Any Her2/Neu Starting Chemo in October?

Cristl, my Mom had her port in last Monday and her second chemo on Wednesday. All went well, and she is 78. You'll do great, really. The anticipation is the worst part. What chemo will you be taking? Taxol/Herceptin?

Thanks bluedasher for the welcome!

Mother78, Yes I think the anticipation of it all is horrible!!  I will be taking Taxol/Herceptin weekly for 12 weeks and then Herceptin for the remaining part of the year every 3 weeks.

Hi Kimmysue

VERY glad to hear you are feeling well.  I am starting Taxol/Herceptin this Friday and am so scared of it all.  I understand about staying about from the boards.  They help so much but sometimes I need to throw my computer out the window.

I hope you keep feeling good!

Cristl

I think you are correct, Angie. Everything I have seen puts HER2+ at 25 to 30% of breast cancer. But it is aggressive so having a vaccine to prevent it would be great news.

I'm not sure if I have posted in this thread about how my first chemo went. The short story is - my body on TCH needs something to bring the white blood cell count up. Having neutrophils go to nearly zero (neutropenia) isn't fun. I'll be getting Neupogen for my further treatments. I posted more on the TCH thread in chemo and some on the October 08 thread there too. I'm still feeling a little weak but heaps better than I was from day 3 to day 10. It was hard to even sit up for an hour or more.

Today I took a little walk and it felt nice. Though the reason for the walk wasn't that nice - our roof leaked a bit during the last rain storm. The time since we last replaced it and an inspection say it is time to replace. We live in a large sprawling one story so that costs a pretty penny - but we knew it was coming so the money has been saved for it. So the walk was with the roofing contractor to look at other ones on our street to help decide which product to go with. 

Welcome mattscot !

I am on Taxol/Herceptin (then Herceptin for a year), and also a lady who works full time out of the house.  However, while the total treatment time is the same as the weekly thing, I opted for higher doses less frequently (once every three weeks).    I know a couple other ladies doing the weekly Taxol/Herceptin thing.  

I will see if I can get you hooked up with them. 

Jill

Day 13 and for the first time since day 3, I feel well and normal. It has been a very dark deep pit. I hope that giving me neupogen next time keeps me out of it. 

No sign of hair loss yet which leaves me with a bit of a quandry. I'm at a business meeting all next week. Do I buzz it tonight so it is short for falling out or do I go on my trip with it long? At this point, it might be fine through the week or it might start falling out in the middle of the trip. My hair is thick and curly so my hats bought for hair loss won't fit well until I lose a lot or get it buzzed but I can use scarves next week if needed. I think I'll leave it as it is now, about 5", and see how it goes. If it really bugs me I can get it cut mid-trip.

KimmySue, when you say your WBC got to a 2, the usual measurement is in thousands per microliter, uL,, so that means 2000. Usually around half or more are neutrophils (the bacteria and fungal fighters) and a normal WBC is around 4.5 or higher so a normal level of neutrophils is over a couple of thousand per uL. My lowest neutrophil level was with a WBC 1.7 and neutrophis at 7% of the white blood cells so I had around 100 neutrophils per uL. I was told that it is the low neutrophils that caused the problem. Your WBC of 2 wasn't much different from mine but maybe you had a better percentage of neutrophils.

Mattscott, I'm planning to work full time through chemo (TCH). I'm an engineer working from an office in my home when I don't have business trips so I can take breaks as needed. My boss is flexible about which hours I work. That didn't work out well this time. With the WBC/neutrophil problem I had about 5 working days when I was able to do very little. I'm hoping future cycles will be better since I'll get Neupogen right away. (Not everyone needs Neupogen or Neulastin; some oncs use it for everyone anyway and some, like my onc, start out without it and add it if there is a problem.) My job involves travel to meetings that are fixed in time a couple of years in advance. Fortunately I was able to schedule my chemo so that 3 of the 4 meetings that fall during chemo fall in the low SE 3rd week of the cycles. The other one my boss will cover. He will also understand if I have to skip one of the other meetings but I'd rather not.

If your doctor doesn't advise Taxol plus Herceptin, you might ask about TCH which was tested against AC-TH. It is about as effective with less heart impact and lower short term side effects.

It will be easier to work full time during treatment if you work for someone who can be flexible if you have a bad cycle. 

I just had my first chemo (Taxol/Herceptin) Friday, November 7th.  I will be doing it weekly for 12 weeks and then Herceptin every 3 weeks for a year.   My next one is this Thursday, November 13th.  I have felt ok this weekend but haven't been sleeping so the stress of it all is getting to me.  I am also single and working full time.  I am not looking forward to getting up and gong to work tomorrow.  HOpefully I can get some sleep tonight.

Hi, Cristl - Great to hear from you.  Sounds like you weathered the first one pretty well.   The other thing that may be keeping you up is the steroid they ask you to take ahead of time and that they give you in the treatment (at least they do this for me).  That darn thing makes me hyper, but I know it is a good thing.   Once it wears off (usually takes a day or two) I can sleep better.

That said, I do take (low dose) Xanax as well before bed.  Works like a dream for me !    

Please let us know how things work out for you.  Take care. 

Jill

HI All,

I did have a reaction when they started teh Taxol - I started to itch across my chest.  Strange.  So they stopped the Taxol and gave me MORE benedryl and MORE steroids and then restarted it.  After that things went ok.  However, maybe I had way more steriods that I needed and that has been causing my insomnia???  I am a bad sleeper anyway and normally take an ambien.  I was even staying up through the ambien.  I had my arm port put in last thursday so that is still sore and also keeping me up.  They said that would take about 10 days to feel a bit better.

Next treatment this Thursday!

Jill, they did give me the cream to put in the port site an hour before I go in.  That needle they used looked like a nail!

Could the hip pain have been Nuelastin or Neupogen bone pain?

I haven't had any breathing problems but my heart sometimes races - I assume that is the Herceptin.  

I hear what you are saying about the accumulation of discomforts. My port went in almost 3 weeks ago but the spot on my chest is still a bit tender. And I've got bursitis in the shoulder on the non-cancer side - it probably would have been cleared up by now if the cancer treatment didn't interfere with therapy. For me, it is all pretty good during the day but difficult to find comfortable sleeping positions at night - especially this week in a hotel without my own pillows.