Ok, last post for the night. For my mom and family who want to know.
I am taking something called Taxotere. Now, go to this link and it will tell you all there is to know about what I'm experiencing.
Or, I'll just tell you.
My fingers hurt when I type. My nail beds on my hands and feet are sore and I've been told that they could lift and fall off, crack and and peel or turn yellow. I just keep Jamberry nail stickers on them and nail polish and nobody is the wiser. Except that I guess now you are.
When I came home from treatment, I wasn't nauseous. I thought I'd hit the jackpot! And then after a few hours, once the steroids they gave me wore off, other stuff happened. I kept less food down this time than last. Nausea didn't stay with me, thankfully, but it came in waves. I can deal with waves and will take that a 1000 times over constant nausea like before.
Everything hurt. Muscles, bones, teeth, eyes, head, organs...my ovaries screamed at me for a week. I literally think they are dying, which should save us on birth control! ha!
I walked like a sick person.
Shallow breathing...it hurt to breathe deeply or expand my lungs and I really felt like something was wrong! But it wasn't...it was just the chemo and I know that now because I'm feeling a bit better.
My mouth was swollen...throat was sore and thick...flu-like symptoms, headache and digestion issues. Severe fatigue. So tired all...the...time...
I even have a rash breaking out on my hand (tea tree oil has been wonderful for that!) which is only the beginning of the skin problems. I knew that was coming though.
Now, having said that, I will take all of the above symptoms hands down compared with what I went through with Epirubicin. Every day. No joke. Epirubicin was so bad and I had no recourse whatsoever for prescribed relief that my on-call doctor (I broke down and begged the doctor late at night for help once) actually told me that I should just go smoke pot. I kid you not. I know that he was trying so hard to be helpful and felt bad for me and really had nothing to offer that I hadn't already tried. Being that it's still very illegal here and I can't ever see myself doing that, I muscled through it without the pot. (can you imagine me upstairs in my room getting high while my family just mills about?!?)
SO, I got off on a tangent there...sorry. Taxotere comes with it's own issues, but things are looking better and I have just two more treatments. And I'll be done by New Years! And then on to reconstruction! YES!!!
Thank you all for your patience, love, prayers, support and understanding. It means everything.
Oh that's awful! Seriously how do you do it? When my sister in law went off chemo after a year she said she felt like a super hero, like surely she had never felt that healthy before. She thought she was the bionic woman because after a year of feeling sicker than death she felt amazing.
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