Starting Chemo October 2012

Caitgrace

Hope all of you have a SE free day and experience a few laughs today!



I had the nurse book me a slot to get blood drawn here today though she notes it can still drop between today and Thursday treatment day.



I worry that our local folks will handle the port appropriately but know it would be worse to go all the way to STL and then have to come back and go again in a week. My obsessive nature has made me plan out my work so that big projects land when I'm at my best chemo wise but this is dependent upon me remaining on schedule. I know this is unlikely to be a perfect scenario but giving it the good try anyway...



Eh. Hoping for a good result on the WBC - high enough that even if it drops it won't put me in the worry zone before Thursday.



Today we'll celebrate my stepdaughter's birthday early as we'll be gone when it's her day; we are going to favorite sushi restaurant but I'll be eating off the cooked menu. Poo.

schoolmom

day after 1 infusion.  this morning my face is kinda blotchy with allergic looking patches.  going in for shot in an hour of neulasta.  I guess I will see what the nurses thing.  no allergic reaction durin infusion. 

CelineFlower

Cait... i miss sushi too!

night be4 my first treatment my sis and i went to an all u can eat sushi for luch!! stuffed ourselves silly... lol

is the sushi restriction, just for chemo time?

or is there the same restrictions for surgery and rad?

sonson

schoolmom- oh i hope you aren't having an allergic reaction to the chemo.  That's why they give you the benadryl and the steroids to try to keep that from happening.  But my face gets this flush like look like I've been out in the sun from the steroids.  It's not really blotchy.  It actually looks kind of nice.

Loubar-like the idea of putting your chair in the snow for icing...that may just work!  Made me laugh too. 

I know the idea of giving up alcohol doesn't sound pleasant.  Not that I was a big drinker before either, but I enjoyed it.  I can't drink now because my liver enzymes are high and my onc said no alcohol while doing chemo.  Also can't have ibuprofen or aleve or anything like that either.  Makes it hard on me when I have the neulesta shot.  It seems like an ibuprofen would help with the leg pain, but I have to suffer through it.  He has given me oxycodone, but I hate taking the hard stuff even more.  But for some reason he says it's better for my liver.  Go figure!  Just makes the big C that much more harder to deal with if you ask me.

Poke-you asked about the eye lashes and eye brows...and they say that you MAY lose them.  I think it depends on how many treatements you have.  You may not lose them at all.  So I know this woman who sold me my wig who had gone through 18 treatments and she didn't lose her eye brows and eye lashes until around the 12th treatment.  I just have very thin eyebrows and eye lashes to begin with and I feel like I would look freakish without them so I'm taking measures to save what I have.  If you have nice thick ones you may not have a problem.  They may thin out a bit, but you may not totally lose all the hair there.  I was never blessed with nice thick ones.  Even before the chemo I was painting on my eyebrows just to make them look thicker.  I guess in my younger days I over plucked...that's what I've been told anyway. 

nbnotes-I know what you mean about eating.  I have a hard time eating as well.  All the things that I used to love now taste horrible.  There are maybe two things that still taste the same and everything else either taste horrible or taste like cardborad.  I can eat the stuff that still taste like cardboard.  I don't like it, but I eat it.  The stuff that now taste horrible I've written it off for now.  I used to love coffee...hate it.  I loved ice cream or anything with milk in it...I can't stand the taste of anything with milk in it...yogurt, ice cream, creamer, etc.  Chocolate has no taste.  I could go on and on.  About the only thing I like is chicken soup and tea.  That's the only two things that still taste like they should.  I keep wondering when all of this is over am I going to have a strong dislike for chicken soup and tea?  I've heard other people on these boards say that whatever you eat while you are getting the chemo you will never want to eat again.  I'm not sure if that's true or not.  I haven't been on the other side of this yet.  There's a sugar habit I've been wanting to kick so I take sugary things with me to chemo in the hopes that it will cure me of my sugar habit!  Eh, if it works, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't!  Okay I'll stop rambling now!

CelineFlower

I wish i got a red glow... i get acne (or can-acne like my husband calls it)... really bad ...

oh and pls... keep rambling!

Poke

nbnotes: Sorry you've been feeling bad lately  Good luck with your schoolwork, I can't imagine studying on top of all the reading I have been doing about cancer and cancer treatments and everything else. Ugh! I haven't shaved my head yet. Try not to focus on pounds but on nutrition. It's ok if you lose a little weight, just try to eat what is healthy and eating a healthy, balanced diet alone may cause you to drop a few pounds. Don't beat yourself up, just do the best you can.

schoolmom: Hope you're feeling ok today, thinking of you! 

Raining in Sarasota; a good day to get caught up on all my housework before round two tomorrow am. 

Love to all.

Poke

Thanks also for the eyelash / brow answers ... I was curious! Mine seem to be sticking around for now.

sonson

CelineFlower-oh how I miss sushi!  And sorry...I wish you got a red glow too.  For three whole days while I'm on steroids I don't look sick!  I also can't sleep and feel like running a marathon and bounce off walls and such like tigger!  Ah, it's such a fun time this chemo stuff...NOT!

CelineFlower

ya its a trip lol...

its so much better with all of you around thats for sure..

Whden im with my sister , children or husband , i want to be sure they are ok too..

but with you all.. its ok, to just be ..and it feels like worrying about you.. is like worrying about me.. helping you, i like helping me...feels good

MsTori

Poke- praying for a symptom free, good treatment for you tomorrow. Yes! I've heard same about eyelashes and brows. Some keep them till their last tx. :-)



Sonson and Celine- sushi...mmmmmm,m! I didn't make it out to gorge myself before my treatments, so alas, it will wait. Sonson- I have the red glow from forehead to breasts! Lol for 2 days after. Then I go back to pale. Meh!



Nb notes- hard not to loose weight on chemo. I mean...yum, cardboard! Lol! So, I do cottage cheese and triscuits, chicken salad sandwich, whatever might sound good. And I just keep an eye on the scale. I am fluctuating between 10 pounds. Some have said the steroids put weight on them. But I think mostly from bloating. Hand in there. Chemo will zap your energy, eat protein any way you can in between tx's. also, spinach, red meat cooked well, all sources to keep hemoglobin up so you don't need transfusion. It tends to trend downward during each treatment. Mine was 10 this last time! Crazy! Feel better soon.

Toots

.........found a super website that do turbans made of jersey nice and warm in this frost and snow but really lightweight and they do matching/contrasting lightweight scarves - there is even a little bit on front you can put the scarf through really pretty!  Some hair still growing but a lot falling out at the front and sides back seems to be getting thicker and thicker!

Second dose of chemo on Thursday so nurse will be here tomorrow to take my bloods, great having it all done at home..............

Why does coffee taste like bleach?.........can't drink it and getting headaches from the lack of caffeine.........

Anonymous

Poke - Well, thankfully I'm the teacher so just doing the grading not the studying.  I have 7 online classes that I'm teaching right now, and this past weekend was just heavy on assignments coming in.  

Tori - I'm trying to get that protein in, but glad to know I'm not alone in struggling with that side  of things.   My hemoglobin today was 11.7, and that is actually up 1 from the day of treatment.   I have some autoimmunes that make it difficult for me to get certain vitamins or eat foods like spinach that have much vit c (needed to absorb iron) so I was glad to see it a little higher today.  Red meat after day 7 tends to work better than chicken so I'll probably try to eat quite a bit of that over the next few days.

Very happy that my WBC's were high enough that I wasn't considered neutropenic at all today - Woohoo!  I immediately had such a sense of relief. I didn't realize how worried I'd been that I was going to go low and have another problem this time. 

Poke

nbnotes: Oops! my mistake

sonson

Toots-wow wish I could get my stuff done at home!  And let us know the web site please!  I'm interested!  Coffee taste horrible to me too and so does diet coke which was my source of caffeine too.  I had to switch to tea.  Maybe that will taste good to you.  They have this Tazo tea called Awake that has almost as much caffeine as coffee does so it should help with the headaches...if you like it.  It's tolerable to me.  It's better than the headaches I was getting.  If you want to try before buying an entire box of it they sell it at Starbucks.  Not sure where you live, but there seems to be a Starbucks on every corner nowadays in most cities!

Poke-I hope treatment goes better for you this time around.  No bad SE's, no hospitals etc.  Wishing you all the best.

CelineFlower-glad you can feel like yourself here.  That's what we're here for.

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening.  I feel so good today I think I'm going to go to the gym tonight.  Take a spin class.  I've been doing this off and on all throughout treatment.  The further I get from a treatment the better I feel so I might as well take advantage of the days that I feel good. 

MsTori

NBnotes- that's a good lab value! Your rockin it!



Toots- ahh, it would be nice for home service to come in. I don't believe I've ever had so many appts marked on my calendar! Lol! Thank goodness coffee still tastes good! But the tea SonSon is talking about sure is yummy too! I'm a Starbucks fan and love my iced and warm coffee/teas. Yum.



SonSon- can you throw in an extra cycle class for me too? Lol!



I did look good feel better today. Got some free make up, but everyone talked and never really played with the make up. Still fun to meet we people.

schoolmom

Sonsan, I had an alergic reaction to the steroids, I think the drip not the pills I have to take for a couple of days.  They told me to keep taking them Wed and Thur.  I have been taking Claritan 24 hours but the nurses said I could use benedryl.  The light pink rash was on my face , neck and upper arms.  Most of it is gone but still some blotchy color. 

I took a before picture on the way to chemo...I will post it soon.

fight4two

Back from the CT scan.  These things are not meant for people on chemo!!  Felt so dehydrated, since I wasn't able to eat or drink after midnight.  My voice was so raspy when I got there!  And the barium drink they make you injest is SO NAUSEATING.  So, back to feeling nauseous... sigh... At least the only post CT instructions they gave me was to hydrate (haha!) -- so basically the same mantra.

Thinking good thoughts for you, Poke. Hoping your second tx goes smoothly and NO MORE HOSPITAL!!!

Poke

Thanks everyone! Stuff tastes bad for you guys throughout treatment or just the week after? Round two tomorrow and pretty much everything tastes normal to me as of like a week and a half ago. Maybe this is a cumulative effect? 

Trying to drink up tonight ... I found out today that my Abraxane is not approved by United Healthcare because I have to fail primary therapy for six months first. Awesome.

xoxo

marianelizabeth

Taste not so great all along for me. It has taken me weeks to figure out that I need to eat more during the day and less late afternoon and dinner. I don't feel so good when I eat much then and then maybe I sleep worse. Maybe by the end I will have it figured out! Ha!

alcb70

Good evening ladies! I've been visiting with my mom & cooking ahead for the rest of the week b/c of chemo tomorrow morning. Round 3 yay! Halfway there!

Poke-I cannot believe UHC is denying your Abraxane!  It should go through because you're having a reaction to it/not tolerating it! I've done countless PA's on meds and that's usually an automatic in!  Grrrr! Insurance definitely has it's positives and negatives!  Are they trying the Taxotere again?  I really hope you do well! Unfortunately, I felt worse after my 2nd treatment (more nausea and more fatigue). I know that isn't what you want to hear....but I will keep my fingers crossed for you.  I may actually have to switch to Abraxane because of neuropathy. I'm hoping not because I'm responding so well.  Right now my MO feels the benefits outweigh the risks.

I hope everyone has a good evening, and all those having chemo this week with me....NO SIDE EFFECTS!!! ~Andrea

Marlene18

I'm on day 2 after round 2 AC and feeling okay. Since my appointment was at 3:30 (and not 9 AM like last time), the impact of the IV steroids kept me up until 3 AM last night. The baby seemed pretty active to that point too. My skin is a little pale today (last time I was positively yellow by day 3 so I guess that's what I'll be waking up to tomorrow). Luckily, my taste buds haven't suffered too much - I continue to crave creamy foods but I believe that is pregnancy related. I remembered to keep eating my crushed ice throughout the treatment time so hopefully that prevents the fuzzy mouth I had last time.

I'm happy because I went out this afternoon and replaced my wig "Marie" with a less dog-chewed "Regan" that I think suits me better (since the lady at the first wig shop had kinda butchered the bangs on Marie anyway, which I did not even want). I'll try to claim the second one on my benefits next year, they cover one "prosthetic" per calendar year. Otherwise, I still think the out-of-pocket expense is worth feeling better each time I step out of the house for the next year or so!

Good luck tomorrow Poke, I hope your round 2 is 1000% better than round 1!

Caitgrace

Good morning ladies



Happy to report all my numbers came back good from my blood draw and they seemed to know what they were doing with the port access. My nurse says I don't need to repeat the labs in St. Louis as all the numbers are well into normal range. Felt good hearing this.



Marlene - I'm not a big wig enthusiast but this looks super sweet on you and super natural!



Birthday celebration went well with even the 13 year old joking about my cancer; was most worried about him as he seemed to disappear whenever it was mentioned initially. He also made it clear he was paying attention to my food restrictions etc. Such a sweet boy!



Missing out on the sushi was hard but know its a risk I don't need now.



Pushed myself a little too hard yesterday and really felt it when I got into bed all shaky after the president's speech. Looking forward to a nap in the car later.



Loving so hard on my family today -- hoping everyone feels the support of the people in their lives, including these women on this board.

sonson

MsTori-I barely made it through the spin class myself.  I was so tired I went to bed early last night.  Didn't find out who won the election until this morning!  Maybe that's the last one I'm going to do until after the chemo.  Maybe I'll start doing the easier water classes now.  I knew it would happen sooner or later.

fight4two-I had to do a ctscan when my liver enzymes where high and had to drink that contrast stuff.  That was so disgusting.  I had the hardest time trying to drink that stuff and not throw it back up.  I mean why do they give that nasty crap to chemo patients in the first place...it's just wrong!  And then they still had to put the die contrast in your veins as well...so why did they make you drink that nasty crap in the first place?  It seems like they just try to think up stuff just to torture us.  I know they don't really, but it seems that way sometimes.  Like the insurance problem that Poke is having...they just try to think of things to mess with us.  Let's see how much misery we can inflict on this person today...how much grief can we cause.  I'm sorry I'm on my soapbox.

And wow Marlene18 I can't imagine doing this pregnant.  Kudos to you...the baby and good luck with all of this mess.

Poke-about the taste thing.  My taste has completely gone.  It's really bad the first five days after chemo.  I have this white coating all over my mouth...maybe a bit of thrush...but it's not enough for my doctor to be concerned because I've asked several times.  Anyway the coating makes everything taste slimy for five days after the chemo, but then the coating flimy stuff goes away.  The ice chips do nothing to keep that from forming in my mouth.  It's just something I have to deal with.  And it's usually just for about five days then it goes away.  But then my taste never seems the same.  Most things taste like cardboard or it has no taste and then there are things that I used to love that taste absolutely horrible.  Your taste buds are a fast growing cell so that's why they get destroyed...although some lucky people don't seem to have a problem with it.  Maybe you're one of the few lucky people!

Sorry schoolmom you're having an allergic reaction...that just plain suxs!

halfcan

Good morning ladies,  I hope everyone got through the last night without too many se's!

Poke-I'm thinking about you today...I hope round two goes better than round one did for you!   With the insurance issues are you still having Taxotere then?  That just sucks if it is so!   As far as food tastes go I have been lucky it sounds like compared to some.  

Toots-nbnotes-I have been able to eat most things without a noticable taste difference.  My problems are more with drinks...coffee, ginger ale, juices.  They all taste crappy especially the first week and a half.   So, I suck down one cup coffee in the morning and then I drink tea.   So...weight loss hasn't been an issue for me ... in fact I have gained at 5 pounds already.   As the chemo nurse said to me ... the steroids will make you want to rip off the refridgerator door and for the first week after chemo this is true for me.  Nibbling on food helps with the nausea for me.

Schoolmom-I hope you are feeling ok today.  I know the first go around with chemo was a learning experience for me because you just don't know what se's may happen.  The first round for me the steroids had no effect but on round 2 I got all red in the face and puffy for a few days and also a nasty case of indigestion.  I know I am hoping se's are not cumulative!

Marlene-I like the "Regan" look.  I am not a wig person although I did get one just in case I want to wear one.   It feels silly when I put it on and kind of claustrophobic on my head.  haha

Hugs to all and wishing for a SE free day to everyone!  

MsTori

Regan- love the wig! You look awesome!



Poke- thinking of you and praying your chemo goes off without a hitch. And no SE. My taste buds are not to bad, a little off the first week, but then they recoup.



Sonson- I hear ya! But thanks for trying anyway. Just so awesome that you got up and went to spin class. I need to get my butt up and go walk. It's a bit chillier here in Florida than usual. So want to stay snuggled in chair. My little dog is cuddled by me all morning. :-) I didn't hear about election till this am too. :-/



Alcb- your halfway done! Yay! Praying for a good treatment and no SE!



Cait- so happy labs were good and you had a good time. :-)



As Cait said, you all are amazing women and we will get through this! Prayers for a SE free day.

Poke

You guys were busy last night. I'm in the chemo room ... Anyone else notice that the men all have hair?



Talk to you guys soon, almost done with round two! xoxo

MsTori

Poke- right?! Lol! I noticed that last week. Lol! Yay for finishing #2! And prayers for no SE!

sonson

Yeah, Poke, I noticed that too...what's up with that? 

Poke

Thanks everyone!!

Marlene, your wig looks awesome!! I'm jealous! I just sent mine back for an exchange. 

Andrea: Does your doc thing Abraxane is less effective? Now I'm worried!!! I don't want any weak-ass chemo! I was too sick to look at studies comparing the two and also it doesn't seem I have much choice since I landed in the hospital on taxotere  

I also got Emend today in addition to the Aloxi.

I got the Abraxane and I'm just hoping the manufacturer will agree to help me out.

A lady in the chemo room today had a reaction five minutes after they started her adriamycin. She turned bright red, screamed that her back was hurting, said she was going to throw up, and her blood pressure tanked. She kept screaming, "Did you get it out of me!!? Did you get it out of me!??" Felt so bad for her.

Why DO all the men still have hair? (Although mine looks thin but is still around.)

That's all for now. Eating some lunch. I've tried to motivate myself into a more vegetable heavy diet, and I also started juicing. My ANC was 0.5 last Monday and I was afraid I was going to get sent home today and it was 3!!! No Neulasta throughtout my whole first cycle! Hooray!! I only hope I can keep it up.

Poke

P.S. My fingers are all peeling (yuck) where I had that weird rash a few weeks ago. The nurse said she thinks it was definitely the taxotere, so I'm anxious to see if I get it again today.