Starting chemo January 2009?

ladyjane: I was told motrin only during taxol as other things will hurt your stomach. Plus atavan at night for me as well. It worked until round 8. Eva

Bev--One of my last 4 eyelashes came out on my mascara wand today. Yes--thank goodness for glasses!

Patti--Good luck tomorrow! Glad you had a good time with the students at the beach--sounds lovely!  I worry--eating organic and exercising and being positive didn't keep me from getting cancer, but I feel like the only things in my control for the future are food, exercise, and attitude (and I guess taking Armidex forever).

Jess--Glad you feel good about your talk with the rad onc. and that he is optimistic. That's a great word! I go for my verification appt friday, but I still don't know when I start.

YearoftheHat--HOORAY. I'm giving you a big toast on Friday!!!!

Lisa-that summer camp sounds great. I still haven't figured out something for my 14 yr old. I bet she'd love to be a CIT at a place like that...

Eva--Glad you checked in. Good luck--you're almost there! This is the 1st Friday in 12 weeks I won't be going in for TAxol!!

Husbands....sig. other's.. About 1 hr ago .I blew up after dh asked me when dinner's ready after he didn't call to say when he'd be home from work. Then I scurried around the kitchen trying to reheat leftovers and a bottle of vinegrette launched at me from the refrig and shattered all over the floor. I just screamed and swore. What a mess. and a huge branch just broke off our Italian stone pine and so dh is out with his chain saw clearing our neighbor's property, and I need to stay home from support group and watch so he doesn't chop off his leg. Since his stroke not only is his memory off but so is his judgment. I won't even mention the crap at work today.

BUT>>>no chemo on Friday!! I think I'll adjust to that change in routine!

Hey all.  I've been meaning to post, but have been hit with fatigue this week.  Napping helps for a bit, but it doesn't take much for me to enter that fogged zone.

I did want to mention to everyone to go to Lifetime.com and sign the petition about legislation pending about mastectomy and hospital stays.  They are trying to pass a bil making a mastectomy an outpatient procedure.  That seems crazy to me.  I had a lumpectomy, so I can see that being outpatient, but with ports and LE issues, this bill seems ridiclulous to me.  I believe the petition is to require a mandatory 2 day hosptital stay covered by health insurance.

Okay, gotta take a neighbor to the airport early tomorrow, so I'm going to head out.

Catherine

http://www.mylifetime.com/community/my-lifetime-commitment/breast-cancer/petition/breast-cancer-petition

Pass the word around on this one!

ladyjane54 - taxol - i was suffering from bone pain until my doc prescribed oxycodone 5mg. that saved the day completely. never felt any pain at all after that from taxol or neulasta. 

evaperone - i used to have a hissy when people said, "you have ONLY" however many treatments to go. ONLY??? they really don't get it.  i realize now that they were really trying to reassure themselves. 

eadsla - i had my mastectomy at 2 p.m. and was home by noon the next day. i had no complications and was back at work and driving, etc., in three days. for me personally, having to stay overnight for two nights (if that's what the petition is indicating) in the hospital after mastectomy would have been unnecesssary physically and financially. i personally wouldn't have wanted an outpatient experience with mastectomy, but i wouldn't want to be being forced to stay two days or nights. i looked at the link, and they don't show the actual proposed legislative act. they just have a quick summary and a sign-up. i think we need to be shown the complete proposed legislation before we sign! 

i finished chemo on may 1st. all my taxol side effects have gone away, except for the occasional itching on the hands, for which i take atarax when needed. i feel terrific and am walking 8 miles/day.

i started tomotherapy radiation three days ago, it's a piece of cake compared to chemo (what isn't???). i still have a little bit of white fuzzy hair on my head, but no hair-hair so far, and i'm getting impatient. have no eyebrows, no eyelashes. 

best to all of you finishing treatment! xoxo

Whew, it is finally finished!   Last chemo is done.  YEAH!   The Onc came in when he was told it was my last treatment and did a juggling routine.  He also sang Happy Birthday to one of the chemo nurses.   It was very comical.  He is such a regular guy.  

Today was a great day.   Other patients and their families were happy for me even though they still have many more weeks to go.   I took a Thank You card and candy in for the nurses.   They have been so supportive and kind during the process I wanted to do something for them. 

I did have my last tranfusion on Tuesday.   My hemo is 11.7 today.   That is VERY good for me.   Hopefully, it will not drop after this last treatment.     

Next week will be a busy week.   PS on Tuesday, Lymphodema clinic on Wednesday and MUGA scan and EKG on Thursday.   June 3 I see the rad onc again for the simulation.  I think we will probably start the radiation the next week sometime.  

It is hard to explain the rush of emotions that fell over me as we were driving to the hospital.  Those of you who have finished can most likely relate.  I am so very happy to be finished with this part of the journey, but then I really can't help but think about the future and if the treatment is sufficient.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want any more chemo, but hope it did the trick. 

Kim, congratulations on your completion also.  On an earlier post you asked me about AI's.  I will getting some type of hormone therapy after the radiation is complete.  The only thing we discussed so far that it would be pill and I would take for 5 years.   I see the onc again early August so will find out then.   I am post menopausal and I know this makes a diffence in the type of therapy.   I will cross that bridge when I get to it.  

I have some fine peach fuzz beginning to grow.   All very white at this point.   That'll be interesting to see what comes in.   Eyebrows very sparce but still a few there.   Eyelashes pretty much a thing of the past.  

Anyway, again January Jewels, love to you all.   For those of you who are close to the finish line we will be here to support you and for those who still have a way to go, hang in there.  

YahooooooooooooooooooooooBrenda!!!!!!!!!!!  Let's TOAST!!!!!!!!!

kmmd--you make me laugh.  stringing sheets to get out of the hospital!  Just the image...!

Brenda--WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO  Congrats on being done!

Heya Jess (roomie!)  Yeah, the fatigue is what it is, but considering that my LAST rad tx is tomorrow, I can deal with it!

The responses about the petition have been illuminating and funny.  I have to preface that I didn't have a mastectomy, so I'm not aware of what post op was like, but a lot of people felt like they wanted to get the hell outta Dodge afterwards.  I totally understand that and felt the same way after my lumpectomy.  I just thought I would put the word out there...

Wow, it's almost the weekend!  I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

Catherine

Happy day Brenda!

Kt57 -  My sister-in-law has a house on Swan Lake in Hibbing, MN.  It is truly a beautiful place, relaxing as not much to do.  Watching sunrise and set over the lake is one of my favoirite things to do when we are there.  Ever been to Swan  Lake?

yearofthehat -thinking of you as even though it is early early a.m. on friday you will be off for your LAST CHEMO treatment soon.  WHOPPPIE!

Went in for #5 today.  4 more to go... As you can see by the time, the steroids are doing their job keeping me up at this weird hour.  I actually came home from treatment and slept off the benedryl from 6 p.m. to about 12:30 a.m. so now I am wide awake.  Hopefully it won't last long but at least I do not have to be in school until noon tomorrow so can sleep in if necessary.  Of course, I am  sitting her munching out on my steroid high which I really do not need to be doing.  Getting on the scale before treatment has become almost as dreaded as the treatment itself.  Up another pound this week. UGH!

Treatment went well. Had a good nurse today.  I like it when they can get the IV in the first try.

Also saw my Dr. before treatment today so that was nice.  As JillyG empowered me to ask about a pain I have been having in the left breast sort of behind the breast really that has been bothering me for a month or so and he did an examine and said it is nothing. Pain bone in chest wall from Tx most likely culprit so hopefully I'll put that fear to rest now.

Speaking of bone pain I also asked him about that and he prescribed ULTRAM 50 mg.  Said it is not a narcotic but works better than tylenol for most people so I will get that filled tomorrow and let you know how it works.

My WCB count was only 3.2 BEFORE treatment so that worries me.  Hey Ladies who have done the weekly taxol route is this what you found to be true?  Don't like starting with such low counts since I ended up neutropenic so many times.  Dr. did not seem worried.

June is going to be a month of up and downs for sure as it is my 6 month anniversary of Dx so surgeron has order MRI for June 4th.  Followup with her June 8th.  then last treatment on June 18th. 

Oncologists today ordered Mammogram as he said he is not sure why surgeron wanted MRI done but he thought doing both could not hurt.  Both of those tests now scare the heck out of me as I am sure you all can relate to. Have to call tomorrow to set up Mammo.  Onco dr. also wants me to get chest xray to make sure the double pnemonia is completely resolved, which I think it is.  I do still get winded easily and feel some pain in the back where my left lung is located but I am assuming these are tx related and not from pnemonia.  Will be glad to have xray to verify that.

My husband starts his new job (he is retiring aftre 30 years in the Navy) on June 1st.  He has been to every chemo and doctor appointment with me so I am kind of nervous about going it alone which I'll have to do now that he will be returning to a 9 to 5 commuting job.  He has been teaching at the Naval Academy and his class schedule has been such that he could come with me.  Only  three more after June 1st.  I can do this.  My sister is flying in from New Hampshire to go to my June 4th tx with me so that's cool.  I could probably find a friend to go last two if I need  to.  The benedryl could make driving home a little hairy as I get really drousy from it.  Well will worry about that come June I guess.

So as I am sure you have all had your fill of my sterioid ramblings I will say good night or good morning or whatever it is and find something else to occupy the mind while I wait for sleep to come.

Thanks again for being here. Love you all..

Patti

Renrel: agree with the mothers at your DS's school, it has impressed the heck out of me too.  Plus, your upbeat attitude through most of this .

I have to confess, I am really losing track of who is still on chemo now that some are done, some radiation, some not, some hormonal, some not.

 Could those of you still on chemo please let me know and when you're finished and what you're doing, so I can keep track? I feel badly that I haven't been better at it, but maybe if I start over I can  keep track and be better at supporting.

Lady Jane: weekly taxol?  BTW: great admiration for your husband and a career of service.

Nancy: sorry its been a bad week, so happy you're done 

Yesterday was my "Finished with Chemo" celebration! I finished 3 weeks ago yesterday and it would have been the day I would go in for treatment. So about the time of the usual treatment, I brought a wonderfully, yummy cake to work and we ate cake instead! It was great. Then last night my best friend and her husband treated DH and I to a steak dinner at their house--and we sat on the deck in wonderful weather and laughed and talked for hours.....

Today, I'm headed off to see my grandson (and his parents) whom I haven't seen since Christmas because of all this "BC/chemo garbage"....actually haven't seen my son since last May because he was deployed....the celebration continues----

Hope you all have a wonderful, restful, SE free weekend.

Thanks, everyone for the congratulations on completion.   It is a really great feeling to know that part of the journey is now complete.   Knowing you all were here was a great help.  

LadyJane, I was on weekly Taxol and one week my WBC was down to 2.2.  They did not do the treatment and prescribed Neupogen, 1 shot each day for 3 days after treatment.  I gave myself the shots.  That kept the WBC at an acceptable level, most times close to 4 but a few times including yesterday it was down to 3.2.   You may want to ask about the neupogen.  The Neulasta can only be given if the treatments are 2 weeks apart.  It stays in your system longer.   Hope that helps.

I see a few a finished today.  It is getting hard to keep track now.   We should all be close to the end of the chemo.   YEAH for everyone!!!!!

For those of you who have been finished a few weeks, how long does it take for the taste buds to come back and for the numbness in hands and feet to subside?   Those are the things that are the most annoying at this point.  

Great holiday weekend to everyone.

Got a letter reminding me to make an appt for my annual mammogram in June. I almost cried. They imaging place is associated with the hospital where I had surgery, got chemo, and am getting radiation!!!

And that last annual mammogram came out just "fine" a bit over 2 months before my diagnosis. I had MRIs of both breast mid-Oct. so mayb it is almost time for a mammo of my "good" breast.