Still No Chemo

I had another chest X-ray today, the third in two weeks. The infection is still in my lungs. It's a bit better than before, but still not good enough to start on the new chemo. I suppose I should be worried because that makes two weeks that I've been off chemo. Given that my tumors tend to grow as soon as I stop chemo, this long break is only giving the cancer cells a chance to grow and spread further. But for some reason, I'm not that worried. Maybe it's because I've gotten so used to bad news, it just doesn't faze me.

My doctor told me she talked to her colleagues and they all agreed that I should go on Taxol or Taxotere. I've had Taxol already and we had a good response, so we're going to try that one again. Before, I had Carboplatin + Taxol + Herceptin. Now I'm going to have Taxol + Tykerb. We're saving the Taxotere in the arsenal for when things get worse. It's more toxic and has more side effects than Taxol.

I've been reading a bit about these drugs and I think there might be another drug we could try that studies have shown to be better than Taxol. I'll bring this up with my doctor before we start next week. It feels a bit weird that I'm suggesting treatment choices to my doctor, but cancer is one disease that really calls for patient involvement. I feel like it's up to me to save my life.