Chemo days....

I am currently on a regimen of Taxol and Cistoplatin, which are both very common drugs used to treat a variety of cancers. The theory is that b/c it's so effective on other types of cancer that it will be as equally effective on adrenal cancer. (In fact, because it has never been specifically proven to work against adrenal cancer, my insurance company had the nerve to claim that they weren't going to pay for it b/c it was unnecessary in my case. Well....yeah, of course it hasn't been proven against adrenal cancer....what has?! Nothing, because it is such a rare disease that has not had the opportunity to be well-researched or tested by many drugs! Anyways, that issue has thankfully been resolved by my oncologist sending reports on my case to the insurance company, etc. and the pre-cognition of Karen sending in paperwork for financial assistance with the hospital, which was approved just a few short weeks before the disastrous news.)
Anyways, I go in for my next CAT scan to (hopefully) affirm the tumor killing effects of these new drugs in another three weeks. So, cross your fingers. Pray hard. Send me positive energy or healing light...whatever you do, do it!

Yesterday, I was at Moffitt for 8 whole hours waiting....undergoing chemo....more waiting....and then a Dr. appt. Luckily, my laptop was able to obtain internet access, so I amused myself online by sending funny emails and crazy Oz pictures for awhile before becoming teeth-clenchingly bored.

The pre-chemo medicine they give me as a substitute to Benadryl really knocks me out! Funny, because the reason they don't give me Benadryl is because I'm insistent that it knocks me out! Anyways, it is a type of antihistamine b/c one of the chemo drugs I'm on, Taxol, can create an allergic reaction in some people. So, I'm wired for the first few hours I'm in the "chair" b/c of the steroids they pump me full of prior to the chemo drugs and then I zonk out, barely conscious when they are unplugging me and sending me on my way six hours later. (Geez, "unplug." I feel like a robot!)
Then I had to go downstairs to see my endocrinologist. I waited for one and a half hours for an appt that only took 5 minutes! Good news, however, my cortiosl and testoerone levels are finally normalizing. He showed us a graph mapping out the months that I've had Cushing's syndrome and it was amazing to see the lines from each graph plummet to the bottom from what were once very high and dangerous levels.

Needless to say I was exhausted and in a lot of pain. I was so worn out that I could barely keep my eyes open when I got home. So, I went to bed after taking some pain meds for my back and after begging Karen for a massage.
And that was my chemo day.