Farewell to Doxorubicin...hello to Herceptin and Paclitaxel

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Greetings from the SCUPH oncology unit
Now that I’ve completed my first eight weeks of “heavy arsenal” chemo (doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide), this week I started the next phase of chemo (paclitaxel) which involves weekly cycles for the next 12 weeks. 

As always, I received an outstanding level of care and personal attention from Hannah, Shelley and the team at SCUPH’s oncology day unit. Prior to this next phase I was a little anxious about having a potential allergic reaction to the new chemo but thankfully this didn’t eventuate. If you’re interested, I recorded a short video during my chemo treatment (apologies for dodgy videography).

At the same time that I started the new paclitaxel chemo, I also commenced a year-long journey of immune targeted therapy called Herceptin which will be administered through my portacath every three weeks until July 2020.

Herceptin works by attaching itself to the receptors on the surface of my breast cancer cells and blocking them from receiving growth signals. By blocking the signals, Herceptin can slow or stop the growth of the breast cancer.

I'd like to put a shout out to thank the scientists and oncologists at US medicine producer Genentech for pursuing their research and making the Herceptin drug available for women like me with HER2 positive breast cancer. I'm truly blessed to be alive in 2019 in a country where I can access this treatment.

One day free of fatigue

The day before my 12-week chemo treatment, it was fairly fucking typical that my fatigue levels were zero for literally the first time within the past fortnight! (As seen in my onocology diary)

 It felt amazing to feel almost "normal", so good in fact that Mr Uniboober and I went for a 3.5km walk in Queensland's horrible winter sunshine. It's the longest distance I've walked in quite some time. 

 Considering just a few days ago I struggled to catch my breath walking up the stairs, I was on cloud nine enjoying the outdoors of the Sunshine Coast with my beloved.




Hooray for zero fatigue (even if it was just one day out of the fortnightly cycle)!






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