1.18.23

I’ve been meaning to give an update… We decided to roll the dice last Thursday and headed up north. The guys got to go ice fishing, the kids got to hang with their cousins, and Nat and I got to get coffee and hit some local shops. It was nice to get away for a little bit! I’m happy to say, I had very minimal side effects with this first round. Ones that I noticed:

1.) I was flushed on Thursday. And ran a little warm, mostly when sleeping. Pretty sure that was chemo related because normally Aaron is the one that’s hot and I’m the one that’s freezing. And he said he didn’t get hot.

2.) I was little tired. Hard to say if that was completely chemo related… It may have just been staying up until midnight each night. haha.

3.) On Friday I noticed that the L shaped part on both my hands, from my index finger down through my thumb had a tight/burning/stinging weird feeling. It was “painful” enough that I noticed it. And it bothered me. Mainly because I wasn’t sure if it was chemo related or not. (I drove the five hours on Thursday and I was kind of hoping it was from that..) I started doing the desensitizing hand exercises that Lori showed me. Pretty much every time I thought about it I started doing them. By Saturday I didn’t really notice anything. So that was good! I felt like my icepacks for my hands didn’t stay as cold as the ones for my feet. With this second round I’m bring more icepacks. I also ordered a mitten icepack hand set to try. I’m hoping that if I can keep my hands colder longer then maybe that won’t be an issue in the future.

4.) I also noticed some joint pain in my hips Sunday evening. It was noticeable when I was sitting. They felt achy, kind of like having restless leg syndrome. Which made me feel a little fidgety. I wanted to move around to find a position where I didn’t notice it. On a scale from one to ten I’d rate it like a two. I knew it was there but it wasn’t painful. Thankfully when I went to bed I didn’t notice it!

5.) And last but not least I did notice a day here and there or maybe a better phrase would be a couple hours here and there where my stomach felt a little off. I kind of wonder if that becomes an issue when I have an empty stomach.

Some fun new things to celebrate with this chemo drug: I don’t have to do the Neulasta anymore! (Unless my white blood count really drops) AND instead of taking the Dexamethasone twice a day for three days after my infusion I was prescribed a different nausea med that is on an as needed bases. I hate taking medicine if I don’t need to. It’s nice to not have to take pills. I still take Prilosec, but as soon as I’m done with chemo I can stop that. I found out today that I will be getting a dose of Benadryl each time with Taxol. She said it was mainly because this one tends to give people an allergic reaction. So they try to be as preemptive as possible. I didn’t get as tired as the first time so that was good. But can definitely feel the effects of the Benadryl! Another plus, I didn’t notice my mouth getting as irritated with with round. Hopefully that will continue! It seems like these are accumulative. So as the chemo builds in your system you start to notice more and more. Or what you did notice gets worse… The verdict is still out on whether that will be an issue or not.

Today marks the half way point time wise for chemo!!!!

My chemo regimen was four doses two weeks apart and then once a week for 12 weeks for a total of 20 weeks of chemo. We are on week ten! Ten more weeks and I can check this off of my list!

As for prayer requests, I would appreciate prayers that the next 10 rounds go well. Prayers that the neuropathy would stay away or be minimal. That is probably my biggest “concern”. Most of the other side effects will either go away after treatment or can be managed (ie have heartburn: take Prilosec, nauseous: take your nausea med.) You can also pray for clarity in decision making for the future. We don’t really have a lot to decide right now. But as we get closer to doing reconstruction we will.