The Chemo Journal – Round 6 – August 29, 2011

September 10th, 2011

Ladies, Taxol is now declared MUCH easier than Adromyacin Cytoxin (AC). No comparison. No side effect I have experienced even comes close to the severity or impact that any of the side effects I had with AC.

Read on to see how things have gone with this round

Day 1 – Day 5 (Monday-Friday)
I’ll just throw all of these days together because it was so easy I don’t really have much to complain about. EXCEPT….The dreaded hot flashes. Now, to be clear, I would rather have hot flashes all day long than the other side effects from AC/Neulasta. And to be clear – I DO! Every 30 – 45 minutes i’m smokin from the inside out. I mean I know I am one hot mama but really? How is it possible to be in an ice box of a house and be hotter than a tin roof on a summer day? Everyone always says the side effects get cumulatively worse as chemo goes on and that certainly held true during the AC phase, but I gotta say there ain’t no way I can get any hotter or I am going to melt. HA! I guess it’s possible I can have hot flashes every five minutes instead of every half hour, and basically just be sweating all day long, but still that’s better than the alternative of the AC with neulasta. (Having one a hot flash right now!)

Day 6-8 (Saturday & Sunday)
Hot flashes continue of course but started having some pretty significant joint and bone pain over the weekend. Slept off and on all day saturday, little better Sunday. Was able to take Lortab, Neurontin, and Valium to knock the pain down but was just tired all weekend. No biggie – who doesn’t like to sleep all weekend? Oh and the neuropathy I was worried about? very minor and neurontin pretty much knocks that out.

Day 9 and on…. (Monday….)

Back to work again. First time since all of the chemo started. Actually feel great enough to work 10 hour days right now. Again, I just make sure to take my neurontin and lortab twice a day and i’m good to go. So happy that this Taxol is a breeze. I think I can get through the rest of the chemo like it’s nothing. Not a big deal at all. Yay! Oh and I officially have hair growing back – BLONDE! So crazy. Literally started growing soft and blonde within a week of getting my first taxol treatment. Fun stuff.