The Dreads

No, I'm not dreaming of growing my hair long so I can have dreadlocks, I am dreading tomorrow. Round 3 of AC. This means only one more dose of this nasty drug at the end of the month and then I'll move onto Taxol. But I am NOT looking forward to tomorrow. When I think too much about it, I literally get a wave of nausea and can taste the bright red drug in the back of my throat. Gotta love the way the brain captures those oh so lovely memories and brings them back to haunt you!

I tried to enjoy my day. Took Talia to school and Minna to Shayna's house (where we do our nanny share 3 days a week). When we pulled up at their house, Minna started crying "no no no!" which of course breaks my heart but I know she was fine once I left. Then on to acupuncture, always a nice time for me. I get a nice snooze on the table and feel good for the rest of the day. Next stop, Kaiser, for my blood draw. My WBC was still low - but just within the range. I will resume neupogen injections this weekend to give my battery a little boost. I had lunch on my own and visited with Tamar for a bit and then came home.

I've been busy working on these questionnaires for a breast cancer study I agreed to do through Kaiser. It's the Pathways Breast Cancer Survivorship Study. It's sponsored by a bunch of organizations - American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute and the Breast Cancer Research Program of Department of Defense. Its purpose is to determine whether breast cancer prognosis can be influenced by lifestyle or biological factors, such as genetics or tumor characteristics. I am asked a bunch of questions about my diet, emotional state, they take a sample of my saliva and the cancer tissue that was removed during my surgery, and take a bunch of measurements all over my body. I met with the research person yesterday and answered a number of questions in person and was given a stack of questions to answer on my own. It's interesting, and so long as the grant keeps being funded, I'll continue to participate and answer follow up questions on the anniversary of my diagnosis.

I am hoping to embrace the rest of today and have a nice evening with Jason and the girls. I hope for an easier cycle this time, with a quicker bounce back to normalcy. I am more prepared than last time - I've got ginger ale and crackers in my house, but mostly I just want the time to pass by quickly so I can get to Wednesday of next week and feel human again.