Winging It (One Step Forward, One Step …)

Something happened this week since my last post.  Deb flew the coop.

Let me start with the end of last Chemoday.  It was actually fairly uneventful.  Deb’s infusions went as expected, and I was able to use my newly found escape route out of downtown and be largely unaffected by the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure that snarled traffic for miles (and miles) around.  We continued the cold cap change-out process until 7:00 pm as usual.

But the next morning Deborah left me.  Well, I actually took her as far as the airport.  She took her first flight and overnight trip since chemotherapy began to go to Chicago on a business trip.  From everything I heard, the trip went very well, and she flew back to me (well, to the Seattle-Tacoma airport, but I was there) on Thursday evening.  The trip really was a major milestone toward Deb’s return to normalcy.

Sadly, there is still the issue of side effects of the chemotherapy to deal with.  Things still taste a little metallic to her.  There are also signs of some build-up of cumulative effects with the malaise/nausea, and she has had to start taking more medications to try to stave those off.  There is also a higher buildup of fatigue by the weekends.  We are still trying to make sure we get out and do some things on the weekends if only to get some exercise in, but I am aware of a decrease in her stamina by the weekend.  She tends to bounce back on Chemoday with the cocktail of pre-meds they give her (which includes a steroid, among other things), but by mid-Friday it seems to catch up with her again.  At least we are on the downhill side of things with the Taxol.  Maybe there is another dose-reduction in the offing?

But the worst thing this week happened just after noon on Friday when Deb went to have her weekly blood-draw (they test her blood each week to make sure her white blood cell counts, red blood cells counts, platelet counts and liver enzymes don’t go all wonky – and yes, that’s a technical term … as far as you know).  There are a couple of technicians in the lab that do the blood draws.  She really likes one of them.  This time she got the other one.  She ended up blowing out the vein in Deb’s left elbow, so we’ve gotten to watch that bruise develop all weekend long.  The problem is that they can’t draw from Deb’s right arm since the surgery.  What now?  Good question.  We’ll ask the oncologist about the options for this coming Friday, but we may end up having to drive a lot further to have the blood draw done from Deb’s chemo port instead.

Today is Chemoday 8 of the planned 12.  That’s 2/3^rds (or 66.667%, or 0.667) of the way through.  We have gone to PraxAir for the caps and dry ice and are now sitting at Oddfellows in Capitol Hill, with Deb pounding her keyboard and me pounding mine, having just finished our respective breakfasts and nursing our coffee (me) and tea (her) until it is time to head over to the infusion center.

No big trips planned this week or next.  Deb will drive to Tacoma and back tomorrow, but that’s only about an hour by car each way.  Two weeks after is a different story, but I will discuss that when the time comes (I have to keep the anticipation building, right?).

:::LATE BREAKING NEWS FLASH:::

We are at the infusion center after seeing the oncologist. Two things, the minor one first.

I heard a term today I hadn’t heard before.  “Pharmacogenomics.”  It’s actually a term that makes perfect sense to me, but I did just hear it for the first time.  Turns out that Deb says it's something she discusses in her work all the time and that her coworker Mike (who visited a few weeks ago) has his PhD in it.  Just another thing she's been keeping from me.

Now the major item.  No Taxol today!  That means no cold caps either!  Woohoo!  However, that’s just for today … so far.  When we talked to the oncologist and discussed the ongoing slate of side effects (and their cumulative nature), she decided to give Deb a break from Taxol this week.  The plan is to resume the Taxol next week as long as Deb is returning to normal, but today she is just getting the Herceptin.  Oh my, what will I do with the time we don’t spend dealing with the caps?

I have a few ideas already.  Surprisingly none of them include dry ice ... yet.  Hmm, maybe I can work that in somehow?