Taxol Here I Come

Friday will be my first of 12 treatments of Taxol.  This time around, the steroids are taken prior to going in, which entails talking 5 pills, yes 5, the night before and 5 the morning of chemo.  I am anticipating a very sleepless night Thursday since I will be hyped up.  I actually had a very sleepless night last night, so today I am definitely dragging as I am tired on top of my normal chemo tired.  I am looking forward to less nausea with this round as I have been told it's not nearly as bad as with AC.  I am hoping my appetite returns to something resembling normal as I continue to lose weight.  I am by far the smallest I have been in my adult life (some people will find this hard to believe).

I am happy to report that my hair is very slowly coming back, or at least it seems to be.  I am not sure if it will continue to grow as I progress through Taxol since hair loss is still a side effect.  I still have my eyebrows and lashes thanks to Alexis, who recommend using Brian Joseph's Lash and Brow Gel.  It seems to have done the trick, at least through phase 1 of chemo.    

There are certain smells that trigger my gag reflex now that didn't seem to bother me before chemo.  All are smells that I encounter during treatment.  The hospital smell, the smell/taste of the medicine they flush my port with at the end of treatment, and other whiffs I get that just remind me of those smells.  Just typing this makes me think of them, and I want to throw up on my lap top.  I also don't think I will be able to drink anything that is red ever again.  Hopefully cosmos will not trigger this or that will be so depressing.  One of the drugs used during phase 1 was red, and you see it being administered through the IV.  I actually hadn't really thought about that until the nurse and I were talking, and she mentioned how other patients have had a hard time with red liquid after they were all done treatment.  That definitely ruined it for me.