Today's Non-normalcy

I thought I better jump right on here tonight while I'm feeling up to it...since we have NO clue what the next several days may bring. I did receive a treatment today of both the Avastin and the Taxotere. My blood work looked pretty darn good too, so we've decided that being treated every two weeks instead of trying to squeeze in a treatment every week may be the better way to proceed. Cautious optimism, anyone?!?

Now we couldn't just have a "normal" day at the clinic. Ahhhh, Brenda was in rare form and she, Brian, and I had a bunch of laughs. Then we started the Taxotere as the last bag to drip for the day. As Brenda would tell it, we were only two drips into the treatment (I would say more like two minutes) when I caught her attention and signaled her over. The insides of my ears had become very hot very rapidly. By the time she got across the room my whole face was hot and, apparently, I was quite red in the face and neck. Sure enough, I had a reaction to the Taxotere. They immediatly stopped the drip (am I stating the obvious there?) and then injected something else into the port to counteract some of the reaction. I immediately felt the heat going away. After that I was pretty light-headed for a while. They summoned Dr K also to have him check and make sure I was ok and get his word on how to proceed. We waited about 15 minutes and then started up again at a super slow drip speed, with Brenda staring me down for a reaction. We were fortunate in that there were no more incidents.

I just had some supper a little bit ago and will probably feel hungry tomorrow also from the steroids. Then we'll see, day by day, how many of the symptoms I experienced with the last treatment were from the Taxotere and how many were flu-related.

Darn! I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up too high, but if we can treat every other week instead of every week, and if I can better tolerate this particular chemo with the Avastin, then maybe I can start getting some structure back in to my world and do more than sit in the comfy chair in the living room and/or sleep. Too much to ask for just yet? Sure, I'm a little premature in those wishes. But this could be a very telling week for me! Oh...more cautious optimism!

So that favorite motto of mine is ringing loud and clear in my head: "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst." The worst would be to go through all I did last time and find out there was no virus involved at all. The best would be to control all side effects this week and have a semi-human week next week with no treatments at all. If you're wondering about any special prayer requests I may have...there it is!

Thank you again for all my replies. So nice to see Lois post a comment. And there were numerous emails and phone calls as well. The food we receive is always soooo appreciated. Even when I can't enjoy it myself, it's a relief to know Brian and Dominic aren't eating another frozen pizza.

Be well all of you. Get those flu shots. They say it isn't too late! And let the good times roll...