2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS

OMG Amy, You have to lay still for 60 min? I will never make it. I am too antsy, I don't think I can lay still that long. I guess I will have no choice. The bone scan was 1/2 hour and I thought that was bad enough....OH WELL....
Tracy, when I had my CT scan (if it is the same thing) it was like a big donut and my head didn't go in, it only went over my chest. I think it took about 10min.....I am not sure if it is the same thing that Amy had. I have never had an MRI. Graycie

Congrats to all those coming to the end of their chemo. I've got 7 more to go on Taxol!!! It seems like it will never end!!!
60 minutes of mapping prior to rads will definitely be a challenge for me, too! I had trouble being still for the bone scan, too. I hate that stuff! And I think the bone scan was only 15 minutes. The scan didn't come out and they made me do it AGAIN!!!! Thought I would go nuts! Any suggestions on how to get through that mapping procedure?
I was told to make an appointment with the radiation specialist before my last Taxol treatment. So, i still have lots of time to prepare myself for the next adventure.
ravdeb

Deb, during MRI of breast last Sept had to stay still for half an hour. I have a large family so waht I did was I started with the oldest and thought about him his wife and each of his children one by one. I imagined each of them at a time , what they looked like,what they were doing with their lives etc. Before I knew it the exam was over. I guess it was a form of meditation that worked for me.

Debbie am hormone -, so not facing ant ovary challenges. Good luck with your surgery though.

I am getting steadily more hairless. My eyebrows and lashes are falling a lot in the last week. Seems most of you are seeing growth...?

Mom and I will be going to a play, The Mousetrap, this afternoon. Saw this in London two years ago so will be interesting to see how local amateur actors compare.

I went to Brokeback Mountain last night. It is the first mainstream movie about gay lovers. It also chonicles the struggles of gay people in the 60's to 80's. I found the movie a little long and the plot a little narrow to keep my interest. But I think it is a ground breaking film with respect to it being the first drama to feature gay lovers. Anyone else see it yet?

Fists up!

This is part of a To All message I sent to friends. It's lengthy but I'm on a mission to educate everyone I know about bc. As I've explained before on other threads, my family is one of those that regards cancer (or any illness, for that matter) as something shameful, something not to be discussed, something that isn't even acknowledged to the patient. At her wake in 1985, the priest said that my grandmother was a breast cancer survivor from the 1940s, who had surgery and radiation. I had never heard this before! We lived in the same city! Old family members continued to deny this and said that the priest didn't know what he was talking about. I've been shaking my head ever since. Here goes:

"So – this is what radiation is like. I had an appointment yesterday, one of two called ‘simulation.’ I was placed on a table with all sorts of equipment above me and surrounding me.

The appointment took about 90 minutes. The purpose was to find where the radiation should be directed. They took measurements, marked my body with Magic Markers, gave me two tattoos where the radiation beams will be directed. My chest looks like a cubist Picasso, or at the least, a Mondrian. Kinda’ cute. The tattoos were painless and are about the size of a pin head. Those are the primary areas where the radiation will be directed.

The only painful part was something that I’d heard about from my cousin. They make a mold of your body in the area where you will not be allowed to move so that the beam hits the target. In my case, I had to raise my right arm over and around my head. There is a pillow-like thing under your head, kind of a bean bag. They position you and the table and slowly remove the air from the bean bag so that it becomes hard, trapping your arm into position. This went on for about 45 minutes. In the meantime, the blood leaves your arm and it becomes more and more painful. I’m a trooper and don’t even blink, but man! This was tough! I usually try to outsmart them by complaining so that they’ll work faster. Not these people. They meant business and meant to get it right. Damn them for caring! I did my normal coping mechanisms: relaxation techniques, remembering previous romantic encounters, thinking of the people rooting for me, and my favorite – rating pain on a scale from one to ten. Years ago I thought that a ten would be my least favorite methods of dying: being eaten alive by a wild animal or death by fire (actually death by fire isn’t accurate. You probably die from smoke inhalation. Worse would be to live with 90 degree burns all over your body). Time instructed me that these events probably wouldn’t occur so my personal one to ten scale put kidney and gall stones at ten, childbirth at 8.5, broken ribs at seven. This procedure was probably only a five, so it was doable and I relaxed and went with the flow. I spent so much time arguing with myself about the pain scale that alluva sudden it was over. Whew!

They continued with what they do and my rad onc came in to monitor it all. Her name is Dr. Susan Lee and she’s so short that I couldn’t even see her since the table I was on was elevated. I love this woman. I love all those people who took such good care of me and took the time to make sure that what they were doing was one hundred percent on target. As I’ve said frequently, doctors, medicine and technology are what save us. Add other medical personnel to the doctor category and you’ve got it all. This experience has been incredible.

Tomorrow I have phase two of this simulation process and from what I understand, it involves x-rays more than anything else. The appointment should last about an hour."

Well, as it turned out phase two was short and painless. I don't know why they weren't both done in one day - probably
a conflict in equipment scheduling.

I just about crapped when I found out I'd have another simulation for boosts. They said it would take about an hour. I doped up on Ativan and arranged for my daughter to drive me to the center.

The simulation took about 45 minutes and was far less involved. They didn't have to make a new mold, so my arm was positioned as usual. The Ativan worked its magic and I could care less what they were doing.

Hope this helps! Remember though, everyone is different and some women look at me in disbelief that I reacted as I did. They had no problems with simulation whatsoever!

Straykat, Thanks for all the information. It was very interesting and helpful especially since I will be starting radiation soon as many of us will be. I still know I will freak out. I didn't think about the fact that the arm would get so tired and hurt being up above your head for so long. I hope I can do it. Right now I am just concentrating on getting through this last chemo. I am still feeling crappie and our weather doesn't help. Damp and rainy today, not good for the arthritis....
Terynsmom, your right, you can handle almost anything as long as it's not cancer that is all that matters.
Graycie

Hi StrayKat,
First of all..thanks! I think the girls on this thread will appreciate it as some are finishing up chemo, some are still in chemo (like me) and some are already into rads but wouldn't dare leave this great bunch of women!
It is really helpful to hear a play by play account of what it's all about. I, for one, like to know in advance what I'm up against so I can prepare myself. I have very little patience for laying still so I appreciate the things that you said as well as what Maryanne said in order to get through it all.
And...I love your name..StrayKats...I am the mother of all the stray cats in our neighborhood since I feed them. I love my stray cats!!!

Thanks!!!
ravdeb

Hello! I haven't posted in this forum for awhile, so it's about time. I tried to catch up on everybody's posts. Amazing how different the experiences are--but all a challenge in their own way. Hang in there, everyone, for the wild ride.

I'm almost two months out from my last AC. I never realized how slow hair can grow! I have my second Herceptin tomorrow. The first was a double dose, and I had all sorts of bad flu-like symptoms. But, I felt much better by the second day, and, unlike AC, I bounced back pretty quickly. Energy level is coming back, but not quite normal.

I'm getting an expander Feb. 14. Nice Valentines Day! I don't have to stay in the hospital overnight--yay!

There was some discussion of nails. I have dark streaks on just two nails. It looks like the dark streaks are disappearing or at least getting lighter as the new part of the nail grows in.

Trips!! I'm meeting some friends in NYC March 2. I hope I have enough stamina to keep up. In June, my husband and I are going to Alaska to see the Tongass National Forest, among other things. This is my Official Cancer Trip!

Good luck to all of you with on-going treatment--and everything else.

Susan

Hey guys...

I had my first radiation 1 hour ago! It was no biggie! I can totally do it. I actually don't feel any different now than before I did it. I did not even feel the radiation itself. It's like going to have your chest x rayed, only in the lying down position. Of course this was my very first one and the effects are probably cumulative, so I am bracing myself and I will inform you of any side effects I am having. Now I am going to apply Emu Oil on my chest.

It is a skin care product that comes from emus - big, ostrich like birds. I would apply (slather is a better word) this on my affected breast to prevent sunburns (from radiation) and maintain elasticity. A lady from my support group says she got radiated BEFORE her reconstruction and emu oil was her main defense against the side effects. Her PS was apparently surprised to see how well her skin appeared after radiation. She is white, though dark featured and I am brown (Filipino).



I got the Emu Oil from Henry's, a place where you buy fresh produce and vitamin supplements. It's $20 for a small 2 oz. bottle. I tried it on my face because I noticed a deep furrow between my eyebrows (or where my eyebrows should be). After a few applications my furrow was still there, but lo and behold a big, brown spot on my cheek is starting to fade!!

Hey, I've got peach fuzz on the top of my head! My last Taxol was Jan. 13, so I wasn't looking for any type of hair for another four to six weeks! When I saw it in the mirror last night, I hollared for my husband to come look. <grin> It was pretty funny, actually, how excited I was to see anything growing on the top of my head.

It's white and downy. I'm not sure if it gets longer and turns into hair eventually, or if the fuzz rubs off and then real hair starts growing. Guess I'll find out! LOL

Yep...ME!! I've had stubbles on my head, but thin on top and other places, all along, too. They just never grew! I had shaved my legs at the beginning of AC and I had the SMOOTHEST legs!!! My kids were massaging them with lotions all the time because they liked how smooth they felt!!!
Now, I'm on Taxol weekly and have had 5 treatments so far and my hair is growing!!! I mean...ya need a magnifying glass to actually notice that it is longer, but I made everybody in my family take a look at my hair!!! My daughter even said there are a few "long" ones (this is all relative of course lol). My hair has been gray since I was 30 (I'm 51 now) and it is coming in white now. I'm so excited for hair!!!!Who cares what color it is. I can't wait til it's long enough to call hair and mean it!
ravdeb

My hair is not fuzzy but just getting longer, though my daughter says the top hairs look curly. I told her they are messed up from my scarf and then told her NOT TO MESS MY HAIR UP!!!! LOL

I was kinda hoping that if I had to have hardly any hair that I'd go all the way and be totally bald and then really get new hair in. So, I don't think I'm going to get much of that fuzz, that I was told needs to be shaved off in order to get proper hair. Oh well. I was hoping that if all my hair had fallen out then maybe it would come in a whole different color!!!!
I am nuts, I know, but if I had to suffer with what I've got now, I like to go ALL THE WAY!!!!
Honestly, I hope my hair continues to grow in throughout my Taxol and then stays put forever! I've got 7 more Taxols to go.
Enjoy the hair growth :-)
ravdeb

Had my Taxotere (chemo #6) on Friday. They gave me a big dose of steroids with it, and a Neulasta shot on Saturday, and I felt pretty good through Sunday, which was good because we had our daughter's 8th birthday party that day. Yesterday, I started crashing and had terrible bone pain last night. At least this time I was prepared, but it was difficult to be awake with pain all night. I took Vicoden, and it eased the pain a little, but did not do enough to let me sleep.

On the bright side, I'm now thinking about having just 2 chemo's left to go and that's a good thought! No rads for me, but I'm supposed to get a "touch up" on my reconstruction 3 weeks after my last chemo and then, hopefully, be done with this beast. The light is at the end of the tunnel!

Jane

i've asked this a million times....do we really need to shave off the pale fuzz for our hair to grow back better? i'm scared to shave my head again...what if it never comes back? i have stubble, but it's light. my legs are still smooth...as is everything else!

my husband says that watching my head is like watching grass grow...i think that's because i have asked him every single day if it's growing i want to at least look like i do in this picture attached to my name!!

The thing about the stubbles is like this...when my wig specialist shaved my head, he told me it would come back in that fuzzy, peach-like soft stuff and that it should be shaved off so that strong, good, thick hair will take its place.
My stubbles are growing longer and it doesn't look like fuzz at all so I'm not shaving for now. I mean, today, in the mirror with natural light, my head is covered with very white hair (and I do believe this is my natural hair since I've been gray since I was thirty and I'm 51 now). It's VERY short and not really full but my head is covered and the stubbles are longer. I am NOT shaving my head. I'm looking forward to hair in a couple of months that I will either leave white or dye some outrageous color or something.
But, if you just have a bit of peach fuzz, I'd shave it and see if that would promote growth.
Laura... Congratulations on your last chemo!!! YES!!
I go for my 6th Taxol tomorrow...I'll be halfway through it!!!!!
ravdeb