N-Ice to Meet You, Taxol

Today I went back for more chemo fun. I normally go on Thursdays but I moved this one to Wednesday so that I could have an extra day to recover before Race for the Cure this Saturday – yay! Thank you Andrea for taking me today – it was great catching up and having several hours of quality girl time, even though we were stuck in the Infusion Room! (And thanks for thinking of the creative title for this post - I told you I wanted to give you credit!) I am so glad to have the red devil and all its side effects behind me. Ugh! It literally makes me nauseous to think about it. I know I am in for a whole new round of side effects, but from what I’m told, they should be easier to tolerate. This new drug, Taxol, that I’ll be getting for the next 12 weeks, has some fun side effects: your fingernails and toenails can turn dark, lift, or come off. It’s not likely – but can happen. Or you can get neuropathy – pain, tingling, and numbness in the hands and feet – so they have you do cryotherapy to prevent it. That’s just a fancy way of saying I have to sit with my fingers and toes in ice! It’s supposed to prevent these side effects – but not totally proven. I’m always cold, but I thought it was worth it to keep my nails! A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do – especially when she’s already lost her hair! Last and definitely least exciting, this drug can cause me to lose my eyebrows and eyelashes. Boo! I’m just trying to remind myself that if I lose anything else, it means the chemo is working and it’s killing the bad cells too! Bam! So, this means I have 5 chemo sessions down, 11 to go. They will start going by faster now since they are weekly – no more free Thursdays for me!

I’ve had two nice women come up to me this past week and introduce themselves, and ask if I was a survivor too. The camaraderie in breast cancer survivors is amazing! One woman came up to a group of us at our monthly girls dinner at Nicola’s, and another one at Breadwinner’s when Ben and I were having breakfast. I thought it was so nice – I want to remember how sweet they were so I can pay it forward when I am down the road a bit and see other survivors! I’m also really looking forward to the Susan G. Komen race on Saturday – thank you all for your support! My goal is seriously to try not to cry all day. We’ll see if I can do it!