3-15-07 Last Four Taxol Chemos to Go

Well here is a happy photo from New Years Eve with my good friend Linda Sue at her daughter's wedding. Moi' in my fancy Raquel Welch wig and my real eyebrows (while they lasted).This week I made it over the hump with the downside of the last 4 weeks of chemo ahead of me.I don't know how long term patients are able to keep going. Including my mom. I feel badly that I never truly understood what she was going through. Crap, I may have to go take an antivan! We all just expected her to keep on keeping on (cooking, shopping, cleaning, laundry.) And she rarely complained, she vented by pushing our buttons in pointing out our short comings.

This week's chemo treatment once again made my throat close up & my eyes burn. I get a bag full of pre meds before the Taxol which includes 35 mg of benedryl and 10 mg decadron plus some other good stuff. Thank goodness nurses Carol & Nikki are able to really slow down the drip when the side effects come on. I had to pop an antivan mid way through as there were a large number of first time non patients in the room and when you are having poison pumped through your veins along with four others in chemo chairs you still can't help but feel it's all about "you." Moral support is great but more than two is too many. Hey, cook a meal, clean a toilet, go to the grocery store and make sure the milk is in date in the fridge, if you wish to help.
The space is so limited, it’s hard enough to get up and maneuver that pole to the bathroom with just a few in the room. Much less watching you have side effects or most of the time me snoring

Even though I am in the chemo chair for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours per treatment the time seems to fly. After the first 45-60 minutes my tongue gets thick and I get really loopy. Thank goodness, so many of my good friends have taken care of transporting me to and from the doctor’s office. Mary Rush is my usual mode of transport; Missy, Becky, Jamie, Patti, Mary Leslie and even Glen Page have filled in. Getting there is not a problem it's the being coherent enough to walk out the door much less drive home. I had thought that I would get so bored during 16 weeks of Chemo. All the thank you notes I would write, the opportunity for leisure reading. NOT! I am doing good to glance over the copy of my one page blood work report. I do get to control the big flat screen TV remote while I am there. If I fall asleep with it in my hand no one has had the nerve yet to pry my fingers off and change the channel.

I am so very fortunate to be in Foley at Hope Medical Group with Dr. Tan, I don't know how nurse's Carol & Nikki manage to make sure each and every patient genuinely feel they are the only one they are caring for. Sometimes there are as many as 5-6 patients receiving Chemo at once. Plus the phone ringing, people like me passing through asking questions. They are so professional and patient. Being in a small facility fortunately allows patients like me the extra time to take their treatment slowly if needed. They aren't pushing 20-30 treatments through a day. I will receive my 30 days of radiation there with Dr. Hixson. It is only a mile from my house.

Oh! The latest is we have bats in our chimney. In the past 3 1/2 weeks we have had four bats in the house, two in the living room and two in our bedroom. Both have fireplaces. And Sunday at dusk we watched the little endangered, , mosquito eating vermin take flight from under the flashing around the chimney on the second floor. Well over 50 bats flew out. We have searched the internet and read all about building bat boxes, trying to find Bat Removal Experts and now know more than I ever cared to know. I don't mind them being in the chimney just not in my living room with us guiding them out the front door or knocking them down with the broom & picking them up with a towel to throw out the door.

The South Baldwin Relay for Life is Friday May 4, 2007. At Foley High School. If you know of any Survivors that would like to come to the special Survivors Reception which is before the opening ceremonies and the Survivors Lap please let me know.

South Baldwin Relay For LifeSurvivors

Reception Date: May 4, 2007

Registration Time: 5:00 PM

Reception Begins: 5:30 PM

Bus Departs Cafeteria for Field: 6:40 PM

Relay Begins: 7:00 PM

Location: Foley High School Cafeteria (behind Wal-Mart) Foley, Alabama

Cancer information is available 24 hours a day seven days a week by calling (251) 928-8650 or (800) ACS-2345 or the website at: http://www.cancer.org/

Reception information: contact Zana Price 943-1124 or zanadu@gulftel.com

I have not been posting much as the Taxol makes my hands shake some. It's a #ithch trying to draw on eyebrows with unsteady hands.
If you know of anyone that is need of a wig go to the web site http://www.tlcdirect.org/ and check out the wigs, I even got my Pat Benatar one from the clearance section.