PREVIOUSLY ON…….

Sometimes it feels like we’re living our very own version of groundhog day, but instead of re-living one day over and over (and trying to get it perfect), we’ve got our very own 3 week loop that we have to get right. After every session we have to take note of how Sam suffers and then make sure we get the medicine to counteract the nastiness so we can get it perfect the next time. The first session of docetaxel completely knocked Sam for six. It took her a good 4 or 5 days for her to find her feet but once those days were out of the way she recovered quite well. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t completely fine but she was a lot better than she was in the first week. One of the new side effects that she developed this time was thrush (upstairs and downstairs) and it drove her crazy. She’s never had it before so it really caught her off guard. Everything had picked up by the final 3rd week and Sam had got all her energy back, her skin had cleared and she was infection free (much to her relief).

We had our pre chemo appointment last Wednesday and it turns out the change of oncologist (from the last time) wasn’t a one off. When Sam missed that week of chemotherapy because her blood count was too low, it looks like we also fell out of sync with our original oncologist. Now usually this wouldn’t matter because I suppose they’re all part of the same team, but the change in tone is rather jarring. You see, our original oncologist was a young lady (25-35) who had a clear direction that she wanted to go in. When we would go in for our pre chemo appointments she would be “Right, we’re going to do this, then this and you should end up with this”. When they found a trace of cancer in one of the lymph nodes, she was the one who insisted that Sam have the CT scan to see if anything was going on anywhere else. She said that she liked to know what she’s dealing with so she can make informed decisions from the very start. Our new consultant, however, is an older man (50-60) who, if he was any more laid back, would be asleep. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a really nice guy and he has that George Clooney vibe about him (I’ve made this assumption from the giggles you get from the nurses when you mention his name) but once you’ve got used to one style, it can be hard to adjust so quickly to another (especially when it’s something important like this is). When we walked into his room on Wednesday he welcomed us, sat us down and asked Sam how she was doing (in the calmest most soothing laid back voice ever). Sam explained the symptoms that she’d experienced since the first docetaxel and he sat and wrote prescriptions for each side effect. He extended the amount of steroids that she would take after each session so they would keep her afloat (energy wise) for longer, some anti depression tablets for her joint pain (??) and some tablets to stop the onslaught of thrush. He then sat, stared at his screen, then turned to Sam and asked

“So, is the chemo working?”

“Umm, you tell us doc, you’re the one in charge ”

“I mean is the lump shrinking?”

“Really??”

Sam asked if she would have another MRI after the final chemo to check the progress of the lump and he sat, stared into his screen, smiled, tilted his head and said calmly “Well I’m sure we can book one of those for you”. He was so laid back I didn’t know whether he was winding us up or just had a big lunch before the meeting. The other weird thing was that we’ve always had a cancer nurse with us in every meeting that we’ve had (part of the process apparently) but this time there wasn’t one. (Was it something we said??)

The second docetaxel session went ahead as usual on Thursday without a hitch and so far the extended steroids and anti depression tablets (??) are doing their jobs well. Sam hasn’t been as grounded as she was last time but she’s still all over the place (as far as energy levels and aches and pains go). I think it’s just a case of getting through this first week and then hopefully she’ll start to pick up again next week in time for her FINAL CHEMO SESSION on the 12th June!!! 🙂