Fred seems okay

I had treatment number 7 today. My doctor is happy with my progress and Fred (Taxotere) seems much better behaved than his brother (Taxol) though I am going to have to reserve total judgement until the megadoses of steroids are out of my body. (I think of them as my chaperone; that seem to make everything peppier when they are in my body.)

This past weekend was fun with Ellen visiting and lots of time with her and Tracy on Saturday and then my parents showed up on Sunday and I had a good visit with them. (They were in New York and drove down for Sunday to Monday.) My visits basically involved eating and sitting around talking. We did go to the Philips collection on Sunday and walked a few blocks to restaurants - but in the end minimal activity tired me out. I did manage to have a few (3 )days without any cancer related drugs in my body and have been fever free since Friday or Saturday I think. Most interesting comment was somehow my dad hadn't realized I would be bald and kept commenting on how i changed my hair. Yes it is different-- it detaches from my head.

I worked Tuesday, and then Wednesday everything changed -- nothing like taking double doses of steroids. I've been meaning to go shopping and do laundry for the last 2 weeks - give me steroids - I sent out things at work, left at 7, went to Trader Joes and then did 3 loads of laundry. I also was way too hyped up to sleep last night but that didn't really break my buzz and poor atavan didn't stand a chance. I basically slept about 2 hours last night but was pretty peppy most of the day. Steroids and nerves a powerful combination.

I took two more pills this morning and Rosanne took me to G-town. The 8:30 doctor's appointment went well - she said I could in theory travel to Paris at the end of April - and thought things looked good. Somehow it took forever to do the blood work but we were upstairs by 9:45 for my 9:30 chemo. Rosanne then went and bought coffee - bless her- and we ended up waiting for a chair and then for the blood work to get done. But taking the steroids orally meant that I only had one pre-chemo medicine - an anti-nauseal medicine and then Fred. Well he was way different than his brother - first of all he's quick - 1 hour vs 3 hours. He also didn't feel a need to instantly put a metally gross taste in my mouth. No flushing head, no reflux - he just slowly dripped in and we were on our way and I was home by 1:30.

So as of now all things seem good. No side effects, no rash thus far, so things seem okay, though it is early. The double dose steroids are yesterday, today and tomorrow so I feel like I should wait and see what happens after I stop the steroids and see what I feel like then. Now I'm just excited that I am tired and hopefully will get to sleep soon. Trying to figure out if I need the atavan or if exhaustion will kick in and send me to sleep.

Today I got some work done and spoke to some people for work, as well as doing random work related things last night in the wee hours.

Anyway so March is looking good for now and hopefully I will get to go somewhere in April before surgery at the beginning of May. Paris might not happen as I think I need to use a frequent flyer ticket and the United dates I found yesterday seem gone. But I'm hopeful I can go somewhere before i have surgery.

Kim