Drugs, Drugs and More Drugs

We're just home from this morning's appointment with my oncologist. We dropped off new prescriptions for filling on the way home.

For the edema, I'll be taking a diuretic ... lasix, I think it's called. It is expected that the edema will probably continue and might even get a little worse before it gets better. It's a reaction to the taxotere.

For the finger and feet numbness and the face burns, I'm being prescribed prednisone. It's another steroid and will probably cause an even rounder face than I developed on the previous steroids. Oh, joy! I'll be taking that for two weeks after I finish my 3 days of deximethasone (another steroid), which I started taking this morning. Follow this prednisone link and scroll down to see the list of side effects. Frick! Though I don't think any of us would mind experiencing "inappropriate happiness"! How funny is that?! That's the one side effect I hope I get!

My oncologist is also reducing the taxotere dosage by 10% in order to, perhaps, minimize some of the "full-blown" (as he called it) side effects.

And, sadly, I won't be getting my PICC-line removed tomorrow. My oncologist feels it's best to leave it in for use during my next surgery. He suggests I ask my surgeon if he would like the PICC-line left in. If my surgeon doesn't plan on using it, I can then get it removed. I'm glad I didn't really get my heart set on having my PICC-line removed tomorrow. I had hoped, but hadn't yet expected, making the disappointment less than it would have been otherwise.

My oncologist will be leaving Saskatoon in 3 or 4 weeks for a new position in Arkansas. I've been very happy with him as an oncologist and am glad that he will, at least, have been here to see me through my entire chemo treatment. I'll be meeting with him again before he leaves to talk about the estrogen blocker, tamoxifen, that I'm to take for the next 5 years. Mine is the most common type of invasive breast cancer in that it's estrogen fed. That's why there will be continued effort to block estrogen. And that is why I wish there was some knowledge made available about preventing this type of cancer by better monitoring and balancing hormones in the first place. From what I understand, estrogen only really becomes a problem when other hormones aren't balancing it, allowing estrogen to become "dominant". Thats when things go whacky.

This afternoon I have my first appointment with a radiologist. I have no idea what to expect. I'll update us all later.

I'm sure missing the warm weather. I suppose cool weather had to come eventually. Bah!