The Lidless I

On Saturday something happened that hadn't happened in an age, or at least seemed like an age coming. But first, I should mention what happened since my post last Thursday.

Dr. Ahmed, Deb's oncologist, read our minds. Deb received her last dose of Taxol the previous Thursday and was not put through another dose. It is Herceptin only as far as infusions go from here on out. Deb got Herceptin on Thursday, and will get it again this coming Thursday (June 9th), but after that she will be going to a three-week schedule, so the next one won't be until very late in June (or early July, maybe? Scheduling will tell).

Whew. We went out to dinner Saturday evening to celebrate.

But perhaps I should get back to the previous point alluded to in the first sentence of this post. On Saturday we boxed up the cold caps and all of the durable peripheral equipment that came with them (e.g., the cooler, the straps, et cetera) and took them to FedEx so they can make their way back to New Jersey. Good riddance, I say. I think Deb would say it too. Scratch that. I know she would.

The upshot is that her infusions will be a lot shorter in duration and certainly a lot more relaxed (and not punctuated by a timer alarm every 20 minutes).

I would like to say a quick thank you to several people at this point, even though I will also be saying so in person since I don't think they read this blog. First is JJ down at PraxAir. He has been very kind to us, allowing us to drop off the caps for overnight or over-weekend storage in a dry ice cooler. I also think he's been giving us a bit of a break on the dry ice cost when we've come in for the weekly Chemoday supply. He's also just a really nice guy. I'd also like to credit the nurses in the infusion center. Along with being very kind and professional, they have also been setting aside the roomiest space in the center for us (with a "Reserved for Deborah" tag, even) so I have enough space to do all of the prep work that I need to do for cap change-out. I truly appreciate that. It was also in a quieter part of the center, so I think Deb liked that. Other than that I guess I just need to thank everyone who sent good wishes Deb's way, and Jan. Yeah, can't forget Jan. Jan was very supportive. I can't really go into all of that, but thank you Jan.

This is likely the last regular update until Deb has her restoration surgery schedule finalized. I may post a little something here and there, but expect regular posts to resume later on. I'm sure folks from Deb's employer (Teva) will hear about the date, and I will post something to Facebook myself when I get going again.

So thanks for reading and following along on Deb's progress, and I'll write more consistently in a few months or so.

The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

Another week is in the books, so to speak (or write), and we are back to our Thursday-scheduled Chemoday. We’ve been to pick up the cold caps and the dry ice and have made our way to The Wandering Goose in Capitol Hill for some breakfast and coffee. Frankly, I hope we wasted our time getting the dry ice.

The past two weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster (no pun intended) between our trip to Anaheim, returning for Chemoday last Thursday, and then leaving late the very next afternoon for a long weekend on the Oregon coast. Deb jumped right back into work full force on Tuesday and that brings us back to today.

Last week I reported that Dr. Ahmed decided to give Deb a Taxol dose again following a two week break.  She had hopes that Deb’s system had a chance to clear out the previous doses, but she still cut the dose a little even so.

It didn’t really help.

Deb’s side-effect symptoms, while they had not cleared completely, had lessened a lot from the two weeks without Taxol. So she got Taxol.  They came back with a vengeance. Okay, never mind that I am anthropomorphizing a chemotherapy drug for a moment (and any need for vengeance, of course), but the previous nausea and neuropathy came back quickly.  Very quickly.  Deb had to deal with them during the whole weekend away.  My guess (and Deb’s) is that Dr. Ahmed will hear the report and decide that Deb has had enough of Taxol and she’s done.  Deb’s made it through two-thirds of the planned course of Taxol and at the outset we all felt that we’d be happy if she made it at least halfway.

So that’s where I will leave it this week, with the expectation that we will again forego Taxol and Deb will only receive the Herceptin. I will post an update mid-day if things don’t go that way, or if there’s anything else notable to report.