Starting chemo Sept 05

Leanne, Kim, Sandra...thanks so much for understanding these feelings...no, Kim, not on any antidepressants...and I really don't want any. If I get so low I can't function, then I'll talk to the doctor. I truly know that I'm tired and it's all catching up to me...getting a respiratory infection didn't help either. I sometimes feel like the world is just going on all around me and I can't join in (does that make sense?)...especially at work. I know being in a fog for about a week after chemo has really affected my feeling like part of the world...I guess what concerns me when I read everyone's posts is that my chemo ends with 4 AC, followed by Arimedex...I feel lucky that is all the doctor prescribes and at the same time worry if it is enough...(not that I want more chemo, thank you very much!)



Leanne...it is wonderful that you were able to raise the money for not only your treatment, but someone elses...that's what life is truly all about...helping one another...



Hope you feel better Tina...not too many more to go.

Take care everyone and have a good night's rest. Janet

Maxine, I am also on FEC (We call it CEF), but also has hair growing - all white (or is it grey?)! There are one or 2 hairs that are quite a bit longer than the others. Also has not lost my eyebrows, pubes down to about 40% as well, no underarm hair (yipee) and hair on legs growing out very slowly and softly. I am not even bothering with shaving.
Susan, glad you enjoyed your trip!

Hope you all have a good weekend!!

Hey Susan – glad you enjoyed the trip – here’s to a happy, healthy 2006.

Leanne – it would be great if you could know an identity of the other person (s) that the money raised will help – fantastic.

Tina – hope things pick up for you over the weekend.

Speak soon.

Sandra from the UK

Well here it is day 5 from my first Taxol. I am now to point I at least want to be up. I too had pain from the neulasta and Taxol combo. Unfortunately I had extreme pain in the bones, joints and muscles. The day three was horrible, the day four was much better and today was pretty good. So if you get pain with the Taxol it will get better. Do take pain meds as needed. The first round of pain scared me so I want to let you know that it does improve. I am also eating pretty well but am now getting a laxative as all the pain meds didn't help. I did ask the chemo nurse about the pain and she said it may or may not happen again. It does not mean you will have pain everytime. Well I hope I didn't worry anyone but if you know it might happen you won't be as upset about it when it does. Like Peg said I now only have 3 more to go and then I am finished. Yeah.

Well I had my last A/C yesterday and am feeling amazingly well. Just got the a/c figured out and now i switch to taxol.

Got up this morning and made my first Christmas pudding for the season. had a nap while that was cooking got up we all ate some yum,yum...(pm me for very easy recipie)

still a bit tired of to give myself a neulasta shot in a min, will check out peg's taxol thread first.

Hope all are well
Nicole

Way to go Norrine! Am at day 9 past first taxol and don't feel any aching today..day 3 was definitely the worst, in retrospect I think I should have spent a day with pain meds but I was too stubborn and was wondering just how bad it would get. Next time I'm going to do the glutamine more consistently and see if it makes a difference. My onc says it can cause bloating (oh joy, just what the stomach needs now). The stuff I got is L-glutamine and it's a powder of 4.5 gm per teaspooon. My onc's instructions are to take 10 gms three times a day starting 24 hrs after taxol for the next 3-4 days. I took about 2 teaspoons mixed in juice and it was easier to swallow. The glutamine is an amino acid that can get deficient during metabolic stress and and my onc says it appears to reduce the pain and nerve damage, but they don't know why.
Yeah, only 3 more to go! My 9 yr old has made a paper chain with a link for each day until Dec 16 when I'm done. It's also her birthday so we are planning one heck of a party-want to join the celebration?

I am starting to feel a bit better after AC number 5...one more to go and it is getting harder to go....I am still fighting the lump in my arm pit from my hospital stay last week...I hope it does not send me back this week but I was warned that it may happen when my counts go low again but they wanted to make sure I stayed on track.

I am the most tired this time for sure...

Congrats on those of you who are done...with AC..I cannot wait...mine is on the 23rd...the day before Thanksgiving...I will have lots to be thankful for!

Tina

Hi all. I am wondering if anyone has experienced problems with their veins and AC. During my last chemo my iv kept shutting down and now three days later I feel like I have a bruise all the way down my arm with small hard balls in it. Will my veins ever repair or is this damage irrepairable? I posted this question on the main board as well. Hoping someone has heard something. I am struggling with the idea that I may have caused irrepairable damage to myself for a 7mm tumor. Gee won't I feel stupid if I have.

Hi all my September Sisters,

I am now 2.5 weeks post A/C and I am starting to get some energy back, but the best news is MY BRAIN IS FUNCTIONING again! How great is that?

Now, I would not say that I am 100% yet. I went to a client office on Sunday and during a large data routine, I laid down on the floor and used my coat as a pillow! [I was there alone.] A good friend thinks I should put a yoga pad and a pillow in the back of my car just in case I need to nap regularly. I think I prefer to be careful about how much I schedule on a daily basis.

I started radiation today and have posted that experience in the Fall/Winter Nukemboobies thread if anyone wants to check that out.
http://www.breastcancer.org/ubbthreads/s...true#Post210997

Hopeful and I are once again on the same schedule. It is nice to have an 'old' friend beside me as I move into the great unknown.

*susan*

Im with you, Calico....terrified of the unknowns and right now the unknown is Taxol this Wednesday. My veins are still sore from the last of 4 AC and i feel a bit dragged out and now the TAXOL!

Geeze i can see why women get depressed. I have roids, achies, tiredness, eyes get glucky, nose runs sometimes, all from the AC. And i smell different even to myself and i hate this, my cats have to smell me and look closely at me to make sure it is really me.

Lets hope Taxol goes well for us. So far I am planning on taking Vit B and Circumin, and l-Glutamine and after reading a post on iron, will take time release iron too.....oh what joy.....aaaauuuuuggggggghhhhh!

Yes, Lean, that is how my eyes are. I have to use clean hot wet washcloths on them sometimes to get the gluck out so I dont irritate them worse. Maybe as the AC exits our system we will get over some of these icky things. I have had my last AC only 3 weeks ago.,....

Leanne, you are moving in the middle of all this? Oh my goodness, where are you going to find the energy for that? So sorry about the second car. As the owner of an unreliable car, my sympathies are totally with you.

Three weeks post A/C, and my eyes are still a mess. I lost a fair amount of vision, the skin around my eyes is completely parchment like, and yet the eyes water. Chemo, the gift that keeps on giving.

Nicolita, pneumonia! Do take care of yourself. Delaying chemo is such a let-down, but clearly you need to be strong to continue the treatments.

Carol, hang in there. One more to go, that is all. If it is any consolation, I have lost 8 pounds in the past three weeks. The weight gain doesn't have to be permanent.

And my dear Barb, you are one tough woman! You are going to get through this. Read some of your earlier posts to this thread, and remember that this determined, strong and successful woman is still in there, just a little foggy at the moment.

Will be thinking of you all as you head into your treatment regimens.

All the best,

*susan*

I start taxol tomorrow too. I think I'm more frightened of that than AC. No, probably not, but just the same, I am terrified. My onc wants me to take so much dex tonight--I know I'll never get to sleep. And then she wants me to continue a large dosage for several days--all I can think of is weight gain and I've managed to not gain any with AC. But every transfusion brought on about 5 lbs that I lost almost as soon as I stopped the steroids. And the vision thing. I had no idea chemo was responsible. I just noticed I couldn't see the TV very well anymore. Is this permanent? I also have a yucky rash all over my shoulder and back of affected side. And I have an eye rash. And I have peeling toes and fingers. Yuck. But, although it's very thin, I still have about 1/2 of my hair. My nurse said I'd probably lose the rest of it now. It is still falling out and I do cover my head because it's not attractive. It's like electric hair or something. I would have rather lost all my hair and have my vision and nails.

Good luck,good thoughts and blessings to all of us Sept sisters whether continuing AC, Fec, taxol, or rads. I'm starting to come out of the shock, I think, of discovering I have bc and my mother's sudden death that both happened this summer in the space of a week. In fact, I feel very lucky that I, who used to be someone who avoided doctors like the plague (I hadn't been to one since the birth of my baby 4 yrs ago) just decided to go for a general check up because I was worried about blood pressure. My bp was perfectly normal, but y'all all know the surprize. Still, I was lucky and I feel blessed to have found it. Anyone besides me know the Ethel Merman song, Life is just a bowl of cherries?

I have the eye thing too. I never used to wear sunglasses but now I can't do with out them. Some days I have to wear them in the house too.

Have not heard from Aussiemum for a while hope that means she is doing well and we hear soon.

best wishes to all
Nicole