A Box of Chocolates, Morton Salt, or an Unrelenting Roller Coaster

I’ve been trying to figure out the correct analogy to start this post.

Feel free to choose from the following:

• “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get” – Forrest Gump
• “When it rains, it pours” – Morton Salt
• I used to really like roller coasters until I was riding one that never stopped. – ME

My last update was more good news than bad, at least in my opinion. We changed drugs since the last one put me in the hospital with pneumonitis. I posted the update on May 15th, and three days later I fell and broke my tibia.

I have been using a full leg brace for the past five weeks. Next week I will get more X-rays done and see how the healing is progressing. Hopefully, my leg has healed well and I will be able to kick the brace to the curb.

What caused me to fall, you might ask.

Well, during the hectic March/April/May time frame I began experiencing some lightheadedness/dizziness. Apparently, I had a dizzy spell, and when I opened my eyes, I was on the floor with bruises and a broken tibia.

Between the weekly taxol treatments, we have been trying to figure out what could be causing the dizziness. I have gotten everything checked out:

• Brain MRI – check – the one time you want to hear “unremarkable” when it comes to your brain (IYKYK)
• Cardiologist – check – echocardiogram – strong heart, no problems
• Doppler Ultrasound of port – check – no blood clots or issues with port

The good news is none of these showed any cause for my lightheadedness. The bad news is none of these showed any cause for my lightheadedness.

I have had fewer “episodes” of the lightheadedness, so I’m hoping that it is a remnant of the Enhertu and the morphine and it is just taking a while for my system to reset.

In the meantime, I’m back to using the walker for my broken leg and for the extra support during times of lightheadedness.

As for the Taxol, I have had to skip treatments twice due to my counts being too low. This means, this past week, they lowered the dosage. Every drug I have been on we have had to lower the dosage, so this was not a huge shock to me.

Fingers crossed

• the lower dosage will not knock my counts too low and I will be able to continue the weekly schedule.
• The lightheadedness continues to dissipate and I become more steady on my own
• My tibia has healed enough to remove the brace and start building strength back (AGAIN!)

Oh, and last but not least, I have a cool summer haircut, thanks to Taxol.