Only 2 more treatments to go - 4 weeks! Julie has now had 2 treatments of DOCEtaxel, which does not make her as nauseas or quite as "Yucky" as previous. It does however make her bones and joints ache and/or be in pain (especially combined with the Neulasta, which stimulates the bone marrow) - which requires her to take relatively strong pain killers, which requires other drugs for those side effects etc (the pain killers make her tired and as she says - "crappy sleeps"). Also the administration of DOCEtaxel takes ALL DAY. We arrive at the hospital usually around 8:30am and yesterday Julie got home at 5:30pm - the drug itself takes 3 hours to administer, but before that, there is bloodwork, seeing the oncologist, waiting for chemo, then taking a number of drugs intravenously (ie, a drug to ensure no allergic reaction, one for nausea, one to help the veins withstand the drug, etc). Then after all that, a trip to the pharmacy to pick up Neulasta, pain killers, and other drugs to help with side effects. Needless to say - Julie is ready to be done!
Other than the treatments, Julie remains in good spirits - continues to play softball and attends all soccer and hockey games. We have to be careful to avoid the sun and this weekend look forward to 3 nights/4 days camping at the Pinery.
We can see the finish line!
Mike
