#7 Taxol - Rehired the hubby!

I'm on #7......BAAAAM!

As you know chemo really messes with your emotions and makes it difficult to handle things at times. On my last AC treatment back in February I fired my husband from being my chemo partner! I told him that.....you are fired from being my caregiver!  It was a stressful day for me and he was wrapped up on the phone, emails, and texts with work and couldn't focus on me. I had a lot going on and just couldn't handle any additional stress. It all worked out because I was able to share my chemo experience with my family so they could fight with me even more!

For chemo #7 I hired my husband back as my chemo partner!! It was a good day and he's learned a lot over the past few months on how to deal with his wife, the cancer patient. I think it's good for him to be with me for my doctor's appointments before chemo so he can hear it from them as to why I am so off schedule and that this is temporary. They say it will be six months to a year before I am "normal" again. We had a good time and here are some pics of his long hair and my bald head.

I always seem to get dehydrated after chemo and I asked for them to increase the amount of fluids during infusion.  Now I get 500ml of fluids (before 250ml) during chemo and it made a huge difference in how I recovered afterwards.  I wish I knew that trick months ago!!

My 4 dogo girls resting with me after chemo

My Moxy girl giving me love after chemo

Now, you know when something goes well then something else goes wrong? I was home on Friday (3 days after chemo) and vomited pretty much everything in my body! It was awful and I will spare you the details.  All I know is that I was happy not to worry about holding my hair back!! All FOUR of my dogo girls were home with me and all FOUR of them were in the bathroom helping me while this was going on!! I don't know what caused this but I doubt it was the oxycodone or antibiotics I was on since it's never been a problem before. Taxol has made me nauseous each time and I've read and heard that it's fairly common. With that being said, I decided to take Compazine (anti-nausea med) for the following few days.






My attempt to get some strength back!

Next time I will use sneakers, this hurts my feet!

I had a lot of pain with this round that first weekend.  I also had the Neulasta shot which seems to increase the amount of pain. Most of the pain is in my legs and hips. There are two days where I have pain in my spine and it will radiate throughout my abdomen like electricity. I really hate that feeling and will not miss it once this is over. I thought maybe exercise may help ease the feeling so I started doing some exercises on the floor or in my bed with resistance bands.  I don't know if it helped but  I need to start building some strength back up so I'll continue to do this.
My doctor told me I would gain about 20 pounds on chemo and that freaked me out. I already needed to lose over 20 pounds before this even started! I am down about 5 pounds from the beginning but it's nothing to do a cartwheel for. I was mushy before and now I have no muscle tone and my arms are even more flabby. I feel like I gained 20 pounds but I think the fat and water is just moving around to other areas of my body. I am looking forward to working this off when I'm done!




You may recall that I have issues with insomnia. This seems to be worse the second week after chemo.  The one night I was up until 6:30AM and that was after taking 2 Ativans and 1 Oxycodone. I'm just going to accept that this is a problem and it's temporary. I've tried everything but the real issue is that during this time my heart rate is between 90-115bpm.......while laying in bed doing nothing! You can't fall asleep like that. I'm sure Dave could fall asleep like that because he can sleep anywhere.  Here he is dozing off while I was hooked up to chemo. I envy those who can sleep any time and anywhere...

Tomorrow is my last chemo! It feels like a graduation to me and I am so excited. Usually I am anxious the day before chemo but today I have a different feeling and I like it. My GI tract is a mess from this Taxol and I am looking forward to just one more round so it will go away.

My next challenge is surgery and my double mastectomy is planned for the first week of June. During surgery they will run some tests on the lymph nodes they remove and if any come back with cancer then they will remove all of them.  If that is the case then I will have to do radiation but the doctors are confident that I am a stage 2 patient and since I'm doing a double mastectomy no radiation will be needed.

I hope my doctors are right and that I can do this without radiation. I want everyone to know that your support and prayers have been greatly appreciated! The cards, gifts, and support have been overwhelming. I decided to do Miles for Moffitt and I cannot believe how awesome my team and group of supporters have been!  Below is a card I got from my good friend's sweet daughters and thought I would share it with you!