Saturday, March 6, 2010

Check'n Off the List

Well another treatment down and one more to go. It really is amazing now when you look at my action plan for treatment that the things checked off list is longer than the things left to do. Plus, I reallly believe the worst is behind me. And that first chemo round really takes the cake on being the worst.

Thursday's infusion went ok. The only downside was the wait, over an hour before they got anything started. They were so busy! The drill is you have to first have your blood drawn to make sure you're good to go for treatment. They want to make sure your white blood count is high enough among other things. Gotta make sure you are not going to get bogged down by infection. Mine has always been fine. It takes about 20 minutes for them to run this test. Once you pass the blood hurdle, then they'll request the drugs you'll be getting for the treatment. Depending on how busy they are, this takes about 10 or 15 minutes. Once everything is a go, I get what I call my warm up feed. These are the drugs that include Benadryl and steriods to help me tolerate the actual chemo treatment. This "drip" takes about 30 minutes. Then I'm finally good to get the taxol. This is the long one and takes about 3 hours.

These drugs are all fed intravenously. I think I've mentioned before I have a port which is a little gadget in my chest directly hooked to a vein. All of my IV's are done through the port. This makes my treatments so much easier, because they aren't having to search for a vein every time. And I discovered the other day, after being poked so much your veins can develop a sensitivity which makes it hurt that much more when they stick the needles in. I had to have surgery to put the port in, and I guess I'll eventually have one to take it out. But totally worth it.

I also met with my oncologist on Thursday. Even he has started talking about me wrapping up treatment. It really is exciting to think I might be winding this thing up. Basically he still says that although he can't predict my future, my outlook is good. I've responded to treatment well and they were able to remove the tumor with clean margins. And although I did have cancer in one of my lymph nodes, he said he would have been more surprised if I had not had any. So for now the last hurdle to cross will be radiation. I'll meet with my radiologist on April 2, and he will determine whether I need radiation or not. While I'm anxious for this to be over, I want to make sure we have done EVERYTHING to kill ALL of the cancer cells in my body. So if 6 weeks or so of radiation is what it takes, so be it.

I'm lov'n this Spring weather, and I hope you are too. I'd even rather have 50 degrees and spring rain than 20 degrees and snow.

Have a spectacular day!

Monique

4 comments:

  1. This is wonderful news and it sounds like you will be wrapping up in time for tennis season. :)

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  2. Monique can you download mad skills like Judo to your port? Kidding. Dumb. I know. :)

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  3. I love the idea of a judo port! you should really look into this. lol I am so glad to see that your spirits are high and you are feeling better this go 'round. Are you able to be amongst the masses yet? I am at LF until Sunday, and I would love to say hi.

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  4. She will be ready for tennis. If we have to play left handed, slow or only fore-hands - we are playing!!! Getting excited at the thought.

    Susan

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