First Taxol & Thanksgiving

 On Tuesday, I had my first chemotherapy for the new regime which is Taxol. It's a less aggressive treatment than the A/C but can still have some side effects.

Fortunately, something in my mind told me that it would probably be wise to have Jeff join me for this first cycle in the new treatment rather than Emily. Why? Because Emily is like her mother and has some super fun anxiety. When things don't go the way we thought they would, we panic. Even if everything is actually under control, we panic. It's just the way it is. It sucks and it's not very fun.

In hindsight, I'm super glad I had Jeff come instead. We got there and I had my blood drawn and a visit with my medical oncologist. I just love her. My whole team is awesome. She asked me what we were going to be doing for Thanksgiving and I said I was going to get to see my grandbabies for the first time, in person, since Labor Day. She encouraged me to make the most of it but take a nap if I got tired during the day. (She was really cute about it because she says "I'd bet those little ones would love to take a nap with grandma!" When in reality if the three of us tried to lay down together, there would be zero sleeping occurring lol)

But she validated my concerns for them and me and why I have kept my distance from them since my surgery, both for their health and my own. (I mean the little two are 17 months and 3 years and they go to a daycare center. Basically they are petri dishes in human form.) She said that I would likely tolerate the Taxol really well since I virtually had no issues with A/C except the overactive bladder and one random bout of nausea after round 3. 

Then we got into the treatment room and I got to sit in my favorite locale which is the back wall. It's more private and I just like it for whatever reason. I have had the same nurse, Stacy, all of my treatments except the first two (and technically she was my nurse for the first one but they had an intern finishing up so she worked with me that day). She's lovely and I'm so grateful to her for her care toward me. She hadn't met Jeff before so she introduced herself to him and explained how things would be different with this treatment. 

They started the pre-meds which includes a LOT of Benadryl and it made me super sleepy. Normally Benadryl doesn't make me tired at all but this was a super concentrated 50mg dose so yeah, naps were happening. Then they came to do the Taxol and she explained that it might cause some chest pain and a back ache and that if I felt anything weird, to let her know ASAP. Also, because it was the first treatment and I was all the way in the back row (as far from the nurse's station as you can get), she said she'd hang out by my side for the first little bit of the infusion to make sure I didn't have a reaction. Well, thank goodness she stayed with me because I did have a reaction. [My oncologist had also told me that there was a 5-10% chance I'd have a reaction and I was like "well knowing me, I'll have it" and I did!]

I started to get a tight feeling in my chest and as soon as the words left my mouth, Stacy says "oh and there she goes!" and zoomed into action. Apparently, I flushed the brightest color red from head to toe. Instead of just pushing the nurse button, she yanked it out of the wall and within about 10 seconds flat, every nurse in the pod was beside my station. Each one had a different item: a bag of saline, the cart for checking blood pressure & O2 levels, oxygen just in case and something else but I didn't catch what the last one was. They turned off the Taxol and started some saline. Jeff just calmly moved out of the way and let them do their thing. He's a level headed one, he is. I would have been freaking out if I saw it happen to someoen and I know Emily would have been freaking out if she saw it happen to me, even though the nurses were right there and clearly had a handle on it. 

Then, of course, I had to use the bathroom. I was a lot less tomato red when I went to the bathroom but I still looked like I had a pretty bad sunburn. Once I returned from the bathroom, they let the saline run for about 30 minutes or so and then hooked the Taxol back up. I was fine after that. Because Taxol is a histamine, the reaction is basically the body trying to reject the treatment. It isn't uncommon although still only happens to that 5-10% of folks. Fortunately, Stacy told me that it's much less likely to happen again and they will just release it a little slower to be sure I don't have any more issues with it. 

I was totally aware the whole time, just super tired and sleepy because of the Benadryl. I'm glad it's not like other issues I've had where I don't remember what happened. 

The treatment made me sleepy for a few more hours but after Jeff and Bree had gone to work for the evening, I was up and around by around 4 or 4:30 pm and I crocheted the night away. It was actually a really good night.

Wednesday we just did some prep for Thanksgiving and not much else. I was so incredibly happy and grateful to see my grandbabies for Thanksgiving! It had been 88 days since I saw their beautiful faces in person (not that anyone was counting or anything). It was so wonderful to see them. 

Little Leo is walking now (he was just on the cusp when we saw him last) and is saying some words and Gideon's language has just exploded. He's so full of life and it was so great to see them. Emmett and I hugged forever and I got to ask him about school and how things are going. We had a lovely dinner (cooked always and forever on Thanksgiving by Jeff) and watched a couple of movies. I even slipped a cat nap in there snuggling up with Leo. It was just the best day I've had in a super long time. I'm so glad that this treatment didn't render me entirely useless so that I could engage with the boys and enjoy the time with them. It was definitely most needed after the crazy few months I've had.