Xeloda: Queen of the Jungle

And there she is, generic Xeloda.

During my first appointment, the in-house pharmacist came to give me the run down on my new little friend. Being the big-pill-swallowing-baby that I am, I immediately prioritized things and told him I wanted the smallest version of this pill possible. He did not look amused.

Any rational person would have wanted to slap some sense into my petty, small-pill-swallowing-self, but he did not.

After inaccurately attempting to convince me the bigger pill wasn't that big (with the all-to-unreliable thumb and pointer finger form of measurement), he gave up and went down to the hospital pharmacy to see if they would let him borrow the 2 pill bottles to show me the pills in person. He was merely going above and beyond to keep me from having to take 20 pills a day (vs. 6). It was noted and appreciated.

Large pill = 3 pills x twice a day = 6 pills
Small pill = 10 pills x twice a day = 20 pills

Here is a situation where "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear."

"Pills seen in photos online aren't nearly as large when you see them in person."

It wasn't a hard sell, and the larger pill was ordered. It arrived a few days later from the CVS Speciality Pharamcy, and I'm in business. Turns out the big pills go down easy with a few swigs of chocolate milk.

14 days on. 7 days off.

I'm on a 3 week cycle now, and my Avastin infusions will follow suit. After 3 years of chemo every 2 weeks, I think I can get quite accustom to only being infused every 3 weeks. This is glorious.