Dec 6th (and Nov 30th)

It’s 3:41am and I’m awake because I had to take some meds for my chemo tomorrow and I figured I’d take advantage of the quiet to update everyone.  I’m halfway done with Chemo and moving on to a new drug called Taxol.  This follows the original plan of 4 treatments of Cytoxin and Adriamyocin and then 4 treatments of Taxol.  Both treatments attack the cancer from a different angel or perspective, both designed to shrink the tumors.  The first set definitely worked and the tumor has shrunk significantly and now Taxol will try to shrink it even more, in a different way. 

Dr Barnhill said she will not give me the Taxol if I don’t take these meds at 9pm and 3am the night before chemo so I’m following orders.  I take 5 of these steroid pills at 9 and 5 more at 3, then before I get the Taxol drip I get even more of this steroid, Benadryl, anti nausea meds and something else and then the Taxol drip is 3 hours.  So I’m thinking these next 4 treatments will take the same amount of time as the first 4 did and I’ll be “in the chair” for 4-5 hours.  Taxol can cause allergic reactions and the steroids and Benadryl are meant to prevent this.  Dr Barnhill says she hasn’t seen bad reactions to this and has been giving it for 25 years.  She said this is the recommendation and she believes the steroids and Benadryl are the reason she hasn’t seen anything bad so she doesn’t take chances.  The possible side effects are the same as the other treatment – hair loss (it’s already gone), nausea (it’s supposed to be easier on the body than the other treatment), pins and needles in the legs and finger tips (I got a prescription from my surgeon to help me sleep if I have problems with this) and the possible allergic reaction which we’ll know about as soon as the drip starts and everyone is trained to handle it.

I’m nervous about starting a new treatment because I’ve done so well so far.  I am afraid eventually there might be a bump in the road.  It must be my positive attitude, the prayers that everyone is sending and my knowledgeable doctors that have helped me so far so we must continue!!!

My thankful thought for Nov 30^th (bet you thought I forgot!) goes out to my doctors.  I like all of them and that’s weird to me.  I’m generally pretty skeptical but I like them all which makes the waiting room time a little easier to deal with and makes it easier for me to go to ALL of my appointments.

Thanks for all of your support!  Everyone!  And thank you Tracy and Lorrie for coming out to help me while my mom is gone.  Tracy has been here since last week.  In addition to following the long To-do list my mom left, she took Micah to the zoo yesterday and from what I hear they had a great time.  Lorrie will be here Thursday to take over until my mom comes back next week.