The Last Chemo Treatment

On July 11th, 2013 I received my last chemotherapy treatment. It was my 4th of four, 4 hour injections of Taxol (that's a lot of 4's).  The Taxol is always administered with Benadryl to prevent a reaction to it, so I slept most of the day while in treatment and laid out in the sun in the backyard when I got home.

It was a bitter sweet day. You would think that I would have been thrilled to be done with chemotherapy so I could move on and my hair could grow back in. In my head, I was. Chemo was definitely no fun. At the beginning I would bring my laptop with me and work while I was getting my injections, but the Taxol made me so tired I wasn't able to do that anymore. Plus right as I began Taxol I took a medical leave from work, so I had no laptop and no work to do on it.
But then I was bored. I thought I would cherish the invitation to just lay down and relax for at least 4 hours every other week but I felt anxious when I was sitting doing nothing.  And sleeping in a vinyl lined recliner is not all its cracked up to be. I would sleep and then awake surrounded by a sweat shadow, similar to Adam Sandler's in the movie Jack and Jill because of the plastic. 

 

But I actually looked forward to seeing these ladies every other week. The four nurses that knew my name (I don't know theirs even though I tried to memorize them every week) and they would comment every week on which wig I was wearing and which ones they liked most and ask me what I was working on for work... I would really miss them.  They always offered me cookies and pie (which I never really liked before, but now crave all the time... thank you chemotherapy) and ask me how my kids were doing. I would look forward to seeing them and telling them everything that happened the last 2 weeks.  During my last infusion, a newbie came in to get a tour of the infusion center and see where she would be lying down when she came in and the nurses offered her some cookies. I couldn't help but feel jealous... those are MY nurses! I know that I shouldn't have felt this way, but it's true. I did.  Still when I go back to see my oncologist I go to the infusion center just to say hi to the nurses and show them how my hair is growing back in.  I keep telling myself that when I return to work and have extra cash again (Like I ever had that even when I was working) I was going to buy them something really nice like an Edible Arrangement or something.   

 

 Even though I got my last chemo infusion on July 11th (with the Neulasta booster shot on Friday July 12th) my challenges weren't over yet. I still had the almost 10 days of bone pain and neuropathy that came from the Taxol and Neulasta to live through, and then a follow up appointment with Dr Dougherty. Then... dun dun dun dah! I get to schedule my boob reconstruction surgery!