Finding a Chemo Buddy-Chemo x3

I was not looking forward to the 3rd round after the hell the last round did to my body. So waking up I was already nauseous. I made sure to eat breakfast though since I didn't know when I would be able to eat again. My mom drove me to treatment and dropped me off first thing in the morning.

I started by meeting with Meghan my nurse practitioner at the oncologist. She went over all my side effects from the last round to try to help me with this round. We decided to add Pepcid to my IV treatment plan for the day. Since i was having awful heartburn and acidic stomach for over a week after the last treatment. We also added fluids, more Pepcid, more zofran and more steroid to my treatment the next day after my white blood cell boosting shot. So hopefully this would help me not be as miserable. I'm not going to say I had very high hopes but I would give it a try.

Once we finished our meeting It was time for treatment... ugh. Found myself a chair to spend the next few hours in and I was on my way...

About half an hour into my treatment another woman sat in the chair next to me. I normally don't pay much attention to the others in the room since everyone usually stays to themselves. So I didn't pay much mind to her coming in.

The nurse came over to start my AC infusion (The Red Devil) and I looked at those red syringes and said "I'm really not looking forward to those evil tubes. The took me out the last time and I understand now why they are called the Red Devil! I can't wait until these are done. I wasn't sure I could do this again."

Thats when the woman next to me said, "You can do it and after this you are almost done with the hard part. You only have 1 more after today. The Taxol is so much better."

I said, "Thank You. This was really so hard the last time emotionally and physically. It was so much harder than the first round." And just like that all my emotions started to come to the surface and tears started to fall. "Sorry to cry but it was just so hard and took so long to recover"

She told me that the same thing happened to her. The first round tricks you to thinking it won't be so bad and then the 2nd round hits like a ton of bricks. I told her about my nausea, vomiting, scalp pain, body pain, and extreme fatigue. She gave me advice of what helped her through the rest of the AC treatment. She made sure to eat something every 2 hours, anything that she felt she could keep down. She told me she made sure to sleep as much as her body needed and keep up with the medications. She then told me that she was on round 6 of the 12 weeks of Taxol and that it is so much better. She started getting more energy and was even able to take her girls to the park again. And the weekly treatments feel like they go faster.

We talked for my whole treatment. She is a mom of two girls that are younger than mine. She has triple negative Breast Cancer. She had a lumpectomy back in January with Dr. Camal as well and her Oncologist is also Dr. Horkhiemer. It was so nice to talk to someone else who is going through treatment and can truly understand how this feels. It was like having an angel send to sit next to me to make me feel less alone and give me some hope. Just talking with her gave me a boost that I really needed.

She and I talked about losing our hair and how that was for us and our kids. She had tried the cold cap but gave up after the 3rd AC treatment because her hair STILL fell out. I said I didn't bother with the cold cap because i heard too many stories with the same outcome. She said it was painful and a waste of money for her. She also gave me hope because her hair started to come back during the Taxol chemo but she did lose her eyebrows and lashes. So fingers crossed that hair starts to sprout back like May flowers.

I learned her name was Jamie and she was about my age too. I only learned that because we all have to give the nurses our full names and birthday every time they give us infusions. Knowing she was another mom of little kids and so close to my age is both comforting and sad. Comforting to not be alone but sad that this disease is too common.

I finished up my treatment and mentally felt better for the moment. Said thank you again to Jamie and that hopefully I would see her in 2 weeks. Then off I was to recover and rest.