Finally! A real person!

I finally got to speak, at length, to the oncologist!

Regarding the decadron, there is nothing she can replace it with. She knows how badly I crashed even on a taper of the lighter dose of it but apparently the decadron is the only thing that can help prevent possible anaphylactic (sp?) shock. So...yeah. The good news is, the crash may be on that Tuesday, so I will have my mom (and subsequent chemo buddies) with me. My only concern is if it goes past that...but we won't know until we see what happens.

She is going to check and see if she can use something other than the Benadryl though since I have the adverse reaction to it. I'm less concerned about being hyper-awake for the 6 1/2 hours during the treatment than I am about the steroid crash.

I also asked about the cough and she said I could have some low-level allergic reaction to the Cytoxin, which can manifest in the lungs. Good thing is, no more Cytoxin! Bad thing is...it sometimes takes weeks to months to clear up. The treatment that they usually give, however. is STEROIDS...so maybe when I take the butt-load of decadron on Sunday, it'll help clear things up! If not, then we'll know that it's not that and I'll get to go to my PCP to figure it out.

My echocardiogram that I got yesterday was 'perfect'...no effects from the Adriamycin, which is a good thing.

On a completely unrelated note, I met the kitten last night. Unfortunately, she really had no interest in me at all, which was kind of sad for me, but 1) she is a cat, and 2) not all cats are for all people. I'm going to go looking at a couple other shelters this weekend, particularly the Animal Rescue League and maybe the MSPCA because those aren't no-kill shelters. I'm really beginning to think that I want a cat that's around a year old or so...this way, I can rescue a sweet cat that might not otherwise get a chance. I wish I could rescue an older cat, but I just don't think that I can right now. There were some at the ARL that looked really promising, including one that reminded me so much of Maggie in her expression! I wish I could provide links, but if you go to Animal Rescue League of Boston, click on 'Cat' and then 'Female' and these are the ones I'm interested in (in no particular order):

Harmonica
Fanny
Tammy
The pretty grey, splotchy kitty below Tammy (Apricot)
Baby
Candy
Miss Marple
Cowbell (black and white kitty on page 3)
Maya (below Cowbell)
Susie (no picture)
Dallas

So I will either go Saturday or Sunday to look at them...and we'll see, I guess!