Taxol Infusion Number 2

I was worried about infusion number two of Taxol because it was my second infusion of Taxotere where I had the bad allergic reaction.  But I tried not to think about it cause worrying does no good.

I got called in to the infusion center and found out I again had my least favorite nurse.  Why is she my least favorite you ask?  Because the IV always hurts more when she does it than when any of the other nurses have done it.  Plus she was my nurse when I had the pain in the infusion site after only getting saline and I ended up crying during the adriamycin push.  She is very nice and I don't think she is doing anything to purposefully hurt me, but she does.  I think it has to be a slight difference in her technique.

She was eyeing my forearm vein again but I asked her to go for the hand.  She did go for the hand, but said that "the vein was not happy to see me" and that she couldn't get it (later I saw she tried in almost the exact same spot as last week - um, couldn't you have went a few millimeters away?)  Well, she went for the forearm vein that she was initially looking at.  It hurt, but not as much as my hand was now hurting.  She was nice and went slow on the infusion to help me with my allergic reaction fears, which was nice.  The infusion went without incident.  It was quite boring in fact.  I was so bored that I took a picture from my chair.

I told you it was boring. 

When I got home and took the bandage off my arm I noticed I again had a bruise,sigh.  Now I have 2 bruises, one on my hand where she couldn't get the IV and one on my forearm.

See the bruise below my index finger.  The scars on my wrist are from  prior infusions - the left one was from adriamycin and the right one from taxotere.  I'm not sure about the reddish/brown discoloration on the upper arm (farthest down in this picture).  It doesnt hurt and seems like it is slowly going away - it showed up about the same time as the shingles so who knows.

I hope that next week I get another nurse, but if I get her again I will definitely say something.  I think my bruises will still be there and I will use that to start the conversation.  And if it turns out that I am assigned to her for the duration of my treatment (when I got AC it seemed like I was randomly assigned a nurse but so far 2 weeks in a row I have had my least favorite nurse so it seems like it is not a coincidence) I will call and ask for my favorite nurse, or at least another nurse that I don't end up with bruises - my left arm is beat up enough, I don't need to suffer any more than I have to.

So far the side effects have been mild, although I am now having some nasal congestion.  I am taking zyrtec and it seems to help a little.