First Taxol Treatment

Hi friends and family!  Today was my first Taxol chemo treatment. First up was my usual blood tests.  My white blood count was 10.2!!  An all time high (even higher than before I started chemo).  Unfortunately my red blood count has taken a beating and it’s really low.  Which means I’m anemic and totally explains why I’ve been so unbelievably tired lately.  My doc said to eat lots of spinach and meat to help with the anemia.  When I was receiving the Taxol they gave me an anti-nausea med but they also gave me 50mg of Benadryl because Taxol causes an allergic reaction in some patients.  Um it completely and totally knocked me on my ass.  I felt like I was high and when I tried to read everything was blurry.  I asked the nurses about it and they all laughed and said “You weigh 128 lbs and just took 50mg of Benadryl. Night night!”.  I actually didn’t fall asleep but slept for 2 hours the second I got home.  Whew!

I’ve also been having wicked hot flashes since I’m now going through menopause (have I mentioned chemo throws you into menopause?). It’s been waking me up a few times during the night.  And when I’m wearing my wig and get a hot flash…torture! My doc gave me a prescription to help with the night flashes, so hopefully it will get much better and I’ll get some full nights of sleep.

Other than that, I’m hoping Taxol will live up to it’s reputation of being easier than the red devil. I guess it does inhibit hair growth, so I won’t get much hair back in the next 3 months.  Such a bummer…I miss my hair so much.  On a positive note, Brian’s home now so our family is complete and we’re showering Desmond with lots of love and affection. Amy and Carrie made us a delicious meal yesterday, Tanhya is walking in the 3 day Susan G. Komen walk in my honor and I continue to get daily cards and emails of encouragement from many of you.  In so many ways this cancer has been a surprising gift.  And I love that I get to join all the incredible survivors out there. xoxo