Ms. Pakman: Chemotherapy

People often ask what it's like to receive chemo or how I feel during and/or after treatment. It usually depends on how I'm feeling going into treatment and what chemo medicine the doc prescribes for me that day. Today, the doc ordered Herceptin and Pertuzumab - my preferred choice of chemo drugs - and chose to omit Taxotere from the group. Taxotere is the not-so-fun chemo drug where side effects include nausea, slight hair loss, decrease in appetite and nadir. Nadir is the point in time between chemotherapy cycles when I experience low white and red blood cell counts. This causes extreme fatigue and increases my risk of infection. Fortunately for me, my doc has decided that I can skip Taxotere for the next two cycles. Not that it's necessarily a good thing as my body still needs Taxotere to fight off the cancer cells from multiplying. But it's ok right now since my tumor markers are at a low number (14) and my CT scan shows that my tumors are shrinking. Yay! Praise God for His mercies!!!

Here's a photo tour of what I go through each chemo cycle or every 21 days.

24 hours prior to chemo I have to get my blood drawn. Check out the bruise to the left. Been poked ufar too many times.

Entering the chemo clinic at Kaiser. I always gets weighed in since the pharmacist needs to know my weight in order to prescribe the exact dose.

The chemo drugs are hung on this contraption and given to me intravenously. Luckily I have a port catheter in my chest so that I don't need to be pricked in the arm at every session.