Julie can't eat cheese

The last few weeks felt like a total blur of stress! P tested negative for COVID after 7 days (4/16), but I didn’t trust it and decided to wait until the night before chemo to go back in the house (this was 9 full days in the Airstream). I just didn’t want to get sick and have to postpone treatment. It was rough being alone in the Airstream and I didn’t even go outside for the first 4 days! It was raining out and I was cold and in my haste to leave the house the Monday before, I didn’t even grab shoes (just ran out in slippers)! I finally went out on Friday (4/14) to our library to grab more Covid tests as we were almost out. It was actually nice in the afternoon, so I spent a little time (masked) outside with Dan and P too.

All that to say Dan and I managed to stay Covid free! I am *shocked* I didn’t catch it! I thought for sure I was down! I was def feeling sorry for myself that week. It was lonely, I was anxious about getting Covid, anxious about Dan getting Covid and extending my time out there… I felt super dependent on Dan bringing me things… it was hard not to take care of my sick baby… it was a rough week for sure.

I was also having one weird chemo side effect from AC that week – the right side of my throat was painfully sore. It hurt to swallow and eat and hurt the worst during the night (it would wake me up) and when I got up in the morning. My glands weren’t swollen and I didn’t have a fever or any other signs of an infection, just a few days of a painful half-sore throat. I called my nurse who said it could be an inflamed tonsil (but like why only 1?!), which could be nothing or it could be strep. I was advised if it got worse, to go to Urgent Care and get it looked at. It never got worse and slowly got better over the weekend.

I went back into the house 4/18! Dan’s sister arrived to help out again. I also wanted to get my chemo bag prepped and finally got to say goodnight to P in person! It was so good to come back inside!

I did labs the morning of 4/19 before meeting with my oncologist. Neutrophils were high enough for chemo and I will only get labs moving forward once every 3 weeks, as my new drug won’t deplete my system as much. I am still super anemic, but as I have been feeling ok overall, my oncologist didn’t order an infusion. She did ask if I am napping daily due to fatigue from anemia – just in the days right after chemo, but not after about 3 days. [but now it feels like a power of suggestion – I have been so tired by late afternoon!] I am not really a napper though, so have just been going to bed early.

We talked about what to expect/look out for over the next 12 weeks of Taxol: body aches, fatigue, neuropathy, potential mild nausea, constipation, water weight gain from steroids, and potential rash. She also said it will take about a month for Red Devil to fully leave my system, so some of those side effects may continue as well.

Then it was off to the infusion center to start Taxol. Taxol is a plant based chemo (hey there vegan chemo, jk!) and it does not dissolve easily, so is in a solvent that can create an allergic reaction. I have 2 premeds I need to take an hour before, then for the first 2 cycles will get a “big, big dose” of steroids to lessen the chance of an allergic reaction. My nurse said they know pretty quickly if someone is having an allergic reaction, so they do the first 2 infusions extremely slow to monitor. If the first 2 infusions go well, they will go normal speed for cycle 3. She did 3 slow amounts of 10 minutes each and all seemed to go well, then an hour for the remaining amount.

I felt very wired that first day from the steroids. My first 4 cycles of chemo, I came home and crashed, but I didn’t need to nap and was up and around most of the day. I had a hard time sleeping from the steroids, but felt pretty good the next day as well. I finally started to feel tired and sore on late Friday (4/21) afternoon. But it was not the same level of tired or soreness as before. My oncologist said Red Devil would be a 10/10 and Taxol would be a 2/10. I napped a little and went to bed early.

Side effects so far seem very different. I am not having the extreme food aversions (win!), my mouth remains pretty sensitive but doesn’t hurt like it did before (still sticking with blander foods), I am pretty fatigued but not to where I need to sleep during the day for hours, and I have some bone pain (didn’t have any with the last round – so that’s new). I am really cold and think more generally fatigued from the anemia and last cycles of chemo – but it is supposed to start warming up *finally* in WA, so I am hoping to get outside more for walks!

While I had been feeling sorry for myself in the Airstream and was having major FOMO seeing people out on spring break vacations – we had another Covid scare over the weekend. So I now have the opposite of FOMO! I need to hunker down and just get through chemo.

1 Taxol down, 11 more to go!