Taxotere is a nightmare

Lago, thanks for your imput, I go to my onc tomorrow, in preparation for friday chemo (TAC #5), I plan to make him aware.  It is both of my heels, back of heels, burns when I touch the bed or wear my running shoes, feels like they will blister.  Fortunately the skin looks just fine. 

Susan,  sorry to hear about the hair, how depressing to lose hair a second time.  I am on TAC, so no change of growing hair until I am done with treatment.  Still have not lost eyebrows, but not done with treatment yet.

Dear MiriamCecelia,

You had so many things done to you in short succession.  I surely hope you are feeling a bit better now.  I send you great sympathy and healing thoughts.

Just touching base and sending hugs to all of you tonight.  I have had a few good days, but overdid, got overly tired, and now paying the price of everything flaring up again.  But at least now I am much more hopeful that, just like the hair loss, the neuropathy and pain are temporary and WILL get better.  My fingernails no longer feel like a hammer hit them, but they still feel like I could easily pull a nail up if I'm not careful, and they are growing out much less ugly than they were! One day - 24 hours at a time....  Hang in there tracie, christine, lago, susan, misty, alison, and everyone else! We can do it!

Misty, I had 4 A/C every other week followed by 12 weeks of Taxotere.  I felt remarkabley well for the first 6 or 7 treatments but after that it was downhill all the way.  The days after my last treatment were rough and I really wasn't expecting that.  I guess I was expecting to finish chemo and wake up the next morning back to my usual self.  I hope that your Taxotere treatments don't get progressively worse.  It sounds like your last one is about 2 weeks away.  Plan to take good care of yourself after that last treatment.  I have averaged probably 12 - 14 hours of sleep every day since chemo ended.  I am totally wiped out.

Tracie, WOOHOO on losing 10 pounds.  I can't wait to be well enough to get back to being active.  Right now walking to my car is exhausting.  It's going to take me forever to regain stamina.

Bdavis, hooray!!  You are more than half way there.  

I am trying really hard not to be a big baby.  I really do know there are worse things that could happen than your hair falling out the second time.  I wasn't prepared for this at all though and I am totally bummed out tonight.

Susan

I got my exchange date: May 27th. I go for my last expansion tomorrow. The TEs didn't bother me till the last few expansions. I can't wait to get rid of these things. They are too big and weird now.

Another thing about hair. Mine came in with more gray… no surprise there but the brown part is actually almost black now. Even my eyebrows have grown in black. Talk about looking in the mirror and seeing a stranger. Granted I'm not complaining. Just can't wait till it's long enough/filled in enough to color.

My fingernail beds are still a bit sore. I see the NP next week. Hopefully she can give me an idea of when this will stop. I really hope they don't lift again.

Hang in there everyone it does get better but it's a gradual process.

That's not long. My PS wants to wait 6 weeks. I can't do it on May 13th because I have a wedding on the 15th (and who wants to do surgery on Friday the 13th anyway… not that is would have stopped me).

The next opening was the 27th. He only does this surgery on Fridays. I think the more invasive surgeries are earlier in the week. These doctors have certain surgery days at the hospitals. That's why they all have "people" that are in charge of scheduling.

BTW my last expansion is tomorrow. That will be 10 total!

TonLee My PS fills very slowly. I had 3 before chemo and tomorrow will make #10. I know the woman in my building that was diagnosed right after me (and has the same team) only had 3 expansions before chemo as well. She is doing rads now. She will be getting the lat flap thing because of rads. As you know I didn't do rads.

Yes I did read about the aggressive procedure on the other thread.

Marjie I had purchased make up to fill in my eyebrows before surgery! Yes this was my biggest fear… losing the eyebrows not the hair on my head. It was the exact same hue, value and intensity as my eyebrow color. Now it's lighter and redder then this black stuff that grew in. That's how I knew I wasn't crazy.

I purchased this in the Ebony. (granted who knows what color it's showing up on the screen). The dark side used to match now too light!

Product:       Color:

Yes my eyebrows are black compared to that image

Can't believe I didn't lose my eyelashes or eyebrows.  Feel so blessed to still have them as I was worried more about losing eyebrows than hair on my head probably because I have dark thick brows and feel they would be very noticeable gone.   I am 6 weeks post chemo and hair has only grown about 1/8 of an inch and color coming back is "reverse skunk" as my 15 year old daughter put it.  

Still having a lot of soreness on bottom of both feet which onc says is from the Taxotere.  Forgot to ask her if this will ever go away.  At least the more I walk, the less sore they are.  Worst part is when I first get up in the mornings.  Reminds me of when I had a heel spur. 

Hugs to everyone on this nightmare of a journey. 

Well, I'm 8 weeks past chemo and I had a lovely case of taxotears this morning at the store! The lady at checkout was so worried about me. She thought I was crying! HA!

Hair growth and eyebrows and eyelashes are coming along, but I am still sooooo exhausted from the chemo. My last taxotere was 10 weeks ago. I am still on herceptin and no rads for me. I know I am doing a lot more than I was when I was on chemo, but I am frustrated with my lack of energy. I am working two days a week ( I'm a veterinarian, btw Marjie nice cats .). Very frustrated! Anyone else feeling this way?



Christine

Slainte, Omaz is right!  I finished in December and just this past week felt like I had some true energy return!  My onc says 6-12 months to feel back to "normal" - of course, she didn't tell me this at the beginning, so I have been very hard on myself thinking I should be doing better.  I am trying to learn the lesson "be kind to yourself" but have to remind myself about that daily.  And yes, the frustrations are there, especially when many of us continue to try to maintain our professional commitments. I finally filed FMLA papers and got a slightly reduced workload in February as I was trying to do my usual work but wasn't doing anything very well. Hang in there! Be kind to yourself.