Last Chemo - written by Lynn

A Major Milestone was passed today – my LAST chemo treatment! I know the next four days may not be much fun, but it is all uphill from there! Hurray! Actually, the entire process seemed to go quickly and though I don’t suggest this is the best way to spend six months (two for surgeries, four for chemo), it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I give a lot of the credit to my wonderful oncologist, Dr. Palchak, and his fantastic staff –this office goes above and beyond to make certain you are getting the best of the best in treatments and care. They are not just caregivers; they are family and treat you as such. The sweetest moment was today - just as the last of my chemo cocktail was dripping out of the IV I heard voices coming down the hall singing “congratulations to you…..” and I thought “how sweet, someone in one of the other chemo rooms is celebrating a birthday or something,” but it was Dr. Palchak and his entire staff coming into my room with a cake! It was all I could do not to cry (those of you that REALLY know me know that is not that unusual – but this was an incredibly sweet gesture and meant a lot to me).

So on we go – I will still have monthly infusions of the biophosphates, (the clinical trial I am a part of) through January, then every four months for the next 2 ½ years. They can be administered through an IV or using my port. The doc said that the highest percentage of cancer relapses occur within the first year so he wants me to keep my port until I am cancer free for a year. I wanted to say, “take it out, I’ve been there, done that with the cancer thing and there will be no relapses,” but I am glad that I won’t have to face another surgery before returning to the classroom in January. So I will wait and beg for them to remove it during my summer break.

In another week I go in for another PET scan and the radiologist will give me tattoos that will serve as the “targets” for delivering the radiation treatments. Those treatments will begin in three weeks (they want you recovered from chemo first).

I know that the side effects of radiation are different than chemo. The toughest chemo side effect for me has been weight gain. In the course of four months I gained30 pounds! This is harder on me than the hair loss, the good news is I can use my “skinny blouses” as head scarves. I was warned that most women gain weight on this drug regime, but I think I have been a bit of an overachiever in this arena. The problem was created by the combination of the drugs, my being too tired work out (six months ago I was doing intense boot camp workouts 3 to 4 times a week), and that I am one of those folks that eat when feeling down or bored. So now I must give my energy to fighting the side effects of radiation and fat cells so that come January I will have the energy necessary to challenge 29 second graders!