Change in Chemo Plans

Before chemo yesterday, I met with my oncologist. I told him about my rough weekend, and he agreed that he also had never heard chemo effects described as I did, and was surprised that it happened so late in my round (days 6&7). After giving it some thought, he believes that I was experiencing strong chemo-brain effects (temporary fuzzy-fogginess) over that weekend, and that I am just articulating it differently (or more carefully) than most patients. He saw no reason to believe that it would become any worse with this round.

[Edited post: I think I must have misunderstood the original plan - now that I'm looking up Taxol info online]. Initially I thought the chemo plan was to have 4 rounds of Adriamycin and Cytoxan (AC) every two weeks, followed by 4 rounds of Taxol every two weeks. Patients tolerate Taxol better in lower, weekly doses over a twelve-week period, so that's what I'm going to get, beginning two weeks from now. Fortunately I won't need the Neulasta injections (and its painful side effects) I've been getting unless my white counts get too low.

This chemo plan extends my expected treatment by four weeks, but I'm happy that I'm likely to be troubled less by Taxol's effects. AC is definitely the toughest part, and once the coming two weeks of my body's response and recovery is over, that part will be behind me.