Chemo June 2010

Bon you crack me up.  I know there are more reflux meds out there.  Even though you hate taking them please consider something new or extra.

 Julia2 You also make me laugh! 

KICKAZZ  hooray hooray on being done with chemo!!!!  Best wishes for your surgery.

Lizzyann Congrats on being done with AC phew!

Ok Peeps, I am back from the wilds of South Dakota!  It was a fabulous trip and I promise to tell you all about it.  But I have to tell you I missed you guys so much!  I felt like I was lone man out in the middle of nowhere.  There were all these beautiful girls with their gorgeous hair and tata's and then me!  I felt a little like a freak for most of the week.  I kept up a good front and hung in there though.  Hubby and I rode over 800 miles on the motorcycles over the 7 days.  It was beautiful country.

Best story was we somehow ended up in the Coyote Ugly bar (did I mention it was me an the three boys).  Anyway, the lovely Coyote was trying to talk me into taking my bra off.  She promised she had a gift if I did.  I leaned up and told her no luck with the bra since I was only wearing the sport kind for support for my expanders.  So....she say s well then get up here with me.  Yes, I ended up on the bar. Somewhere there is a picture of it.  Shameful

So, sounds like you guys are moving forward and getting through.  I am glad to hear it.  I have to tell you the closer we got to home today the more the depression set in.  I am so anxious about starting my Taxol on Tuesday.  I have no idea why but just the thought makes me want to cry.  I know I have to do it and I know it is going to help me improve my chances but............Ugh!

Anyway, I hope you all hang in there and I will too.  Hugs!

Steph - how large was your tumor?  Congrats on finishing chemo and having it make your tumor disappear!  I am so happy for you!

Bon--Please let your onc. know how bad you are suffering!  There must be something different they can give you--sometimes you can take 2 pills instead of one.  I had to do that with Prilosec before. I'm praying for relief for you!

Jackie--So glad you had a great time!  You needed and deserved that break!  Cheyenna and I start Taxol next Monday, and several others have already started it. We'll all be going through it with you!  Take that ativan tonight and tomorrow before you go in--you'll get through it just fine!  Do you have it weekly or every 2 weeks?  Be sure to pop back in here and let us know how it goes!

To those that have finished chemo--CONGRATS!  And please keep checking in with us--we love to hear from you!

I'll be off to my MUGA scan soon!

Take care!

Tina

Hi everyone. Long time since I posted! I seem to come here when I'm feeling extremely vulnerable about things. Sorry I don't keep up more. I finished my fourth and final AC on the 4th!! I used all of everyones suggestions for side effects and did very well with the AC and the Neulasta shots. 

I start Taxol on Wednesday - 4 dose dense treatments every other week. One Neulasta shot after round 2.  I spent the last hour reading all of the posts on this thread to get as much info as I can about the Taxol. I'm back to being scared of the unknown. Does the dose dense have more side effects? Heres what I gathered for tips and I have a few questions if anyone has answers let me know.  : )

Tree tea oil - will buy some today and start rubbing it on my nails (fingers and toes) every day. Every day right? Until I'm all done with Taxol?

Nails and polish - will clip them short and put on polish? Clear polish? I like a color on my toes. Does it matter? Does the tree tea oil absorb through the polish?

Frozen gel packs - will bring them to my treatment. Put them on my hands and feet. Do you wrap them around your hands and feet? Keep them on the whole time? I think my treatment last four hours! Guess I'll need extras for when the first ones melt!

Glutamine - will buy some pills. Take one a day until done with Taxol?

Tongue - I had a bad feeling on my tongue after my first AC like I had burned it on hot soup. Then I found a suggestion on this site to suck on ice chips during the A portion of the treatment. Did that and it helped alot. Is the tongue an issue on Taxol? Should I be sucking on ice at all during the treatment?

Claratin - took this day before and two days after Neulasta shots. Never had bone pain. Should I take it for SE of Taxol too?

Steroids/Benadryl - I have no instructions to take any steroids this time. I had the Emend, Decadron and Zofran for the AC. I'm assuming I'll get something in the IV?  As for the Benadryl in the drip I'm nervous about that. Whenever medicines have that warning on the box that says "May cause drowsiness or may cause excitability in people" I'm the one who gets the excitability! I'm afraid they'll have to peel me off the ceiling from the Benadryl. Any one else have this problem?

I have Xanax and haven't needed to take it in about a month. I find I'm getting really scared again and think I will start again today. Hope I do OK with this. I also work in the schools as a teachers aide and am scheduled to go back the day after my second Taxol tx. I'm so thankful the AC was during the summer break. I would have had to miss 3-4 days every other week on AC! Thanks for any helpful suggestions about Taxol.  -Donna

Bon--When you mentioned jaw pain that's the first thing I thought of--heart attack, as that is a symptom!  Its probably just gastro, like you said, but if you go in to the ER, maybe they can give you something for the heartburn!  And its something you really should get checked out.

Maybe some pills you can't double, but my doc told me it was ok to take 2 prilosec when I was taking some strong medicine.

Let us know what happens

designermom: I had shingles too during chemo and didn't know it. Got it after the 2nd round of AC. It was a small patch about the size of a half dollar on my lower back. At first I thought I had a bug bite. Then it was itchy and a little bumpy. It was somewhat painful but I thought that was from me keeping scratching it. My DH looked at it and thought maybe it was poison ivy - but that couldn't be - I don't garden at all. It scabbed over after a week. When I went for my next treatment I showed it to my onc. and he said it was shingles. He said it was the mildest case he's ever seen. He said since it was scabbed over I wasn't contagious anymore. Some symptoms of shingles are weakness and dizziness. I had both of those very badly and thought it was the chemo. I never felt as bad during my 3rd and 4th treatments, so maybe it was the shingles! Hope you are recovered from your bout! -Donna

workmother-  Thanks for the feedback on shingles.  It sounds exactly like my case!  I am wondering if your Onc wanted you on an anti-viral medication to prevent new outbreaks?  Mine did, but I really don't want to take another med (with SE) for two months.  I declined, saying I would take a big "knock down" dose IF I had a bad outbreak.  Of course I am quite nervous (just had chemo last Friday) that a bad outbreak may be brewing.  So you didn't have additional outbreaks with your remaining chemo infusions?  Were you on anti shingles meds?  You don't know how comforting this is to me!  Doctors do have a way of putting forth the worst case scenarios.

workmother- Do they have little water blisters?  Like a cold sore?  If so, it could be.  Don't scratch! Wash your hands a lot.  If it is herpes or shingles, the fluid from the blisters is what's contagious.  If you scratch, then rub your eye, it can spread to your eye.  If you are really brave, you can go online and google photos.  That is what my doctor did....scared me poop-less, again the worst case scenarios.  I am praying that it is just from night sweats.  Boy can I relate to that!!  I did read that tea tree oil is an antiviral.  Being willing to experiment, I did dab it on with a Q-tip when I had my outbreak.Try doing that to your own butt, not easy!   My doctor was surprised I healed so quickly.  I wonder if it was the tea tree. 

workmother - i'm on weekly taxol (had 3rd one today) , not DD, "so your mileage may vary", but here are my answers to your questions:

I understand from my onc that the DD has more side effects, because each dose is stronger.

i clipped my nails short, but they are growing super fast (much more than in non-chemo times) - i haven't put polish, but you should only use clear because you need to see what is happening to them

Nails and polish - will clip them short and put on polish? Clear polish? I like a color on my toes. Does it matter? Does the tree tea oil absorb through the polish?

Frozen gel packs - will bring them to my treatment. Put them on my hands and feet. Do you wrap them around your hands and feet? Keep them on the whole time? I think my treatment last four hours. You also need to use non-acetone remover - very impt.

ice packs - check with your onc center whether they frovide gel gloves and shoes - mine does (they are provided by the taxotere company). then they are already frozen and easier for you. my taxol tx is 1 hour - i change the gloves and shoes after 20-30 mins.you only need to wear them for 10 mins before the taxol and after - not during all the premeds and any saline you get after.my nails and nail beds are still quite tender -and one nail has stopped growing longer like the others and is covered in white stripes.

also had AC tongue problems, but don't seem to have them with taxol

the bone pain i get from taxol is minor and fleeting (no neulasta with weekly tx)- not bad enough to take anything. but others report that they have it worse.

i don't take any meds with the taxol on my own. i get benedryl and dexemethesone by iv right before the tx and that's it. no nausea at all. about bouncing off the walls- i don't bounce, but i don't sleep the entire night after a tx :-(  (On the other hand, I get a huge anount of tasks done at home)

i take ativan right before each tx but no other time, i find it really helps (I was feeling really sick before and during txs and it wa just from stress).

i'm noit working at all through txs, but I could probably work through taxol (definitley not AC). I just prefer to invest my energy in more impt things and i have insurance that lets me do this.

hope this helps :-)

Hi Ladies.. I am new to this post.. I started chemo a/c on June 9, a day after my daughter graduated middle school.. (one of six). The A/C had me wanting to stop treatment all together... I experienced muscle spams, headache, sensetivity to light, tiredness, neasuea, loss of weight, fingers and tongue has dark spots on them  burning, burning, burning in my head and nose loss of appetitie, fatigue, I stayed in bed for days at a time..I have had one treatment of Taxol and I can say that for me that was no walk in the park either..I had to take benadryl during my appt and steroids the night before and the morning of... the benadryl had me sleepy and the steroids had me awake.. it was the longest four hours of my life..the Neulasta has been a pain since I started treatment I have to take that everyday after treatment.. I take the claratin after the Neulasta but it seems to wear off the next day...my body aches  so bad, that even lying down is painful..my nails did start to turn dark but I just polisehd them..  felt like someone was just beating my bones with a bat.. I have percocet but I can't take them during the day because I am back at work.. so all day long I pop tylenol like they are skittles... chemo fog oh my never knew they had a name for it.. I thought it was just me.. I can't remember anything..I have to write everything down and then try to keep up with where I write it.. I am glad I am not just crazy... Nice to know that I am not alone

have a nice story to tell - when i had my first tx, a horrible nurse tried to find a vein. she had a lot of trouble, and when she finally got one in my hand (painful) it burst, to which she said "look what you did - you burst your vein because you are so stressed!!" at which point i burst into tears - how could she say this was my fault. another nurse then came and finished the job.

the second tx, i saw the awful nurse there, and asked to speak to the second nurse outside - i then burst into tears and told her that I couldn't do another treatment if the awful nurse was assigned to me. The nice nurse said not to worry and she would treat me instead.

the last couple of visits, I haven't seen the awful nurse at all (but I assumed it was a scheduling issue). I found out today that she no longer works there - apparently a lot of patients complained and one of the other nurses wrote a complaint about her too.

 so one less thing to worry about :-)

OK, plan of attack is to try Prilosec instead of Protonix. I talked to someone who said that Protonix is the drug of choice is you are just trying to prevent GERD from happening but that Prevacid and Prilosec were the ones to use if you needed to knock back gastritis. So tomorrow I'll start on Prilosec and see what happens. I'll do 20mg 2Xa day to see if I can tolerate that high a dosage. If not then I'll drop back to 20mg.

My PP is new...started with that office just a few weeks before BC dx.  They weren't helpful in finding BS so not sure I can count on them for referral to GI. Better to find it myself...then I have no one to blame but me.

Sorry to be complaining so much about this. I'm just worried that I'll end up with secondary pancreatitis if this isn't taken care of soon. That could be disastrous.

Aint' cancer and it's treatments and their side effects fun! I'm about ready to scream UNCLE!!! Enough already!

Bon- Oh the healthcare system when it doesn't work!!  My heart goes out to you.  It's hard enough finding good doctors who accept your insurance etc...  To do so under stress, in pain, oh my!  I had a thought for you.  I am absolutely sure that you are as loved and respected in your community as you are here with us.  Since you said you have been updating your friends and colleagues with e-mails about your BC, would you feel comfortable putting out a request asking if anybody likes their Gastroenterologist?  That way you could say they referred you.  I always find it helps getting appointments if another patient sends you.  I have always found my favorite doctors through friend's referrals.  Doctors referring to doctors just isn't the same.  Unless doctors or their family use a particular doctor, they just don't know.....as you have unfortunately found out.  Once you finish treatment, I would have no hesitation changing doctors.  You are going to need years of follow up, you need to not only have confidence in a doctor, but trust that they actually care about you.  Prayers going up for you tonight!

BTW,

Is anyone sprouting spider veins on their legs?  I am sure this is from chemo and I'm not real happy about it!  Whilst i may not have had the best set of boobs in the world, I do have nice legs, or at least I did :-(  I'm guessing insurance will not pay to fix these :-(

Julia