Today was the 8th of 12 taxol treatments and we also met with Dr. Shah.  Her impression remains that Kimberly is responding well to the treatments. We had lots of questions today about side effects and also the path ahead.  K is having a lot of itching, fatigue and a bit of clumsiness.  No, she wasn't already clumsy!  The taxol or pre-meds are notorious for all of this but none is fun.  The itching causes restless leg and sometimes keeps K up at night.  Last treatment they increased the benedryl pre-med, which is given to reduce/prevent allergic reaction to the taxol, to reduce the itching.  After talking with Dr. Shah today, we agreed the benedryl may in part be the cause of the itching and not the cure so they went back to the regular dose and added adavan.  With so many issues, treatments, drugs, side effects and doctors, it is essential that we constantly communicate thoroughly about everything.  

We learned some interesting things today.  We talk regularly about certain symptoms (numb/tingling fingers, clumsiness beyond occasional stuff) that can indicate that the taxol is reaching a toxic level in your body.  They want it high enough to kill the cancer but not high enough to damage your nervous system.  If you show signs of toxicity, they reduce your dosage or delay treatment.  Of course, I would think most people would not want either of these to happen; you want the drug working, doing it's job killing cancer cells.  Turns out that studies show that if you become toxic, a lessor dosage works the same for you as the higher dosage does on someone else.  I guess if you are less tolerant of the taxol, so is the cancer.

We are getting a better understanding of what is coming and the order of things.  We will be scheduling a PET scan that will be done just before the last taxol treatment.  The PET scan, which requires that they inject a tracer, creates a 3D image of the body that allows doctors to identify cancer cells.  Kimberly had one at the start of all of this to confirm the cancer had not spread.  Now the test is to confirm the clinical opinion that the cancer presence has been reduced.

We discussed surgery, radiation and reconstruction.  We have 4 weekly treatments to go and a PET scan concurrently.  3-4 weeks after the last taxol treatment K will have surgery.  3-4 weeks after surgery, she will start daily radiation treatments that last 6.5 weeks.  Reconstruction won't be possible until well down the road, perhaps a year after surgery.

It's not easy, but K is doing well.  Dr. Shah is also very positive and she always stays until we have no more questions.  I think lately we leave feeling a bit better.

It's hard to watch someone you love go through this.  I've been dragging my behind through the days the last few weeks.  Just worn out.  And who was there to pick me up?  My wonderful wife.  :)