Whoo-hoo!! Not only am I over half-way done, I'm officially on the downward slide. Six down, four more to go!
It's a good feeling to be on this side of the mountain. It's like running downhill, picking up speed as I go. Every treatment is not just one step closer, it's leaps and bounds closer to being done.
Second Taxol treatment brought no ill effects or reactions during treatment. As usual they start with Zantac and Ativan, then load me up with Benadryl. That is the beauty of the Taxol treatment - three hours of sleep. I wait until they start the Taxol - still worried about the possibility of an allergic reaction. But pretty quickly I realize I'm not itching, and I can still easily breathe, so it doesn't take much for me to fall asleep. I awake a short time later and ask Ken for an yogurt - I realized I hadn't had breakfast yet - and promptly fall back to sleep. When I awake about half an hour later there's a blueberry yogurt waiting for me. I sit up, eat my breakfast, and realize I have about another hour and a half to go - so back to sleep it is. I awake long enough to order lunch, pee, eat, and - surprise! - drop back off to sleep. Shortly before the end of treatment I'm awake long enough to pull my stuff together and get ready to leave.
Taxol treatment is a beautiful thing.
Yesterday was the first treatment during which I did not cry. I was not afraid, I was not worried - about the treatment, that is. For the first time, I didn't kick (accidentally or otherwise) the nurse as she accessed my port. I smiled, I laughed, I called the nurses by name. Maybe it's because I knew I was going to be able to sleep for three hours, but in general yesterday was incredibly uneventful.
I was given steroids to take for the next three days to help with the potential pain side effect. I took my steroid this morning, and then watched the clock at 4:35 - the time two weeks ago that the pain started. When I got home from work at 5:30 I took a Vicodin - was told it was better to stay ahead of the pain rather than wait for it. At 8:20 I am feeling no pain, no soreness, no awfulness - just a little tired, which is to be expected. So, for now, I have hope that I won't have the same experience I had two weeks ago. Keep your fingers crossed for groovy good feelings the next couple of days (and minimal steroid psychosis!)
If nothing else I had a chance to read the new Hollywood edition of Vanity Fair. I found a new pair of Prada shoes that I will buy when I am done with treatment (never to wear, just to worship), and read about "7 for all mankind" that is "imagined and directed" by James Franco. I learned that Ermenegildo Zenga's new men's suit is meant to be balled up in a corner and worn completely wrinkled. And that Marc Jacob's new skirt-and-blouse looks like something I made in 7th grade Home Ec, with an elastic waistband! And that pale skin is the new tan.
And that sleeping for three hours makes the day so very much better, when you have to sit in a chair with toxins pumping into your veins. It would be so much better with a new pair of Prada shoes, though.
Shoes with tail lights on them? With or without them, you're still my sexy chemo-babe.
ReplyDeleteThose are tail lights?
ReplyDeleteI though they were little rockets. :)
Thanks for the fashion...and Franco...updates, Nancy.
So glad this one went easier for you.
My question - do the tail lights light up with each step like those kids sneakers do???? Jenn
ReplyDeleteYou know, Jenn - for the $1,000 pricetag, those tail lights should not only light up, but a little engine should rev every time you take a step. :-) They also make a pair of shoes with flames flying up the side or your ankle - a really cool line of shoes this year, I must say. I'm still in love with the 2008 flower heels, myself.
ReplyDeleteShoes are the stuff of dreams.....
I love the Hollywood Vanity Fair issues. Those "imagined and directed by" spreads are amazing. I also loved 2008's Hollywood issue Alfred Hitchcock spread--it had a good handful of my favorite actors in that issue.
ReplyDelete