Anyone Starting Chemo Jan. 2010?

Day-

I had my first treatment today of TC. Relatively easy, my only complaint is the metallic taste in my mouth. I had imagined all of these awful things last night, so I am hoping you can relax a little hearing wren22 and my day. I am not sure if our regime is like yours. I took 2 Tylenol PM to sleep last night. Best of luck on your first tx.

Barbara

Boy, lots of posts.  I haven't read in a couple days and I have comments as I'm reading all of these posts, but it all fades away.

Pago: I can relate to looking at pictures and feeling sad.  I went thru chemo the first time 2 1/2 yrs ago and I couldn't look at family pictures or pictures from my childhood at all.  I had one picture of my grandmother and I sitting by her flower garden when I was about 10 th that I carried with me to tx's.  Everything happened so fast from dx, to surgery, to chemo etc that I was on autopilot as I'm sure a lot of ladies on here are now.  It wasn't until after tx was over that I was able to digest the rest of what happened and come to terms.  Your mind goes on with time to digest things.

Anyway, bf is pestering me so gotta go.  Wishing all the first timers this week good luck.  Take a deep breath and know you can do it.  Everything so far has always been worse before thinking about it.   

Hi Ladies -

I am another January Chemo newbie. Had a bi-lateral mast. on Nov 15 and am healed enough to start Chemo.  Having a PICC line put in place on Jan 14, then start treatment on Jan 15.  I will have 4 cycles of AC every three weeks followed by 12 weekly Taxol - so I am scheduled for 6 months.  Sounds like a really long time. I have been reading this since the topic started - but I didn't write until I got my date yesterday.  Thanks to all of you for sharing your ups and downs..it really helps others.  I vow to do the same in case my experience might help anyone else. 

Paxton - I read all of your post and some of it twice - just to make sure that all of that stuff could really be happening to one person!  You poor thing - you deserve a little pity. You have a bunch of sucky stuff going on right now.  I think your BF will get unemployment - losing your job because there isn't work is NOT being fired.  Maybe you should write all of this stuff to Extreme Home Makeover and see if you can get Ty and the bus out to give you a new house!  Sounds to me like you would be a great candidate.    I used to live in the Twin Cities and I remember that cold... By the way - your baby is beautiful.   Hope tomorrow brings warmer temps and a smooth day.  Cammy

Hi Paxton,

You are having a very rough time - rougher than mine.  I'm so sorry - hugs.  Can you reach out to family members for some emotional or financial support and help? 

Have you talked to your social services department in your area (connected to the Workforce Investment Board that has federal funding to help unemployed find work)?  Every state names their social services departments differently, here in NJ it's called the Department of Human Services.  They have offices called One Stop Centers in every local county.  The problem with your bf's company's charge that he was fired is that it will delay the benefits as you go through a hearing.  You will be okay - even if they can prove being fired, it delays unemployment 3 months, not forever.  That's the federal law.  So think in terms of a 3-month plan.   Plus there is an "Obama" extra payment for the unemployed he'll be eligible for.  And, I would check out Social Security for you - you might be eligible for SSID.  With your child, you're eligible for WIC which helps with formula, milk, food, diapers, and your child absolutely should be covered under the state-run children's insurance program for free.  You are both probably eligible for that, too.  All this information can be found at your county's social services department.  You gotta go and find out what you're eligible for and ask for help.  That's what all us taxpayers (including you and him) are paying for and you certainly can use some financial and other help right now.  And, if any of your friends know anyone who works for that department and/or the state's department of labor - they'll help you figure out what can be a complicated system.

I would reach out to my church or a local church and see what social services they have available too.  For example, Catholic Social Services has some support programs in times like this. The Salvation Army in our area is wonderful  -- very supportive and helpful to people facing a rough time.  You're facing this rough time thru no fault of your own - ask for and accept whatever help is around in your area. 

I work at a community college and very closely with our local Workforce Investment Board and One Stop Center.  If you want to talk, send me a private message with your number and I'll call you and see what I can find out for your area -- who to call, where to go. 

You certainly don't need this cr-p with everything else.  I'm so sorry - but sometimes when it rains it pours...but it doesn't pour forever. 

Pat

Re:  bad taste in mouth...check into the Biotene products.  They make a mouthwash, toothpaste, gum and gel.  They are intended for dry mouth and that's part of what you are experiencing.  Also, try experimenting a bit to find out what covers the taste for you.  When I went through chemo last time, mints were my friend most of the time.  I sucked a lot of TicTacs and Mentos to cover the taste.  That was the only way I could drink enough water some days.  Stick a mint in my mouth and then drink the water while my mouth still tasted of mint.  I found sweet spices were better than salty or spicy, so ate cinnamon cereal, cinnamon raisin bagel, etc.  By the second week (I was on a three week cycle), I could handle plain food like mashed or baked potatoes, grilled chicken, broccoli.  For me, most seasonings (especially salt) seemed amplified so plain went down better.

Paxton -- you've been given some excellent suggestions, but let me add a couple more.  The Susan G. Komen Foundation offers aid to women going through treatment.  I would contact your local chapter and see if you can qualify.  Also, check with the social worker at the hospital where you are receiving treatment.  These people have a lot of great information at their fingertips.

Decadron sleeplessness if not uncommon.  I ended up only doing half doses for most of my chemo because I wasn't having any negative reactions and the steroids just made me too wired.  Check with your onc and see.  I would encourage all of you to talk to your oncs or nurses about any problems you are having.  There are a lot of options and you don't need to tough it out.

HI!  I start CMF on January 11th.  I'm not finding a lot of people on CMF, so that's making it hard to find out more specific information.  My course of treatment is IV CMF for 6 months every 3 weeks.  Is CMF unusual?  My breast cancer was 8mm, ER positive, PR negative, Her2-neu negative, BRCA test negative, ONCO score intermediate at 18 (hence, the chemo).  I had a partial mastectomy on December 15th and will undergo radiation after the 6 months of chemo is done and then will take tamoxifen for 5 years...followed by something else I'm sure!  Any personal experiences you want to share with CMF are more than welcome!

So my roller coaster ride has stopped it's free-fall descent.  Paxton, I am praying that your's stops soon.  I went to see a cardiologist yesterday after spending 2 days feeling like breast cancer was the least of my problems.  He not only calmed me down but reran the tests and found that I have a perfectly healthy heart.    It turns out that a combination of my anesthesia from surgery the week before, plus too much wine over the holidays gave me a depressed heart function during the echo.  Apparently it was a transient event.  I couldn't be happier to just be dealing with breast cancer now.  There's something about perspective that makes you realize how worse things could be.

Hi Ladies:

I have been reading everyone's posts.  Sometimes when it rains, it pours doesn't it?  You just keep thinking things can't get worse, but somehow they do.  In the end hopefully all will work out, it usally does.

I just want to give people hope that it is not all doom and gloom.  Actually after the first 3 days, which really weren't THAT bad, I have felt great.  I'm bummed I have to go back to work on Monday.  I'm enjoying my time off.

The first time I had chemo 6 years ago I couldn't sleep from the decadron either.  Duh..., this time I took an Ambien the first 3 nights and slept like a baby.  That is what the wonderful world of pharmacology is all about.  I even asked my onc about medical marijuana, but seems they are "afraid" to prescribe it.  Damn, there could have been one positive note to this whole thing. ;-)

I had bloodwork yesterday and all my numbers were good.  My doc told me they like to give the Neulasta prophylactically rather than wait till your numbers plummit and you are too weak to bounce back.

Yeah, I have a slight metallic taste or I might have some aches and pains, but why focus on the small stuff?  A year from now this will all be behind us.

My next hurdle will be my hair falling out.  I'm deading that day.  I have my wig standing by but don't want to use it.  I bought a couple of those sleep caps too, and don't like them either, but will want to keep my head warm and probably won't want to look at what is left.

Try to stay positive and take it baby steps at a time.

The texture of my hair is getting gummy and my scalp is starting to feel tender so the hair loss is nearing.  Nothing is coming out yet.  I'm deciding between putting a guard on the shaver and shaving it down to an inch or two before I shave it all off later. 

My experience with the hair loss from the first time I went through chemo was my hair getting gummy (almost like really greasy with a different texture) about 2 weeks after my first tx.  I had gotten my hair cut shorter before starting tx because I had pretty long hair and wanted a little transition.  Anyway, then small clumps started coming out and I decided to use a shaver and shave it off because it felt so disgusting.  I wore a wig a few times but found it uncomfortable so I mostly wore a turban with a bandana.  I wore a hair "fall" under that if I went out with friends or such.  My scalp was very tender and so I read somewhere about taking a real razor and shaving the scalp one time.  I decided to do that and it really helped.  I didn't have to do that again so I don't know what the deal is with it.  But it worked for me anyway. 

Oh, I always just get a little shot of lidocain in the skin on my port before they access it.  It stings a little from the lidocain shot, but I've found it quite tolerable.  I've never done it without the shot so I dont' know how much it hurts accessing the port without anything.  I know some use the cream but I don't know much about how well that works compared to the lidocain shot.  Anyway, just my 2 cents. 

Thought I'd share a few photos.  Makes it easier to get to know each other.

This first one was the turban with bandana look I wore that I was describing.

This was what I looked like when I shaved my head during my first chemo in '07.

This is me, my boyfriend and our new baby this past summer.

wow super cute, Paxton18064! I hope I look that good! You got preggo with no complications after being on chemo?

Bostonscrap: I'm in MA too.

Its a little boy. 

I wasn't trying to get prego.  I had finished rads in march of '08.  We were using condoms for birth control because they didn't want me on anything hormones and I wasn't too sure about that copper IUD thing.  Well, we had one woops the night after I shot my first deer deerhunting.  That's all it took to get prego. He was born july 29th.  And now the cancer is back.  So he was a miracle baby in many ways.  My only babe, too.  Now I went for the copper IUD for birth control.

My hair in the picture with the baby is, like I said, July 29th of '09.  I was done with chemo 12/07 and let it grow without getting it cut since.  So, that's how long it got.  It takes awhile to get long, long again, but it grows out of the peach fuzz stage pretty quickly.

Georgiabirdgirl, so glad about your heart!!!

11tybillion, I have so much trouble with nausea also.  Your post has given me much information to talk to the doctor about.

Port goes in Tuesday.  Start AC on Jan 20.

Paxton, where are you from in Minnesota.  I grew up in Oakdale.  My father lives in Minneapolis.  You have given me hope.  Your willingness to share your past experiences is so helpful.