Still no chemo

My body does not like chemo. I think it's pretty smart that way, but when you're fighting cancer it gets a little problematic. Yesterday started out getting my blood tested in Eden Prairie. Deb came and picked up the girls for a playdate (after Kate cried for 45 minutes about wanting to stay with mommy - but of course she ended up having a great time), and Joe on the ready to take me to Mayo if the blood counts were high enough. Turns out the counts were fine and we headed down to Mayo for a 2:30 chemo appt. We were a couple minutes late because my hair started falling out yesterday and I didn't realize this would take an extra 10-15 minutes in the shower to pick all the hair off me, clean the drain and some of the shower. The hair is now in a pony tail since that seems to hold it all together and it only falls out when the pony comes out and I brush it. YUCK! I don't mind the hair falling out, it's just the mess that it seems to be making all over my clothes and the house. Although it will get me out of cooking again :) We don't have a supply of hair nets, tee hee.

After being 5 minutes late at Mayo, it took them about 45 minutes to call me back and then they asked for my blood counts. Since the clinic wouldn't release them to me, they had faxed them to my Dr.'s nurse earlier. The chemo nurse couldn't get ahold of the nurse so she had to have the clinic refax the counts to her. By now it's 3;45 and I asked if we were going to have time since they close at 5:30. She explained that I would be the last one out, but they wouldn't make me shut off the light or take out my own IV. How nice. Then we started talking about the shot of Neulasta (this is the shot to get my counts back up), and she said that I should have it tomorrow or Friday. I was worried about Target getting the shot on short notice, so she called down to the Mayo pharmacy to get the ball rolling down there. By this time, I had taken the anti nausea pill, the benadryl by IV and they started the steriod (both the benadryl and steriod are to prevent reactions to the Taxotere - for those googling). It's the same drug I had the reaction to last time. Once the steriod was done, they started the Taxotere and the fireworks went off again. I told the nurse I was having a reaction and wanted to throw up, Joe gave me a bucket and I dry heaved/coughed a couple times and got really hot again. The pressure on my chest was offset by the nausea this time. They turned off the drug immediately and checked my blood pressure and oxygen levels again. They called the Dr. on call (mine was taking a long weekend) and she came and stared at me for a bit. This reaction was worse than the last time, and I had already had the benadryl so the new Doc was not excited about giving me either drug (I was supposed to get a new drug after the Taxotere). They rescheduled me for next Tues with my dr. and a chemo session after another consult. TROUBLE! The good news is that Thanksgiving will be much more pleasant than we had all been expecting! We also canceled the Neulasta shot since there was no chemo. Maybe third time will be a charm....

FYI, I tried to drink the witch's brew yesterday (the acupuncture potion) but couldn't get it down. I'm really not excited about drinking liquid dirt with some tar mixed in. Thought about putting some agave nectar into it, but didn't want to waste my entire supply on crappy tea. We'll try again today, but don't hold your breath.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my cancer angels out there!!