and slept the rest of Friday away.  Saturday I managed to get up and go to Jazzercise on Saturday morning.  Of course I had to go home and take a nap!! :)

Sunday I was asked to speak at a fundraising event for Pelotonia.  Of course I wasn't feeling great that day and ended up having to take my rescue meds, but I thankfully made it through the 2 hour event without falling asleep on my feet.  I was incredibly nervous and stumbled through me speech a little bit, but many came up afterwards and thanked me for speaking.

Monday ended up being a really tough day.  I was very exhausted and started to feel frustrated that I wasn't up to doing anything more than laying in bed.  So on top of feeling crappy I ended up just feeling bad in general.  Those that know me, know that I'm not an idle person, I'm always running around, usually doing 2 things at once.  So faced with dishes that needed done, laundry that needed done, a classroom that needed I needed to start getting ready for the return to school, and other things I felt I needed to do and just didn't have the energy for was really tough mentally.  Thanks to a trip to Jazzercise, and a good crying phone call to Kat I managed to get through it!

I officially went back to work yesterday.  I've already worked 20 of my 37.5 hours this week and it's only Tuesday.  All in all I feel ready for the kids to walk in the door tomorrow morning.  I will work tomorrow and Thursday and will take Friday off to go to chemo.  Everyone was surprised that I went back to work this week.  But this is a good week, it's next week I'm worried about.  It has taken me until Tuesday or Wednesday following a chemo treatment before I'm feeling back to normal with normal energy.  The plan is to be back to work Monday am.  I just hope that I can pull it off and not totally exhaust myself.

2 Down, 2 + 12 To Go!

So Friday the 1st I went for my 2nd Round of Chemo.  Aside from a delay waiting for the nurse to get there who takes our blood it went much quicker and much smoother than the first round.  We were out of there by like 12:30.  I think I was experiencing some mind over matter issues and started to feel a little "queasy" just before we departed.  The nurse told me just to take a rescue med and go home and rest.  We made a slight detour for Brian to get some things he needed and that's exactly what I did.  I settled in for a nice 3.5 hour nap when we got home from the hospital.  I ended up spending a lot of time in bed this weekend.  I either slept or just relaxed in bed watching TV or reading from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning.  Brian kept himself occupied reloading new ammunition.  Sunday we had planned to spend at a friend's house for their annual 4th of July cookout.  I had a good time, but it was a very long day.  I had to spend Monday just relaxing to recover from it :)  Actually Brian was at work all day, so I took advantage of a marathon on TV.  We found a place to park on Monday night to watch Dublin's fireworks and then called it a close to the holiday weekend.

This treatment has been just like the first, however, I am experiencing more nausea (I've taken more of my meds this time around) and I am a lot more fatigued.  I have been either walking with Brian in the evening, or going to Jazzercise class to try and keep moving.  However class on Tuesday morning was really difficult to get through, I just didn't feel like I had the energy to finish.

Last week I found out that a co-worker of Brian's is riding in Pelotonia and hosting a brunch at the Hilton to help raise money.  He originally asked if it would be okay to put a piece on his website about me now that he had a more personal reason to do the event.  I agreed, and said I'd like to attend the brunch with a friend of mine.  He agreed to make a reservation for me, and then countered by asking if I'd be willing to get up and speak at the brunch and tell my personal story.  I have agreed.  So if anyone would like to have brunch on Sunday the 17th at the Hilton, let me know and I'll put you in contact with Dave.

BTW for those that thought I was wild and crazy for shaving my head before I knew if my hair would fall out....it's falling out!