Day 141: Round 4. New drug. Two-thirds of the way.

After all my worries about my Dex high, I had a pretty good night's sleep. I was up by 5.30 with the first light and fit in a bit of yoga before Remie came in at 6.15a for a sleepy cuddle. I hopped in the shower and got sorted for a 7.30a departure.

Jenny and I passed the nearly hour long drive (of about 8kms!) covering all sorts of topics. We arrived for my 8.40a appointment with Dr. Fran to find Nick waiting outside her office.

Dr. Fran called us in and introduced us to her intern. We talked about how cancer cells don't grow back after chemo as normal cells do since they lose their ability to repair. She was non-committal onspecific  nutrition suggestion, saying that maintaining a balanced diet and healthy weight, as well as limiting alcohol to 3-7 drinks per week (!) was the ideal. We then moved to talking about the Taxotere (dexamethazone) that I start this treatment. She said the downward slump usually starts  on day 3-4 once the Dex consumption decreases. She recommended general over-the-counter painkillers like Panadol Osteo (I still have lots of that from my pre-hip replacement days) for the bone and muscle ache that can come on. Oh joy.  She did tell her intern that I'm a poster child for treatment so far, so hopefully that continues in the back half of the game.

Over we went to chemo cottage at 9.15a to get checked in by Lorraine, seated and cold-capped by Candy. Jenny headed off to get a coffee and Ruth strode in, so she sat down and we started to chat. Then it was time for Angela to get the cannula in. This is where the problems started. After two failed attempts in two different veins (the second one in the hand-ick!), she called over the male nurse. Poor Swoops, the medical owl, had a bit of strangling while I felt the needles. He (the nurse, not Swoops) managed to get the cannula in (Ruth later said he looked like he struggled) so then the problems ended. Whew.

In went the anti-nausea is the drip, then the Taxotere in a black-sleeved bag as it's photo-sensitive and it's "harsh". Ugh. Not only was I instructed to suck ice to prevent mouth sores, I also had to put my hands into frozen mittens to freeze the cells where my my finger nails grow to prevent the drugs from attacking them. I REALLY disliked the frozen hand thing and moved up to being covered in 3 blankets. Thankfully Ruth distracted us with her great pictures from her recent climbing course in NZ. Trent popped in towards the end to tell us how he's headed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa this afternoon where the high temp is minus something F.  It made the mittens seem not so bad.

We were out about 11.45a, and as I was feeling pretty normal, Jenny and I headed to lunch at Frenchy's Cafe in the Artist Precinct in Mosman at Lorraine's suggestion. It was lovely. We then went and got our nails painted as mine need to be covered in a dark colour (I chose blue) for the photo-sensitive issue.

We were home by 3p, so I got in a quick swim down the street with the kids and Rosalie. We came home to Deanna dropping off dinner. Yummy. It's now 8p and I feel unbelievably fine. Go the Dex. I'm tired so will head to bed shortly and hope the night and morning aren't too bad.