See Previous Cancer Posts for earlier treatments
Check out my Original Cancer Journey Post
Check out Pre-Treatment Post
Chemotherapy Part 1
After my 4 cycles of A/C, I went immediately onto the drug Taxol. Each week I would go to the treatment center and go through the similar steps to the A/C drug: check blood cells levels, pre-chemo IV of nausea, steroids and other secondary drugs. Then I would have 90 minutes while the Taxol drug was dripped into me.
The Taxol had completely different side effects. Since Taxol affects slower growing cells, it was at this time my eyebrows and eyelashes completely fell out. I felt more like a Cancer patient without eye brows and eye lashes (and I had large thick eyebrows and eyelashes to start with). At this point, I was hairless all over my body. [Small silver lining, I didn't have to shave my legs for 6 months]. :)
The Taxol also causes neuropathy, and my feet felt constantly numb. You know that feeling you get if you sit on your foot too long and feels like it is asleep? That is how my feet felt all the time, and my fingers started to get it too. [Update: Today I am 10 weeks past chemo - and I have no neuropathy in my hands, and just a tiny bit at the ends of my big toe]. The toe nail on my big toes also started to lift up, and I ended up losing most of the one and was able to cut the other one way back. They are starting to grow back.
Going to chemo treatment every week started to wear out my body. It didn't have time for the blood to recover and I tried to keep myself as healthy as I cold. I would need naps, and was just generally exhausted. By the 8 or 9th week, I was really struggling to keep up with general daily tasks. Of course I still had my son who was 6 - 9 months during this time, so he got whatever energy I had along with working as much as possible.
I did continue to work through most of chemo. I would take off on the day of chemo, then rest for 2-3 days and then come back to work for 3-4 days. It was challenging, but I just took it one day at a time.
Looking back, I think it was all the little things (the exhaustion, neuropathy, hot flashes) that just got to me. Overall, I think I did pretty well during the six months of chemo.
My family will tell you that I was not also easy to live with, and I wasn't able to laugh or joke around, I was just tired and stressed. But I didn't get violently ill and I was able to keep working in a lesser capacity. I did end up putting on about 20 extra pounds that I now need to work off (most likely due to the steroids and anti-nausea medication).
After I completed my 12 weeks of Taxol, we celebrated. We also adopted our son officially - so it was quite the celebration. I knew that the chemo had been working as they were able to feel the tumor shrink in size.
After chemo I then had to wait three weeks to allow my blood to recover, and schedule my surgery. I also had to make the decision on whether I was going to have a single mastectomy or bi-lateral mastectomy. Based on the fact that I already have suspicious spots in both breast, the doctors and I determined that a bi-lateral mastectomy would give me the best survival rate.
Surgery was not what I expected, but I will put that in another post. Overall chemo was a great decision for me, and the methods and treatments have improved greatly, even over the last 10 years. If you or a loved one are going through this, I hope writing these experiences is helpful for you.
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