Starting Chemo February 2009?

OK, my very smart husband has told me what i did wrong with the photos - trying again! Let me know if you can see this....

Oh, and here i am on page 40!!!!

Here's to your dear aunt Artemis.  May she rest in peace and help you from above.

Yesterday i woke up about 6 AM and i thought  OMG - i feel great!  I am on a Taxol Avastin regime wherein i go for chemo weekly for 3 weeks and then have a week off.  i had my 3rd treatment of this cycle this last Thursday and i felt the accumulative effects.. egads.. i felt like carp... at least till yesterday.  i walked down to church for the 6,30 AM Mass and was amazed to see almost 300 people there.  300!  Imagine all those people gathering to pray so early in the morning.. every day.

I am not so good at prayers myself unless I'm praying for other people, so it was quite heartwarming to talk to the many who told me they always prayed for me everyday.

I figured out how to juggle my chemo schedule so i can be off for EASTER week in which i play like every day once or twice.  it's really quite difficult to be the music when you feel like carp.  Now i have to convince my onc. to let me be flexible.  I suppose i'll have to pay later by having 4 treatments in a row.  it might reduce me to bed rest.

I talked with my mom yesterday and she asked me if i was still bald and told me she sent me a couple dollars in the mail.  made me laugh.

Jancie -  my sister suffers from Crohn's disease and has had quite a rough time over the years.  She got caught in a nonsleeping cycle..she had to totally quit taking all sleep aids because they were making her stay awake waiting to take more.. something like that.  I always used to have a beer at nite to make me drowsy.. now i drink chocolate milk.  it's like my body waits for that doze of milk and sugar to be able to sleep.  why it works i don't know, but it sure is delicious and fairly natural.  I hope you have an easier time upcoming.

oddly, i super buzzed my head expecting all my hair to totally fall out and it hasn't - in fact it seems to be growing back in.  why i cut it so darn short i don't know.. i'm such an idiot.

pic of the day for me is a drawing that my 9 year old made for me.  I just love it.  It's odd that she called me Mary rather than Mom.

Oh, I don't know what I am doing wrong with the photos, I can't even see them anymore....

apple - sorry you have been feeling icky.  But I am glad that you are feeling good today! Enjoy it. I find that I don't get progressively better - I feel crap,.then one day I wake up and feel totally fine. Love the drawing by your daughter - she is really good.  I unfortunately, am due for chemo Easter weekend. Also means the inlaws will be down helping out. Joy. I already have the kids baskets all done, I am being super organised in case I am not up to it between then and now.

jancie - feel better soon! They don't say this stuff is culmuative for nothing....

Sue - thanks for the Taxatore advice, I will let you know how I go. I will be glad not to be throwing up tomorrow, as I have for the FEC.....you watch, I will be the one that still throws up! 

Well, I have just cooked up a storm to get us through the weekend. Hoping I am not bed ridden....!  Well, I gotta go change my sons poohy diaper....he's 3 1/2 and still not toilet trained! He is starting Kindergarten in September, and I keep telling him he can't go until he goes on the toilet, but he is not convinced.

Kat4Pink - I used both and had allergic reactions to both.  I can't say that either one of them made me sleep but the Ativan they tell you to take every 4 - 6 will make you sleepy. Ativan is in the same family drugs as valium hence it tends to make you sleepy.

The only take home drugs I have been given are for nausea.. My onco doesn't give the oral steroids, or anything else.. I get everything I need in the IV bags he told me. I did have several days (like 3-4) of feeling like I was crawling out of my skin.. like I couldn't get comfortable.. back and forth from couch to bed and felt like I was going crazy cause I was tired but couldn't relax.. I am going to act the onco this next go around if I can take some of the Xanax that my surgical onco gave me when I was freakin out about having bc.. maybe that will help with that feeling???? I am trying to look back on those 4-5 days that were bad and see what I can do the next round to make those s/e better.

Had my bloodwork done today and will know tomorrow (leave in a small town and 3 hours away from treatment center, so gotta wait overnight) how my wbc and rbc are doing.. said a quick prayer over the vials of blood after the nurse took them from me!

XO

Kathie! I've been on all of the antinausea meds out there (with the exception on a few).  Emmend in the best (for me) hands down.  The last 2 cycles I added in a kytril patch~ you put it on 24 hrs before chemo and leave it on for a week.  Then.... things get tricky.  The combo of the drugs listed above seems to get a handle on that 1st oh-so-violent... my-God-I've-been-poisoned experience I had for AC1  Much better... however, then we have delayed nausea and breakthrough nausea.  For delayed, for whatever day that is your last emend... that afternoon, start taking somethin around the clock: anzemet, kytril (if you don't have the patvh, or zofran).  Breakthrough nausea occured during that 1st 48-72 hrs or so.  A the smallest hint of unease in your tummy, TAKE SOMETHING: zofran, kytril (if no patch is on), anzemet.  All of this won't stop the wretching but it will stop random puking.  Now for nausea:Itake ativan anound the clock for the 1st few days.  This round I've added marinol...

Comazine and phenergan are "little guns" in the cancr worlds.  They might have a place for breakthrough neasea but if you are on "A", you need a "bigger gun" in your gun collection.

So far, so good right now but as you all know, this could turn as any minute.

{{hugs}}

Michele

I have my fingers crossed for you Michelle!

I also got a Kytril IV for vomitting, as well as pills for 3 days. They cost about $100 a pill!  Also had Stemitil and Dexasone. And i still threw up1

It sounds like latey there will be competition for my vomit-queen crown.  I'l have to look back and see who's in the running (or easier still you can nominate others AND yourselves!)

Judging will be based on:

1. # of times in a 24 hr period. Unproductive wretching counts if is bad enough for your DH to ask if you are OK.  Wreching in public counts triple especially if pepple stop and stare.

2. # of drugs attempted (legal or illegal) to alleviate the misersy of nausea/hyperemesis... pls don't list the illegal ones. A count will suffice.  You can list the legal ones.

3. How long it lasts2,3,4, *8* days.

extra points are up for grabbs if you puke in the aisle of home depot or the grocery store.

extra points is you've ever called the triage nurse in hysterics over puking/nausea/wretching

I really need to get rid of this before my Taxol treatments start... So ladies if you think you have what it takes... please run!!!  Ill send you a crown!!

lol I am thinking Michelle has been popping the pilgrim pot pills!

I am pretty good now, but I just am trying to figure out a way to not go through that hell of the first 4-5 days again.. Guess there really isn't any getting around it is there? If Compazine is a whimpy drugs, then why the heck did they send me home with it? Shesh!... so Zofran is stronger? What about just taking them both dang it! lol

I have TAC then a 21 day break... so I go every 3 weeks not 2.. I am thinking that will help me out in the long run since I will have an extra week then most of you for my body to recover.. am I thinking right about that?

Also, is the first the worse or the easiest? I guess that it probably different with everyone also huh?

Webbie - gorgeous daugther!!!!

Kathie - my first was the easiest, but others find it the hardest, so you won't know until next time. Hopefully it was the hardest and it is all plain sailing from now on.   Tell your Onc about the SE's though, they will always have something in their arsenal to help. Mine is really strict about me telling her if things are bad, and also about taking the medication if needed, and not trying to "tough it out" as I am inclined to do.

I think my 2nd was the hardest, but then I might just have known what to expect after #2. But, I have said to my husband that Chemo is about the least fun I think I have ever had...

Artemis:  I am sorry to hear about your aunt.  This is such a hard time to lose someone you love, I still "talk" to my mom, and like to think she is helping me get through all of this and is watching over me.

I went back to the local ER last night, my breathing got so bad, I was so scared.  They took me by ambulance to my hospital.  But, I do have some good news:  the blood clot in my lung is gone, it has dissolved.  The breathing problem is because of the pneumonia, which I guess I do have after all.  So I am just laying around for the next few days, and getting some rest. 

These blood thinners have caused my period to come back even though I just had it a few weeks ago.  Ugh.  So my week off from AC seems to be plagued by other SE's from the pneumonia and coumadin.  It still beats the nausea, though.

I found out that coumadin is actually made from rat poison.  Nice, huh?  One more nasty thing to go into my body.  I find that really disgusting, actually. 

Webbie:  those are really nice pictures, the shadows and the colors around your beautiful little girl are so artistic; I would frame those!

You know, for some reason the compazine worked really good for my nausea; now I never actually threw up, but am usually nauseous for most of the 2 weeks on AC, and it helped.  But I couldn't take it because of the racing heart, so now I'm on Tigan, which doesn't do quite as well for me.

Has anyone started Taxol yet, after their AC?  I am wondering if it will be better than the AC for SE's.  I sure hope so.

Judy

Kathie:  that's so funny, I had typed the same exact thing about who ever thought of ingesting rat poison, but then deleted it!!!    I totally agree....rat poison....yuck!  Plus the side effects include body aches and hair loss!  Just can't win!