Fifth Chemo Rround--This Time With Taxol

  Yesterday was a chemo day.  My first round of chemo with the drug Taxol, my fifth round of chemo total. This drug's main side effects are neuropathy in the fingers and toes, restless leg syndrome, possibly some nausea, and a list of many others.  Overall though, it is not supposed to be as bad as the Cytoxan and Adriamycin regimens.   First of all, Taxol is just one drug instead of two so that helps a lot.  It was a very long day in the infusion room.  We arrived at the oncology center at 9:20 and left at about 4p.m.  This of course included the blood draw, weigh in, and talk with the doctor.  The night before I had to take two steroid pills, and the next morning two more.   Then before the actual chemo drugs were administered through my port, I got a bag of the same steroids.  Reading up on the drug, I found out there was a woman Olympian who was disqualified for using the exact same drug.  Well, I can tell you that this round 1 of Taxol so far was a success.  I feel almost normal.  I am sure the vacation helped as well.

So today was a rare and wonderful day.  I rested well last night.  I did experience the restless leg syndrome so I got up and walked around, did some stair stepping out on the curb in the dark, took a Lorazepam (similar to Valium, treats anti-nausea and anti-anxiety) and that seemed to do the trick.  I slept well and woke up feeling rested.  I met my friend Vicky and Carolyn for lunch, and then later the girls took me to experience a new frozen yogurt place.  We had a girls outing, and I enjoyed it.  The day felt so good and normal that by 4:45 my doctors office was calling asking me why I did not come in for my Neulasta shot.  Whoops!  I am sorry....today I actually forgot I had cancer.  What a wonderful gift!  So tomorrow I will go in first thing in the morning and get the shot.  By the way, I did do some research on what my insurance company pays for this shot.  It is approximately $8250.00 per shot.  Gee....I hope they did not mix it ahead of time!  Frankly, I am not even sure this shot is working on me.  It is supposed to make your bones produce more white blood cells when your count gets low.  Every week exactly one week after my chemo I go in for blood work.  And every other week my white counts are too low and I have to go on an antibiotic to protect me from infection.  Isn't that what the shot is supposed to do?  Oh well, I am just following doctor's orders so to speak.  I am hopeful that this chemo will continue to not be as bad.  If I have more good days like this I will be really happy.  I am still juicing and today I had a salad for lunch.  I am craving healthy foods which is good.  I will continue to fight this battle with triple negative breast cancer with everything I have got.  Thanks for leaving your comments and sharing this blog with your friends at home or your friends on Facebook.  Until next time my friends...