June 16, 2008 - First Day of Taxol Treatment

My shingles are all dried up, and there is pain in the surrounding area, but it comes in waves. I think I may have the most mild case of any shingles case that there ever was. :-) Thanks God!

Wanda took me to breakfast at 9:00 this morning. Thanks Wanda!!! Since we had about 45 minutes to kill before my chemo appt, what else could we do, but SHOP? I bought a fabulous green and white knit dress. Love it! I also bought a Volcom t-shirt for Parker (my 11-year-old). He loved it.

We got to chemo at 11:00 and got called upstairs at 11:20. Jill found a great vein, and the needle barely hurt going in. I looked at Wanda and said, "she's so good".

I guess I celebrated a little too early. We hit scar tissue after the needle was in, so she had to pick another vein. The second one hurt like......... well, it hurt about 10 times worse than the first one. Waaaaaa. OK. Enough of that. It doesn't hurt now, so I'm happy.

With Taxol, they first gave me a drip (bag) of Zantac to take care of any stomach acids that might build up. Then I got a push (syringe) of Benadryl to take care of potential allergic reactions. Within seconds after getting the Benadryl, I could feel 'lightness' from my head to my feet. Very strange, and not fun for me. It subsided within a few minutes, and I pretty much fell asleep immediately.

I got a drip of Taxol (chemo) that lasted 3 hours. I just slept and slept. I woke up later to the sound of my own gas. It was pretty embarassing. I couldn't even look up to see who might have heard it. I just kept my eyes closed and shook my head in disbelief and went back to sleep. I do know that if it woke me up....others had to have heard it. Ugh. Now....to me....it's just funny.

I was out of there at 4:30. (5 1/2 hours today).

After chemo, we went to Parker's end of season baseball party. I ate well and had a good time and felt no side effects of the long chemo day. The nurse said I should feel achy for a couple of days, and the patient next to me said hers was horrible. I'm sorry she experienced that. Mine will be mild.

Five treatments down -- 3 to go (plus the 2 weeks of side effects following the last one).

Until the next blog.... keep doing those self checks and urging your loved ones to do them. If a lump is found and is determined to be cancerous, there are many factors in determining what the treatment process will be. Don't ignore anything. THE EARLIER THE DETECTION, THE EASIER THE TREATMENTS.