Life's Journey

Tomorrow is the big day – the first day of chemo. Ugh. Sigh. Stomp. I’m a hot mess! I feel like I’m running around in circles but not really getting anything accomplished. It’s exhausting. And I keep forgetting things – I mean “come on man!” chemo hasn’t even started yet and I’m already getting chemo brain!?!?  Today I had to get two new tires on my car (oh yeah because when it rains it pours!). I went to the grocery and stocked up on drugs, fluids, and bland foods. I checked my medication list and ensured that I have everything I need – labeled and color coded in the cabinet. Oh that’s right – I said it – color coded. I labeled my drugs so I remember what they are each used for and categorized them with colored labels – pink is for nausea, blue is for constipation, green is for pain… and so on. It’s my little sanctuary of an OCD style sanity. My sancuso patch has been slapped on my shoulder – oh I love my patch! It is a nausea blocker! It was the first thing I asked for yesterday at my doctors appt  I’m taking a crapload of steroids tonight and more in the morning to help prevent an allergic reaction to the chemo. Check, check, and check!

Yesterday at my doctor’s appointment we discussed a different chemo plan to try. Instead of getting one big fat ugly chemo dose once every three weeks, I will be getting a 21 day cycle of chemo. Day 1 I will get a full dose of both Carboplatin and Taxol. Then on Day’s 8 and 21 I will get a smaller dose of the Carbo. Then it starts all over again. So I’ll be getting chemo every week. Apparently this is a new dosage plan that was used in Japan with good results. The expectation is that I will feel pretty crummy and have the chemo hangover 3-4 days after treatment on the first week. Then the second and third weeks I will just feel tired. The catch is… there is no end in sight. This will continue as long as my body will let me or until the cancer stops responding. The main concern is that my White Blood Cell count will crash and I won’t be able to take more chemo. So we are going to try to take precautions to help fight that. One day at a time.

Because of the holiday next week we can’t fully do the 21 day cycle effectively. So we instead will do a big fat ugly dose of both drugs tomorrow. This will mean that I will not get another treatment for 3 weeks. That will kick off the first 21 day cycle. Phew, there’s no easy way to explain that. Tomorrow I will hopefully schedule chemos through the end of January. I’ll add the schedule to my calendar on the site and keep ya’ll posted.

I have posted my bucket list and have so much to share about it… but that will have to come on my next update. For now I am, as previously mentioned, a hot mess in anticipation of chemo tomorrow… deep breath.

Sending hugs & smiles.