{"id":194,"date":"2022-11-18T16:33:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T21:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/?p=194"},"modified":"2022-11-18T16:36:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T21:36:23","slug":"last-a-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/2022\/11\/18\/last-a-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Last A\/C!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was both anticipating and dreading this day. I wanted it to hurry up and take its time. After today, I am done with the A\/C round of chemo, which is the toughest part. In three weeks, I start my weekly Taxol (which will be joined every three weeks by Keytruda), which is considered more easily tolerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked if Emend comes in pill form, since it worked well on my nausea last time until it wore off. The answer is no (of course it doesn\u2019t – parenthesis, me). I\u2019ve tried all the options and nothing works, so the best solution is to just grit my teeth and bear it. Hopefully it\u2019ll just be this week — with a respite on Thanksgiving, pretty please! — and then I\u2019ll get to find out what new side effects Taxol will throw at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked the physician\u2019s assistant a bunch of questions about Taxol. While A\/C is associated with hair loss, Taxol can sometimes cause it too. I still have my eyelashes and eyebrows, but some people lose them during this phase. Most likely my hair won\u2019t start growing back until after chemo, but if I\u2019m lucky, it\u2019ll slowly start during Taxol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I might be nauseous the first day or two after Taxol, but then my body will recover. The most common side effect is neuropathy in fingers and toes. The PA recommended starting vitamin B6 now, which could help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been super restless, which isn\u2019t like me. Normally, I can sit for long periods of time. Acupuncture yesterday was torture! It\u2019s hard for me to do anything feeling this way. It\u2019s not anxiety, but they typically don\u2019t see it manifested like this – of course! Dr. Brufsky suggested taking Xanax at night, and the PA suggested taking melatonin since I\u2019ve been having trouble falling asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Brufsky is pleased with my progress so far. When he said, \u201cThis is good,\u201d not once but twice during his visit, I felt reassured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The waiting room was busy today but the treatment room was quiet – a nice change. No foot massage this time, but we met Eddie the therapy dog. Aaron described him as the calmest dog he\u2019s ever seen. Do they ever have Edwina the therapy cat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Eddie
Eddie the Therapy Dog. He’s a good boy. 13\/10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A realization I had this week: not having hair means there\u2019s no hair on the back of my neck. Depending on the head covering I\u2019m wearing, I feel the breeze there. Brr! Another realization: if I\u2019m wearing a scarf on my head, i don\u2019t want to wear one around my neck. So I have to decide which part needs the warmth or look more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t had a period since September – yay! My migraines have definitely improved – one reason why I want to be in menopause. I\u2019ve noticed that I have trouble regulating my body temperature now and I\u2019m getting more hot flashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I\u2019m done with A\/C, but A\/C is not done with me! When I\u2019m feeling crappy, I\u2019ll have to keep reminding myself that this will hopefully be the last of the worst\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was both anticipating and dreading this day. I wanted it to hurry up and take its time. After today, I am done with the A\/C round of chemo, which is the toughest part. In three weeks, I start my weekly Taxol (which will be joined every three weeks by Keytruda), which is considered more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}