Chemo May 2011

Ah, I have a beautiful view of the spaceneedle and a peek a boo view of water. The night lights are gorgeous! Up late because a bit nausous, just took some ativan, so I should be sleepy agin soon, Hard to sleep in the hospital without my doggies and hubby. Started the ac drip about 8pm, so I won;r br out of here until after 8 pm Saturday. I was hoping for an earlier start. as I was in the hospital by 12!. I am shedding, I would almost say profusely, hair soesn't really look thinner yet, but it will! I leave a trail on all pillows. The clippers are coming out soon, as I do not tolerate the shedding very well and would rather just get it over with.

Well the hair has decided to depart at day 19 post FEC and luckily it was a sunny, windy day - I sat in the sun and had a great scratching session- bliss without the clean up as my long suffering strands decorated the garden lol. I start my fast tomorrow in preparation for chemo no# 2 on Tuesday. That will be hard as I have been enjoying my food now my sense of taste and smell is back to normal. Funny but I think that chemo has cured my Samters syndrome. I rarely have a functioning sense of smell or taste as I have chronic inflammation of upper airways, asthma and react badly to aspirin or NSAIDs.

I have been working with only a couple of days off. I took a month off after the BMX and that was vital to recovering enough to tackle chemo.

I hope everyone is having a restful weekend and not feeling too blah!

Robyn_S I too am post FEC but still have my hair it's day 13 I hope that it will stay till day 19 like you. Have been feeling way better too. My mom had breast cancer 16 yrs ago and she has asthma and she didn't have an asthma attack in 5 years, she thinks the chemo cured her for those years. I already got a turban and a hat but still need to get more stuff and a wig soon. Hugs and kisses to all, hoping everyone one has a good weekend.

Thanks Cyborg, you're our inspiration in this folder.  

bkj66: Your place sounds like my place...6 dogs, mostly rescues that appeared one day, down to only 2 cats due to old age and no recent appearances, and, yes, chickens, one lonely old pygmy goat whose lifetime companion just died last week, cockatiels and a cockatoo with beak-and-feather disease (also a rescue)...who am I missing? Oh, yeah, down to one very old pigeon, who has someone avoided the hawks that think I had pigeons just for their hunting pleasure. And in my high school classroom are my snake, walkingsticks, toad, tarantula, turtle, and geckkos...DH does the plants, I do the animals. Mostly, I've been able to do it still, except for a few rough days here and there. We'll see how the poison affects me as I hit TCH#3 this Friday...oh, and I did have human children...just added them to the menagerie, is all. They grew up just fine.



Hugs to all of us with the coming week's adventures in the poison chair!

re: insurance and Neulasta. My Blue Shield will only pay for Neulasta, not Neiupogen, and only once my counts dropped sufficiently. Then they okayed a shot after each TCH, so every 3rd week - my onc said once my counts drop like that, it'll happen each time.

The fasting is for 62 hours pre and 24 hours post chemo. There is a thread in this forum about this but basically there is research by Dr Valter Longo of USC which in a series of case reports found that chemo SEs are lessened by fasting. The theory is that during fasting low glucose levels trigger a protective mode in healthy cells like hibernation, while cancer cells do not listen to these signals and continue to do their thing. The effect during chemo means that healthy cells are much less affected by the chemo drugs while the cancer cells are still targeted effectively. The result is less damage which we feel as reduced SEs, to healthy cells.

I have discussed this with my MO last week and she was happy for me to try this. There are a number of clinical trials- one at the Mayo clinic is due to finish next 2012 which will be too late for our treatments, but I have read the research and would qualify for inclusion based on BMI and general health. I have contacted windlass who has done treatments with and without the fasting nag reported dramatic differences. Again, would not do this without my MOs knowledge and approval.

The fasting bit is easy- no calories for 62 hours pre and 24 hours post infusion. Keep up fluids! - black tea. Water, diet soda, black coffee. The mayo clinic trial is doing 4 interventional arms with 24 hours fast pre chemo tx; 48 pre; 48 pre/24 post and control no fast.

If you search for ' Nutra / Valter Longo' you will find his company web site which has his research papers conveniently available in PDF.

My motivation as I am missing my breakfast is simply to keep as healthy as possible both during and after chemo- the knowledge that the drugs will affect the heart muscle and leave an increased risk of leukemia is motivation enough to do something to protect the healthy cells that have to carry me to an old age!!

I have had one treatment without fasting so it will be interesting to contrast with fasting intervention!

Another windy day here in Oz so the rest of the hair is in the garden! Hats n scarves from now on!

Time to cook Sunday dinner for the crew- chicken and potato bake.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Nice picture 38 years old, I bet your hair looks cute short too!

WOw Jackifp, your house does sound like mine! Yeah< i used to get very upset when I lost a chicken to a predator, but now am coming to terms to how that is the food chain. I will still do all I can to protect all, and yeah, for now, the chickens must stay in their run during the day and the coop at night. Neighbor even spotted a couple of bear cubs, I thought we had been seeing bear scat around...

 Well, looks like I have 2 more hours in the hospital.

Robin, the fasting sounds very interesting, but 62 hours before chemo? I don't know if I could make it, I get shaky and weird just without eating for 12-24 hours. I wonder if it would do any good just to eat really light?

Cyborg- The theory behind fasting is to give a push for the natural protective mechanisms that healthy cells possess and cancer cells don't due to the oncogenes being jammed in the on position. The body has to be stressed to switch to famine mode which is induced by low blood glucose levels. This initiates the protective pathways.

BKJ66- The mayo clinic trial also looks at shorter periods (24 hours) of fasting but I would not count on a light diet producing the protective effect. the 62 hours pre/24 post comes from Dr Longos research and what he has advised Windlass who has communicated with him.

I have been lucky in that my appetite is somewhat diminished and being not too enthused looking ahead to the next week after feeling so good for the last 10 days! Only 5 more to go!!!!

Cyborg- I am doing FEC and get steroids via infusion and dexmethasone tablets for 2 days after. You would need to discuss with your MO if you have medication that needs to be taken with food

viacheryl,   I am so sorry to hear about your mother....her story is a lot like mine and I have mets in exactly the same places she does, liver, bones and lung and was lst diagnosed in 1990. I am doing havalen now and am sorry it did not work for her.  Later today, I will send you a PM....do you know how to do that?   Hang in there, both of you.   Marybe

Thank you 38 yearold I will check out the other thread you spoke of, good luck with your tests. Keep me posted.

Marybe Im not sure about how to  get a PM, what do I need to do ?

My port lump looks like I've got a bottle cap stuck under there...