So I’ve had my last two chemo treatments of Taxol now. The last one was Jan. 22.
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| Parkview gave me a little cake for finishing chemo. The card has my infusion nurses' signatures. |
Towards the end I was starting to have some rather annoying side effects. One of those was bone pain, which felt like a combination throbbing/shooting pain from my hips, legs, and arms. That lasted a few weeks. I had a couple extra days of exhaustion, and an extra random night of insomnia. According to my Fitbit, my deep sleep is really lacking, and has been for quite some time. Sleep is getting better since chemo has ended, and my energy is improving.
I started to get neuropathy after the 11th Taxol, but it only lasted a few days. It came back after the 12th Taxol, and it has stuck around. I feel it in my thumbs and middle fingers, my toes, and the bottoms of my feet. It’s mild, and a lot of the time I don’t notice it. It’s like a mix of numbness and tingling. I’m glad that’s all the more I have. My guess is that if I hadn’t been doing the cryotherapy, this would have started a lot sooner and been a lot worse. Speaking of hands and feet, I have funky lines on my finger nails, and weird spots have shown up on my big toe nails. I have no idea what the spots on my big toes are from, but it has something to do with chemo because they kinda match on both toes. I’ve decided that the lines on my fingernails are from the 4 AC treatments back in September and October. The lines are evenly spaced, and on every fingernail. The effects chemo has on a body never ceases to amaze me.
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| Lines on my finger nails. |
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| Matching spots on my toe nails. |
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Resting Heart Rate from January 19, 2020
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I’ve been on the treadmill a lot more since finishing my chemo. I walk for 45 minutes (while watching an episode of Stargate SG-1). I have been working my way from 3 mph up to 3.4 mph. For comparison, a year ago I was doing almost 4mph. At 3-3.4mph, it’s not enough to really wind me, but it’s enough that I’m working. It’s similar to my speed-walking when I’m in a hurry. The fascinating part is, I did this exact same exercise for several days in a row, but because of my heart rate, they read very differently on my Fitbit. Same speed, same time of day, same incline, same length, felt the same after each. But my heart was working harder for some of them. I’m trying to start slow, because strenuous activity wipes me out fast. I carried a semi-heavy box upstairs from the basement and I was out of breath. I carried that same box downstairs last year, and several more just like it, with no problem at all.
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| Same workout each day. Different heart rates and cardio levels. |
Surgery is Tuesday, February 16th. It will start at 12pm and last about 3.5-4 hours. Theoretically, I should be waking up by 4pm. I know I’ll have an hour in recovery, then I’m not sure how long until they let me leave. Obviously a big part of it depends on how I’m doing. This is an outpatient procedure. They haven’t admitted someone after this surgery for a very long time at Parkview. From what I hear, the breast surgeon does an amazing nerve block, plus they'll give me pain meds for home. I also have to drink Ensure Immunonutrition drinks 2x a day for 5 days before and after the surgery. I’ve bought some frozen fruit so that I can make some of these drinks into smoothies. They’ll give me an antibiotic since the infection rate for this surgery is 5%, compared to the average 1% for most surgeries. I’ll also have to deal with drains coming out of the surgical sites for about 5-10 days. The plastic surgeon said that some people go back to work 3 weeks after the surgery, and others are too tired and worn out and wait until 6 weeks. I’m sincerely hoping I can go back after 3 weeks. Getting my energy back up is another reason I’m on the treadmill every day leading up to surgery. I’m an introvert and honestly don’t mind being stuck at home, but when all the chemo, fatigue, insomnia, and other stuff is added in, I need a break. It’s like I need a distraction from the reality of breast cancer. If it was summer, I could be doing stuff outside or going places. But it’s winter. It’s 14 degrees outside. There’s not much I can do that won’t wear me out in 2 minutes (walking through snow 4 inches deep to the shed to feed my cat had me out of breath).
If you ask my husband what his biggest worry/concern is right now, he will tell you it’s the surgery. At some point in time, I went from worrying about the surgery, to worrying about biopsy results. I’m not sure when that happened, but it did. So prayers are appreciated for both.
Pray for wisdom and skill in my surgical team, clear margins from the tumor, clear lymph nodes, and great recovery.
