Chemo Update

[Trilby]

Well, I've finished four rounds with the chemo Rx taxotere (after each round I got a shot of neulasta to boost WBC) and let me just say that it was a real bitch. I went from bed to couch to bed the entire time. On Jan. 2 I will start the first of four more treatments with a drug called Adriamycin Cytoxin--see? "Toxin" is right in the name! YAY!

I was at the oncs yesterday and the tumor has NOT shrunk ONE bit since we started all this in Oct. Doc says, "well, as long as it's not getting bigger..." I say, "I wish I'd just had the surgery right up front and skipped all this hair-losing, hot-flashing, shortness-of-breath and fatigue-making complete BITCH of a treatment!" I'm right where I started so what is the point? BTW, I called my insurance company--each time they did chemo on me it cost 9,600. Yes, that's right: nearly 10,000 dollars per treatment. Eight treatments--80,000 dollars. And that's just the chemo drug

I am supposed to take a new "miracle" anti-nausea drug called Emend after each A/C cycle--a pill a day for three days. Each pill costs 200.00. Do the math: 600.00 dollars for three pills to keep me from puking. They gave me a voucher for the first three pills (the pharmacy had to order the meds b/c, as you can imagine, there isn't a big demand for 200.00 pills) and only one voucher per patient is allowed by the drug company. I think for the remaining three rounds I'll just be puking. Does anyone, anyone, see a problem here? I just watched Michael Moore's SICKO and I'm still pissed off.

anyway---wish me luck. I think I'll need it.

[Trilby]

How much does aprepitant cost?
Aprepitant is available as a 3-day pack containing one 125 mg capsule and two 80
mg capsules. The average wholesale price is $312.


The above is quoted from a website:http://www.forourpatients.info/pdf/2-22/FOPAE242.pdf

I don't know how accurate this is. My onc told me it was 200.00 per pill and this is saying 312 for the three. At any rate, 100.00 per pill is still too expensive. What insurance co. would pay that?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Brianna

Do the math: 600.00 dollars for three pills to keep me from puking.

All I had to do was stop drinking...

Try to focus on the good. It has stopped growing, that is important. You can assume the Doc isn't being completely random with his choice for the next toxin. They've been at this a long time, but you know that. Please keep heart.

[xoxoxoBruce]

anyway---wish me luck. I think I'll need it.

I wish you more than luck, I wish you well.

[Spexxvet]

Get well soon, Bri.

[busterb]

I wish you more than luck, I wish you well.

By xob and used by me.

[classicman]

Whatever it takes Bri - hugs and heartfelt, healing prayers are headed your way!

[LabRat]

Thinking of you, and hoping the worst is over as fast as possible.

*hugs* woman.

[Undertoad]

You could still squish it under your heel, if it was outside your body.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

You could still squish it under your heel, if it was outside your body.

good mental image, that.

I'll start meditating on that image instead of the one where light beams shoot out of the middle of my forehead (which was pretty cool, but not really "cancer-specific" like this one is!)

[monster]

All chemotherapy drugs work by attacking cancer cells, but Taxotere® attacks cancer cells differently than other chemotherapy drugs. Instead of attacking a cancer cell's DNA like most chemotherapy drugs, Taxotere® takes a more direct approach and attacks the cancer cell's supporting structure (or "skeleton"). This makes the cell very stiff, and it has trouble multiplying.

Seems to me (a complete layperson with the ability to google) that shrinkage wasn't necessarily the primary aim of the Taxotere, although (obviously) a desirable effect. The various sites I found seemed to say that the use of this drug was to weaken the structure and prevent further growth and spreading -many sites cited research that women treated with this drug were less likely to have cancer found in other parts of the breast during surgery.

So chin up. Good Luck.

and buy lots of unperfermud moisturister. Apparently dry skin in a common side effect of your next toxic cocktail. I use Vaseline Advanced Healing.

Would it be better if they were able to serve the chemo in cocktail form with little umbrellas and sophisticated olived arrays on sticks and the like?

[Trilby]

thank you, monster! I've googled taxotere and I never saw that information---that is helpful--thanks.


and thanks for the dry skin tip.

and, yes, it would help if they served it "cocktail" style--esp. if they provided a "pool boy" too!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Pool boys?

[Trilby]

exactly the kind I had in mind!

[xoxoxoBruce]

What a coincidence, you're exactly the kind they have in mind.