It's Taxol Time

Another exciting round of chemo here today at Ironwood Cancer and Research Center.  I took a vacation day, because for me, it's almost impossible to try to flex around a six hour infusion.  I have oncolgy nurse Julie this day.  I've gotten past the four premeds:  Aloxi, Decadron, Benadryl and famotidine.  The Taxol is not even half way through and it's 12:04.  Ai carumba.

I talked to Dr. Fastenberg this morning, and he said my white counts are coming up fine enough that we still won't do the Neulasta.  So tomorrow evening, I'll start on the Naprosyn and try to mitigate the pain a bit.  Also, he said that taking the Benadryl would be fine, so I'll have my sisters get me some and start taking it on Wednesday night.

I told him about the ocular migraines and he said if they started up again, we'd have to do a brain scan.  Not that he thinks this could be a cancer problem, but we would still have to check it out.  Esophageal cancer does Metastasize into the brain.

Dr. F does have me scheduled for another round of this chemo on the 12th of July, but some time before that I am supposed to have my CT, chest and abdomen.  We need to have some good news.  I really need to have some good news.

We were just having a fun conversation with some of the other chemo inmates.  Two of them were originally from Ohio, so we talked about snow.

Well, I'm really tired, and not feeling up to snuff, so I'm done for this post.

Be well, all... HUGS!

neulasta - we're giving it a pass

Dr. Fastenberg says we are going to skip the Neulasta; to this I say:  YAY!  We discussed to which hospital I should go, in the event I need to go to one.  He says to go to Banner Baywood, which is great because both my Pulmonologist and my Cardiologist are there.


You may have noticed that I've edited this post for punctuation and format. I was a little drugged out when I originally typed it during my infusion. :)


Today, I will post a picture of my drug pole with the huge bags of poison that drip into my chest.  Dr. F says we'll do three of these infusions before the next CT.  This one is number two.


I did just take a shot of my pre-meds. They are small bags but lots of them. :)

Here is my bag of taxol.

Please note those happy little words:  Toxic, Dispose of as a Biohazard.  Ai carumba! :D

We left the house at 8:30AM, and returned at 4:30PM.  I am dead tired.  Well, maybe I should just say, I'm tired. ;)

So, off I go to rest up.  Love to all!

Dry Mouth and other chemo Side Effects

Well, typing is much easier now that my fingernails have all split off.  Ahh, the proverbial silver lining.  But my mouth is SO dry.  I am using the Biotene mouthwash, but now I have the Taxol mouth sores, too.  Today I also started getting chills and some achiness.  Frankly, I'm just a mess. :D


My nose is sore because we have no humidity AND I get oxygen while I sleep.  So I wake up to blow my nose into a bloody wreck.  That's literal for all my British friends. ;)


I was running low on my Xylitol mints, which are a great help for dry mouth, so I ordered another batch from Amazon.  I don't really know where else to get them, and I'm kind of not supposed to go running around outside of my house until we figure out how my white counts are doing.  I'll be wearing my lovely mask when I go get my blood work done on Friday.  Darn those sick people getting blood work ... oh wait... I'm sick, too. ;)


Still have my hair, though.  I'm guessing another couple of rounds of chemo will see it falling out again.  At least it will be cool, although if you look at the Weather Channel widget, it's only going to be in the 80's again tomorrow.  But there is an Ozone health watch, which I guess is the price we are paying for the cooler weather.


Ok, that's enough whining for this post.  On the plus side, I'm seven episodes into Game of Thrones, and it's ... fantastic.  Get past the language and nudity (although ... cough... Khal Drogo... cough) and it's an amazing study of relationships, power struggles, politics and how each character either rises to their potential or falls into destruction.  Sean Bean has done a fine job as Eddard Stark, who's a moron, actually, but an honorable one... stupidly honorable.  Destroy your entire family for your honor, you boob.  And then, equally moronically, give UP your honor.  Alas.


Now, I know it's a little early, but I think I'm off to bed.  I'm just tired, and that's another one of those side effects.  Must be that triple dose; I swear it didn't get this bad last time.


Love and hugs to all.

it's chemo time

pardon the lack of capitalization.  i'm typing this on my xoom, and with benadryl on board, capitalization is a pain.

i do like the photo quality on this,though.

well the chemo plan has changed.  we are going back  to taxol and carboplatin, and doing it every three weeks.  of course, that means triple  the dose.  gads.

well, must drink water,and this chemo will be almost five hours long.

ok,will post more later.

Talking leads to Coughing

So, one of the things I have found out in my Esophageal Cancer research is that people who have asthma AND the cancer will tend to have a rather annoying cough.  And in my case, it starts as soon as I start talking in more than short sentences.  This has made my phone conversations with my sister, Wendy, a bit of a challenge, but I know she doesn't mind one bit.

I saw my Primary Care doc today, and I did start the coughing, but he says my lungs still sound pretty darned good.  We talked about the treatments I've had so far, and the joy of the two really toxic chemos, Taxol and Carboplatin, combined with the radiation treatments being rather debilitating.  But all in all, he's really pleased with how I'm coming through it all.  He says that a few years back, esophageal cancer patients spent most of their first chemo round in the hospital; it was that hard on them.  Indeed, Dr. Fastenberg had already told me that quite often, even now, with the regimen I was on, he has patients end up in hospital.

The reason for the PC visit was to start getting my meds through MedCo, so I don't go bankrupt.  I don't like using Medco, as they have really screwed up my meds in the past, but I don't have a choice, now.  It's just so much less expensive to use them.  Let's just hope they have learned from their mistakes and can be trusted to dispense meds as ordered.

It was a good PC visit; he's very straight-forward not unlike my oncology docs.  We talked about my latest blood tests and that if the liver problem shows up again, we'll discontinue my statins and see how that goes.  He says we have to be more concerned with nutrition than with glucose levels, although we have plenty of options to work on those.

No, he just wants me to concentrate on my nutrition, and remaining upright, and there's no problem with either of those areas. ;)  In fact, I went to see him with no walker and not even my cane.  Granted, it's only steps from parking into his office, but believe me, if I had felt the need, I would have still had the cane.

Now for a nice, relaxing weekend. Still we have the low sixties as our high, but beats those middle fifties any day.  And the sun shines, and all is right in my little world.  Well, except for this stupid cancer.

We have SHRINKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know exactly the rate of shrinkage on the Evil Tumor itself, but I do have the measurements on one of the lymph nodes:  Original size was 25 x 25, yesterday it was 14 x 21.  Oh yeah, I'll take that!!!

Dr. F iterated that while I won't be cured, this is a good step toward control of the cancer. Unfortunately, though, my white counts are still too low, so we're doing half doses of Carboplatin and Taxol today.  Herceptin, on the other hand is still at full dose, and that's a very good thing.

So, the Benadryl is kicking in, and I'm getting groggy, so that's it for this post.

Love to EVERYONE! :)

Tomorrow's a Big Day

So, I put in nine hours today, and tomorrow I'll work three, and then take a half day vacation, since I'll be spending most of my time at Ironwood. I added a little notebook to my goodie bag, so I can journal if I feel like it.

My two chemos are Carboplatin and Taxol.  I have a book, that they gave me at Ironwood:  "Chemotherapy and You."  It's published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and it's a very good resource to help you deal with all the issues surrounding Chemotherapy.  I like that it has a list of foods that help mitigate side effects.  It says that if you're having appetite issues, instant breakfast drinks and liquid meal replacements are a good choice.  I also like the fact that on the very first page, it says, "Rather than read this book from beginning to end, look at just those sections you need now.  Later, you can always read more."  Now that is very sensitive.  I'm the type of person that would read it cover to cover, and then get freaked out by stuff in there that may not pertain to me.  Good job, US Department of Health and Human Services!

Well, I really don't have much to say today.  The pain that used to happen only when I ate, is now coming more frequently, and I'll be sure to tell the oncs about that.  It's waking me at night, and I really, really love to sleep. :)  I was just proof-reading this, and every time I call them 'oncs,' I read Orcs.  Better not tell THEM that. ...hehehe.

Anyway, it's time to get to bed.  I need to start work at six, so I can put in my three hours, then get ready for MY BIG DAY.  I'm a bit anxious about the unknown, but not so much that it will interfere with sleep. Mentally, I think I am prepared... well, as much as you can be for this.

If all goes well, I'll tell you all about both the chemo and radiation therapy in tomorrow's post.  Until then, let all of us sleep well and have fabulous dreams.