December 2019 Chemo Club

chelsea1

Well, here we go. I started my journey today with chemo, the first of 12 weekly infusions. I'm getting Taxol and Herceptin. I was very anxious but the nurses were wonderful and put me at ease. They were so experienced they could answer all my nervous questions. I actually got Herceptin first because you don't need to wait 30 minutes after the premeds (benadryl, zofran, steroids, and pepcid) with Herceptin. The first infusion takes 90 minutes but all the rest, every three weeks for a year, will be 30 minutes. Taxol, which usually takes an hour, took a little longer today because they wanted it to drip slowly at first to see if I reacted to it in any way. The only thing I felt was a little warmth when they first started the Herceptin, but that might have been the steroids or benadryl they had given me in pill form. Otherwise I was fine.

I arrived with a rolling suitcase with a Trader Joe's bag which contained NatraCare cold therapy socks, 2 pairs of Icinger gloves and frozen fruit bars. I needed a suitcase because I just got my port implanted yesterday and the doctor said not to carry anything over 10 lbs for the next 10 days! I got most of the ideas of what to buy from these discussions and I'm so grateful. It didn't work perfectly this first time, but I'll be better prepared the next time. It turns out the TJ bag wasn't really insulated, so I have to get a better bag. And because Taxol wasn't the first infusion, nothing was as cold as I wanted when I needed to use it. The fruit bars had all melted but the nurse gave me a cup full of ice to use instead. Unfortunately, with the Icinger gloves it was hard to pick the cup up until I realized I could slip my hand out of the glove, reach for the cup and then put the glove back on. Also, I wasn't smart when i bought the slippers. I bought one pair an an extra set of inserts, but the instructions say the inserts must be put in the freezer inside the slippers. Since I didn't have a second set of slippers, I didn't bother freezing the extra inserts. I'm going to see if I can exchange the extra set for a second pair of slippers with the inserts. Not a big deal but I am anxious to prevent neuropathy.

I feel okay as I'm writing this now. The nurse said I'll probably be okay tomorrow but might crash big time on Friday when the steroids wear off. I'm planning on resting this weekend. I did make the decision to get my head shaved tomorrow since I didn't want to cold-cap and my hair falling out is inevitable. I wanted to control at least one thing in this process. And to make lemonades out of a whole lot of lemons, I bought two really cute wigs, one of them at blonde! At 71, I'm ready to see if blondes really do have more fun!

This is a week of a lot of firsts for me and I would love to hear from other December chemo sisters. Let's go through this journey together. I think it's wonderful to have a safe, intimate space to talk about experiences and feelings, and to help each other through this!

margo53

Hi Chelsea,

I had my first treatment Monday of this week.

I’m also interested in preventing neuropathy, so I took a frozen ice pack. It’s really big and I got it from PT when I had hip PT. It worked great for my feet and stayed cold the whole two hours....for my hands I took two small bags of frozen peas and that worked great also. No cold capping.

Yesterday I was just tired and my face was flushed, but today has been very hard. My mouth is sore, mostly my tongue and things are tasting weird. But the biggest thing today has been the brutal bone pain from the Neulasta. I’m taking Claritin but it doesn’t seem to be helping. Hopefully will be better tomorrow.

chelsea1

Margo53, thanks for joining this discussion. It sounds like you were smarter in your choice of cold paks. I'm glad they worked for you. I see you're getting Cytoxan and Taxotere. Are you going every three weeks? I really don't know the difference among the different drugs, so I'll be anxious to see what happens on Days 3 and 4 with Taxol. I hope the worst is over for you and that you feel much better from now until your next infusion. Please keep us posted. I'll post as I get through the week.

margo53

Thanks Chelsea.... my treatments are every 3 weeks,for a total of 4 in all. Taxotere is in the Taxol family, it’s just a newer drug. Still having a lot of bone pain today. Did you get Neulasta? I think I’m going to ask for something else next time, since there are other drugs that do the same thing( I think). I’m going to get my head shaved next Tuesday, I understand the control part and I hope mine doesn’t start coming out before then.

Are you having any side effects

chelsea1

I felt a little woozy this morning but that went away after a couple of hours. I’m anxious to see how the rest of the week goes so I’ll know what my good/bad pattern will be.

I‘m not getting Neulasta apparently because the risk of a decrease in white blood cells is low with Taxol. They’ll keep an eye on my blood cells, though, to make sure they stay good.

I did get my head shaved today. For some reason, it didn’t bother me the way I thought it would. I guess I have bigger fish to fry and I just can’t worry about something which will take care of itself in a few months.

Take care. I hope tomorrow is better for you. I guess we have to do this one day at a time.