Final Date with a Space(wo)man- Chemo Day #4

Chemo Treatment #4-
Last one! Yeah!

This morning, we stopped by McDees for a little breakfast takeout so we ended up running a little late for our appointment. We even got a call on my cell phone from the RMCC to see if we were coming. Oops! I told them we were almost there. I teased Brett after I hung up that I should have havetold the nurse to tell Dr. Panwalker to go in my room and take a 10 minute break and we'd be right there. That would have been funny! When we got there and the nurse was getting me all checked in, she actually said to us- "Don't tell me you're late because you stopped at McDonalds." We laughed and told her we wouldn't tell her that then. (even if it was the truth LOL She must have seen the McDee bag ;) Then we met with Dr. Panwalker. We got my lab results back. My Absolute Segs number for this time was 7700. (Thats's up from 5500 last time and way above my 5900 even before ANY Chemo- look at me!) I asked what it meant that it was so high but Panwalker said it flucuates. Whatever that means?? LOL So instead I just got permission from him to take that as I'm awesome! He smiled and said that would be ok. [He takes my sense of humor with a grain of salt, I think] I'm sure he is so excited that this is my last day. But I'm telling you... he's gonna miss me!
 At the end of my appointment, Dr. Panwalker told me that I need to set up my next couple Herceptin treatments (I'm supposed to continue a Herceptin IV every 3 weeks for one year) and then he'd see me back in 12 weeks. That seems like forever away, doesn't it? After looking at my chart one more time, he said that Radiation might mess up my Herceptin schedule a little. I leaned close to him and boldly explained to him, "I'm NOT doing radiation, Buster!" He kind of rolled his eyes at me and then I informed him I'd talk to Dr. Bouton about it. He told me, "Great- you do that!" We have such an understanding relationship. LOL He did do his normal routine check of my lymph nodes and thumping me on my spine and my stomach. He said everything looked fine. Go me!
I think Dr. Panwalker decided to pay me back for being late because it took forever to get into the Infusion Center. Then they put me back into Solitary Confinement again. I guess they learned their lesson from putting me with other people last time. I think they discovered that I demand too much attention to have to compete with other patients. What can I say? I'm an attention seeker! LOL

While we were in the waiting room, we found out that the embrace program at Sanford allows for you to check out an IPad to try while you are at treatment. So we took them up on the offer. Brett was in 7th heaven! He played Angry Birds for the most part. Oh heaven help us if we decide to get with the times and get one of our own. LOL It was pretty cool though. I even did a little blogging on it. So neat!

Nurse Tia was my Chemo Nurse for the day. She was great. She was a sharer (maybe a little TMI but such my kind of lady! LOL) and I loved it!!! We had a great time chatting with her.

After all my pre-meds (and there was a lot of them), she got all dressed up for her Space(wo)man duties. Here we go with the icky Docetaxel/ Taxotere drug! Cross your fingers.

Brett watched me very carefully while it dripped into my IV. He kept asking, "Are you ok?" And giving me kisses and rubbing my hands while he watched the drip number go up. LOL It got to be a little bit annoying actually. We were watching R.E.D. (one of our favorites) when I  felt my heart start to race and my breathing began to be labored. Dang! I told Brett to go grab a nurse. Well at least I made it to 21 ml before I had a reaction. We really thought I was gonna make it this time. But no!!!! Stinky Docetaxel!!!! The nurses did a way better job this time at giving me the attention I deserved. LOL They brought in the red box right away! By the time they got to me my face was beat red again. They immediately turned off the machine, administered the extra red box drugs and took a million notes of my episode. ;) They hooked me up to the oxygenator and decided to hook me up to oxygen. How joy! I love things up my nose! LOL We got it under control pretty quickly. Good job! Here's my Rescue Team! Thanks ladies. You are live savers!

Tia went to talk to Dr. Panwalker about starting back up. To our surprise, he said to just skip it! WHAT? Does that mean he is just done with me? like just get this woman out of here? or did I really even need the drug in the first place? Who knows but I wasn't gonna argue about cutting 2 hours off my already LONG day. So we skipped the last treatment of the Docetaxel and went on to the Cyclophosphamide and the Herceptin. We finally got out of there about 4:15pm. What long days! Thank heavens they are over!  I even got a big Wahoo! from all the Nurses for my last day! They are the best here at the Roger Maris Cancer Center! We will miss them! (Not enough to do any more Chemo but they will always have a place in our hearts) Thank you!
Thanks also to Brett for supporting me. He has to put up with the worst part of this journey (me!) and I will always be grateful for his patience with me. Love you, Honey! XOXO

Looking ahead---We have an appointment with Dr. Bouton, our breast surgeon, on July 10th. Then we're hoping to schedule a bilateral mastectomy for the end of July or beginning of August. Wish us Luck!