Barking up the right tree...

Phew.   Two months in and we are now officially into Weeks 9 through 21…  Like the first two months of the Dose Dense regimen, the Taxol is being delivered more often than the “normal” three week interval. Tracy’s getting a slightly lower dose every week instead.  This means a more invasive schedule, but theoretically with a lessor set of side effects.

Most importantly – THANK YOU Janet for coming off the bench to fill in for me as PodMaster (PodMistress in your case) this past week.   Unfortunately you got the full treatment with the “slight” time slippage in the schedule.  Really – it was only supposed to be a couple of hours, not the full day.  Oops. Bill me…

First –wtf is Taxol.  Here is a refresher… It was originally derived from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree.   (http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/taxus/brevifolia.htm) Really, not even kidding, And it if that was still the source, it would take about two full sized trees to be processed for *each* dose – after they reach maturity – which is about at 125 years of age.  

It’s official generic name is Paclitaxel, with a chemical name of – take a deep breath first:  “5β,20-Epoxy-1,2α,4,7β,10β,13α-hexahydroxytax-11-en-9-one 4,10-diacetate 2-benzoate 13-ester with (2R,3S)-N-benzoyl-3-phenylisoserine”.    From our friends at WebMD: “Paclitaxel is a novel antimicrotubule agent that promotes the assembly of microtubules from tubulin dimers and stabilizes microtubules by preventing depolymerization. This stability results in the inhibition of the normal dynamic reorganization of the microtubule network that is essential for vital interphase and mitotic cellular functions. In addition, paclitaxel induces abnormal arrays or “bundles” of microtubules throughout the cell cycle and multiple asters of microtubules during mitosiss.” .

What most non-Oncologists would hear:   “Blah blah blah normal blah cell cycle blah blah.”  The short version is that it is used as part of the AC-T regimen to inhibit the formation of new tumors.   So – one week down – eleven to go.

We did venture out today for a bit – and that was interesting.   Tracy’s stamina level has morphed into a very interesting reverse logarithmic curve.  It starts out high, and then drops off really quickly (and I mean quickly).  While in Barnes & Noble today, I had to grab her (non-surgical) arm to steady her.  We both came to the very quick conclusion that we were done shopping for the day – right there.  A quick hustle to the checkout counter and in the car.

Well – enough for now.  Time to call it a day (yes  it’s only 9:00 PM or so EST) but the week is already shaping up to be a corker – again.    More to come in the next few days.