Yesterday* Loretta started the “T” phase of her chemotherapy program.  This one is Taxol (“T” in the AC T program**).  The really interesting thing is that taxol was first sourced from the bark of the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) which was first collected from trees in the Gifford Pinochot National Forest when Loretta was a little more than 1 year old.  She might have hiked past those very trees around Mt. Rainier and Mt Adams while training people to climb Mt Rainier.

Anyway, she gets to go to SCCA once a week for the next 11 weeks.  This is only the first day after her infusion so it is a little early to say for sure, but it looks like this one will be easier on her than the AC was.  Her oncologist thought that she had the maximum dose of AC that she could have tolerated without having dire (“catastrophic” was his word) affects.  The good news is that if the drugs work (and they do) then they did their job very well in Loretta.  Hopefully she will not have as difficult a time and will have a chance to heal a little.  The effects of taxol are cumulative, though, so it is likely to get harder as the treatment progresses.

So why “Two for T”?  The best part about this infusion was that Fiona got to go and support her mom.  That was good for both of them.  They look so peaceful, the two of them, with their phones and shoes on in bed:

*Sorry that this post is so late.  It was another long day and I just couldn’t do a post justice once we got home.

**It is really called paclitaxel but that just doesn’t sound as good as taxol.  And ACT is easier to say than ACP.  Try it.