#4 of 4 AC's down!

Today was my fourth--and final--infusion of Adriamycin and Cytoxan (AC), which are supposed to be the nastiest of the chemos I will be getting.  My dear friend Kathlynn (who, as a retired nurse has saved my sanity many times when I've called her with panicked medical questions) was my chemo buddy today.  We knit, chatted, and even got in a few games of cribbage!  

My labs were good:

Abs# Neut Calc 4.2 thou/mcL
Hemoglobin 10.3 gm/dL 
Platelet Count 103 thou/mcL 
White Blood Cells 6.4 thou/mcL

Dr. Shah said the killer cold I'm dealing with might actually be a form of allergies, since chemo messes up all sorts of stuff in the body and the way it responds to things.  Since this will be my last Neulasta shot (tomorrow), I can stop the Claritin in a few days and switch to Zyrtec to see if it is more effective in getting my eyes and nose to stop running and therefore make the sore throat go away.  I can't say enough about how effective the Claritin has been at keeping the Neulasta-induced bone pain at bay, though.  Wow!

And I cannot put into words how happy I am that I was able to complete all four doses of AC at full strength and on time.  A little cold/allergy gunk is nothing to complain about since I got those hard-hitting meds in and tolerated them quite well!  It felt great to rip off that last purple link:

In two weeks, I will start the first of twelve weekly infusions of Taxol and Herceptin, which don't require Neulasta or steroids (and possibly not even Zofran, but losing that scares me!).


Other things that happened last week included an in-between visit to the Cancer Center for bloodwork on Wednesday to make sure my platelets didn't bottom out.  (We were thrilled to see that they'd rebounded to 99K, as many of you saw me post on Facebook.)

I also attended the American Cancer Society's "Look Good, Feel Better" session last Monday.  Volunteer makeup artists show women how to deal with the loss of head hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc.  And cosmetic companies donate products, so I came home with a big makeup bag full of freebies, along with tips on how to apply makeup.  Best of all, I met three women there who had wigs, and they talked me into getting one.  If nothing else, I figured it would be a good idea to wear one when/if I get any job interviews.  I won't hide the fact that I have breast cancer, but walking in with a scarf or a bald head kind of screams it, so I thought the wig might be wise.   Here's some photos of me in my new "hair."  It's a Raquel Welch wig (ooh la la!), which Greg said will go well with my fancy new breasts.  :)

 

Other than the cold/allergy stuff, my only side-effect of note is the tiredness.  I am (quite literally) in my pajamas by about 6:30 and in bed by 8:00 every night.  I am lucky that I am able to just go with it and let my body rest when it needs it.  I just keep thinking that timing is everything and I am so very glad that I finished Grad School before all this.  There's no way I'd have been able to stay awake for everything school required.  And I'm happy again for two jobs that I love, and work that I am able to leave at work at this point in my life.  Life is good.