Chemo June 2010

Oh what a talkative bunch we are!.  I'm trying to catch up with all the posts, sorry if I forget some.

Bon- What a great photo op!  Girls flyin' down the road in a convertible, top down wind blowing, letting the WIGS blow off revealing real hair with wind blowing thorugh it!  Thelma and Louise have nothing on us!  Rest up.  Hope the weekend off helps with the fatigue.

latte- I don't know what your doctors are saying, but smaller sound GOOD to me.  Shrinking tumors have to be a good thing, no?

JFV-  So sorry about your MIL, praying things go well.  I have NO idea  about the rules with kids driving in the city.  As my son is only 12, I'm just going to kick that can down the road for a while!

cheyenna-  You sound GREAT! Dont over do too much.  Your body is still recuperating.

Well, Taxol #8 is in the books.  I made out well except the ole veins are struggling a bit.  They are tired!  Took two sticks to find one that would "play".  I was too tired to go over the Volley for the Cure last night.  My girlfriends daughter was playing in honor of me.  I would love to have gone but just too tired.  Of course I was wide awake at 4 am - too bad they weren't playing then.

Hope you all have a fabulous day!

sherry-Oh I hope you continue to weather the chemo well!  Push those fluids.  If things taste yucky, try popcicles, watermelon anything with liquid.  Hope you have a great time in Texas.

grneyed-  One more down.  Yeah, I have done that vein dance way too often.  Be sure to hydrate a few days BEFORE chemo.  A chemo friend who had terrible veins said it really helped to put warm compresses on before looking for a vein.  I just talked to my veins begging them to hold up a little longer and promising I would give them a long, well-deserved rest soon!

I love Thanksgiving.  It's probably my very favorite family holiday.  As my DH and son are dual Canadian/Americans , I get to celebrate it twice a year!  Enjoy!

Hello ladies...  just stopping by... going in for treatment #2 of AC,.  Man I do not like these.  Sooo tired all the time...

I am also tired of the whole pink thing, although I know it is doing a lot to raise money to help deal with this awful disease we are experiencing. Chey - I agree - a nice fun orangy Halloween.

Hey all you North Carolina girls - I am down here in Hilton Head for the week and loving it. What a beautiful place. I was worried about the flight - I have been getting lots of nosebleeds - but none until I got to my hotel on Friday in Savannah. This is my first glimpse at the ocean in more than a year. I had  my 7th taxol on Friday AM and then we drove right to the airport for our flight. Keeping my fingers crossed that my SE's don't get too much worse, although I am losing the feeling in my big toe. 

I will be meeting with the Radiologist when I return to decide the course of that treatment. Will probably start sometime in December and continue into January. YUCK - Then my herceptin will continue until sometime next summer. So I will be on here for a long time.

Thanks for all of you that are hanging in with us late finishers, and congrats to all of you who are finishing up now. 

I notice that everyone is talking about steroids in the TX - I am on the weekly taxol and getting no steriods. Is that true for anyone else?

I will think of you all as I sit on the beach this week - slathered in sunscreen - wide brimmed hats and under a large umbrella - damn chemo!

Liz 

Hey Kittycat - we have lots of the same S/E's. They suck but I agree are much better than A/C. I would not have been able to take this trip on the A/C. My nails are still OK but you are a bit ahead of me with the taxol. The nosebleeds are annoying - they come on with no warning and yes - it's as if my nostrils take turns...Hopefully they won't both decide to turn on at once...

lizzyanne-  Oh enjoy the beach.  Breathe in some of that sea air for ALL of us.  About all that sunblock.  You might want to catch a few late afternoon rays without it.  My vitamin D level is FLAT after chemo.  It seems many of us are vitamin D deficient (which can contribute to cancer), too much sunblock!

workmother- Just take one step at a time.  I know how you feel thinking this "journey" feels like it will never end.  I had my simulation and got those tiny freckle tattoos.  I can't even find them, they are so tiny....hope they can!

kittycat- sorry about the nails.  Maybe try the Revlon "post trauma nail treatment"?  I really like it.  It is very thin and doesn't chip at all, lasts forever.

Does anyone else have incredibly sensitive, irritated eyes?  Mine look bloodshot all the time, and water.  I thought after finishing chemo this would stop.  Or is it allergies that I was never bothered by before?

And like many of you, I think this pink October thing is getting old.  I feel like everyone and their Uncle stamps a pink BC logo on any product, to be a part of it.  I wonder how much of the donations truly go to BC.  Jeez, I saw the logo on toilet paper!!!

Hi All,

• Happy Thanksgiving as it is here in Canada. I will always remember this year as my daughter was home from university and I spent three days in bed after my Docetaxol  on Oct 5. I found Docetaxol hard.This Sunday I thought hell she is having turkey so I hauled my butt up and made turkey and have been up ever since. 
• I am so glad to be done chemo. I now either have surgery or radiation depending on if I have a DEIP or alloderm. If I want both sides removed I cannot do the DEIP. 
• I cannot believe we have all made this chemo journey and I think for many of us it needed to come to an end. My body was wearing and I found myself more tired and fatigued with each treatment. The 2 weeks in the hospital with the febrile neutropenia and then constipation were scary. Now that I am done chemo my advice would be to be strong and never let yourself get down cause you might not get up. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for all of us.

Workmother - I think that is good news to be able to use Tamoxifen. It is better to be ER positive as there are more weapons in the arsenol and Tamoxifen is one of them. In fact if you are ER positive Tamoxifen will reduce the risk of spread to the other breast by at least half. I know it gives hot flashes excetra but if it reduces risk of spread with ER positive people that is good. No one likes to take meds but if it can help fight the beast then be glad you can use it. 

Take care,

Trusting  

Hi Northern Girl,

Go DEIP if you can ... no muscle used and is considered a gold standard for breast reconstruction if you have the spare tissue.

I must share with you that I have found the Docetaxol hell too. Extreme fatigue and 2 weeks in the hospital.  Thank God the hospital here had an oncology unit that was AMAZING and in a brand new hospital.They are funded for 5 beds and usually have 10. The unit is for people who are struggling with their chemo and have bad SE. They saved my life and helped me make it through these 3 Docetaxols. How I wish you had a unit like that to have helped you. I had bad thrush and sore mouth too. They gave me something they call Fraser Valley mouth wash or the BC cancer clinic calls it Magic mouth wash. It is a steroid, Benadryl and nystatin all mixed together and it fixed my mouth up twice. You swish and swallow. The pharmacists mix it. I wonder if you could get some. Your journey is similar and now on to decide one side or two. Hard decision. Take care Northern Girl.

Trusting 

Hi Ladies: Nearly 4 weeks post -chemo, I still have numb toes but my onc gave me neurontin (sp) last week - hoping that will help.

Lizzyanne - I got steroids with my 1st two Taxol treatment but not the last two. It's pretty common - they give it to cut down on the SEs,but if you are doing okay without steroids, you're probably just as well off - because they have their own SEs!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Best Wishes to all who are done with chemo!  What a relief. 

I got the same advice as tmarina and had a 3 week break between chemo and rads. 

Had my second rad today.  No big deal physically.  Emotionally I'm spent.  Not totally sure what all is bothering me.  I think I'm just tired out from being tired out. 

My MIL still in hospital with no progress.  She is refusing physical therapy and can't get up out of bed.  She has a skin infection.  They want to clear that up before she has the angiogram.  She now has a port because her arms and legs were getting so beat up from blood draws and insulin shots.

A friend is coming and we will go for a walk.  I am sure that will help me.

Happy Birthday VickyThomas!  I hope you have been able to do something fun and relaxing today.  I keep you in my prayers.

 JFV - sorry to hear about MIL.  Hang in there!  I am sure all that is not helping you emotionally.  That may be the answer to wearing you out.  Hopefully the walk helps.  Keep your chin up!

hi everyone, glad to hear things are getting better for most of us. In fact, when I saw my BS last night and he asked how chemo is going (2 taxol tx left to do) i said that compared to AC,m it's fine and i could do more tx if they thought it would help!

 i'm now trying to decide what to do about surgery. I have to do rads no matter what i choose for surgery. I always thought i wanted to have a BMX because I am BRCA1+ (either with delayed or immediate recon), but last night met with BS and PS (separately). BS wants to do a lumpectomy and he wants to try to leave the nipple intact (if there are clear margins, if not then he will need to do another surgery to remove nipple too). He thinks that apart from the possible loss of nipple, my breast will look fine after the lumpectomy, and i can do nipple recon later if i want. PS doesn't think the lumpectomy will leave acceptable results, and is pushing for a BMX. He also said that he doesn't recommend a BMX with delayed recon, because it will be harder for him/me, but instead recommends to do the lumpectomy now and delay the BMX and do it with the recon when I am ready.

I just don't know what to do, especially because I have the added BRCA risk too. Lumpectomy seems to be the easiest option for now (easiest recovery, and same survival chance as uni mx), but BMX seems to be the preferred choice for the long term. (2 oncs have both told me that BMX won't increase my life expectancy, because my biggest threat is current cancer moving to stage iV, not a new cancer because of BRCA - so they both recommend holding off on the BMX and recon so I can decide in my own time and under stress because of cancer).

I also need to check whether my insurance will cover delayed BMX+recon because at that point it will be prophylactic instead (hopefully).

I need to decide within the next week. AAAAARGH. any ideas?

for everyone who has been travelling, and those who haven't - I have a sad/funny travel story - A chemo buddy finished chemo 4 weeks before me, and went on a 7 day cruise with her family and friends to celebrate. I spoke to her today for the first time since she got back, and found out that they all had an awful time because her mother broke her leg on the first day of the cruise, they spent the entire cruise in the room looking after her, she had to have an op on her leg when they got back, and now - the worst part - she is staying home on sick leave for 2 months and my chemo buddy will be staying home with her (she still needs to have breast surgery and rads) and she's not happy about this at all. So I guess - whenever we think things can't get worse, they actually can :-)

Latte...I do not envy your need to make a decision. I know you'll research it thoroughly and will do what's best. Just know that I care. We all care.

Thank you so much for asking about my Mom. She is finally taking that turn for the better...yesterday was her 89th Birthday and she actually was conversant and engaged in conversation about things other than her illness for the first time in many, many weeks. It's nice to have her back!  Am hoping that she improves day by day and gets back to normal at some point. Here I am, unable to lose weight, and she is down to 91.5 lbs. When I give her a hug I'm afraid I'll snap her in half!

My rads thing will be fine. I just didn't have the patience to be pushed around today. Some days I'm a marshmallow. Today I was a nougat...hard and nutty!