Chemo Starting Sep 09

Sorry Susan, I wish I could come over and cook for you, but I probably couldn't eat anything!

Hope it goes smooth and before ya know it your hair will be back!

Hugs

Barbara

Two questions for all of you experts:

1. I think I have a bladder infection, should I call my onc or my internist?

2. My onc told me I won't need neulasta with Taxol, but many of you are doing both.  Should I just be glad and go with my onc's recommendation? 

Hey China- I had a yeast infection and went through my onc, he said it was very common and had a antibiotic regimen all set to go.

My onc implied no Nulesta during Taxol too, and I don't know what VickiLynn is having, but I don't think Amy had Nulesta during her Taxol. I am sticking with my onc's recommendation he seems to be on point about everything else. 

 Hope you feel better soon

Barbara

China, definitely call about the bladder infection.  This stuff is rough on your bladder, and you don't want to delve into the circle of hell which is bladder/yeast/bladder/yeast......  I recommend, if your DR gives you some antibiotics for the bladder infection, to take Acidophilious with it.  It will keep the dreaded yeast infection from coming on.

Bloating and gas.....ummmm, yea.  I would eat crackers and get bloated.  NP told me your digestive system either kicks into overdrive or stops totally with this brand of poison......  I took GasX twice a day everyday through my bloated moments.  The acidophilious also helped with that problem.  I don't think it's so much gas as it is a slowed system.  It hurts, I know that much.  I looked 9 months pregnant and expecting a 12 lb turd at anytime.   Sorry.  TMI, but I calls it like I sees it.  There isn't  much you can do besides try to eat non gassy easy to digest foods.  OH, and get out your fat pants.

Strange.  It's been  wks since my last treatment and now my toenails are coming loose.  They really really hurt.  I'm sure it will all be fine, but daggum it.  So far it's just the big toe toenail.  LOL, big toe reminds me of a totally unrelated story that might offend some sensitive senses here, but made me chuckle inside.  Kids!  Anyway, back on my thought track, this toenail issue is bugging me and making me wonder just how long does this crap take to get out of our systems.  It's been two decades since I took my first chemo and my fingernails still come loose from the nailbeds....  lemme do some quick math.  Yep, looks like if I carry the one and subtract for the years this stuff has probably taken off my lifetime, and then divide  by the number of times I've almost killed myself by some moment of stupidity or strange household cleaning accident........it looks like my nails will fall off till I'm 92.  Yay!  I love consistency.  Couldn't have them straightening up now, now could I?  That would be normal, and I'm totally Abby Normal.

Barb.....of course you can have a cookie for your gorgeous noggin!  Welcome to the club!  I made peanut butter fudge thumbprint cookies and baked a caramel apple cake last night   Take your pick, but the cake is going fast, so make your decision snappy. 

Susan, I'm so sorry you are missing your hair.  It misses you too!  So does your leg hair.  Your armpit hair said it was glad to be rid of you, but I wouldn't let that bother me.  It is the most despised of body hair........no one cares about it anyway.  Your nose hair is doing fine and will return shortly.  They apologize for leaving you suddenly just as cold and flu season was arriving, but they had no other choice.  Your ear hair says to tell you hello, but to whisper it quietly in your ear......and it wanted me to remind you to wear a toboggan over your precious ears while you are out in the blustery Colorado air.  Your pubes.......well, they are holding meetings in Sweden, a summit of sorts, deciding whether to come back straight or not.  Who knows what those quirky short ones will decide.

Ok, I'm gonna elbow DH to wake him up as I go by the couch on my way to bed.  I've got two boxers and him snoring so loud I can't hear the TV.  DD is home from college with the flu.  Not pig flu, just crappy flu.  She cannot return till next week and is staying with my Mother so I won't catch the bug.  I miss her.....   I want to make her chicken soup, but......all I can do is text "are you ok, mommy loves you" to her umpteen times a day LOL

I love you guys!  Good night......

Good Morning my Dear Sisters,

Holly, I can't think of a more appropriate verse.  I am glad your fever is doing better, and it sounds like your onc is spot on in taking care of you.  I will be sending you positive vibes as you have your tx.

Pamela, okay, I almost peed my pants!  Thank you for channeling my hair for me, it helps to know that it is thinking of me too.  Well at least most of it is, the arm pit hair can stay gone.  It sucks that your nails are rebelling.  I hope the rest of you is on the mend.  At least you are baking which is a good sign.  I miss my college girl too, she hasn't been home hardly at all.  It is her first semester, and I know that being at school, and getting involved there is more important, but I can hardly wait until Thanksgiving.

Amy, hope you are doing well.  You are on Taxol now, is that right?  Are you still getting Herceptin, or does that wait for awhile?

Barbara, thank you for the offer to do the cooking.  I cowgirled-up and it was okay.  I left work early, and took a little nap, then I went and picked up my kids and made them help me get the house ready.  I made a really easy recipe for dinner, and it was good.  It was wonderful to see my SIL, she lives in Wyoming and is here for a class.  She is a doctor, so she had some good perspective for me, and then we spent time looking at People of Walmart.com.  Silly but fun.  I hope you are feeling better, and that your taste-buds feel better too.

Neece, thank you for the hug, you are wonderful.  I hope you are having a wonderful week.

China, I also had yeast infections with the first two tx's.  I would call the onc, and go for the Acidophiles too like Pamela recommended.  I hope you feel better soon.

I am going to try work again today.  I feel fairly perky right now, so I hope I can make it through the day.  I have my last tx a week from today, and then I am off of work until after Thanksgiving, so if I can just be productive for a few days I am home free.  I am sorry for not addressing all of the rest of you beautiful ladies personally, I am thinking of you and praying for you.  I hope everyone is having few se's and lots of joy.

Love & Hugs,

Susan

Hello SOSisters... well I'm thinking I may be able to join the land of the living again.  Wow, txt #3 has been the worst!  In reading your posts guess it wasn't just me!

Neece - I'm with Ronnie Kay.  All I can do is sleep, haven't had the nonsleep issue.  Glad your "fill-up" went okay and your are feeling better.

Amy - how are you doing?  Txt this week?  I'm sorry, I can't remember.

Flacracker - no you are not alone.  Everything tastes nasty, haven't found anything good yet and don't really care right now if I eat or not.

RonnieKay - so glad you only have 1 treatment left.  And I'm with you this stuff just zonks me out.

Onty - don't know about the taxol.  How are you feeling?  Better I hope.

Holly - glad your fever is getting better.  Hope you will able to do your txt today.  I have had some numbness in my fingers, however, it gets better as the chemo gets out of my system.  Everyone is different.

Vickilynn - I'm so glad you posted about your earrings!  I thought it was only me.  I can't figure out if my earlobes are getting bigger or smaller but I'm having a heck of a time.  I haven't had the same leg pain but this weeks txt when I stand up I have sharp pain in my thigh bones, going to talk to onc today when I go for Herceptin.  I'm sure the answer will be "we don't know why, it's the chemo".

DiDi - welcome to the club, glad you have joined us.  We appreciate any info you want to share and as you can see we share alot.

Mari - I so hope you are having a wonderful week in Barcelona and all those nasty se's are gone!  We will look forward to hearing about your trip.

Pamelajo - okay, we are all jealous of your taste buds and pink tongue.  My tongue is absolutely gross.  Thanks for the pep talk and then the hair story.  Between the pep talk and what our hair is doing how could we not feel better.  You are our warrior inspiration!

Vicki - glad your taxol went well.  A lot of our ladies do Claritin for bone pain and others Advil.  I think it depends on how bad it is - most swear by the Claritin.  Hope it is better now, you can do this!

Catherine & Barbt0323 - I'm so sorry txt #3 has kicked your butts.  I know it doesn't make it any better but I definitely feel like this has been the worst yet.  I am just now off the couch, can't imagine how you two went to work.  I had a complete meltdown yesterday, woke up crying, went to bed crying.  I am just so tired and sick of being positive - I'm positive I don't want to do this anymore, like we really have a choice!  However, today is another day and by next week we will be filling better!

Susan - glad you had a good time with your SIL.  Your hair will come back and be beautiful!  How's the snow?  Did it melt or is it just piled high?  You hang in there and get those naps in when you can.

BarbAnne41 - I'm so sorry we are posting how bad #3 is and you have to go next week.  We are all different and maybe with the alignment of the moon and stars or some such nonsense your txt will be much better.  Wish I could help answer your stomach questions but don't really have a good answer.  I know all the ladies will chime in with good advice.

China Blue - answer to both questions - call your onc!  They can answer both and you really need an rx quick to get rid of your infection.

To everyone else, please forgive my not mentioning your name.  I hope everyone is having a good day today.  Thinking about those who are in the chair, I'll be there in a little while.  Take care.

Thoughts & prayers are with you!

Jane

Update on the bladder infection:  I called my onc, the nurse said to call my internist. They said they only take care of infusions and se's.  

Dear ChinaBlue,

Darn! I hope you are able to see your internist quickly and get the infection treated. I was under the impression that the oncologist is responsible for the overall care during chemo. Guess not.

OMG Pamela-your hair stuff was too funny. I will take a cookie, since cake seems to be one of those bloaty things.

As for the bloat, thanks for all the advice everyone, I take two Prilosec everyday anyway for the ulcer ( use to take 4 after release from the hospital for the ulcers, but that was doctors orders, by the way when you get that much in dosage they start to make you dizzy, but like I said doc's orders) It seems I beat the bloat if I avoid "carby" foods (ie cake, muffins, pasta etc...) Or eat them in REALLY small amounts. A quarter of a muffin with some water while taking breaks seems to work, nice dish of fresh fruit, slow down take a half hour or so with water and I am ok.  I am a scarf eater too, comes from growing up poor, eat it while its there because it may not be if you don't get your share type of thing. Sometimes I have to remind myself not to eat so quickly, but now chemo is doing it for me, only I now have to eat really slow with water and it seems to be working. I'll let you know if my "experiment" works out the rest of the weekend.

Susan-I am so glad you delegated a bit and had a nice time.

Jane glad you up and around a bit-don't worry about scaring me, if I have learned one thing it is that we all react different and even if it hits me like a train I will come out the other side and you all will be there to support me-right?

BarbT- Thanks for the pep talk. The e was actually my mom's only contribution to my name-she wanted to get something in there.

China-I am so sorry-hope your doc calls in something good and speedy.

Vickilynn- I agree countdowns rock, and I am so glad you are handling Taxol well. Are you having Nulesta like Vicki is? Amy isn't just curious.

Holly-glad you are feeling better.

Onty-I am surprised too, my onc sort of slides in to help on anything, cause in his book it is probably all se's 

Catherine-enjoy that nap.

DiDi-thanks for the tip.

Neece-Hope you are well. It is chilly here in Michigan today, wondering what your warm sun would be like.

Domegal- I think Vicki, not VickiLynn, is getting a nulesta shot with her Taxol and that is why she has the bone pain. Amy has been on Taxol and she mentioned no Nulesta.

Thanks for everything ladies. I am going to go figure out how to eat dinner really slowly, with water, woo hoo.

Much love

Barbara

vickilynn - I am so glad to hear that you are not nauseous after Taxol.  I am happy for you and it makes me feel less anxious about my next treatment.  

Hola Mama's!  I am good and your hairs tell me to tell you they are fine other than really missing being attached to your bod's!  My hair is coming in all crookedy like.  No armpit hair yet (yay), slight leg stubble which is ok, I haven't shaved it off......after this, I may never shave another hair off ever LOL.  I'll be CHUBACKA!!!  sexy!

I forget what I started to write about now........pause for chemotardation.

pausing, pausing.......nope, it's gone.  That thought musta latched on to that twitchy post chemo brain cell that was half working ......poof, obliterated.

Anyway, I absolutely hate it that you all are not feeling too good.  I know the weepies and uckies are a pain in our ever growing arses, but ladies, you all are so strong and you've come so far.....as Dory says "just keep swimming, just keep swimming". 

Jane, I'm thinkin we may need to put off the get together until all our gas is gone.  I'm still expelling methane at a high rate of velocity...but, with my nose being stuffy, I don't think it smells.  The dogs won't come around me, but that could be something else entirely.  I'm sure it is.  Get all us bloaty gas filled women in a room lit for ambience with a candle and we could all go boom.  Now, understand, I'm an explosives handler, and my main function before BC was munitions destroyer (I blew stuff up), so nothing much scares me.  The thought of this makes me a little afraid though. 

Have you all had to cough or sneeze and stiffled it in front of someone because you were afraid you'd rip one involuntarily in front of them?  I have.   Many times.  How many precious brain cells have I killed doing that?  My goodness, chemotardation isn't just from chemo but from SE's as well!

Ok, enough about gas.  Oh, I could go on, but one fart joke sometimes is too many.

You all keep swimming and know I'm here with cookies, pies, and cakes when your tastebuds come back.  I love you!

Ahhhh, another week down and two days off work to re-coop.  DH is on his way to the butcher to grab a couple steaks, and I'm taking a minute before nuking the potato's to say hi to all of you wonderful wenches!

Ronnie, I'd die on a stage.  I'm more of a closet comic, or just habitually happy, I don't know which, but my sense of humor has gotten me through a lot of rough times.  I wear it like a comfy coat.  Mother says I'm a pain in her backside, but she'd miss me if I was anything else   As for the nails, don't worry.  My onc says that it normally doesn't happen to normal people taking regular cycles of bc chemotherapy......  She says she has three or four out of the hundreds of patients who are "problem children" like me.  We have every SE imaginable, and they all come on faster than they do for others. 

I will tell you how it starts though, so you know what to look for.......

Your nails will get sore, very sore.  Then they start to turn white, like the nail tips would normally look on a healthy nail, only it gets bigger and bigger down to the cuticle sometimes.  The will almost always stay attached at the sides, but the middles will come loose.  All you have to do is try to keep debris from getting under the nail between it and the nail bed, because it takes longer for it to heal if that happens. 

The cure is to keep your hands as dry as possible.  If you do dishes, rinse your hands in rubbing alcohol, especially around the nails, to dry up any water left under your nails.  I use plain old hydrogen peroxide and alcohol to dry up the fungus once the nails come loose.  I've tried every folk remedy there is, and none worked.  There is a product called Dr. G's nail care that most nail salons sell.....it works great.  The disease is called onocolysis..(sp).  I keep my nails short and I cut them back as far as possible to where the nail is loose....this helps tremendously.  It looks ugly, but who cares.  I'm having other issues that aren't too dang pretty either, so deal with it.

Anyone who had BMX have numbness under their arm, in the pit area?  If you do, do you sometimes feel like there is a sock or something stuffed under your arm when it rests against your side?  This is an odd phenomena that I am not digging!  Matter of fact, the last few days, it has begun to drive me insane.  I've found myself countless times, standing naked in front of the mirror trying to find the imaginary rolled up wad of sock I'm lugging around under my arm.  Is it fatty bat wing?  No.  Puffy lymphedema episode?  No.  It's NOTHING, but my brain is telling me something is there!

LOL  I've decided I'm a bald, boobless, imaginary sock wearing, chemotarded chronic baker who has lost her last marble.

do they make a drug for that?

Ronnie Kay- I am so happy for you with your last tx-yea yea yea-this is me throwing balloons and confetti in the air for you!

VickiLynn-that sounds like a really professional ear piercing job. I will be interested to hear if your and Jane's ears go back to normal after chemo. My ears are still normal, but I am only finished with tx number 2 here -- keeping my fingers crossed. Thank you for the water tip. The only thing I have heard about Nueropathy is it feels like tingling in your fingers and toes-is yours all over? I hope it eases off soon! Thanks for the info on the Nulesta-I think you are right, I think the norm is not to give it unless there is a wbc issue

Jane Thanks for the compliment. I know you guys will listen to me whine if tx numero 3 is difficult, but I will raise a glass and toast (with water unfortunately) to #3 being easy, and four can be a little worse if it has to, since it is the Tuesday of Thanksgiving and we have already made plans as a family to let me sit on my rump for the long weekend. I am super glad you are feeling better.

Pamela- I am so sorry about the sock!! I didn't have a BMX (every time I read that I think of the bike first) but I did over use weights in my lymph node arm late this summer early fall and that arm was sort of a wreck for weeks anyway I found sticking an insulated ice pack under my arm off and on throughout the day (for several days) helped.  I don't know if that will help, but it seemed to help me get what ever was weird/puffy/sore and just plain annoying worked out of that arm/underarm before they went and put the port in my "good" arm.I really hope you feel less puffy soon.

Catherine- I am so glad you are having a good day-may the whole weekend be that way. That brownie recipe sounds really interesting. I will have to try it when i feel like chocolate again-thank you.

China-hope you got a fix for your bladder.

Susan-you are so very nice, and I hope your coworkers appreciate how tireless you are. 

To all the other sos sisters I hope you are well and going to have a fabulous weekend.

Much love and hugs

Barbara

by all means Neece, put whatever you like of mine on the blog (which is stunning by the way). 

Joys of chemo:

Hot flashes when I'm cold......awesome

Someone is always offering me food.....bonus

Hubby does way more housework....score

Chemotardation gives me an excuse when I screw up at work.....cha ching

No bikini line to maintain .......uber great

I get flowers A LOT.....beautiful

and for the win.......I get brand new shiny sturdy size D cup booblettes that will never sag FOR FREE!!!!  hahahaha....

Silver lining, hearts and flowers shootin out my butt.  I'm a happy girl

 (hugs each and every one of her sisters as she breezes out the door)  LOVE YOU

(ooops edit)  No, Jane......no bandaids.  Anything that keeps natural light from hitting the nail bed is bad bad bad.  I just let it all hang out natural like wink!