Best laid plans go awry......

The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.  – Lao Tzu, Ancient Chinese Philosopher

Well, Dr. Sprawls assured me that Taxotere would be much milder and easier to handle than the Adriamycin/Cytoxan regimen I had finally completed.  So I assumed the Taxotere would be a “piece of cake,” a “walk in the park.”  Boy, was I wrong!  I was feeling fine on Wednesday, Thursday, and most of Friday.  In fact, we went to the beach Friday afternoon for a few hours and had a really nice, relaxing time.  But by Friday evening – shortly after dinner – I was doubled over in excruciating abdominal pain.  It made for a rough night of sleep Friday night because I couldn’t find any position that was comfortable, and moving/changing positions aggravated the pain even more.  I couldn’t walk straight up; my upper torso was bent at about a 45-degree angle, and every step was extremely painful. 

Saturday was more of the same, so Kenny decided not to go to Jacksonville because he didn’t want to leave me feeling like that, here by myself without a car, etc. etc., which I really appreciated it.  I called the oncologist’s office, and the doctor on call called me back.  I told him what was going on.  He said abdominal pain was not uncommon with Taxotere, but I needed to go the emergency room if I had a fever of 100.5 or greater or if the pain got worse.  Fortunately, I had no fever, and the pain stayed about the same.  I really didn’t want to go hang out in a germ-infested emergency room with my compromised immune system and low white count.  So I just spent a good part of Saturday in bed, although I had to do a few hours of transcription so I forced myself to get up and do that.  I just didn’t want to leave it all until Sunday or it would have made for a brutal Sunday.

By Sunday I was feeling a bit better.  The abdominal pain, nausea, and weakness still persisted, but I was able to spend most of the day out of bed.  I even insisted that Kenny go to Jacksonville to work on the boat.  He insisted that I take the dogs out for a walk before he left so that he could see I had the strength to do that while he was gone.  I did fine, and he left for Jacksonville around noon.  So the plans were merely delayed for about 28 hours (he had originally planned to leave first thing Saturday morning). 

Today I’m doing even better than yesterday but still not back to normal.  Still have some abdominal pain and nausea.  Still feel a little weak.  And nothing tastes good, including water.  If I continue to improve a little bit each day, I should be feeling almost back to “normal” (whatever normal is these days……) just in time for the next batch of poison to be administered.  Oh boy!  Can hardly wait!  I’m just hoping this was a fluke thing and that this isn’t going to be status quo for the next 10 weeks.  I will definitely be discussing it all with the oncologist on Wednesday.

And I guess that wraps things up for now.  It’s time for jammies and a book, take the dogs out for one last walk, and then bed…..and hopefully a good night’s sleep.