Good bye Dr. A.

I went to Saskatoon yesterday for what was to be my last appointment with Dr. A before he moves to Arkansas - where the winters are warmer ;o( Unfortunately he was sick so I had to see another doctor. This other doctor was okay but he didn’t take as much time to answer my questions and I felt kind of rushed to ask everything. (Dr A is going to be a tough act to follow and I am going to miss him!) He did recommend that I get the H1N1 vaccine and that the risks from getting the virus outweigh any risks from the vaccine. I don’t have to go back to see (whoever I get now) for 9 weeks. So far my heart scans have all been good but I will get another one in Dec. I got another 6 month supply of Tamoxifen which they give me free of charge.

I asked him if the tingly tongue is from the Tamoxifen or the Herceptin. He said neither. It is still from the Taxotere. So after 4 months the Taxotere is still rearing it's ugly head!

I noticed the other day that my toe nails are also starting to come off. (which is also a carry over from the Taxotere) I am hoping that it will be more like my ring and pinky fingers were. Since you don’t use them much, they grew out enough that I could just peel the old one off and it didn’t hurt at all!

My doctor had called on Friday but for some reason the receptionist gave him Murray’s cell phone number which was turned off all week end. I did get to talk to him on that Monday and he told me to try a number of things like calamine lotion, aloe vera cream or I could use Emla cream. Emla is the anesthetic lotion I put on my port before I get chemo so it doesn’t hurt when they punch the needle into it. I thought that was a great idea so I smeared that on as soon as I was done on the phone. Holy mother of god - it stung so much for about 5 minutes until the anesthetic kicked in and it didn’t give relief for very long after that. The next day the doctor’s office called since I was on a waiting list to get an appointment for my annual complete check up and they had a cancellation for that afternoon. I told him that the Emla cream was not a good idea! When he saw it he told me to keep it dry by putting powder on it. I used cornstarch and that is what finally gave me some relief. It cut down on the friction of my arm rubbing against it. After 2 days it started getting itchy so I knew I was on the home stretch. It was extremely itchy for about 3 days and I thought I would go mad. Finally after 11 days I was back to normal. I could wear regular clothes and resume day to day activities.

I have joined the gym and I discovered that am really out of shape from this whole ordeal (what a surprise!). My fingernails are just over halfway there. The top half is still quite brittle and not good for much but I can scratch my itches again. I think I should have them back to normal in 2 or 3 months. My hair is slowly coming in. It is about ½ inch long and not in the color I ordered!! I’m told that sometimes it does change after a few months so there is some hope but I don’t think I will hold my breath. Also there doesn’t seem to be any curl to it yet.

I had my first injection of Herceptin at the Nipawin hospital last week. It only takes half an hour for the infusion but it takes the pharmacy a long time to get it ready. I was there for over 2 hours so it was nice to only have to drive a few blocks home instead of 3 hours. I could relax and take it easy. I still have to go into Saskatoon the week before my next one for blood work and to see the oncologist.