Now on Taxol

As of 9/4/08 my oncologist, Dr. Dwight Im, took me off Cisplatin/Gemzar after my CA125 spiked 89.9 points to 323.9. He put me on Taxol. They’re giving me small doses of Taxol on three successive Thursdays with a bye on the fourth Thursday (blood draw only with labs sent to Weinberg). The 3-on, 1-off series is considered one treatment. So yesterday I received Taxol 1B as well as four grams of magnesium.

Taxol has its own set of side effects: low blood counts (increased risk for infection); hair loss, pain in joints and muscles, numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, nausea/vomiting; diarrhea, mouth sores, and reactions such as fever, facial flushing, chills, shortness of breath, or hives. Lesser common effects are edema, increases in blood tests measuring liver functions, low blood pressure and nail changes.

So just as my head hair has regown into straight, white, baby-fine threads less than an inch long and I’ve recovered 9.5 fingernails, it looks like I’ll take a hit on them again. Time to dig out the wig and baseball hats.

Because they’re doling out this first treatment in thirds, it’ll probably be after I complete the series next Thursday before I have to buzz my head to prevent hair in my shower drain.

The 14th of this month marks the second anniversary of meeting with my oncology surgeon and getting his verification of my stage IIIC ovarian cancer diagnosis. And I’m now on my 5th chemo protocol. As the joke about the former elementary teacher turned hooker says, “We have to keep doing it until we get it right.”