Cumulative effects

Chemo causes tiredness that sleep cannot erase. The doctors say that the effects are cumulative, so with each treatment she gets more and more exhausted. Emily will be sitting on the couch and chatting and suddenly she will slowly tip over and fall asleep. The best example of this fatigue is Em's recent description of the simple process of taking a shower. She can manage to complete the actual shower part, but has to sit down for a couple of minutes before even attempting to dry herself off. Once dry, she has to lie down on her bed for a rest period before getting dressed. Usually right after she gets dressed she falls asleep for approximately one hour. I guess it is a small blessing to not have any hair to dry or style during these days!

This week she started her new chemo drug called Taxol, which has some potentially scary effects during the first treatment. They have to deliver the drug very slowly into her system because whatever is in the drug cocktail can potentially trigger an allergic reaction and send the patient into anaphylactic shock. They pumped her full of Benadryl before they started to administer the Taxol and fortunately she did not have any reaction to the drugs. She also had to have her heart checked last week to make sure she had not sustained any heart damage during the first half of her chemo regimen. Those tests came back with good results and her heart continues to function normally.

The countdown continues - as of yesterday, Em completed her fifth treatment. Three more to go over the next 2 months. We are officially on the downhill slope!