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Sorry--this will be a LONG one

Yesterday was the first round of 12 weekly infusions of Taxol and Herceptin (the Herceptin will continue for a full year; Taxol only the 12).  Dr. Shah called it "baby chemo" in relation to the initial 4 rounds that I had (AC).  After these rounds, I don't need the second day Neulasta shot, I don't need steroid pills, and I don't automatically take anti-nausea pills (only on an as-needed basis).  One of the things that is a relatively common side-effect with the Taxol, however, is an allergic reaction to the preservative that it is mixed in.  Therefore the pre-meds include Benadryl, Tagamet, and a steroid to attempt to ward off the allergic reaction.  They also push the first (double or "loading" dose) slower than normal to watch for side-effects.

I was lucky to have two chemo companions yesterday!  Kathrine was with me the whole 6+ hours:

And Kristi came for a few hours in the middle of the infusions:

My blood counts were "fine"--
Platelets: 77 thou/mcL
Abs # neut:  3.2 thou/mcL
WBC: 5.2 thou/mcL
Hemoglobin 10.9 (that's up)

I gained 4 more pounds <sigh>.


The Taxol infusion went well.  I wasn't even all that sleepy with the Benadryl (Kathrine and Kristi may disagree, as I may have made no sense as we were playing "Would Your Rather?").   And then the 90 minute Herceptin infusion started.  "No one" reacts to Herceptin, so I guess my body decided, as usual, to be difficult.  When I had 20 minutes left, and my nurse had sent almost everyone home (since it was after 5:30), I started coughing.  That's nothing major, since I've had this combo of the weepy eyes/runny nose/sore throat/cough thing for over 5 weeks now.  But this was a dry, tickle kind of cough and I'd already drank three glasses of water and gotten a significant amount of saline in my port.  And it was bad enough that I couldn't talk through it.  Didn't seem (to me) like an allergic reaction, but my nurse knew it was.  So she gave me another dose of Benadryl.  Like magic, the cough stopped.  But then I started shivering.  And the shivering wouldn't stop.  It was a full-body, feeling-like-I-do-when-I-get-a-low-grade fever, teeth-chattering shiver.  They wrapped me in heated blankets, and gave me a dose of steroids, and it still didn't stop.  Then my blood pressure spiked.  So they gave me another dose of Benadryl (that's three, if you're counting) and the shivering finally slowed and my blood pressure returned almost to normal for me.  Dr. Shah was in her street clothes, but hadn't left yet and she said NOT to finish the Herceptin dose this week.  They pumped in more saline, and then let me head home, dopey and babbling as I was.

Kathrine was kind enough to hit the Culver's drive-thru on the way home so I could get food for everyone (by now it was after 7:00 pm). I ate and then completely crashed in bed.  Greg said he came up at some point and poked me to make sure I was breathing because I was so out of it.  I think I got some pretty good sleep, because I was up at 3:30 this morning (steroids, I think!) and could not fall back asleep.  Let's hope the steroids keep it up through my work day.  :)

That first green link on the chain was well-earned.

An interesting bonus--at least right now--is that I woke up without a sore throat or runny nose for the first time since this cold/allergy thing started.  I'm thinking it must be an allergy that even the Zyrtec isn't touching.  Not that I'm recommending taking Benadryl regularly or anything.


Some other cancer- and non-cancer related things since the last time I blogged:

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I had another enbiggening session with the plastic surgeon.  :)   My right breast is now maxed out and my left breast (the one that needed the surgical repair) is almost there--and will be next week.  And this was a major "enbiggenment"!  After going almost 4 months without breasts, I was bumping into things with them.  Of course the fact that all feeling is gone from that part of my body doesn't help.  My friend Dawn calls her reconstruction "shirt shelves," and I agree.  I wanted "perky" and they are most definitely that.

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This Saturday Cara participated in Hamline University's Relay for Life.  She raised $150 for the American Cancer Society, which (as I've written before) is an organization that uses the money for research and not just "awareness."  One of the things that RFL does is sells luminarias, that can be decorated in honor or memory of a cancer patient/survivor/one who died.  This is the one that Cara made for me, and it brought tears to my eyes:

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I want to mention our TV binge-watching choice.  Starting in December, we'd watched all of the episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and while we were watching it, we learned of the cross-over episodes with Angel.  We watched one and were NOT impressed with Angel, so neither Greg nor I wanted to watch that series.  But my friend Linnea said that we really should--and even tempted me by saying that my favorite character (Spike) comes back in Angel.  So we started watching it.  It's no Buffy, but I'm really enjoying it, too!  Some of the characters (like Doyle and Gunn) are really good, and even Cordelia and Wesley have grown on me.  We're almost as the end of the second season, so that will be our nightly TV for awhile.  The only current TV I've been watching is Big Bang (lighthearted fun), Grey's Anatomy (and I STILL haven't seen last week's episode with the big spoiler that's been all over the news and Facebook--and the only reason I'm still watching it is that I've watched it from the beginning), and Call the Midwife (which might be the best show currently on TV, in my opinion).

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And that brings me to the job situation.  Mt. Mary (tutoring) will end on May 11th.  My contract at UWM will end June 30th (with the budget stuff, not sure if it can continue).  I'm assigned to teach the "overflow" online section of PH101 this summer, but don't know if that will fill either.  So I've been looking for jobs.  I had a phone interview for a Public Health-y job last week.  It's full-time, which is a little scary, since I'm tired working 25 hours a week.  I have to believe that the right job will work out one way or another, since I've been fortunate  so far!