I want to describe some of the less obvious effects of the chemo I am getting. Less obvious because it involves taste. My cocktail, as people refer to it, consists of mainly two drugs. Taxol, which I get weekly, and Carboplatin which I get with the Taxol every three weeks. With my first go around with this disease I was given 6 treatments of Taxol & Carboplatin together every 3 weeks. So after six treatments I was done. The new protocol for Ovarian Cancer treatment, at least in my case, is the weekly Taxol in between. So where I had a break for a couple of weeks, not this time around.

This past Thursday was my second treatment, only Taxol. I tolerated it well on Thursday and Friday, but noticed on Saturday afternoon that the same metallic taste appeared and remains with me this morning, Sunday March 16th. The metallic taste is easily explained with Carboplatin because it is platinum based drug. I looked up the side effects of Taxol and found I am so lucky to have a second drug which also produces “metal mouth”.

So as a drummer, I am opening my mind up to new and more hard rock options to music, in that Heavy Metal will be a part of my daily life for the next 20+ weeks. Blink 182, here I come!