Today was my second treatment with Taxol (the new drug).
They always do blood work before my treatments so they can make sure it is safe for me to receive the chemo. Today we were pleasantly surprised to hear that my counts were not only good but they were better than the last treatment!
After bloodwork, I meet with the doctor before the infusion even starts. Today we talked to her about the joint pain and she has an idea for avoiding that this time without reducing the dosage of the chemo. If I were to struggle again this time even after the intervention, we will talk about a dose reduction. We also talked about next steps after chemo and she is going to message the surgeon so we can start making decisions and preparing for that step now. Near the end of our time, we both realized that four weeks from today will be my last treatment as long as my bloodwork continues to look good. Four weeks isn’t that long. In even bigger news, the doctor tried to measure my tumor today from the outside and she couldn’t find it! Now mind you that is like trying to measure a marble in a water balloon, but for her not to be able to find it surprised everyone as they didn’t expect much if any reduction during chemo and there has to have been shrinkage for her to not be able to find it at all.
We did have to slow the infusion rate down at one point early in the infusion but we were able to get it back to full speed after just a short while. We are thankful that my body was able to accept the medicine. I fell asleep on and off during the infusion, which is normal because one of my premeds is Benadryl and that knocks me out every time. It doesn’t help that I also can’t really do much of anything except read on my Kindle using my nose to turn the pages due to the ice packs that are on my hands and feet to help reduce the risk of neuropathy. Boredom sets in and there I go at least for a while.
Since we got home, I’ve felt well, have been able to walk the neighborhood, ate dinner with the family and hung out with some of the neighbors watching our kids play. I plan to call it a bit of an early night but I’m far from exhausted which is so nice.
I never got around to posting specific prayer requests and praises yesterday so I’m going to add them today.
Things We’re Praising God for . . .
Prayers We’re Currently Lifting . . .
- Sleep – I’ve gotten several good days of sleep in a row and wow does that make a difference.
- The doctor not being able to find the tumor!
- Nurses and Doctors who listen when you call them because something feels different.
- A body to took care of what it needed to do when it looked like we might require additional intervention.
- A nurse who was willing to let my body try to take care of it on its own.
- Being halfway through the Taxol cycle.
- A plan to help with the joint pain.
- Family that helps on tough days.
- Family that plans fun outings for the boys.
- Friends who support us emotionally and physically in so many ways.
- Cayenne pepper – it has helped the tickle in the back of my throat that causes some of the coughing by dulling the nerve sensations with the capsaicin powder that is naturally in it.
- A cough that seems to be improving.
- The end of the homeschool year.
- My body will continue to accept the treatments.
- Wisdom about surgery and the options related to that.
- No joint pain with this cycle. (New Pain and New Limits)
- Peace in the “we can’t plan for anything” stage we are in. I want to think about when we could spend time with out of town family or when we could start school or a thousand other things and nothing is schedulable at this point.
- No neuropathy. So far I’m not experiencing any and we’d like it to stay that way.
- Mental strength – the weight of this whole thing really hits some days.
- Physical strength – my counts are better than they have been but we’d like to see them continue to rise.
- Continued improvement for the cough. We’re seeing progress but it still lingers some.
♥️
Good news! Continued praises and prayers lifted. Love you all!
I love this update. Continually praying!