April 2011 chemo

Y'all! I debuted the bald head at fancy dinner with the hubs last night! Yes, people stared at me and I smiled at them. Today we plan to slowly walk through the gardens and enjoy the first bit of real sunshine all week. Then I'll be ready for #3AC on

Monday morning. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Trying this question over here too... anyone have issues with heart palps?  Not sure if its the steroids, nausea meds, neulesta, advil, vicadin or what????  curious Ginger

Ginger- yes to heart palps, scared the shit out of me with my first treatment. If you are worried  go have someone listen to your heart, It will give you peace of mind.

In fact anyone who feels uncertain about any side effects...please call your team. They expect you to.

Profbee-Maybe a fluid infusion would be a good idea, we loose a lot of fluids when we barf or have the big D for very long. Hugs, I am glad to hear it seems to have passed

ginger..i have had a few palpitations, but i think this does happen? ..maybe others will know more.. that did not really worry me last time but i also had sharp heart pains which did worry me...onc said since only short lasting not following up at this stage. i thought what i experienced was more like an ischemiac spasm, hard for me to pass off as nuelasta sternum pain or anything else and that seemed to describe it best...rosemary

Question for the group.  Woke up this morning, face feels warm, body is chilly but no elevated temp but noticed I'm getting pinkish/red small patches on face and upper chest.  Common?  Something to watch?  Anybody else????

Merilee - I live in the heart of the Emerald Triangle, which means many of my students are growers' kids. One of the first questions I got when I told my students I have cancer was whether I'd use medicinal pot for my nausea. I told them if I got desperate enough, I'd try anything, but that I hadn't reached that point yet, and besides, the one day of nausea was easily controlled with some Reglan.



reviled- I go for my3rd TCH this Friday,and anxiously await your postings on how you do. Even knowing How differently we all react, it helps to read postings.

Carla: mmmmm, coconut milk. Spent up til 6 in Venezuela, and a few trips to see family in the many years since, and besides the fact that there's no food like home food (black beans, arepas, hallacas, platanos fritos, mmmmm) and I dearly love coconut milk fresh from the coco, and chewing on raw sugar cane, and oh, so many different kinds of mangos...I'm ordering a case of coconuts today!

Jodie --- I got mine 4 days before #3....someones idea of a funny joke!

Thinking of you today Carla b.

Hi ladies,

I hope all are doing well. I had treatment 3, woohoo, last Thursday. Thank goodness I did not get sick this time. I did however take steroids for 4 straight days and coming off of them seem to be difficult. Does anyone else have a chest tightness for a few days after chemo? My doc says it is normal but I can't seem to find relief. I can't wait for the day that we all get to post that is behind us!

Epic fail on the chemo this morning.  0/5 successful port access attempts.  I've had two martinis and feel moderately better about it (ok, not really...but I had two martinis so yay!).  We try again tomorrow. My chemo nurse and I head to the surgeon's office so he can show us how to access this effin' port.  And effin' is not really the word I want to use.  I'm pissed off.

They are really resistant to pushing the adriamycin intravenously.  Don't get me wrong, I love my onc nurses.  They are great.  I do, however, severely dislike my port surgeon.  I don't look forward to seeing him tomorrow morning.  Everyone's pretty much agreed that for the Taxol, we'll ignore the port and do it intravenously.  Pissed is an understatement.

sweetcorn i have had the nose thing but would def call them tomorrow and find out. a call won't hurt and it could be normal.

I had my 3rd A/C last Thursday.  Nice to find this April 2011 group (a little late...My 1st A/C was Apr 21).  I'm on dose dense - every other week.  I get labs checked the day before chemo and a Neulasta shot the day after.  My blood counts, liver, and kidney functions have been 'perfect' so far and nausea well controlled until last Thursday's chemo.  My doctor's Pharmaceutical Rep changed the IV dosage of antiemetic available 'for the convenience of the patient' so says the Company.  More in the IV, no need for followup pills.  I was fine on the original lower dose IV antiemetic followed by two days of pills.  On the higher dose, followed by no pills, I was not sick enough to actually vomit, but too sick to do more than moan and lay around for 4 days.  Each day is precious to me and I don't need them wasted by a Pharm rep or Company who decides what 'my convenience' is.  I called the doc today and asked for the old regimen.  Doc said the lower dose IV bag was no longer available, but I could replace it by a pill one hour before infusion followed by 2 days of pills as before.  Next infusion will be my last A/C, June 2nd.  Two weeks after that, I start weekly Taxol infusions for 12 weeks.  No need for antiemetics during Taxol, I hear.  

As for port-a-cath problems, aside from excruciating 2 weeks of pain after insertion, it is working okay for me (see my posts under 'Surgery...').  Never a dull moment though:  my IV nurse was feeling up my port to get a good stick and discovered I had a dual-port.  Surprise to me and her!  There was was no reason to get a double-headed port and the port surgeon never mentioned to me that he had inserted one, so the nurse and I figured the 'resident' doctor (done in a teaching hospital) just needed a sign-off on that type of procedure for his certifications.  The only complication it causes is that each port must be used or flushed once every 8 weeks to prevent clotting.  It's like trying to remember which side I last breastfed the baby on.  The nurse and I keep notes on our calendars.  Interesting how this is all supposed to be at my convenience, eh? 

Well, thanks for letting me join in on the tail-end.  Good thoughts to you all.