Thursday, July 12, 2012

Reaching that halfway checkpoint

It is with great... erm, well, with somewhat great-ish pleasure that I announce that after today's treatment I have reached the halfway marker in my current chemo regimen!  


Chemo #10 - 6/12 of Taxol. Hmm... gonna need more fingers.

If my smile looks a little left of genuine, it's because no matter what it still hurts to get a giant IV needle shoved into your chest. Haha. Anyway! I got the other half of my chemo schedule calendar today. My last day of Taxol, assuming all goes accordingly, will be August 23rd. I'm not sure what comes after that. More waiting, more tests would be my guess. Ah well. One step at a time. :]

After my chest discomfort ER scare some weeks back, and I had that initial follow up with the nurse practitioner afterwards and she set up another one several weeks from then. I got a call yesterday confirming such appointment for this morning before my chemo. She checked me out and asked me lots of questions. My liver and kidney functions are good, and all my other stuff excluding my WBC are normal. So yeah, I'm healthy. :) Always a good thing to hear.

I must not have told her of my hot flashes the first time I saw her. Or she didn't have it written down. Either way, she found out and that they're pretty bad. Like, suck-the-wind-out-of-me-and-dizzying type of bad at times. So she is prescribing me a low, low dose of Effexor XR as it's known to help with those. PTL. Seriously. I feel for all menopausal women of the world and all who have gone through it. Ever. Hot flashes are my arch nemesis these days. They are super gross and not at all fun (no joke, as I typed this sentence out I felt one coming on!! Yuck).

I already have more and more trouble sleeping as this goes on. Nap or not, I can't sleep until midnight or thereabouts. And the irony in all that is not lost on me either. I am fatigued from treatment, yet I can't sleep because of it! Lol. Such silliness.

While it looks as though Taxol will be the final bit of chemotherapy I'll receive, I will be getting Tamoxifen (hormone therapy) after my surgery and probably coinciding with my radiation treatment. I can't say they're not taking all measures and then some to get rid of those nasty cancer cells in entirety.

Next on my agenda is to get some exercise in my life again. I've not gained a lot of weight, but I have put a few pounds on since being more immobile and at home. :\   I'm hoping if I really try to get more active that it will help alleviate some of the insomnia/fatigue I'm experiencing. I need to remember that I'm a cancer patient getting weekly infusions, and haven't exercised in far too long. So I need to take it slow and build back up my strength. I still have muscle under my new layer of chemo-chub, I know that! Haha. I just dislike being squishy, and I figure I can use any and all no brainer self esteem boosters available to me. :) 

Well, that's all for now folks! I pray you all have a splendid Friday tomorrow and weekend to follow after that! May God bless each of you reading this.


"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."  Matthew 6:34 




1 comment:

  1. You continue to kick ass, but why does it sometimes seem like the further along we get in this, the more we still have ahead of us?

    At least I have that awesome baby duck-down head of yours to play with!

    ReplyDelete