As you all know, October is breast cancer awareness month and everyday I see something on tv, in an ad, at the store all bringing awareness to the public. Well, I'm certainly aware and luckily things seem to be going well. I wish I could participate in a walk or race but I don't have the strength now but I know next year I will and I will be wearing pink. But it's a journey and my journey started in July when I was told I had cancer. What a shock to my system and what a roller coaster it ride it has been. When I met with doctor for the 1st time, I was told that I would start with chemo first instead of going straight to surgery. I was scheduled for 16 weeks of chemo beginning with the drugs Cytoxan and Adriamycin. These 2 drugs were given to me simultaneously along with a few nausea meds every other week (weeks 1, 3, 5 and 7) for a total of 4 treatments. Those drugs came with sides effects including hair loss, nausea, exhaustion, dizziness/loopy and a few others. Last week I started a new drug called Taxol. This single drug will be given to me weekly for the next 8 weeks and my last treatment should be November 22nd. I was a little nervous about taking Taxol because I didn't know what to expect or what side effects I'd experience. I was so familiar with the other 2 drugs that I was afraid to try something new but the doctor said that Taxol was an easier drug to handle and I should recover quicker from it. Although I find that appealing, I can't seem to believe it. Chemo has not been easy so far but then again, no one said it would be.
Tuesday, October 4th
I must admit I was so nervous for this appointment. I could barely sleep. All I kept thinking about was how was my body going to react to the Taxol? And why did my appointment have to be at 1pm? I personally would rather get these appointments over with. Get in and get out. But since my sessions are shorter now, the doctor saves the morning appointments for people with longer sessions and the shorter sessions like mine (2 hours max) for the afternoon which makes sense. Wendy went with me to this session and we grabbed lunch before and headed over to my appointment. Once we got there I found a small rash on my left leg which was really odd. I had them check it out in case it was a mild allergic reaction to all the pills I had to take last night and this morning. Turns out it was a heat rash. Probably from the unusually warm weather we're having, me overdressing, (jeans, long sleeve shirt, boots) overheating and of course stressing out. As usual, it didn't take long for them to start the process by inserting the dreaded needle in my port to check my blood counts which were good then proceeding with the benadryl dose and Taxol. The whole process was only 2 hours max. The good news is I got my favorite nurse tending to me today. She is so awesome, always talks me thru the process and she really keeps my spirits up. The only bad thing about this treatment was the fun restless leg syndrome and numbing in my finger tips. I can deal with the numbness but every time I came close to falling asleep my legs would twitch and spasm. I wonder how long this will last cause it's really annoying. So overall, I would say the Taxol is so much better than the Cytoxan and Adriamycin. I think I'll be able to handle this for the next 8 weeks.
Wednesday, Oct 5th
I felt awesome. I woke up this morning inspired and motivated. I was really pleased with how I felt so I went to work. The day went by so well that it's almost like I didn't have a chemo treatment at all. And good news.....no more leg spasms.
Thursday, Oct 6th
What goes up must come down and that's exactly what happened. I was fine in the morning so I went to work. By lunch my entire body shifted. I grabbed lunch with my Co-worker Jen and I could feel my body changing as I was eating. I suddenly felt wiped out. I actually just wanted to get back to the office and just sit for a bit. It was hard to focus and it was hard to not leave work early to go home and lay down. I hung in there till 4pm but boy was it tough.
Friday, Oct 7th
I knew after work yesterday that there was no way I would go to work today to make up for taking Tuesday off. I can't believe the amount of exhaustion I'm feeling at the moment. I so look forward to my days off work. Especially the ones where I get quiet time to myself. That might sound selfish but when Cody is home he wants my attention 24/7. Of course I want to give him attention and I certainly love hanging out and playing with him but there are those times when I'm so exhausted I can't get out of bed and I feel so bad when I can't spend time with my family. So I love the quiet time on Fridays. What's so disappointing is when all I do is veg on the couch. With no energy, I can't get anything done. That includes housework, errands, cooking, etc. I'm still anxious to organize and decorate the rest of our house. So many things I want to do and just can't due to being so tired. And of course if I do get a boost of energy like I did on Wednesday, it seems to be a few hours or days later when I get tired again. I know, it's part of the side effects so I'll rest and get better. Oh, and I'm getting hot and cold flashes to.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Oct 8, 9, and 10th)
FABULOUS!!! I'm back to my normal self. Of course I need to take little cat naps to get re-energized but overall I would say the weekend was GREAT!!! I'm so happy.
But reality has come. Now that my chemo appointments are weekly, I just realized last night that I have my next session today at 1:10pm. Good news since I know what to expect I'm not as nervous today. Also, since I didn't have an allergic reaction to the new drug Taxol, I don't have to take 11 pills plus 2 doses of Benadryl thru the IV. I only have to take 5 pills and 1 dose of benadryl so I'm hoping with less pills maybe I won't be so tired later this week. Fingers crossed. But then again if I have only 2 bad days out of 7 I'll take it. To me, I look at it as 5 GREAT DAYS.
Thanks for listening.
XOXO Jen
Nurse Trucilla and me
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