With the Mediport installed we were ready to begin my treatment which consisted of 8 rounds of chemotherapy once every 3 weeks and 6 ½ weeks of radiation everyday Monday thru Friday.

We started with 4 rounds of Adrimycin.  First a little bit about the drug:

Adriamycin (generic name, doxorubicin) is a chemotherapy drug commonly used to treat breast cancer and other cancers.  Adriamycin first disrupts, then destroys the growth of cancer cells.   It is usually administered intravenously (through the vein).  Common side effects may include decreased white blood cell count with increased risk of infection, decreased platelet count with increased risk of bleeding, loss of appetite, darkening of nail beds and skin creases of hands, hair loss, nausea and vomiting, and mouth sores.  All of which are so much fun.

When I’d go in the first thing they’d do is take some blood and make sure everything was in order, if your white cell count is too low you can’t receive the chemo.  Then the nurse would tap the Mediport by sticking a needle through the skin over the device and then into the receiving whole in the port.  Fortunately my oncologist and the chemo lab were at the same hospital and all I had to do was go down stairs to have the chemo administered.  Adriamycin can’t be put on automatic drip like other chemo drugs it has to be pushed by hand and if any gets on your skin it burns.  It makes you very tired and nauseous (which they give me drugs for so the nausea wasn’t too bad most of the time). The Adrimycin is what made me lose my hair.  They say that this treatment may or may not make your hair fall out, whatever, just count on it.  My oncologist said if it’s going to happen it would happen in about three weeks.  Two weeks in I called my Papa so excited that I still had my hair and then 21 days after my 1^st treatment it started to fall out, by day three I just couldn’t stand watching my hair fall out in clumps any more and shaved my head.  I had a friend bring over his clippers (I wouldn’t even let him in), it took me about an hour to work up the courage to do it and once it was done I didn’t leave my house for two days.  When I finally did I went somewhere familiar, someplace I knew friends of mine would be.  They were all so encouraging, telling me what a cute head I had and how beautiful I was and as nice as it was it didn’t make me feel any better about being bald.  I gradually became more comfortable with my baldness but I never quite got used to it.  Besides the hair loss the hardest things to deal with were the mouth sores and the darkening of my fingers.  The mouth sores are like canker sores and fortunately there are drugs you can take to combat that, but you have to get them before you can be treated and they hurt.  Don’t be too embarrassed when you go to the pharmacy to get the prescriptions filled (they’re herpes meds), they make you feel better and the pharmacist knows you don’t have herpes.  The darkening of my fingers wasn’t painful of physically uncomfortable but people notice so it was a little embarrassing.  I was tired a lot which is hard to deal with, you want to be able to do everything just like always but you can’t.  It’s a tough pill to swallow.  I only had one set back, my 2^nd treatment my white cell count was too low to receive the treatment.  I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong, I ate the right things and took my vitamins.  I think I was so worried about my disease and not worried enough about myself and when I stopped living for the cancer things went a lot smoother. 

So I made it through my first four treatments with flying colors and it really wasn’t too bad, there were meds to combat all the major side effects and I had some wonderful people take care of me when it just got to be too much.  My friend Trish would bring me to her house for days at a time and cook for me and make sure I had the things I needed and friends who would come with me to my appointments, I even had a group of people get me a cleaning lady for the duration of my treatment so I wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning my apartment too (thanks Brian).  But there were still 4 more to go…

Four treatments down, four more to go…The next four were mainly Taxotere.  Which I found a little harder to deal with than the Adriamycin, but it still wasn’t too bad.

Here’s what they have to say about Taxotere:

Taxotere inhibits the division of breast cancer cells by acting on the cell’s internal skeleton. The drug is usually given intravenously (through the vein) once every three weeks. Each treatment typically takes around one hour, though the dosage will vary depending on the patient’s medical situation. Because the side effects of docetaxel can be bothersome, many physicians will prescribe additional drugs to help counter these effects. For example, dexamethasone is commonly used to prevent fluid retention while on Taxotere. Possible side effects of Taxotere include decrease in white blood cells (leukopenia), fever (often a warning sign of infection), fluid retention, allergic reactions, hair loss, and bone pain (yeah, not so much fun).

The procedure was the same; I’d have my port tapped and go down to the chemo lab.  I didn’t go into too much detail about that before, did I?  At the lab each of us sat in like a cubicle with a recliner (not a Lazy Boy, some sort of medical version) and a little TV, magazines and books.  Why all the entertainment you ask, it takes a while to get your treatment.  First they administer anti-nausea meds, then some saline and whatever else they’re pushing through your veins, and then the chemo.  Each of these things takes a little over an hour to make it’s way through the IV so you’re there for a minute, which is why I liked having friends come with me, we’d play cards and laugh and it elevated the mood in the room, not just for me but for everyone.  Before giving me the Taxotere a steroid was administered to try and prevent the bone pain, which didn’t work so well for me and I was prescribed pain killers (yay Vicodin!) as well.  Unfortunately the only way to find out if the steroid is going to work or not is to let it not work.  The pain settles in your largest bones first so legs and hips, but the pain and is pretty intense.  When I discovered this my friend Jeffrey came to my rescue, thank G-d.  This pain was the only reason the Taxotere was more difficult for me.  Keep in mind that the effects of chemotherapy are cumulative, your first treatments are a piece of cake, but by the end you’re really feeling the side effects. I felt okay, tired but okay. In fact I took a trip to Florida to visit my Papa in between treatments.  However, by the end I felt like I’d been run over by a convoy of 18 wheelers.  But I made it through and this too passed and now all that was left of my treatment to endure was the radiation.