Amy's Boobie Blog ..............MY Cancer Story

MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS I've said it before and I'll say it again, not one of these chemo treatments has been the same.  Yeah, we've tinkered with meds and stuff, but it's gone further than that.  Even when we haven't, my body has reacted differently.  Maybe it's because it is cumulative.  Maybe it's because I am becoming more and more aware of my body and I concentrate on myself more.  Maybe it is because of the change in temperature or what I ate.  Who knows!   It kind of reminds me of being a new mother.  You keep trying things and listening to all the advice on how to make the baby sleep or eat or poop, but nothing works the same way twice. (Yeah, the sleep, eat, and poop thing applies to me as well.)  After seven treatments I finally realized if I can figure out what works for me at a particular time I should just go with it and be happy.  I don't obsess anymore on why it did work like that the last time around. ...

THE FINAL STRETCH TO FINISHING CHEMO In the last few weeks I've experienced some new things.  Most not so good, but one very good. The not so good first: Chemo Nails: My nails are bumpy and yellow and recently started to lift up from the nail bed.  I have to be very careful when I do things like open a soft drink because they start to peal away even more.  It doesn't hurt, but the doctor said it will if they come off completely so I should be careful.  Here is a pic of "chemo nails" I found.  Not all of mine are this bad but some are. You might remember one of my earlier posts where I decided to go hiking with my brothers (dumb idea by the way - Dr Browning laughed at me).  My shoes were worn out and my big toes were killing me.  Eventually the nails turned black and this past week I lost one.  I'm sure it was a combination of "chemo nails" and the damage from hiking. Neuropathy: I experienced some neuropathy during the fir...

STARTING TO IMAGINE BEING DONE I'm nearing the end of a three week break between chemo treatments.  This should have been the second break in my Taxotere treatments but the last break was interrupted by a stay in the hospital.  It's been very nice this time.  I've felt pretty good and have even started to imagine what it will be like to talk about this as my past and not my current situation. I met with Dr. Browning two days before this second dose of Taxotere so that we could talk about what happened.  Before showing up to his office I took time to document the three weeks, day by day, and list out how I felt and what I or we did about it.  It was pretty easy to go through this exercise.  I've done it SO many times in my career.  At work we call it a post-mortem meeting.  It's when you get together after a big screw up to talk about it and make sure it doesn't happen again.  You try hard not to let emotion come into play or poi...

ON THE MEND Three nights and days in the hospital were enough.  Although I was admitted under the diagnosis of a low white blood cell count, anemic, and pneumonia, I doubted the pneumonia from the start because I hadn't had a cold or cough.  Dr.Cook told me the next morning it was pleurisy.  I hadn't heard of pleurisy before but after reading up on it I was sure she was right.  The symptoms were dead on.  I'm still not sure why the ER didn't come to that conclusion. Pleurisy symptoms? The symptoms of pleurisy are chest pain and difficulty breathing. The chest pain usually starts suddenly. People often describe it as a stabbing pain, and it usually gets worse with breathing http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002347/ While in the hospital I was in reverse isolation and on IV antibiotics.  I didn't get the rest I was hoping for in the furry of nurses checking my vitals, hooking up more IVs, and testing my blood every couple h...