Taxotere is a nightmare

Hi ladies! Sorry to hear about the hospital trip survivorwoman - I know that I told my doc there was no way I would be admitted for ANY reason when I started this path (my very stubborn nature rearing its ugly head) - of course she just reassured me not to worry, she would take care of me.  Luckily, so far, I have not had any severe problems requiring admission.  Glad you are doing better!

I did see my MO yesterday, have had lots of problems with fingers, nails, teeth... but she made sure I don't have any infection under the nails and reassured me all is going well.  Am FINALLY getting off some of the meds that have been making me so fuzzy-thinking.  Also, today is a better day again, but I do seem to have this up-and-down thing going with continued fatigue and emotions.  Made much worse when I started tamoxifen, so I had to discontinue for a bit, and we will discuss at my next appointment in 3 weeks.  BTW, she also said 4 TC is as good as 6 in the trials and cause less toxicity, and my PET scan is clear, so I am very optimistic that the chemo (as bad as it was and as much as it keeps on giving for now) was effective! 

Started physical therapy to begin building up muscle mass.  I lost over 15% of my body weight, had hard time eating with decreased appetite, feeling like crap, not able to cook, and I just happen to like my own cooking, so am really working on that now. You are all right that it takes a lot longer to recover from this (actually, the drugs themselves are eliminated within a few days, but the effects of killing off cells lingers until the normal cells can regenerate).  I had expected to be better within 6-8 weeks of last chemo, but it didn't work out that way.  But things are DEFINITELY better today than they have been in a few weeks, so I am hanging in there, saying prayers for all of you to do the same. 

n3ypb my finger problems are not neuropathy related. I have been wearing latex gloves to do chores ever since I had my BMX just as a preventative for LE anyway. The gloves also work well to put on my compression sleeve too.

I also cut my nails as short as possible. This really helps. There is only one nail that is so lifted I need to be really careful. I also found soaking them in warm water with a tea bag for 10 minutes every so often really dries them up underneath. This was recommended by my dermatologist. My NP said to soak in white vinegar to prevent infection. I haven't had any infection problems though.

As I mentioned it is rare to get this SE. Even my dermatologist said "you really got a bad reaction" regarding my nails. Hey shit happens. They are feeling better. I feel I'm getting use of them again. 

Hi ladies!

I always feel like I'm not crazy when I read your posts! I have been getting on my eliptical and the soreness in my legs is over the top! I feel like a 180 year old woman! Feel like I look like one too! I'm almost 5 weeks out and had started to feel a lot better but the past two days I have been so tired and weak. I thought this was over too! Oh well, I'm not sleeping at all so maybe that's the problem. My insomnia is terrible. I probably get 5 or 6 very interrupted sleep on a normal night and some nights are much worse. It's a very long journey and I'm glad you ladies are here to travel it with me!

PS I HATE it when people say, "Well you LOOK good." How can I look good with solid white chicken feathers growing in on my head, two eyelashes per eye and 1/4 of an eyebrow on each eye? Besides that sometimes I still DON'T feel good! Ok, I feel better now! LOL! 

I think people are comparing us to the chemo patients of old.  They were quite sickly looking at times because nausea and other SE's were not managed well.  They lost weight and didn't look good.  It it different now with all the SE management, though not perfect as we all know.

I have been using WW online for 4 weeks now and have lost about 4-1/2 pounds.  Very slow but I feel good about steady progress.  I have to say, now at 16 weeks out from chemo and 2 weeks out of rads I actually feel rather perky this morning.  I haven't felt perky since last July.  I'll probably crash in about an hour but at least this morning I have been doing stuff and NOT feeling tired.  I have my 10th herceptin Tuesday.  7 more to go after that.

Lago.. I have a question about your comment about MX and Lymphodema... If I have a MX and no more nodes removed, am I at risk for lymphodema?? I only had 2 nodes taken in the first place and MX would be prophylactic.

BDavis,

Yes, when they remove the breast they are also removing the lymph nodes inside the breast....ANY lymph node removal can lead to LE, though the higher the number, the higher the odds. 

Marjie,

I fluctuate 5 pounds either way too...love when it is in the downward direction, but know it's not for real.  Just like the day or two after getting all those bags of chemo it is up 3 pounds...heh.

My legs have some fluid retention as well.  And since I haven't been able to lift heavy, I know I've lost some lbs in muscle. 

I don't think we can really tell until treatment ends.  My Onc won't give me a diuretic while on chemo because he says it is too hard on the kidneys.  When it's over though, then we'll see.

If your weight fluctuates daily by 3-5 pounds, you can assume that it's fluid.  Real weight (body fat, and muscle) don't fluctuate like that.  One pound is 3500 calories.  Can you imagine how much you'd have to eat, or NOT eat to lose 3-5 pounds overnight? 

It's not real....just keep working out and watching it..that's all you can do..and don't let it discourage you!!

I think they are called intramammary nodes.

Another question to ask... oh boy.

hmmm.. how much risk... I need to decide between radiation / monitoring vs mastectomy... Doctors say rads and monitor, but MX removes the worry component and lowers risk from 25 to 2% risk of recurrance... Sorry kind of got off topic on this thread.

Yes, had a lumpectomy in December

bdavis - From what I understand lumpectomy plus rads has about the same recurrence (local failure in breast or axilla) as mastectomy.  One estimate of the risk of recurrence with lump+rads is 7% compared to 6% with mx (see table 3 in the following article).  I am not sure what the 25% recurrence means - lumpectomy without rads?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16360786