A New Chapter

My one month vacation from all treatments will come to an end this coming Wednesday.  While my radiation treatments have ended, I will begin Chemotherapy again.

This time the two Chemotherapy drugs will be Carboplatin and Taxotere.  Taxotere tends to aggressively attack the white blood cells making me extremely susceptible to infection.  So they will give me a shot of Neulasta the day after each Chemo treatment.

Neulasta^® works like a natural protein in your body to signal the growth of new white blood cells. Neulasta^® helps reduce your risk of infection in a chemotherapy cycle with just one injection. It is a prescription medication given approximately 24 hours after you receive chemotherapy treatment to provide ongoing support through that cycle. The most common side effect of Neulasta is pain in the bones and in your arms and legs.

These treatments will be every three weeks.  So this week, I have Chemo on Wednesday and then my Neulasta injection on Thursday.  My understanding is the bone and joint pain starts on Day 3 and lasts about 10 days.  Then day 21, I start all over again.

My doctor still feels I will get new scans done in September so we will know then if all of these treatments have done anything.