never miss a thing: New Treatment = New Side Effects.

Friday, April 11, 2008

New Treatment = New Side Effects.

Taxol (aka Paclitaxel) is the new treatment cycle that I am on. And the side effects are different but annoying nonetheless. (1 down, 3 more to go)
- numbness/tingling/burning of the hands/feet
- muscle/joint pain
- flushing
- hair loss (again - yay!)
- change in blood pressure
- headache - (have yet to determine if this is a side effect or just allergy headache)

These effects are MUUUUCH better than the AC, don't get me wrong. Overall, I feel much better. There are other noticeable side effects that I have realized have come with the steroid that they give you to offset allergic reactions - which from my experience - why would anyone WANT to voluntarily take this stuff?? For real. Good grief. I mean I have more energy but the other side effects out way that benefit...
corticosteroids: Side effects that I am experiencing.

increased appetite
water and salt retention leading to swelling and edema
high blood pressure
black and blue marks
muscle weakness
increased susceptibility to infection
increased sweating
mood swings

mood swings and bizarrely irrational reactions to random things have caught me by surprise (ie I say WTH at least 5 times a day, up from my previous 2-a-day average) This could be just "dealing with things" but for now I am blaming it on the 'roids.

Overall, the treatment is positive. School is what is overwhelming atm... but at least it is only one thing at a time. Things work out that way, you know? There's a reason for this madness.

WTH.

2 comments:

mteph said...: hello there,

stephanie here. i received my fantastic tote plus a little star toy (it looks exactly like the stars from super mario galaxy, a perfect addition to the package)

anyway, just saying i got it. its adorable. can't wait to use it for groceries and such.

hope you feel better soon!; April 11, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Kate Richardson said...: has spring hit NYC yet? Getting any nice weather? April has been really wet so far in nashvegas. New photos of Seth & nigel as "icecream statues" will be on their way to you soon. Just have to get them off of the camera.; April 12, 2008 at 8:15 AM

Post a Comment

Buy Me!

YES! It's here! If you want to buy a shirt to help me out with the medical bills as they are starting to pile up, I would greatly appreciate it. If you would rather not, please pass it on to your nosy neighbor to see if they will instead.
There are two styles: "circles" or "tank"(see feb.18th post for a picture of each) If you would like tank, please specify in the "Is there any else you want to tell me" field. If you don't specify, I am just going to assume circles. And I am also going to assume that you have nothing else to say.
Thanks so much for helping out! And pass it on to other generous people. (not selfish people, they are no fun.) -nicole

If you feel funny about sending money over the "interweb", email me at n2creative@gmail.com and we'll work something out.

the back story:

So, a couple of months ago my mother told me that one of my good friends growing up was diagnosed with breast cancer and was currently going through chemo treatment to shrink the tumor before operating.(side note about friend: we were best friends from age 5 when they moved in behind us in the neighborhood until middle school when we moved away- we spent countless hours together and our mothers are still good friends)
so when i found out about her it got me thinking that i had not done a self exam in ages - so a few days later in the shower i found it. i read some about tumors and felt sure that it was benign but went ahead and made an appointment to get it looked at.
a few weeks later i was in the dr.s office and he shuttled me down to radiology to get it looked at. he was more alarmed at the size of the mass than the odds that it was cancerous - so he felt it was better to be safe than sorry and had me to get a sonogram and mammogram that next week. he as well as the radiologist assured that the odds were good that it was a fibroatanoma (benign fibrous tumor) but again better to play it safe and have it biopsied just to be sure.
i hadn't heard back from the doctor so i assumed no news was good news. but i will never forget him calling me back - i was in the nashville airport coming back from our girls weekend and he asked when i was back because he wanted me to come in to the office. i told him preferred to know what was going on now since obviously it was bad news. he said that normally he would rather speak to a patient about this in person but under the circumstances he understood. he then gave me the diagnoses and some numbers to call the next morning to set up appointments with surgeon and fertility specialist.
whirlwind flight back that was canceled and resulted in me having a breakdown with the gate agent (poor guy) and i was forced to spend the night in DC wondering what in the world was happening.
i have since met up with my friend from childhood and she has been invaluable to me going through all of this and i hope that we can both support each other throughout the next months... it is just too odd that we are both within a week in age, have similar upbringings and have this diagnoses so close together. all we can think of is that we both licked the paint off the barbie dream house at some point (we were both huge barbie fans and that was the majority of our play time) or there was something funky in the creek behind our neighborhood. i do plan on doing more research on this because the similarities are just too much but for now i am blaming it on the barbie dream house

Select Your Shirt Size or Bag
Mailing Address(all on one line - don't use returns)

Friday, April 11, 2008

New Treatment = New Side Effects.

2 comments:

never miss a thing

Buy Me!

the back story:

Blog Archive