Starting chemo January 2009?

BevR-Tears of JOY that your son is safe and coming home!!!

((((LisaLisa)))))-It is SO HARD a lot of the time, and especially when we know people who've died from this d...n disease. I've lost friends to cancer in real life, and I've been devastated by what I've read on these boards.  It's true that their story isn't ours, but the possibilities are still scary, especially for us not in the earlier stages.  Anyhow, HUGS HUGS HUGS to you. Your upbeat posts have really helped me through  lots of down times. We are all here for each other. Maybe I can get my daughter to teach me how to do facebook.

Hair, Hair--I think most Jan. Jewels have or are starting to lose it. I'm still holding on to a few straggles that I can't bare to cut. Hang in there, everyone!

Jess--loved the Dana Carvey church lady line. I'll laugh each time I put my wig on (which is still sitting on my dresser since I bought it--haven't worn it out yet).

Sweetpam - I believe the issue with fever is that when your White blood counts are low, usually around day 10, your body can not fight infection well.  If the fever is due to bacteria in your body they are afraid it will keep grown and you will become septic (I am not sure what that means but it is bad) .  If the fever is caused by a virus (flu, common cold) it is not so bad. At least that is how my doctor explained it to me.  I called in with a fever that may have been as high as 100, but differnt thermometers were saying different things, so it may not have actually hit 100.  They sent me to get a blood test and when they saw my WBC was only .13 they immediately began the process of admitting me.  They wanted to 1) keep me somewhat isolated and thus away from sorces of infection 2) drip antibiotics into me to help my body fight any possible bacterial infection 3) observe me to make sure the fever did not increase and try to determine what was causing the fever.  I would not take tylenol or anything before checking with the doctor.  That way they can accurately assess your fever.  Call your doctor and get advice on what to do.  Given that you are near the end of a cycle it may not be a big a deal but I don't know.  I know you don't want to go to the hospital.  Neither did I.  But if that is what you need to be safe than you need to do that.  You have to deal with what is, not with what you want it to be.  Otherwise none of us would even know each other.

Well, today was the big day, I had my hair shaved off tonight.  It started coming out alot on Wednesday so it was time.  When my hairdresser friend showed up at the door I cried for about 2 minutes and then got over myself.  I grabbed two fist fulls of hair and pulled them out just to show her and she said she had never seen that before.  Anyway, once she started buzzing off the hair it was no big deal.  I had her cut it into a mohawk and then had her take my picture, and then she shaved off the rest.  I just wanted the mohawk to post on my MySpace page.  My 22 yr old daughter thought it was hilarious.  Geez, you might as well have fun with it.  I think what surprised me was how cold my head is without hair.  I heard they had a meeting at my work on Friday and my boss told the entire staff (65 people) that I was losing my hair this weekend and for everyone to come in with scarves on Monday, to wear pink and to decorate my office all in pink.  How cool is that?

I go for my 2nd tx of TC on Thursday.  My sis is flying in from Oregon to be with me during this tx.  I'm looking forward to the visit.  I just hope this go around is much easier then the first one.

Good thoughts being sent your way ladies, you are all amazing women.

Janna

Pam you postd 13hrs ago so may be too late but I highly recommend you call the dr. right now. Going to the hospital as I  did after first treatment sucks but it is where you need to be to keep you from getting really sick while your WBC count is down.  Keep in touch. Patti

Lisa:  Sorry about your hard days.   I personally do not go anywhere on this board except to check on the January Jewels.  I am in no frame of mind right now to read about any tragic stories. I know they are out there and I am not trying to put my head in the sand, but I have to believe that all this tx is curing me or I would not be able to continue.  My DH noticed early on that I would get real down when I spent too much time on the computer and told me to stop. He was right.

Day 3 after 3rd AC and feeling pretty good.  Did not have bad SEs last time until day 4,5and 6 so not celebrating yet but I do appreciate each good day I have.

Hang in there Jewels.  We are doing it "one day at a time."

To all you just now losing hair...I was devasted when I lost mine and you know what I am kind of enjoying not having the hassle of washing, drying, styling everyday.  I spend more time on makeup now before going out and I could almost begin to like the hairless life.  I can even look at myself in the mirror now and have actually been seen topless by a couple of close friends.  My DH did not even see my bald head for a week when I first lost my hair.  It does get easier.

Patti

will have chemo #3 (AC) on wednesday. since chemo began, i've had two days when i felt queasy and yucky, but other than that, no side effects and have been feeling terrific. no side effects at all from neulasta shot (i take claritin 2x/day for a week after neulasta). waiting for the other shoe to fall and side effects to kick in eventually. dreading the rest of chemo, want all this behind me! all my hair is long gone.

re: protein - my dietitian said i need to have at least 52 grams of protein every day during chemo. he suggested half in a protein smoothie and the other half in one chicken breast/day. i get sick of the chicken (esp since i was a vegetarian for years before my diagnosis), so i also eat peanut butter with saltines, tostado with homemade pinto beans, lentil soup, hard-boiled eggs.

this is the smoothie i have every morning, and i include l-glutamine because my dietitian says it will help prevent neuropathy once i start taxol. i include creatine for muscle repair. i also take a B Complex every morning to help prevent neuropathy. 

1 cup organic plain yogurt - 1 scoop whey protein powder - 1 scoop l-glutamine, 1 teaspoon creatine -1 teaspoon Fibersure - 1/3 cup calcium-fortified orange juice - 1 heaping tablespoon ground flax meal - 1 heaping tablespoon organic flax oil with high lignan (got it at whole foods) - 1 cup organic frozen blueberries (super cheap at trader joe's)

good luck, everyone, with treatment in feb!

Pam- please check in and let us know how you are doing.

This hair thing is so weird. Two days ago my hair style looked as it normally looked except if I ran my fingers through my hair lots fell out. Now my hair style is long gone.  Most but not all of the long layers are gone and I look a mess. I am wearing a fun fuzzy knit hat my mom made me and it looks nice.  

Took DS sledding today with some friends.  DS (age 5) was worried about me sledding. He thought it might upset my stomach.  DH told that where I am in the cycle of treatment I should be fine.  DS said he "did not want to risk it."  I did end up going down a few times with him and them.  Very fun.  

Sweetpam - I hope you've called you Dr.  I started running a temp. of about 100.5 after my 1st tx and called as late at night. They had me come in the next day - I didn't have to stay in the hospital.  I really think I was still down a little from the bronchitis and sinus infection I had the week before that postponed my 1st tx.  While it really sucks to have to put something off  it would really be worst to go into it with a compromised system.

Sweetpam - I also think you should at least call your doctor.  Find out what he/she says.  You don't have to follow his/her advice but you should at least get it.  You will have to get a blood test before they will go forward with the next treatment in any case and it maybe that doing something now will be what will allow you to go forward on time.  Calling the doctor is not going to be the cause of your treatment not going forward, even though it may feel like that.  I know a part of me feels like if I had not called the doctor then I would not have had the blood test and would have just spent the weekend at home resting up and would not be getting nulasta this time around, but for all I know the antibiotic they dripped into me did fight off some bacteria in my body and thus I was fine and my blood counts bounced back.  Or maybe if I stayed home something that was not yet in my body would have gotten in and caused a serious problem. I will never know.

This hair thing is really something else.  I am shocked at how quickly it falls out.  Saturday morning I did not want to get it cut because I still looked like me.  Now it is Sunday night and all my longer hair is out, my hair is at least 3x thinner than it was,  my forehead is getting bigger and anywhere my hair parts looks sort of baldish.  I wish I had taken pictures day by day so others could sort of understand how shocking this can be.  I really thought it would take a week not less than two days to get to this point.  I am not sure that a short cut even makes any sense at the moment, maybe I should just buzz it all off.  

I tryed on my unstyled wig from ACS now that I don't have a thick head of hair to make it look like big hair.  It still looks funny.  DH just laughed when he saw it.  I am assuming it will look better after a stylist does something with it.  

Hey all!

Pamela--glad you're temps. down. Hope you feel better soon.  Did you have a break between AC and Taxol? I  have my last AC thank goodness on Thurs, and I'm doing 12 weeks of Paclitaxol (1/week).

Horselover--know what you mean about having sister coming to help. Mine promised to fly up from LA Weds for last AC, then called today and wasn't sure (which really added to my rainy day blues), then called to say she's coming. Hooray for sisters!

Ladyjane-I know what you mean about just staying to this thread. I get so obsessed with looking at the other strands. Learn some, but I've just gotta stop. It's truly a useless obsession.

Ddlatt--glad you're doing so well!!! I hope #3 goes as well. I've been a bit more tired and pretty emotional after the 3rd. I broke out in zits, which have cleared, but maybe there's some weird homonal thing going on. I've been in complete menopause for 3 years and haven't felt the PMS thing for years.

Well, gotta go in for another blood test tomorrow to check WBCs. They really bruised my arm last Thurs, so I might need to use the port, which I really just want to use for chemo. the port is convenient but I still find it somewhat creepy.

Cyber hugs to all you AMAZING JAN. JEWELS!! and thanks for helping me keep the faith.--kim

Gosh, I sound so vain but I'm starting to get worried that my hair won't last in the next 3 days. I have a presentation 2 days from now and chemo right after in the afternoon. I don't want to be thinking about hair right now. I wanted to wait until right after chemo to decide whether to shave it all off or try to hold on to it as long as possible.

Went out with my boyfriend this evening and the shedding was really irritating. He and I had a good laugh about it but the frequent cleaning up of strands started to annoy me at some point.

I'm "trying on" my bandannas every night since 2 days ago to get a feel of it and I'm starting to enjoy it since it keeps everything in place. I hope I get over this hair thing soon since it's starting to sound like an obsession.. :P

I'm so glad that I have all the Jan jewels sharing thoughts and ideas on this hair loss thing. It keeps me strong and gives me hope that eventually this will be a minor thing in this BC fight.. 

oops, didn't realize the post was from yesterday, was on the wrong page when I replied, sorry.  Hope all is well.

This morning I was very dizzy when I sat up.  Everything was spinning for awhile, not a very long time but noticably longer than when you just get up to fast.  I am also just slightly queasy today.  I don['t really understand this since I am at day 20 and should be feeling pretty normal, particularly since I have not had any noticable issues with with nausea so far. 

There is an organization in my area that trys to provide helpful services to people going through BC.  I applied and was granted some  help.  I chose 4 sessions of 3hrs of light house cleaning help.  Today is my first session.  I asked her to clean the kitchen, bathrooms and then if there is time to do the floors.  While she was doing this I changed and washed the sheets and straighted up. Now I am tired.  When she leaves I will nap.

Pam.. I am so glad to hear your temp went down.  And I totally agree that we should not be reading and absorbing everything in here.  It's a great site but there is a line you have to draw.  If the posts are making your journey harder for you, then, yeah, put the laptop down and back away . Hope everyone sleeps well tonight and has a great Tuesday.  I'm off for TX 2 tomorrow.  Better get to bed.