Let's Get This Show on the Road--Chemo Cocktail #3, With a Nod to Chemo Cocktail #2

This time it's going to be different--both because I'm different, and because the drugs are different.  In the breast cancer world, Cytoxan and Adriamycin are the most commonly used cocktail.  Due to my high dose chemo of 1995, I've reached the lifetime maximum of Adriamycin, so that bottle is off the shelf.

(Note the intentional reference to cocktails, bottles, and shelves...yes, it helps to think of these as an IV martini...really!  It is more fun to imagine you're drinking a cosmo rather than being systematically poisoned by your physicians.)

Up next, we had Cytoxan and Taxotere.  Cytoxan was the devil I knew...Taxotere was the devil I didn't.  I had a little bit of anaphylaxis on my second round of Taxotere (which is akin to saying that you are a little bit pregnant.)  so they loaded me with steroids and other meds to complete my last 3 rounds and ran the drugs reeeaaaaallly slowly through the IV.  Since I'm allergic to Taxotere, and presumably it's sister drug Taxol, my new oncologist wants to avoid those meds, so they're off the cocktail menu as well.  

This time, we're trying a brand new combo--Carboplatin and Abraxane.  Apparently, Carboplatin gets is cancer killing ability from platinum.  You know, kinda like Goldschlager...perhaps not as pretty, and certainly not nearly as tasty.  Not that I'd know--when the idea of cinnamon flavored schnapps appealed to me, I was a poor starving grad student and couldn't afford it.  By the time I could, I'd had my fill of sweet schnapps and had moved on to good gin...but I digress.

Abraxane is a pretty cool drug--it is the same basic ingredient in Taxotere and Taxol, but instead of using a toxic solvant to deliver the drug to cancer cells, it uses a nanoparticle albium bound technology to deliver the drug right to any malignant cells, in effect bypassing healthier cells, concentrating on the malignant cells, and preserving the healthy cells.  Thus, fewer side effects.  Kind of like the difference between drinking Jose Cuervo, and Patron.  Real agave tequila doesn't produce that nasty "day after"feeling that cheap imitations do.  Don't overdo it, though, even with the good stuff.  A hangover is a hangover, after all.  But a cheap tequila hangover?  Yuck.

In Chemo #1 and #2, I had a dose every 3 weeks for 12 weeks.  This time, I'll be going once a week for 12 weeks--the hope is that the impact on my body will be lessened because of smaller doses, closer together.  You know, to help make the hangover a little more palatable.  

So, the new cocktail of Goldschlager and Patron (thanks for bearing with me...) begins on Thursday at 1pm.  Don't ask me to share--there won't be any left over.  Here's hoping the hangover isn't too bad, because when I'm done with these 12 weeks, there's going to be one hell of a party.