Starting Chemo April 2009
Comments
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Dawn- So glad that your surgery went well. I can only imagine the panic that your husband felt when you fainted. Good thing he kept his wits about him and didn't wreck the car! Hope your feeling better soon.
Titan and Lindatwo - I'm still giggling over your stories. We've been through so much, it's great to be able to still have a sence of humor and laugh at ourselves.
My DH and I are going away this weekend with some friends. My girlfriend is unable to bend her right leg due to complications after a terrible leg fracture several years ago. I told her that we can go jet skiing on the lake, she remarked that she couldn't because she can't bend her leg. I told her that she can sit behind me on the jet ski, and I can hold her leg while she holds my wig in place. We laughed so hard. I'm so looking forward to this weekend. My DH and I are in dire need of fun and R&R. I went back to work. Started with 4 hr shifts 3x/wk for 2wks, and now am working 8 hr shifts 3x/wk for 3 weeks and will be back to 12 hr shifts by the end of August. I'm exusted. But it feels good to be back to work. - Paula
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Hurray, Dawn - so glad to hear that your surgery went well! But not glad to hear about the fainting.....take it easy for a few days, won't you? Tammy
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TAMMY - I'm trying to just hang out for a couple of days, no more fainting for me!
PAULA - So glad to hear you are getting away for the weekend, happy thoughts for a great relaxing weekend. Make sure you hold on to that wig LOL!
TITAN - And I had planned to do a cartwheel this week after getting my new girls, OH SHOOT, can you take over for me?
CHELEV - How's the hair, can't wait to see some color on mine on Friday, hope I'll be able to post some pics.
BETSY - Did you find out more on rads today? Let us know.
LESLEY - How are you doing today????
LINDA - You were right, this hasn't been too bad at all, I stopped the pain meds in the middle of the night and seem to be OK so far, hope that continues.
LENA - How are you feeling today?? How are the se from Tamox? I hope I don't look like a dyke, I'm coloring my hair on Fri and would love to just go topless, we'll see what it looks like and how much scalp is showing. I'm with you on this short hair thing LOL!!!
Here's to a side effect free day!!! HUGS, Dawn
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HI Ladies,
For those that have started radiation treatment, can anyone tell me a ball park figure the cost of one radiation treatment?
I just found out today I will have to begin cobra in Sept, chemo will be over by then (thank god)! Radiation begins in Sept and I was wondering what the cost is going to be. I am also on my husbands insurance and am thinking of not opting for cobra, depending on the cost of rad treatment.
I know the cost of chemo treatments and that Neulasta shot are out of this world. I feel bad for those that are diagnosed without insurance.....
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Dawn...watch those new girls when you are doing your cartwheel..don't want anything to happen
to them...are you getting "fipples' too? My sister in law gets her new fipples on 8/24..they are taking some skin from somewhere and crinkling them up and putting them on her gummies. she said she would show them to us...isn't it weird...she doesn't mind showing them to us...we breast cancer sisters are a crazy bunch..going topless and showing our "breasts" mine are still real..you can tell because they aren't firm and they sag!
Lena..where are you????
Paula....you crack me up..go without the freaking wig on the jetski! And stick your tongue out and have a good time!
Today I am one week PFC...hair is growing some...I have some "sewer mouth" still lingering...not swearing..just a bad taste.
Have a mammo on my left breast on Friday..little concerned but you know what..EVERYONE is concerned when they have a mammo so I should be...I will get the results that day so at least I don't have to freak out for a couple of days...if they would say I have to wait..well..they are going to have someone sitting in the lobby camping out until they tell me something....
Jean I'm from Ohio too! I don't know how much rads cost but chemo was expensive...$8,000 per chemo....someone has to be making big bucks somewhere...I can't imagine rads as being quite so expensive..but we will see!
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It's great to read that so many of our group are starting to feel better and are moving forward. It's wasn't so long ago that we were in the middle of the chemo phase of our treatment. I even finished my rads yesterday and tonight I anxiously took my first Arimidex pill. Is anyone else starting an A.I.? Today, I took a long walk and felt good even though I wore compression sleeves - a woman who I have never seen before came up to me, looked at my arms and wanted to know what happened to me!!!! In 3 weeks I see PS to talk about DIEP. I find it easier to move forward now that I'm not in that chemo fog. Now I just wish my hair would start to grow again.
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Hi all,
Had my radiation simulation today. It was a piece of cake. I am scheduled for 33 rads, 26 total boob and 7 booster (scar area) - not a highly technical description but you get the gist. I have my first radiation session on the 18th.
Jean- you might want to pose your question re: cost on one of the rad threads. Those ahead of us may know. I'm on the August 2009 Rad thread and I know some of the women are mid-way through the rad treatments.
Is anyone having increased hot flashes lately? I haven't started Tamoxifen yet...so I think it's chemo driven. I can't imagine what they are going to be like when I start the hormone therapy?!?!
Re: Hair - I see and feel nubs..not many but better than nothing!
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Hey all,
I think I have some eyelashes coming in ; they are stubby and growing at weird angles, but they are eyelashes none the less! Unfortunately, I think I am going to lose some fingernails...Ah well, I'm willing to sacrifice those for hair!!
Dawn, so glad your surgery went well, and you're doing good in spite of the fainting spell. I am a fainter too, don't you hate it? At least you were in the car where you couldn't fall, and with your husband. I tend to keel over someplace very public, and crack my head or something equally dramatic. It's so embarrassing! Are they really going to let you take off the bra already? I have to wear mine for six weeks, day and night. Maybe it is more for the "lift" side than the implant. Isn't it nice to have soft breasts again though? By the way, is that a wig or your "pre" hair?? I am so jealous everytime I see your pic & Chelev's too! Ah, to have thick DARK hair!
Helen, I am going to be starting on Arimidex too. I am just waiting for the results of my blood test before I start, and I am dreading it. Hopefully we will both do well, and not have SE's. Isn't it amazing what total strangers will say?? One day I went to a thrift shop only wearing a hat, and a lady said to me, "So, how are you feeling?" She then went on to tell me about her friend who just finished chemo, etc. I thought it was kind of nervy to just assume that I was having chemo. What if I had something else that caused me to lose my hair? I've learned through the years to never assume anything, and (hopefully!) to think before I say anything. By the way, what is DIEP?
Titan, You're right, it is funny the way we are willing to show our breasts to each other. I NEVER would have done that before! I think part of it is because we feel such comraderie (sp??) with each other, and I for one don't even feel like my breasts are really quite part of me anymore.
Betsy, Good luck with the rads..glad the first appt. went well!
Lena, Since you haven't posted for a little while, I am hoping that means you are getting your strength back and finding other things to do!
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Lena..we miss you! Hopefully you are out somewhere having a good time!
Betsy: I go tomorrow to the radation onc. for a consultation...I'm thinking that my radiation will be similiar to yours...hopefully I will be starting soon too. Everyone talks about how tired you get from radiation..I hope not! As far as the hot flashes..I still get them..I think they are part taxol and part chemopause..someone suggested putting a cold cloth on your head whenever you have one...it really does work....keep it next to the bed at night...
Linda..great news on the eyelashes..I have 5 left..hoping that they stick and the rest come back soon...
Last night on the news the "talking head" said something about who really does have more fun..."blondes, brunettes or redheads"...both my husband and I yelled BALD WOMEN!
Yes..we are having so much that I can hardly stand it !!!
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Titan - I burst out laughing when I read your post. Thanks!
I see the radiologist tomorrow for my consult also. I am figuring I will stat rads late Aug and end in early Oct. I have read up about it to some degree and feel fairly prepared. It CAN'T be as hard as chemo.
And speaking of - I am 2 weeks PFC and feeling fantastic. I have so much energy and want to eat EVERYTHING. All kinds of food look wonderful to me - I daydream about all the things I want to eat next! I've kept my weight about the same so far, but I'd better work out hard if I'm going to eat everything I think about.
I have been through some big challenges in my life, but I have to say that this has been by far the most difficult thing I have ever been through. People don't know unless they've done it. For me, it is much more mental than physical - keeping your fears at bay, staying stable, managing all the details and emotions at the same time. But I DID IT! It is something I am so proud of - as we ALL should be! This April group has helped me so much. I think back to when we all were losing our hair together and now we are talking about it growing back. I know we all have full, long, healthy lives ahead.
I guess we'll see what rads are like soon enough. Titan - if you start in late August, will you join the Aug or Sept rad group? I haven't decided where I'll fit in better.
Thanks to everyone for all the support. (I'm not going anywhere, just wanted to say thank you!
)Amy
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Linda, DIEP is a procedure where they take abdominal tissue to create new breasts .. but they don't compromise your abdominal muscle. Not many doctors have the skill to do this. But it works for radiated skin.
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Just like a tummy tuck...new breasts and a flat stomach too!
Amy...right now I'm looking in on the August rads group just to be nosy and see how they are doing...I think that we can belong in both groups if we want to...for August we will be the newbies...for September we will be the "been there, done that...yawn"...group.
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TITAN - I do get "fipples", probably not for a few months tho'. These have to settle first so they put the fips in the right place LOL, I sure as heck wouldn't want them in the wrong place. Then a couple of months after that I get the pink area tattooed. I think getting new girls is like being pregnant and everyone wants to touch your stomach, all my friends want to see and touch my "foobs". Its amazing how I have no problem flashing them to anyone now LOL, never would've gone around doing that before.
HELEN - CONGRATS on finishing rads WOOHOO for you!!!
BETSY - "NUBS" watch out here comes the hair!!
LINDA - They let me take the surgical bra and bandages off yesterday but I do have to wear some type of sports bra 24/7 for the next 3 weeks, then I can wear what I want. Luckily that 3 wk mark falls right at the beginning of my beach week. Thank goodness. I am loving not having those "boobs of steel", don't miss them for a second. My picture is my hair before chemo, I loved my hairdo, I'd like to get back to that but will probably take me at least a year to get there.
LENA - How are you doing? Let us know what's going on!!!
CHELEV - How are you doing today? C - O - L - O - R tomorrow morning for me YIPEE!!!
PAULA - Have a great weekend away!!
TAMMY - How goes it??
Have a great day ladies. HUGS, Dawn
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Dawn - Wow...what a process...glad you are enjoying your new softer girls.
My neighbor had a wine and desert (wine cake- moist and delicious) get together last night to celebrate two of us hitting major milestones in our bc walk. My other neighbor Jan, finished radiation in early July. She had the cutest, curly, short hair. Her hair came in the same color it was before, so there is hope for us. As we were leaving she started to complain a little about her short bangs, then looked at me, and quickly said "BUT... I love the little hair I have". Yes...I had HAIR LUST - she probably read it on my face. This "patience" virtue is for the birds....
Titan - where in Ohio are you? My lh was from Canton. I'm not worried about radiation. I think as long as we don't get sick through the process, the fatigue we might feel can't possibly compare to chemo. Let me know how your appointment goes, mine was truly a non-event. RE: hot flashes... thanks for the advice with the cold cloth but at work I don't think it's a good solution. I can just imagine the CEO or CFO walking in to my office...with my bright red face, grasping to strip off any layer of clothes I can, with a wash cloth on the top of my head...LOL.
Betsy
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Betsy..wine cake and wine..I can't imagine anything better...I had a margerata (I can't spell them but I can drink them) last night with some friends..it was so nice to sit outside and drink and eat and not have to worry about going to chemo and the neulasta shot! Canton is 30 min. away from Wooster!
I think that maybe your CEO or CFO needs to knock first!
Dawn....glad things are going so well!
I still am hungry all the time..I just opened a bag of Golden Krisp chips and I can't stop eating them.....
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Shout out to tulipbebe! Where are you? You started this thread and we have gone to 40 pages and haven't heard much from you!
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HI everyone,
I had my 'culmination" appt.today - post-tx, pre-surgery. I am scheduled for exchange on August 18th. Can't wait to have my "lunch-box" (as my oldest daughter calls it) removed! Dawn and lindatwo - other than the fainting spell, I hope mine will be as succesful as yours appear to have been. Got the list of SEs to look ahead to regarding tamox. and decided that for the first time I would go out in public without anything on my head - after all, I was spending the day at a cancer center, so I fit right in! I guess I am lucky in the hair area - it is coming in well - the only thing is that it is a weird mixture of grey, blonde and brown and I look like a guinea pig!
Paula, have a great weekend with your hubby. Betsey I am having a few more hot flashes than before, but I can't tell if they are real hot flashes or just a "confused" reaction to actually having warm weather and no rain for the first time in two months here in Buffalo! Good luck with radiation to both you and Titan.
I turn 49 tomorrow and feel blessed to be here, to have a gotten down to a 6% recurrence rate, and to have grown in ways I never thought possible right from the moment I was diagnosed last January. I am glad I chose to do chemo - there is comfort in knowing that I have done everything possible to get rid of any of those lingering little buggers.
If anyone is still considering the Bisphosphonate trial: something to consider: when you become part of a trial, they follow you more closely for the first two years. I found that to be a perk. Don't know about you, but I felt very untethered when tx ended. Everyone around me was congratulating me and saying,"aren't you glad that's over, etc. but I was feeling a little like a baby bird being pushed out of the nest for the first time: "I know I need to fly, but do I even know how?"
Lena, miss your postings - they always make me laugh! Best to all...... Tammy
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Lindatwo - the photo I am using is an older one - from December 2008 - before all the madness started!! I will get a current photo up hopefully this weekend - I wanted to wait until I had most of the scalp covered in hair before posting a new shot - but I can't wait either until my bangs are that long again!! I miss my bangs!!
Dawn - woo hoo - color today, baby!!!! Good luck, have fun at the salon and make those little hairs soak up that color!
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TAMMY - HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Only 4 more days til your exchange surgery YIPEE - You will do great!! You went topless - AWESOME, I'm hoping to do that this weekend, we'll see how the color goes this morning! I'm doing the Bisphosphonate trial too, but won't start the meds til after my beach trip!!
CHELEV - I'll post after I get back from the salon and let ya know how it took!!
HUGS, Dawn
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Hi everyone,
I am down to 2 more treatments of taxol and herceptin and then I can be like the rest of you, PFC!!! It's inspiring to read how you are all doing, I appreciate your posting, it keeps me going!
I will start rads in Sept alongwith a shot of lupron to keep me in menopause and also Femara. I will have herceptin every 3 weeks alongwith Zometa twice a year. Another MUGA scan next month and the list goes on! I'm just so happy to be talking about what is next rather than chemotherapy!
Hope all of you having surgery are doing okay,
Pam
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OK, went to get my hair colored. Definitely took, my hairdresser decided to go a little lighter than my natural color to see how things went. When I take my son for a hair cut in 1 1/2 weeks she's going to go a little darker. I'm happy to say it's no longer CLEAR!!! I have to charge my camera batteries and I'll try to figure out if I can get a picture on here soon. HUGS for a great weekend, Dawn
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Hi all --havent been to this site yet but saw that comingtoterms(Tammy) wrote a personal message to me back in April and I just realized it--so thank you Tammy and I posted a PM back to you recently --hope you are doing well --i too finished chemo on July 27 but I have decided to go with radiation even though i was in a gray zone--Looks like you are having a birthday or had one yesterday so happy happy birthday --stay well and keep us posted--Thanks Laura (Lolly)
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HI again-- AmylsStrong just read your post --I will be starting rads end Aug too and have joined the aug group --we gotta get each other through this!! will keep you posted!! Lolly(Laura)
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Ok kids..just got back from my rad consultation...will be starting them week of 8/31 so..are we going to be August or Sept. rads group? I have to go 3 times for tattoos and other things the week of 8/24. They said that once I begin I will be in and out of there in 5 minutes...they said they don't run behind..that normally they are ahead of schedule! Wow..what a change..the Rad. Onc. seemed very nice too..soft spoked...I don't know what he thought when I told him that he could start zapping me any time!
Dawn..I can't wait to see your hair! I'm still watching mine hopefully grow...it doesn't seem to be growing like it should but maybe I shouldn't look at it 24/7.
Have a wonderful weekend....PFC TO ALL OF YOU!
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Has everyone from out group now finished chemo? Is it time for a group celebration? Although I don't know what a virtual celebration would look like ... maybe someone has a suggestion.
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I tried to link Kool & the Gangs Celebrate song to this post but I'm technologically challenged. So...
Yahoo! This is your celebration Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with youCome on nowCelebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gonna celebrate and have a good timeIt's time to come together
It's up to you, what's your pleasureEveryone around the world
Come on!Thanks for all the support and ranting....I lift my glass to you all...that we continue to drink fully from life, remain thankful for the present and enjoy each moment as it arrives. -
Great party, BetsyBuzz. Thanks for inviting us to your place.
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hrf - I just hope everyone is done with chemo!!
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congratulations on finishing ljh58.
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Pam...I will do a cartwheel every day until you are done! The closer you are to being done the harder it gets...MENTALLY! You just want to be DONE so bad..we are all pulling for you and any minute now you will be and feeling wonderful.....I feel so good now...I never thought that I would be able to see PFC and now I can...and it will be even better when YOU are done so we can all celebrate together...! Be proud of yourselves ladies... I can't think of anything harder than being diagnosed with cancer and the mental and physical strength we have all had to get from SOMEWHERE to get ourselves through this time. I think we all need a medal....and maybe a chest to put it on HEE HEE!
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