Chemo 1

I guess this is for real now, as I am 2 days out from the first chemotherapy and starting to feel it. Stupid cancer.

My drugs are indeed taxol and herceptin. I also get benadryl and dexamethasone before they start the chemo drugs, in order to prevent reactions. I've read a lot of horror stories on message boards about people not sleeping at all for days due to the dexamethasone, but I had no trouble at all. I've been sort of fascinated by how well I've been sleeping through the whole thing, considering how much trouble I've historically had with sleep, but I guess my trazodone is doing its job.

The chemo drugs themselves took 3.5 hours to get in my body. I had a small reaction to the taxol, which can cause chest pain and shortness of breath in some people the first time (for me it was just a little chest tightness), so they slowed it to a 2 hour infusion and that was fine. The next time they'll do 2 hours again, and then speed it back up to 1 hour from thereon out. The herceptin was 90 minutes. I was there a long time, all told, because they first have to do bloodwork and I also saw the doctor and all that. I don't really mind, though - I can read or watch Netflix on my Kindle, etc., and the time passed pretty quickly. They bring around a cart with sandwiches! I got a pb&j.

Last night my skin started hurting, kind of like when you have the flu. And this morning I am weirdly jittery. My oncologist responds instantly to emails - seriously, within minutes - and told me to take ibuprofen and that both things are related to the taxol and will pass pretty quickly. It's kind of annoying how they can't tell you exactly what will happen to you, since everyone is different, but it's nice that he is so responsive and calmly tells me what I can do about things when they do happen.

One thing I learned via the internet is that taxol makes your nails really sensitive to light, and that one of the best ways to protect them in order to hopefully prevent nail loss is to paint your fingernails and toenails black. So that will be cheery for springtime, black fingernails for the next 3 months! I'm kind of digging it for the time being, though, I have to admit.