1 Down, 11 To Go

The new regimen has begun.  I survived and maybe even thrived through my first round of Taxol.  It was a loooong day.  Here's the breakdown of what the first Monday of January, February and March (yeah...that IS my birthday.  Lovely.) what look like:

9:20am - Head out from home, hopefully
9:40am - Check in for labs
10:00am-ish - Called in for labs to check important blood levels, and get "approved" for Chemo
10:30am - Check in for Dr. appt.
11:00am - Get taken back for said appt.
11:20am - Actually see the doctor (first a nurse comes in and asks lots of questions, then a resident comes in and repeats most of those questions as well as shows me how my levels look, then there is lots of waiting in a thin gown and sometimes a warmed blanket for the doctor.)
11:30am - supposed to check-in for Chemo
11:50am - Actually check-in for Chemo
12:40pm - Called in for Chemo (they mix this stuff fresh and apparently it takes a little while, along with waiting for a chair to open up if they are busy)
12:50pm - Asked lots of questions by Chemo nurse
1:00pm - Pre-med drip (Benadryl, Pepcid, steroids, and saline)
1:20/30pm - Taxol Drip
2:30pm-ish - Done!

This first time it took till more like 3pm, since they had to check my blood pressure every 15 minutes and Matt was in rare form, being very distracting to the nurse - Jenny, you didn't help either!  :-)  (Did we not take any pictures???  No popsicles!)  But, we made it fun, as usual.  They warned me the Benadryl in the pre-drip might make me sleepy and it pretty much did.  I had a hard time concentrating on what Matt and Jenny were saying and I felt a little drunk as some of my words came out slurred or backward or just plain wrong.  But, we soldiered through.

The nice thing about this Cycle is that the Taxol is supposed to be less harsh; causing less fatigue and little to no nausea.  Yay!  I didn't take any additional meds last evening and I haven't had to take any today, so far.  Sweet!  Hopefully, we can make it through with no additional meds for the next 11 weeks!  That would be awesome!!!!  I did go to bed upon arriving home, but that was mostly cuz I felt a little drunk and sleepy.

So, now we go every Monday for the next 11 weeks.  That seems like a lot to me, but I guess if it is going to be easier it shouldn't be so bad.  The next three Mondays we only do Labs and Chemo; no Dr. Appt. so that will make those days go a lot faster.

As always, thank you SO much for your prayers and support.  The doc did say that he felt like the tumor had gotten smaller again - now under 1cm.  The resident even said maybe as low as .5cm, so those prayers are working!  Please continue to pray for a complete response as well as for it to have pulled away from the chest wall....I guess if I have a complete response then it will, by definition have gone from the chest wall, but it never hurts to be thorough.

Hope everyone has had a good start to the new year.  Let's get these kids back to school already!  But, stay warm!!!!

P.S.  Many back posts will hopefully be coming soon.  The new computer may finally be up and running properly and I may even have figured out how to work it.  Sheesh!!!