Dad's update - May 7th, 2008

Hello Family and Friends –

We just wanted to give you a quick update from what we learned in the chemo session yesterday – Rebecca’s 5th out of 8 treatments. Hey, hey – we’re almost 2/3’s of the way through chemo!!!
This was the first treatment with the drug called Taxol (paclitaxel). The actual infusion was quite a bit longer than previous infusions – we arrived at 8am and left at 4:40pm. Some of this was due to additional precautions that the nurses take when administering a new regimen to look for reactions, side effects, etc. But some of it is just that Taxol goes in slower.
In any event, although it was a long day, everything went very well. Rebecca had no unusual reactions yesterday during administration. More importantly, Rebecca’s tumor has significantly softened and shrunk (by about 25 to 30%). This is just based upon the doctor’s physical examination, and she expects it to continue to shrink throughout the duration of chemo.
Finally, for most patients, Taxol has fewer and less intensive side effects than the Adriamycin/Cytoxin that Rebecca was on previously. The doctor expects her morning headaches to diminish. And Taxol does not cause the nausea associated with A/C. So, hopefully this should be a lot more tolerable than the other stuff. It will, however, complete the hair removal process -- by the time we go in next, her eyelashes and brows will be temporarily lost.
Rebecca still has to have the Neulasta shot the day after chemo to rebuild her blood counts. In addition, Taxol itself seems to cause a little more bone pain a couple of days after injection. So, we’ll be looking out for that, and we do have a pain prescription in addition to ibuprofen if this starts up. Also, about 1/3 of patients experience numbness or tingling in their hands and feet, as though their limbs were falling asleep. Most of these are “minor” – but about 1 in 30 have more annoying symptoms. It is treatable with another medication if Rebecca happens to experience any of this.
Rebecca didn’t sleep as well last night after the treatment, but this was probably just due to anxiety about the new treatment. Hopefully, and she will get back to more normal sleeping soon. She was up all day yesterday during and after treatment – in fact, she felt well enough that we went shopping briefly afterward for a Mother’s Day gift, and got an ice-cream shake on the drive home.Finally, many of our family and friends are joining together in the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure this Saturday morning in downtown Salt Lake City. This has been a great effort organized by one of Rebecca’s co-workers, Amy Erickson. We will be meeting on the Northwest Entrance of the Energy Solutions Arena at 8:00 a.m. The 5K walk/run starts at 8:30. It’s not too late to register. Family and friends who can’t complete the walk are welcome to come anyway and show support for Rebecca and the wonderful people who have helped Rebecca and our family so much. The shirts that Mica Johnson (HCI Marketing Manager) designed are awesome, too. We'll be wearing those instead of the white SGK shirts.
Rebecca will walk also, as far as she can, but I don’t know how far she’ll be able to drag me along with my bad knees. J
I hope to see many of you there – but for those who can’t be, please look for pictures on the blog next week.

Love,
Mark