Taxol 5

Day 1, Treatment Day (Tuesday): Every treatment day involves a lot of waiting. I arrive at NYU and wait to be brought in for my bloodwork. I have to wait for the bloodwork to come back from the lab which usually takes about an hour. I wait for my oncologist to review the bloodwork and spend about 30 minutes with her. I wait to be brought in by my nurse to start my treatment. I wait for the chemo to be brought up to the infusion floor and finally I get my treatment.

Thankfully, this week my oncologist decided that we could skip a week of our meeting together so that I could go straight from bloodwork to the infusion floor. We discussed last week that things have been going really smoothly so far, and if I wanted, she would be okay with skipping our appointment. If something should come up where I was having any new symptoms or if my bloodwork came back as abnormal, we would meet, but if everything was normal I could skip straight to getting my treatment.

So, this morning my bloodwork was scheduled to start at 7:15am and my infusion at 8am. Usually I do not start my infusion until at least 10am so this would allow me to finish much earlier.

I arrived at NYU at 7am and was the only person in the lobby. It was eerie and weird. I asked the security guard and he said that the nurses usually arrive right at 7:15am. When the nurse called me in, she asked me which vein I wanted my IV in. I told her that I have a port and don’t get an IV in my arm. She informed me that she is a phlebotomist and the nurses who do the ports do not start until at least 8am and since I wasn’t scheduled with them, I would have to be squeezed in. With some light begging, I convinced a nurse to squeeze me in. So much for starting early.

Instead of meeting with my oncologist to go through my bloodwork, I waited for my nurse Stacy to tell me if I would be able to get treatment. At first, she said that everything coming back looked good but that they were waiting for a few more numbers before we could get started. Then, she gave me my neutrophil count – 1.2 – borderline, again. She said that they usually treat people with 1.2 but she would have to call my oncologist to get approval. Already I got a bad feeling. She also said that my potassium counts were a little low and I would have to get an EKG. More waiting.

Thankfully, my EKG looked normal and I was cleared to start treatment – yay! Again, actual treatment was smooth. I only got Taxol today so it was pretty quick. I went home and took a nap.

Our nanny was out sick today so Cooper was at my parent’s house for a sleepover. I picked up Aidan from camp and brought him home for an afternoon of watching TV and relaxing on the couch. Aidan was not too upset about that. Matt and I cooked dinner, watched Stranger Things and went to sleep early.

Day 2 (Wednesday): I woke up feeling great. I brought Aidan to camp, did laundry, went to a Pilates class, had lunch with a friend, and tutored. I may have overdone it because at the end of the day I was exhausted but it felt really good to have a normal day.

Day 3 (Thursday): I definitely overdid it the day before and decided to spend today doing absolutely nothing. I brought Aidan to camp, came home and got right back into bed. I caught up on garbage TV shows, took a nap, and eventually dragged myself out of the house for a mani-pedi. Nothing like a day of self-care.

Day 4 (Friday): Another really normal day of feeling pretty great. I took Aidan to camp, went to a Pilates class, took a nap, saw Aidan’s camp performance and went to ABC Kitchen with Matt sans-wig.

Chemo Status:

5 Taxol down, 7 to go!

It’s amazing how much quicker I bounce back when it is just Taxol without the Carboplatin. Thankfully I only have 2 more Carbo treatments left but I’ll have to make sure not to plan too much in the days after.

7 more treatments really doesn’t feel like that many. Inching closer and closer to the finish line