The Next Step

John and I met with the oncologist today. After getting him up to date on my surgery and post-op pathology reports, we discussed the next step in my treatment, chemotherapy. I'll be getting what they call "TC", Taxotere and Cytoxan. It will be administered intraveneously, once every three weeks. I will be getting four doses total. There are side-effects, of course, which I already knew about. I can expect to lose my hair about three weeks after the first regimen. Fatigue is the other big one, which gets worse with each dose, since the chemo is cumulative in it's effect. The best way to help with fatigue is to exercise. They will give me anti-nausea medication along with my chemo, plus some pills to take home if I have further symptoms. The oncologist said most people don't have much problem with that. In fact, he said that most patients actually gain weight during chemotherapy, because they are less active due to the fatigue. Imagine that! I guess I better cut back on all the food I've been consuming in preparation.

My blood counts will be lowered, too, so I will have my blood checked every week during treatment. I also need to be very careful about infections, because my immune system will be weakened.

So, to help me absorb all this new information, I will be attending two chemotherapy education classes this week. Tomorrow is a group session, then on Thursday I get my "drug education" with one of the physicians assistants at the cancer center. I'm well on my way to that medical degree. That goes for John, too.

My first infusion is scheduled for next Tuesday, Feb. 9th at 10 a.m. It will take about 3 hours, and they have satellite TV to watch or radio to listen to, or I can bring a DVD movie to watch. There's lots of options to keep me occupied.

I'll write more after the classes.