Five Down and One to Go

So here's the short of it,

I am home from having Chemotherapy number five! 

And here's the long

I finished treatment number five about an hour ago.  It was different.  Because I developed the myopathy the last time, I did not get Taxotere.  The myopathy is not caused by the Taxotere; it's caused by the steroid pre-medication that's required in order to have the Taxotere.   So today I got Abraxane.  It has not been approved for use in breast cancer which has not metastasized unless the Taxotere causes complications.  It is in the same family as the Taxotere, but it's a newer technology to deliver it into the body.  Anyway, the medication is surrounded by nanoparticles of albumin and goes into the body without having to have the steroids first. It appears that it has about the same side effects as the Taxotere, so I won't have escaped anything with that.  Lori did caution me that many patients have difficulty with soreness in the muscles and joints, and told me to treat it with advil. It took only 30 minutes to be infused, plus we knocked off another 30 minutes with not having to have the steroid so I guess my treatment was shortened by almost an hour. I slept most of the time. I don't know why I seem to fall asleep when I'm having a treatment.

My Carboplatin dosage was also reduced a little again this time.  I wasn't quite clear on the reason for that.  Dr. Schlabach is still very concerned about my red blood counts and says that if they don't come up, I may have to have a transfusion.  I had another shot of  Procrit today to try to bolster those red blood cells. The Abraxane still knocks both the white counts as well as the red counts down, so that change won't help out!

In addition to all that, I got a prescription for a Z-pack.  I've got this cough started and of course I told them about my weekend with fever nearing 100 for two days.  Apparently I sound "a little rattly in there" after listening with a stethescope, so we'll get that knocked out right away with the old stand by azithromycin. It's funny, I remember the first time I ever had one of those z-packs.  It seemed like it was a medicine from the future.

I'm planning on sleeping lots this evening and tomorrow. 
I can just feel all the positive energy and prayers and they sustain me in ways that are hard to describe.