My wbc count was barely high enough to recieve the Taxol yesterday, but my doctor let me with the warning that it is highly likely that the Taxol will decreased my wbc count again, and that I may not be able to do it again next week.  But we will just take it week by week.

We talked about alternative treatment plans if I cannot tolerate the Taxol without my wbc count plunging every time.  But hopefully this will work.  I will be taking a couple of shots this week to help my wbc count, so hopefully that will work, and I will be able to do the weekly Taxol/Herceptin treatment that we had originally planned.

I could not sleep very well at all last night, even after taking a sleeping pill and Nyquil.  This happened last time I had Taxol too.  I guess that is just a side effect.  But other than feeling a little more tired today, I don’t feel any other side effects of the chemo right now.

Branden came with me yesterday, and since I was taking Taxol, which can make your fingernails and toenails die, I had to have them in buckets of ice water while I was receiving the Taxol for about an hour and a half. Branden always gives me a hard time if I have to take my fingers out of the ice water for a little bit because it hurts so much.  I can usually keep my toes in the whole time because they just get numb, but fingers just have so dang many nerves in them that it is really hard to keep them in freezing cold ice water for that long!

I challenged Branden to put his fingers in the ice water for as long as he could.  Any guesses on how long he did it?  It was probably less than 2 minutes!!  =)  It was killing him!  He had this tortured look on his face as he tried to keep it in for a little bit longer, and he said, “okay, okay, this is pretty bad!”  I just wanted him to have a little sympathy for me!!  =)

I got my official Utah drivers license in the mail a couple of days ago.  It is quite the mug shot!  I look so mad in my picture!  That is because when I went to take my test, I was in this long line, and didn’t have all the exact right documents needed, so I had to first go home again to get something else.  (It was hard to get the right documents for identification and residency because my wallet had been stolen with my old driver’s license and social security card!)

I went in shorty after I had gotten home from the hospital (about 4 weeks ago), and I still felt pretty weak, but was determined to get my driver’s license taken care of that day.  I had babysitting all lined up, and thought I had all the documents I needed.  After I went all the way back home and got through the long line again, I wasn’t in any mood to hear the guy ask me if I could take my scarf off for the picture.

I suddenly felt so embarrassed because there were all these people around me, and he was asking me to reveal my bald head in front of everyone!  I just looked and him and said, “I’m bald!  I’m going through chemo right now.  Do I really have to take my scarf off?!”  He sighed and said, “Just a minute.”  He went back and conferred with several people while I stood there trying to keep myself from crying in front of everyone.  I don’t know why I let myself get so emotional about it, but I guess I just felt humiliated!!

I heard him say to a police officer that he was speaking to, “Well, it’s not for religious reasons.”  Anyway, after they kept me waiting for a while and discussed it, he came back and said that I could leave it on.  I said, “I’m sure other people have come in here who are in chemo before.”  Then I sat down and had my picture taken.  It was not a very happy picture!!  So now I get to have this driver’s license picture of a mad, skinny Denise with a scarf on my head until 2016!!  =)