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February 27, 2004
Expect the Unexpected
I went to the hospital for my chemo treatment today, dreading having to suck on ice and the foul taste in my mouth that comes when they inject me. I got a pleasant surprise however. The doctor wanted to speak to me. He said since the drugs seem to be so hard on my body, he wanted to end the chemo early. Like now.
I guess the drugs work better when your immune system is strong. The stress from the various side effects was kicking the poop out of my immune system. Also, the maximum benefit comes from the first few treatments, so this will only raise my chances of having recurrent cancer by a percent or so. Considering chemo had dropped those chances by about 12-14%, that's not bad. And because the side effects are cumulative (they get worse over time) my immune system would be getting less healthy as time went on, and therefore the drugs wouldn't work as well. So we probably wouldn't have got down that last percent anyway.
It's so weird. I've been planning my life around having another three months of chemo and now I feel like the floor has dropped out from under me. I'm not complaining, mind you, but it's odd. I've been saying things like, "can't plan any vacations until chemo is done" and "don't want to renovate until I've finished chemo". And now it's all wide open.
Can't wait for my hair to come back. Scarves are nice, but hair is better.
Posted by Nicole at February 27, 2004 05:28 PM