Chemo #2

Well, I survived my first round of chemo. On to round two.

After a fabulous breakfast, we head to Texas Oncology for round two. I was sent directly to the infusion rooms. While checking in at the infusion desk, I saw the nurse from last week. I told her she dodged the bullet today cuz I was assigned to the back room. She did the sign of the cross and said a prayer. Then she smiled. It was a fun exchange.

As we were heading to the back room, I noticed a place where people donate new and used bandanas, wigs, beanies, etc. I was looking to see if they had a bandana with the breast cancer ribbons on it; Mike and I are dressing up our chocolate lab, Sam, as Nana's Breast Cancer Support Dog for the doggy day care Halloween contest. We have to get his costume ready to go this weekend. I will post pics after we dress him up.

Back to the infusion room, I was introduced to my nurse for the day Amber. Turns out she is a foodie as well; off they go into a foodie conversation. I have no clue what Cathy and Amber are talking about most of the time.

First up, draw blood from the port to make sure various levels are handling the chemo well. Then off to see the PA, Hannah for results. Levels are doing very well. I asked when we should expect levels to get lower and possibly impact my ability to be in crowds. Hannah says typically around the four or five week mark. I need to take advantage of feeling mostly normal! We discussed any side effects; so far for me they are minimal: dry lips, dry mouth, taste buds are changing. Hannah agreed I need to reach the one gallon of water mark every day as much as possible.

I also asked about tumor shrinking. I noticed the place on my pecs are much softer and pliable than a week ago; also the lump in my neck (it's muscle; my tumor is hiding under it) is much lower. Am I imaging this? NO! Hannah told me when the chemo is working, it is not uncommon to notice that the edges of the tumor (if you can feel them at all) are mushy; the fact that the area I could feel was all mushy is great! Also, she agree that the lump on my neck is noticeably smaller. Great to have confirmation! Let's see if the neck lump goes down even more by next Friday. Fingers crossed!

After visiting with Hannah, back to infusion. Amber waits on the orders, then heads back with the anti-nausea, Benadryl, and steroids. And we're off. She injects the first two meds throught the port, which is still sore by the way. Last week, these meds were administered through the port via an IV drip; they take it easy on you the first week. The steroids are still administer with an IV drip. This takes about 15 minutes. Before the steroids are done, I can feel the Benadryl kick in. I can barely keep my eyes open. Can't fight the Benadryl much longer. I woke up when she brought in the Taxol.

Last week the Taxol took an hour and a half. This time, only an hour. Again, start slow the first week to make sure you don't have any adverse reaction to the Taxol. No holding back this week. This takes an hours. We were done by 1 PM - 2.5 hours later. Yes!! Truth be told, of that 2.5 hours, I would say at least one hour was wasted just waiting: waiting on the nurse to draw the blood, waiting on lab results, waiting on meeting with Hannah, then waiting for the nurse to get the orders from the pharmacy. I am curious to see how early we can get out next week cuz I don't need to see the doctor or Hannah next week. We were told to expect 4 hours every time. Nice we haven't hit that mark yet!

Update on the ice. I wore double socks this time. I could find cotton gloves so I brought an extra pair of cotton socks. Worked great! I can go 40 minutes before taking a five minute break. This ice also helps prevent or minimize neuropathy (losing feeling or tingling in hands and feet).