Receiving my fourth chemo treatment today. This will be the final Taxotere and Cytoxin treatment! Those are the bad boys! No reaction to the taxotere today. They ran it really slow so that helped. My port was accessed on the first try! And my boy is keeping me company today! It's all going well so far! We will stay at Becky and Jared's again tonight. Going out to dinner to celebrate a few things: Becky and Jared for taking such good care of us; Christopher's 21st birthday (May 1); and my last "bad" chemo! Yay!
Tomorrow will be the last Neulasta shot. And a follow up visit to Dr. Kiener, the plastic surgeon.
Then, for the next year, I wil just have the Herceptin infusion every three weeks. That is the targeted therapy that only takes about a half hour and has very little side effects. It will be a piece of cake in comparison!
I am still losing some of the stubble left on my head. I thought I was done with that, but yesterday I was rubbing my head and noticed a lot of it on my hands! I may end up with a true chrome dome after all!
Anyway, overall, I'm doing well today- just hope that translates to doing well in the next few days, too! We shall see!
Hope all of you are healthy, happy, and enjoying life!

Third chemo treatment yesterday (Tuesday) and Neulasta shot today.
The oncology group moved into their new office about a week ago. Quite a bit nicer than the old one, but still some work to complete.
Anyway, didn't get off to a very good start yesterday. When they accessed my port, they couldn't get a positive blood flow. They push saline in and then retract to make sure there is good blood flow through the port. When that doesn't happen, it usually means a sheath has formed which kinda acts as a one way valve. So they push a clot breaking medication in and wait... Usually about 15-20 minutes. Then they check for positive blood retraction. An hour and a half later it finally broke through. Not a great amount, but enough! I did everything but stand in my head trying to bleed! Geez!
So then they started the meds. They give me nausea and steroid medication first. Then the Herceptin. Then the bad boy: Taxotere. I had a reaction again this time. I got real flush, a little nauseous and the heavy feeling on my chest. This time I immediately told the nurse and she stopped it. It took about a half hour for the symptoms to subside, then they started it up again. I did ok after that. Then finally the Cytoxin.
It was a very long day. I was there from 9am til 4pm. I did watch a movie on my tablet. At least this office has wifi. Netflix sure comes in handy in this situation!
We had a nice evening with Becky and Jared. We are so blessed to have them welcome us into their home every three weeks! It's been great! Just love those two!
Today I went back to the office and had my Neulasta shot to boost the white blood cell count. Also, have a red rash across my nose and cheeks, very flushed. Another side effect.
Now I'm back home, feeling a bit nauseous this evening and kinda crappy, generally speaking.
But the good news is I only have one more of these bad chemos!!! Yay! Three down, one to go. After that, I will only get the Herceptin, which is the targeted therapy for the HER2 receptors, which I tested positive for initially. This will only take about a half hour each time, still once every three weeks. And no shot afterward so we dont have to spend the night. we will miss our visits with Becky and Jared, but hope to do some camping with them this summer!
The side effects of the Herceptin are minimal, mostly just fatigue. Much easier than the ones I've had thus far.
Now if I could eliminate the hot flashes!! Ugh! I'm hot, I'm cold, I'm hot, I'm cold... And when I say I'm hot, I mean whew- H.O.T. !!!!! So weird!
Well, that's all for now. Thank you all once again for continually keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.