I’m on day 2 post-chemo #2 and its going about as expected.

First of all, a recap of the day. Had a great meeting with my oncologist — have I mentioned before how much I like him? I do, very much. He’s really happy with my progress and we’re feeling good about how this is all going.

We had drama this time during the actual session. My first vein tap (right wrist) was apparently right on top of a nerve, so it was very uncomfortable for me.  Even with the hypnotic work I’ve done fairly recently, I couldn’t re-tune the discomfort sufficiently. More worrying from the nurse’s POV, I developed a bright red patch in the skin about an inch all around the prick.

So we switched to the left forearm, which is where the first chemo had happened. Much better, no pain, all is well. But it set me back about an hour in terms of timing.

Then, much more dramatically, I had a very strong reaction to the Taxotere, which did not happen to me the first time.  I felt nauseous suddenly and then very hot, and apparently my face went bright red. Then I felt light-headed. Their response was immediate. I had two nurses drop everything and come over to me, my main lady turned the Taxotere off right away and they got a blood pressure cuff on me and an oxygen monitoring device as well. then they just backed off a bit and watched, checking in  on how I felt every minute or so. I stabilized almost immediately, which was a relief. My oncologist was there within 5 mins, too.

Apparently they thought they could lower my liquid steroid to 8mg (it was 20mg last time) but now we think that is too low. So they upped that and re-started me on the Taxotere and all went well.

My mom came in on Wed afternoon and I was still in chemo, I think that was a bit upsetting for her. She got to see the bald head and needles all at once. But what can you do?

That night we went for dinner — I’ve got good energy at first. I walked Sasha then, and also the next morning.  Thursday we went into the city and saw an exhibit of Alexander Calder’s works at the SAM as well as an exhibit of Imogen Cunningham’s photographs. Both were great exhibits and killed about 90 minutes of the day in a nice way. Then we got J. from work and went home. A nice dinner and a bit of TV, a walk with Sasha, and it was a lovely day.

Today I am tired. A bit light-headed, and the sore mouth thing is just starting. I’ll be starting my medicated mouthwash to (hopefully) stay ahead of that discomfort. No walk tonight, I bet. Probably not much other than TV and reading today. We’ll see.