Starting chemo August 2017 - would love some moral support!

KByTheLake

Rdeesides--love the wig! I think you look gorgeous!

PauletteK--congrats on finishing your last AC! That is a huge milestone!

Clearpath

Rdeesides - it really is a beautiful wig. PauletteK - good luck and congrats on completing AC! I completed AC#3 on Wednesday- had a rough day yesterday with my stomach but feeling better this morning. Hope to be able to leave the house today.

I will be starting Taxol after AC. My center says I need to bring my own ice if I want to ice my hands and feet - all they will provide are basins. My MO is supportive of icing with Taxol although she says it doesn't work for everyone. Would appreciate any tips for icing supplies - for example - I was thinking of ordering waterproof socks which they have on Amazon. They have icing mitts for hands on Amazon but they are expensive and didn't get great reviews. Any suggestions please

SusanGA

Rebekah. You look gorgeous. It gives me hope. I bought a few wigs and the wig guy told me to use a small amount of dry shampoo to dampen the shine. It worked for me. Sprinkle it on and shake it out.

I bought a human hair wig and I look like Morticia. I have to get it styled. I'm actually kind of embarrassed to go into the salon. I need to get over this stuff. In the scheme of things.....et

Cherry-sw

Redeesides, It looks very much like your hair on your avatar picture, I would not be able to tell the difference

Travel_Girl

Susan -- have you tried a wig shop that specializes in cancer patients to do the cut/style? They are use to our situation and even when I feel fine, I can sometimes break out into tears . Luckily I live in a state that pure CBD oil is legal and it can take the edge of things like that. Google cancer wig places and try to go there - it will help you fear. No, you don't have to get over it! And find a friend, they want to help -- they can be your voice and distract you in this situation.

Ree - your wig looks good! Your daughter is young, listen to your friends - style is great for your face and looks close to your natural look you posted on your first chemo pix.

PauletteK

Clearpath - I read about the hand mitts from Amazon the reviews aren't good people actually said bag of peas will do better job that stop me. I asked my ONC he doesn't think it helps. But I really worry about my hands, I met with another women who finished treatment yesterday in my infusion center she told me she didn't use icing. Yes her fingers got numb but it went back to normal when it stopped. I'm thinking to ice during the texol by using bag of peas for my hand. Will use a cheap plastic gloves to protect my hands. I haven't thought more for my foot.

Day 2 - slept really well just woke up hope today is a good day !

Cherry-sw

sweetp6217, you win! I am absolutely sure your chicken stock is delicious. All I do is to buy a chicken, cook it, strain the broth, add the veggies and eat it.

VL22

R - the wig is awesome! Mine looked great day one when the woman styled it, not so much in my clumsy hands! My hair is a mess - I shaved it to a 1/4 inchthankfully, but I still look like a molting chick. I admit to having a complete cry fest over it the other day in the shower after a day in Universal Studios with my family (I wore a bandana and baseball hat). The meltdown was complete with "why me", "life isn't fair " and "will I be alive in 3 years" - i guess I thought I was done with these. But I pulled it together like we all do, because we are amazing!

Anyone else always hungry

When I get back to Philly, I'm making soup!

VL22

Paulette - glad you're done with AC! Is it a 2 week break before Taxol starts

Kimberbir

rdeesides your hair looks wonderfful!!

rdeesides

Has anyone lost their eyebrows/eyelashes? Is that a definite thing and when does it happen

rdeesides

VL22- I look like a molting chick too! And I dont make a very cute boy with my buzz cut. Hang in there. Ive had a few crying jags too. I think it's inevitable. I bought two identical synthetic wigs with the hope I wont have to style toi much because I hate styling hair

R

PauletteK

rdeeside- my eyebrows are getting thin lashes still here. Not sure what happens after taxol. My niece and I are talking to do microbalding eyes brows when I'm done with all these treatments we even talked about new undercut hair style since I buzzed my head already.

DodgersGirl

rdeesides- I lost most of my eyebrows and about half of my eye lashes by the time I finished Taxol

PauletteK

DodgersGirl- how are you dealing with texol? I will be starting in couple weeks getting kinda nervous.

DodgersGirl

PauletteK- I finished 12 weeks of Taxol on 8-16. In a lot of ways it was easier than AC but, for me, Taxol had its own set of SE. Started out with bone/joint pain but that was managed with Aleve and didn't happen each week just the initial weeks. Had 2 mouth sores during the 12 weeks and made sure to rinse mouth with salt/water/ baking soda after eating and used Blistex's Kank-A directly on the sore. Sinuses dried out really bad and that SE still lingers. I used Ocean saline spray and Ayr Gel to try to keep nose moist. Mouth is still very dry and I use Biotene moisture spray and ACT dry mouth lozenges to help moisturize. I iced hands and feet and didn't have nail or neuropathy issues until was almost thru Taxol. I am attributing this to being alone the last 2 treatments so icing was harder and I didn't get ice on top my hands like other 10 sessIons. Ended with brown patches of under fingernails and they were SORE for a while. Still have neuropathy in the ends of 4-5 fingers

Benadryl pre-med made me drowsy and made my legs feel ansy during treatment. The pre-med steroid kept me up all night of treatment

I was fatigued but found the more walks I took, the better I felt

No nausea and wasn't down for days like AC

White blood cell counts went up most weeks on Taxol but red blood cell counts went down. Think that is why I felt fatigued

rdeesides

I wish I would have done the microblading before all this started. I'm nervous about Taxol too. Hate the way Benadryl makes me feel and definitely don't want the neuropathy. My hospital doesn't support icing so will need to figure it out on my own. I also go to treatments by myself, so I won't have any help with icing. I do think the concensus is that it's easier though so I will hold on to that thought.

Cherry-sw

I am having those crying parties every day, cannot believe it is happening, getting sad like in no time. One of the women in Triple positive thread mentioned that 80% of bc patients end up with PTSD, I was wondering why not 100%? And PTSD is not depression, she said when she was offered anti-depressives, it should be treated differently. And as for me, I do not want to have any PTSD treatment, I do not want to have any PTSD at all, but no one asks me what I want, all of us are just on this unwanted journey.

Just venting, Cherry

SusanGA

Thanks travel girl. I'll look into that.

R if I could be guaranteed to look as good as you I would not be so worried.

Yes, yes I am always hungry. I started out skinny but I am grateful that I am not going to loose more weight.

My neuropathy has mostly receded. It makes me hope that it was just caused by my excess blood sugar. Please God let that be. I am going to ice. A little different this time just in case. I have decided to just use ice water. Another member on BCO says she was advised it do it that way.. she has no neuropathy.

Ghee I haven't figured out what to do about my eyebrows yet. I'm figuring just the brow filler but it may not be enough.

I used the recumbent bike instead of the treadmill today and was shocked to feel how weak my legs were. I must admit to feeling fatigued. I can feel some crying jags coming. It will be good to let it out

Cherry-sw

DodgersGirl, was is weekly Taxol? I am having my third infusion on Monday, would like to know what to expect. Cherry

DodgersGirl

Cherry- yes, weekly Taxol. My infusion day was Wednesdays so I missed work a few Thursdays from not sleeping Wednesday nights. By Tuesday, I felt pretty good and the last 2/3rds of Taxols found that Tuesday-Thursday were my best days with bone/joint pain starting on Saturdays during weeks I had that SE

marooshka

Rdeesides I think the wig looks great! My 8 year old was the same. I came home with a wig feeling pretty good about it. I had taken a friend with me who was really good at asking the stylist the right questions and making sure it wasn't too "coiffed" and more my style. Then I show my daughter and she gives me this crooked smile and said " Well, in MY opinion, it looks sort of, well, not so real?" then quickly added, "but it's a good one Mom!" Ha! I guess I will do my best. It's hard to just assume confidence but I think that makes a big difference. The wig stylist also recommended dry shampoo. Aveda makes a spray that supposedly dulls the shine and doesn't hurt the wig.

Regarding eyebrows, I got some Latisse per recommendations by a few friends and acquaintances. They used it on their brows and lashes and were able to keep enough of them to look passable. My MO's office said that "due to possible infection they recommend not starting until after chemo" but my thoughts were that if I'm using the fresh brushes, I don't see any heightened risk and why not try. It takes a while to work, but I have heard some good things about it.

Ditto on the tears! I was holding up pretty good because I think I was just marching forward, but I was on a walk last week and just burst into uncontrollable tears. Luckily I had a giant hat, sunglasses and tissues with me. It actually felt good to get it out. Then the next day doing dishes I completely lost it again and just cried in the sink until I was done, then put on some music that makes me happy and faced the day. I'm hoping that will tide me over for a bit.

PauletteK

DodgersGirl - thank you for the sharing I planned to bring small bags of frozen peas to ice my hands, they have ice in my center but you have to ask them. So I might only can ice my hands during texol time. I'm not sure what to do with my feet yet still toying should I do it or not.

Taxol got mouth sores SE sucks. I got my mouth sour on my #3 AC glad it was only one but took long time to heal compared to normal days. I hate this little sucker

When I saw my piano teacher last Thursday I can't help to burst out crying. I held it for long time because I don't want my husband to see my worries. This is such a lonely journey but I know we will get to the end and we will see the rainbow. Cheers up!

DodgersGirl

paulettek- for icing my feet, I bought those ice socks on Amazon. I bought 2 sets of extra ice pads so they would last for the 60 mins of Taxol infusions.

PauletteK

DodgersGirl is this the one you get?

DodgersGirl

paulettek- yes. And I bought the 2 sets of extra inserts. I brought a small cooler with me with blue ice to keep those sock inserts frozrn

PauletteK

DodgersGirl- thank you so mich

rdeesides

Has anyone else on AC had their heart flutter or skip a beat? It happened to me round 1 and again round 2 on day 3. I mentioned to the dr but I am wondering if this is somewhat normal or I need to press the dr harder on it.

PauletteK

rdeeside- on my AC #3 I felt a little shortness of breath that's why I step back on my walk a little since then.

rdeesides

Yeah Ive had a much harder time with my walks. I'm still doing them but much much slower. Not to mention the heat wave we are having probably isn't helping. Dr asked if I could have been dehydrated when I had the heart flutter. I dont think I was.