1st Taxotere Tomorrow

Hi Ann-Marie,

I've had two taxotere (aka docetaxel) treatments (and two to go). The first one was especially rough for me -- I've heard it's not uncommon for the first one to be a bit harder than those that follow. About a week after my first treatment, I booked a massage with my naturopath. I was experiencing muscle aches, bone pain, and general blah-ness (among other things). The massage really helped. I felt sooooo much better.

I also found that my eyebrows thinned dramatically, and my eyes water a lot. If you have a bath, get some nice soothing, skin-enriching products and book yourself a long soak -- this also helped for me.

I find it hard to sleep with the steroids, so I've downloaded a couple of guided meditations to my ipod. When I'm really sleepless and my eyes are too sore to read, I listen to these. It's nearly as good as sleeping! The ones I use are by someone called Graham Williams. A friend got them for me, so I'm not sure of how you'd find it, but I reckon if you googled his name with 'guided meditation' you'd find it. There's another one that's been recommended to me that you download online, but I can't remember what it's called -- I'll look it up and post back.

Good luck with your treatment Ann-Marie, hang in there. Go well,

Heather

ps re 'chemo brain' -- I think it's hard to tell what is brain overload due to worrying about cancer and what might be a chemo side-effect. I put dirty coffee cups away the other day, but I'm reluctant to blame that on 'chemo-brain'. I think I was just tired and preoccupied. Try to keep your thinking healthy with meditation and/or yoga, and let the rest go right past you.