Taxol - round 2!

I was a bit nervous today as I had such a big cold last week that was worried my blood counts were not going to be OK. But they were perfect and we are here half way of the Taxol bag, have around two more hours to go and can go home and lay down a bit.

I talked to Dr Chen about the pain management of Taxol and she told me that for the first round that I only took 1 tablet of Advil of 200mg that it was not enough. She asked me to take 3 tablets every 6 to 8 hours and if not enough to take 4, and... If still not enough to call her in order to fax my pharmacy a prescription for something stronger. I hate to take medicines and in Advil case the box says you should not take more than 6 pills a day, she told me I could take up to 12 a day and to do so if I need it, you just not take that dose of Advil for a headache but yes for this level of pain.

Overall Dr Chen told me after exam that I am doing great, we have decided to start Herceptin on my last session of Taxol and not before. She thinks that it might be too much for my body to start today so she prefers to wait. We talked about my cold and she is not worried about congestion colds, we will try to do flu shot next week. Last few days I have been freaking out as my throat has been a bit sore, probably from the cold, but today is ok. Last year if I had a sore throat I will wonder if I had strep or just ignore it as it was part of the cold. When you have been diagnosed with cancer and you have got a sore throat, the first thing that comes to your mind is...have I now got cancer in my throat?. Then you put yourself back into prospective and realize that is part of the cold!, but I can see myself having issues through this roller coaster. Must remind to myself that I have got a small chance that cancer will come back and probably will not, and have to educate myself to control that anxiety moments, but I am positive that will go through them.

I also show her my multivitamins as the nutritionist asked me to change to "centrum A to Z". Dr Chen likes them too but she asked me to also supplement it with additional Vitamin D and calcium as that specific multivitamins does not have enough. It is ironic that I have to wait to have Cancer to be super healthy, now I eat beautifully, take lots of vitamins and probably my immune system is at the highest level ever. Just sad that something has to happen in your life to be nicer to your body.

I met a girl today who is doing the same treatment as me and also has Breast Cancer, she is only 31 years old. I show her last time I was there as well but had not spoken to her before. She also decided to do double mastectomy as me but she is not doing radiation which I am not sure why but did not ask either. She has got much more issues than me, she has Celiac disease, asthma and some kind of skin issues and I was next to her when she was given the nurse the long list of medicines she is taking and how long has she been taking them. She seems really positive and nice girl, just hope the best for her as well.

Now going back to the past few days, I could not do anything from Wed to Friday as I was in bed with the big cold. I slept a lot and tried to be as much hydrated as I could, I think we did evening walks on some of the days but do not recall which one. On Saturday is the first day I went out, we went to Ethan's soccer game, he scored 2 goals from the 3 of the team and I have to say that I do not recall what was the final score. We did not do much the rest of the day and took it easy. Yesterday we went to mass as Ethan had started Sunday school and after lunch we went to Morgan hill to a pumping patch that was packed. We ride a few places and Ethan loved it!. We bought three pumpkins and come back home as I think all dust of the field was making my cold worse. We come back home and my eyes were really dry and my throat was itching, I got a bit upset as I do not want to slow down the chemo process. So last night I bundle with scarf, hat and after a hot glass of rice milk with honey went to bed to sweat, I woke up like a new person!

Ok, now I am home, going to take things easy, relax and wait for that horrible pain to arrive, this time I hope to combat it.

And the last thing, only 2 more to go!!!!