first chemo done
Comments
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Hi Ladies...
Shannon ...what a great family photo...The diagnose section should be available for you to enter the information.... I got the wig from a local shop here in Sacramento. However once I found the color I liked I ordered it online. The brand name is Rene of Paris (Model: 2343 Gillian) and the color is Coffee Latte. I have two of them...one I had the bangs cut to cover my hairless eyebrows and the other I left with the long bob look.
Deb...Nicolas Sparks wrote..Nights in Rodanthe in which Richard Gere and Diana Ladd played in it. He also wrote..The Notebook and Message in a Bottle...books made into movies.
I have a friend reading the Twilight books and the movie is coming out...soon or maybe it is out...Not sure if I would like them....
Hope CaroleAnn comes back to post.....
Have a great day!!!!
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I seen that movie, it was good...Nights in Rodanthe..stumbled upon it by accident, but ya know, I don't like the movies they make out of Danielle Steels books..they're fokey and to me don't quite get the , whats the word I want here, the character or moods of the book..........
and for all those interested............
I HAD MY LAST CHEMO TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
He's ordering a CT Scan, gotta wait and find when that is....then the B.S on the 6th!
Hugs
Deb
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Congrats, Deb!
Good Luck with everything else. Surgery is a piece of cake!!
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DEB, so happy for you. Take is easy. Big hugs
Shannon -
Thamks Ladies and Carol after reading the horror stories on here about the dye they inject for the nodes and the guided wire I don't know if it will be a piece of cake...knew I shouldn't have read those threads! LOL.......but will get thru it!
Love and hugs
Deb
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Deb, I am so happy that you are done with chemo!! Wooohoooooooo!! My prayers are with you for your surgery too!!
I have 6 more Taxol rounds to go, each one takes a little longer to recoop from, this last one has kicked my butt and I have been fighting a cold too, so I have missed Mon, Tues and today from work
but am determined to make it tomorrow and half day Friday(I have chemo on Friday afternoons).On a positive note...my hair is growing back in pretty fast. Eyebrows are coming back in but so far, eyelashes are slow....but hey.. it's spring and I am looking forward to the flowers blooming(after next weeks snow) ECK!!!!!!!!!
This too, shall pass
Best of luck to all of you fighting your own battles HUGS
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Deb...CONGRATS!!!!! I heard your whaaaaawhooo all the way here in California....The node surgery is not all that bad...just know that they perform that surgery all the time and know what they are doing...GOOD LUCK....and take DS with you....as you wait for the dye to circulate...
Snappygoddess...good to hear from you...thats great to hear your hair is returning even with more chemo to go....I can't wait for mine to return after two more chemo sessions...You know they make some great false eyelashes these days...if you need them.
Spring is definitely here...and too nice to be indoors...I think I will go out by the pool and read finish reading DS....
Have a great day ladies....
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Hello, Ladies -
I am not sure if you could tell or not, but I am continuing to document my journey with a new pic. I have a lot of short, gray soft hair now and am even going hatless all the time now. The only downside is that people cannot seem to resist petting my head - I think an artifact of being short.
Anyway, congrats Deb on being done. I recall being there with you for your first treatment. See how far you have come ?!! Good luck with the surgery.
Shannon - Great family pic. Always nice to put a face with a name.
Everyone else seems to be doing great. Anyone heard from Salwa?
Jill
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Deb, for me... they didn't do any dye or anything like that. I had a biopsy immediately when they were diagnosing me... followed by chemo and then a masectomy. If they did any dye... it was after they put me to sleep.... so it really was on a pain level of 1-10 the worst pain was perhaps a 3.
That is the truth!! You will be fine. I would suggest for you to listen to some relazation tapes the night prior to surgery and also the morning of. My surgeon said I could even use an ipod if I wished... but I asked him what music he was playing in the O/R and he said 70's rock.. and I said, I can deal with that! It all matters. We hear when we are under. My dd works in the OR at Mayo.
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JILL,
We havent heard from you in a while, all must be well. Happy that your hair is growing so nicely, and you really do have the face for the short sassy style. My girlfriend from Alabama is in town who happens to do hair. We are making a visit to mom tonight for a short pixie cut to help tranisition as her hair is REALLY starting to come out now. I suppose it wont be long before the clippers come out. She says that this is the least of her concerns, but I know this must be a hard reality to face once it begins to happen. We will be waiting for Mondays labs to see if her WBC is up enough to begin cycle 2 on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed, we dont want to put this stuff off any longer than she has to.
Anyway......Hope everyone else is doing well today. CINDY and DEB, everything going alright?
Thinking of you all as always, Shannon
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Shannon -
You will find the hair thing is very personal in how everyone deals with it. For me, the shedding phase was worse than the hair just being gone (and thanks for the compliment... I will go with "sassy"). Others hold on to every last strand they can for as long as they can. I got my hair cut really short during the shedding phase - which I found out did not help ME much because it still got all over the place. So, I finally went to the beauty supply shop, bought a cheap pair of clippers and shaved the rest of it off. It was making me crazy. But, again, that was me. Others were quite different.
In actuality, the hardest part of losing your hair is the ultimate realization of this disease. It basically announces to the world that you have it. Intellectually you know it is temporary. But, for me the harder part was the "giving in" to this really happening. Just keep that in mind as you watch your Mom go through this.
As for the WBC, is she getting a Neulasta shot the day after chemo ? While I hated that thing almost as much as the chemo, at least it kept my WBC up. (Darn thing really caused me some pretty intense bone aches).
As for me... yep, doing pretty well these days. Work is very busy, but my energy level has increased to the point where I feel like I am ready to take on the world. Even my co-workers have mentioned something to me. It's nice to feel "back". (I tease my employees by telling them to "watch out" because the "bitch is back"... they just giggle about that).
Hope everyone is doing well. Happy Friday !
Jill
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Jill,
So happy that "the bitch" is back and that things are going well. On moms first cycle, they opted not to give the Neulasta because her counts were so good to start. They did not expect that they would drop sooooo low and they seem to not be returning too quickly. It is pretty much a given that she will be administered the booster after next treatment which may be postponed a week. We will just keep praying that her body does what it needs to and recoop in time to go forward. Mom was not up to the hair cut today and says to hell with it buzzers here i come. She is such a beautiful woman inside and out and I wish I could take all of this away for her.
By the way, how are the sole Herceptin treatments for you. Do you find that you are having any side effects at all? I ask because mom usually feels pretty yucky for lack of a better word on about day 3 after the weekly infusion. Mabye its just a combo of everything............
Anyway, Good night everyone and rest well, Shannon
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Shannon I'm fine..this last Taxol this past Tuesday just kicked my butt..all i have done is sleep since then I think. Be glad when it goes away and I feel human again.
woooo hoooooooooo Jill's got hair!!!!!!!!! You're almost to the point you were when I met ya! Lookin good honey!
Love, hugs and prayers
Deb
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Good morning, Ladies !
Shannon - Nice hearing from you. Tell your Mom that I am impressed with her resolve on the hair thing. More power to her. I was right where she was... the hell with it.. clippers here I come. For me, that was much better than hair all over the damn place. AND.. I am now living proof that it does indeed come back. (Just wish people would quit petting my head).
As for the Neulasta - it sounds like she should definitely get that. One word of advice on this... a number of ladies on this board found that a three day regimen of Aleve+Claritin went a long way to minimizing the side effects of that shot. I am no doctor, but I saw it work for a number of ladies - me included. I still got the bone pains, but they were diminished somewhat when I did the regimen vs. when I did not. Of course, make sure she asks her doc such that the meds don't interact with anything else. But, it got me through the Neulasta phase.
As for your Mom feeling yucky on day three.. .that is pretty standard. I suspect that is when the steroid has really run its course and is done. That is what we all called "hitting the wall". It usually happened on days 2-3 depending on the regimen and other factors. Your Mom is getting a lot of junk, so feeling yucky will definitely be part of it.
The solo herceptin has treated me pretty well. It takes about 2 hours to get the infusion, and I feel like I get hit by a truck the day I get it - I think largely due to the Benedryl they give with it. I always have to go home and sleep it off. But, by the next day, I feel pretty good. I usually get some drippy nose and my face breaks out a bit. I have had some GI side effects, but can't determine if that is due to herceptin or something else. Time will tell.
Deb - Thanks for the compliment. I think when I saw you, I had already had the extreme hair cut but no the clipping yet. So, you are right, I am just about at the same spot where you saw me before. It won't be long now that you are starting to feel "human". Just don't over do in the interim, OK ?
Jill
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HA! Jill, still the comedian huh? Me over do it? I ain't got the energy to get dressed much less over do things...that last Taxol kicked butt....I've gone from someone who used to sleep like 7 hours a nite to someone who sleeps 9 or more hours a nite, gets up for like 3-4 hours, sleeps for 3-4 more and can still sleep at nite. Of course the Lexapro and Chantix might play into that too....
Anyways, lookin good hon!!!! I've still just got peach fuzz, no color, not really growing that fast, but I imagine and at least hope that now that I'm done with the Taxol, it will start growing faster and my eyes will stop watering soon too!
Hugs!
Deb
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Hi Ladies....
Sorry I haven't been on much. I have my 7 year old granddaughter Meah here visiting. She is the one my DH and I raised for 3 years after my son died. It has been really busy and I just put her to bed so I could catch up on the postings.
Deb...sorry this last one kicked you hard...I am not looking forward to my next two cause I know they get worse as the last ones near.... I just get excited knowing there are only 2 more to go...and can handle it for two more times....I am going to take it easy this next round just to see if it makes a difference...I am thinking it doesn't matter but will test it to see.
Jill ...you give us HOPE and encouragement knowing the hair will come back. I let my bald head get exposed to my neighbors...and family because there is NO hair on it at all...just a gray shadow of sorts...LOL... I really freaked out my 3 year old grandson...when I pulled of my wig on Friday as it has been warm lately...I didn't think of who was around and when I pulled it off...His eyes got as big a saucers and yelled "No grandma...No" I tried to make fun and laugh and put it back on really quickly.... after a while he got use to the no hair on grandma...he realized I was still the same grandma.
Shannon...We do feel yucky until about 9 to 10 days after chemo then we start to feel better...we all have various side effects. I have been really lucky with NO nausea...but #3 had diarreha and #4 constipation. Also you may remember I had an infection and had a fever which antibiotics took care of. There always seems to be something new or different each time I get my chemo poison. Tell your mom just to take it easy and know she will get through it very soon. From my first session on I have Nulesta given to me the day after chemo and my labs have been good so far...Knock on Wood...LOL Every case and doc prescriptions are different...and just know that she should question her doc and if there are any different things going on with her body..not to be afraid and call the doctor...NO symptom or side effect should be ignored. She may think she is bothering her doc but that is what they get paid the BIG BUCKS for....to take care of us...
Well I am going to go to bed and get some rest...We have a big day tomorrow..(me and Meah)...pancakes in the morning...planting seeds in the garden...playing with our America Girl dolls and then go to a birthday party at a jump house...YEAH...I will be needing a few days rest before my Thursday chemo...
Love and hugs to all....
Cindy
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CIndy, thanks for catching us up, I wondered how the visit was going. Meah...what a beautiful name. You have a great time with her, but be sure to get some rest.
Just got off of the phone with mom. She sounds a little stronger this morning, labs in the morning. Keeping our fingers crossed that the counts have come up, next BIG dose scheduled for Wednesday. I have my first mammogram Wednesday so we shall see.
Have a great Sunday and I will be checking in soon. BELINDA(snappy) how are you doing? I dont mean to nag you all, but I get a little concerned when I dont read anything on my regular ladies for a period of time.
Til next time, Shannon
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Hello everyone
Labs came back good today so onward to Wednesday and cycle 2. Mom asked about the Aleve and Claritan regimen and they said no go. They advised her that this combo supresses the complete effect of the neulasta with its anti-inflammatory properties which I imagine is what lowers the pain involved. They told her to take tylenol.....we will see. I would be interestd to know what the other doctors opinions are on this topic and to what extent it reduces the potency of the neulasta. She is in a study group so perhaps they shot the idea down in the name of research. Anyway, I hope everyone is well this evening. Take care til next time Shannon
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Hi Ladies....
Shannon...tell your mom good luck on Wednesday...NO MORE SE's for her....LOL
Our visit with Meah was great...tiring but great. We sure do miss our little one hanging out with us. It really gets quiet after they leave.....and I cry every time. GRANDMA TEARS....
Hope everyone has a great and SE free week...I am going in on Thursday...then I can scream out ONE MORE TO GO>>>>>>>>>
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Well got the results of my catscan and they couldn't find cancer anywhere, even my lymph nodes were normal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO...............still gotta have the surgery tho...and radiation, but I can live with that!
Love
Deb
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Deb, what GREAT news!!!! Just what everyone was waiting to hear.
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Good Evening Ladies !
Shannon - Good news about your Mom in that she is moving forward with treatment. Bad news about the Aleve and Claritin. I have to admit being a bit surprised by that one. My doc was more than OK with it as were the docs of a lot of other women. My counts did not appear to be affected one lick by it. The difference is that Aleve is an NSAID and Tylenol isn't - so technically they are correct in the inflammatory response bit. But, I find it hard to believe it would affect that shot drastically. BUT... my situation may be very different from your Mom's. So, best to go with what the doc says. Good that you checked.
Cindy - Great stories about your visit with Meah. You sound like a great Grandma ! Go get 'em on Thursday ! I will be thinking about you.
Deb - GREAT news ! This is what we all shoot for. That is wonderful ! Makes all this worthwhile, doesn't it ? Let us know when you enter the surgery phase. Any news on when you get the port out ?
As for me... I am officially on vacation. Still got all these carry over days I have to use by April 30. So.. I am heading up to Philadelphia tomorrow to visit of friend of mine. She is quite a character and we always seem to get into trouble of some sort. I will do my best to stay out of trouble, but cannot guarantee that. Will be back in Cinci on Sunday. But, will be checking on you ladies. I am notorious for staying mobilely connected.
If anyone sees Salwa, would you let me know ? I am getting concerned we have not seen her for a while.
Talk to you ladies later.
Jill
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No no news on the port Jill...........I forgot to ask the mid level and I did ask the nuse, she said some people leave them in for 5 yrs others want them out right away....I told her I wanted it out last Tuesday when I was done with chemo...so no clue there
Will let ya know bout Surgery, go see her on the 6th to talk about it.........
Hugs!
Deb
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Morning Ladies...
Shannon ...how did it go with your mom?
Jill...thanks for the PM...and you were not intruding at all....it was a relief to be able to let it out with all the things I have going on. Life is full of bumps in the road and we all have come across one bump or another.
I ran into my onco nurse at Target yesterday. It was a surprise to see her somewhere else other than the chemo clinic. She was shopping with her granddaughter who loves Hannah Montana...as we talked about what she was shopping for... Aren't kids and grandkids just the best!!!???
Deb...that is awesome news....just want we all want to hear... and hopefully the port can be taken out.
I am thinking that I after I get scanned and the all clear signal I will ask for mine to be taken out too...you would think that if they had to do more chemo down the road we could also have the port put back in...could that be possible??? My DH and I kind of think so....I am not sure if I want to feel those three little nubs and see that large PIMPLE NIPPLE protruding out of my chest for 5+ years.. EEE HOELAY
Tomorrow is my chemo day....and I promise I will be a veggie and not try to run a marathon like usual.
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CIndy, thanks for asking. So far so good on todays infusion. She is in good spirits and doing very well with her new no hair status. She is really pulling off some great bandanna looks.
My mammogram was a breeze. I told the lady that I breast fed my son, so this little sqeeze was nothing.
Hope you do well tomorrow and will be checking in on you later in the week.
Everyone have a good night, til next time Shannon
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Cindy
I am hoping it can be taken out soon, think I will keep it in though till after surgery or have her take it out. With summer coming up I don't want that thing peeking out of my shirts nor do I want a constant reminder of the whole episode. and I would think it could be put back in, least I think I have heard of women who have had them reinserted due to infections, etc.
Hope your Chemo went ok today, is this the last or is the next one? I'm waiting for you to get done! LOL and no diggin in the flowerbeds today either or tomorrow for that matter, REST!
Hugs
Deb
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Hi Shannon...thanks for the update on your mom....I wear hats...not good at tying bandanas...and feel like a country girl if I wear them...LOL
Deb ...it's tomorrow and will be here soon enough....urrrgghhh...
I ate pizza last night and had diarreah...not good for this to happen days before chemo....My stomach is way too sensitive...
Have a good evening ladies...watching American Idol tonight...to see who gets the boot.
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Hello Ladies !
I am in Philadelphia now, and have so far managed to stay out of jail - which is no small feat given how my friend likes to get us into trouble. Luckily, the only debauchery so far is a little too much wine while watching "Lost". That show makes a whole lot more sense when there is wine involved.
Anyway, today it is shopping and movies ! Tomorrow is a spa day. I really like vacation.
Cindy - Good luck your chemo today. I am thinking about you. TAKE IT EASY. Got it ?
Shannon - Good news on the mammogram ! Glad you went. Very important.
Talk to you ladies soon !
Jill
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Ladies!!!!!!!!!
I miss all of you, the regular posts and all...............have a question...ya all know I did that Taxol x 12, I cant' remember who else did it this way........if any of you did, how long does it take before you're not so worn down and have to take a nap everyday because you're so sleepy? This is getting old...........
Jill you brat, wish I was somewhere on vacation! LOL, hope yer having a great time!
Love
Deb
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Hi Ladies....
Well I had my # 5 today...and shouted ONLY ONE MORE TO GO........Yeah...
There was another patient celebrating their last chemo...took pictures and had a little party in the community room. Can't wait...April 23rd...for me!!!
They put me in the private suite since I got there really early today...and it was nice cause I had my DH close the sliding doors so I could sleep after they gave me benedryl. They gave me liquid Emend and then CT ..it took longer today (3 hours) as they were very busy with patients for some reason. At 58... I was the youngest one there...even scarier...
My onco doc came in and visited with me...he said I looked really good and that he didn't think I would have any issues going forward and to call him if there were any SEs experienced. He assured me that this one would be harder on me...and maybe it wouldn't be since I know there is only one more to go. He said patients morale gets higher towards the end of the sessions and they begin to not notice any SEs or just deal with them. He said that he will prescribe a PETSCAN for me in about two months after my last chemo treatment then if its all good the ALIEN mini-BOOB will be able to come out...YEAH....
Tomorrow I go in for my $4,000 Nuelesta shot...yep it's $4k not $3k recently got the bill and looked at it closely. So I hope all goes well for the next few days...I will keep you all posted.
I did take it easy however we went to "In and Out burger" for lunch and then I came home and slept the rest of the day. Made MAC & Cheese for dinner and drank lots of water...now catching up on emails since I was out of it most of the day.
Jill...HAVE A BLAST...You deserve it and did I mention we are all jealous...
Deb...can't help you with your quest although I am getting more tired and sleepier lately now that I have had 5 sessions...roaming around some of the other posts...there are postive reactions to having their energy come back after they are completed....we can focus on that...once we are done...getting back to our health again. HANG in there girl...
Shannon...tell mom I am thinking of her and we can share SEs...
Have a great weekend ladies...Hugs
Cindy
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