April 2011 chemo

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  • determined3
    determined3 Member Posts: 128
    edited August 2011

    congrats seeay!!!! i can't WAIT to be done!!! celebrate:)

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  • Teckler2
    Teckler2 Member Posts: 71
    edited August 2011

    Congrats Seejay!! Yay!!

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  • CarlaB76
    CarlaB76 Member Posts: 74
    edited August 2011

    Way to go, Seejay!!

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  • inthemoment
    inthemoment Member Posts: 538
    edited August 2011

    Hello all,

     I noticed your thread name when I signed on tonight - April sisters we are!  As you can see, I was in the April '09 chemo group - just wanted to tell you that having gone through a mastectomy, Adriamycin, Cytoxin, Taxol, a year of weekly Herceptin and a prophylactic mastectomy on the other side, I am doing well, back to working full time and NED.  I got messages from people who had gone before me, and found them very encouraging, so I'm hoping to "pay it forward" by letting you know...it does get better!

    Good wishes

    Geri 

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  • determined3
    determined3 Member Posts: 128
    edited August 2011

    thanks geri!!!!

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited August 2011

    Thanks Geri

    Can I borrow your hair? LOL

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2011

    I have enough hair to pass for an almost normal person now. About an inch. And though it's short, it's just as thick as before. Of course, I'll go bald again next month when I start Taxotere, but for now I'm really enjoying this short, short hair. With all the heat, it's soooo easy to wash and care for.

    I see why guys wear their hair short, and why the burden has shifted to us women to have all the work of maintaining a mane of hair to be attractive to them. I'm actually jealous. I've had hair halfway down my back (or even longer, past my waist) my entire life and never knew what I was missing with this care-free nonchalance guys take for granted.

    Of course, I am seriously LESS ATTRACTIVE without all that pretty hair, so I will certainly grow it back. Having little or no hair subtracts a good 85% from my looks, and I am too vain to give that up. But I sure wish I could get away with never needing to or wanting to have long hair again - to live in a world that didn't care how I looked, or to be a person who doesn't care about being pretty.

    Cancer is a sh*tty companion, but a great teacher. I never would have considered cutting off my hair. But cancer is doing lots of things to me I never would have done, and teaching me a whole lot of things in the process.

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited August 2011

    Windlass, you said it. I am learning things I never even dreamed of. Good and bad.

    Glad to hear you are feeling upbeat. You had me worried there for a while. I am jealous of the hair, mine is still microfuzz LOL

    BC takes us down to our essence. We get a good look at who we are without the hair and boobs. These are the things that society views as our femininity. We have to find our beautiful inner self to survive this psychologically. It is a painful but beautiful gift

    It also teaches us to live every day as a gift, because it is.

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited August 2011

    I look a bit like this little guy LOL

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2011

    LOL! He's a cutie!

    I think I have real hair because of the cold caps, awful as they were. I won't be doing them for the next round (since it's not worth it for this tiny bit of hair) so I'll let you know if it's different next time around withou them.

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  • YaYa5
    YaYa5 Member Posts: 667
    edited August 2011

    windlass, i love what you said, "cancer is sh**ty companion, but a great teacher."  you said so many things in your last post that really touched me and i thank you.  i've always wanted really, really short, spiked hair and now i have it!  my onco said today to 'enjoy it while you have it.'  it should begin to come out any day now.

     it's not the cancer i think about most ... it's the chemo, my friendly enemy.  i picture the chemo as little lego fighter guys who are fighting in my body and saying to me, 'we're so sorry, connie.  we don't want to hurt you, but we need to do this to make you better.'  and then SMACKKKKKKK ... the big guns start shooting.  it's a funny little image i have and sometimes it even makes me laugh. 

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  • determined3
    determined3 Member Posts: 128
    edited August 2011

    yaya....that is a great attitude to have.i like that visual.

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  • ginger_mea
    ginger_mea Member Posts: 264
    edited August 2011

    Hello ladies, I haven't been on in awhile, just reading all your posts.  Excited for all that are finished and moving on, and am happy to hear the positive on RADs.  I will be having the final #6 on the 18th, then meeting with my radiologist onc on the 27th to get set up for RADs and of course Herceptin every 3 weeks for the year.  I will have a mamo before RADs, and I have to say, I feel somewhat nervouse about that, I guess that is normal.

    I still have this white fuzz on my head, I said to my husband I know I dyed my hair but was i really all white????  or is this chemo related? anyone???  How long after the last chemo does hair come in?

    Merlee listening to you talk about RADs being easy and about yoga makes me smile because I'm heading there.... I am meeting a friend at 6:30 tomorrow morning to walk the boardwalk, so excited, I am anxious to get back into movement etc... because I've gained about 10 lbs and of course its all in my big belly!!!!  I want my life back, my hair, etc...  sorry I sound winey sometimes that happens, its like I'm so close but yet so far....

    Visiting here has been so helpful though all of this.  Hugs to all of you!!!

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  • KiwiMum
    KiwiMum Member Posts: 704
    edited August 2011

    My hair is growing too and I've still got 7 x taxol to go. I look like I have a shadow all over my head at a distance. Close up it's about half an inch in places where its longest and shorter in others. Its certainly hair and growing when compared to 4 weeks ago. Yippee!!!

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  • Sarah246
    Sarah246 Member Posts: 53
    edited August 2011

    Hi Merilee! So happy that rads is going so well for you. That lessons my worries. What do you guys do with the crystals? And thank you for answering that question. I too was wondering when the chemicals leave your body. I love the pic of that beautiful bird.

    Hi Bernieellen! I hope you get to make it to your bike club charity next weekend.

    Hello Sarasweety! Hope you and Scc218 start feeling better.

    Hi Artiecat! Sorry about the nails and the low red blood cell count. I've been low on magnesium myself and they have been trying to get my levels up.

    Hi Profbee! Try not to worry about the surgery, even though I know that's hard to do. I'm going to hold you to what you said about next year. We'll all be healthy and ablel to make some cool plans.

    Hi Jackifp! What is flushing?

    Hi Pawprintgirl! I had the swelling, water weight and gas too.

    Hi Seeay!  Congrats! I just finished last Friday.

    Thanks Inthemoment! We needed that.

    Hi  Windlass! I agree with you about learning things about yourself.

    Anyone have any idea why my nose sometimes bleeds after chemo? Has this happened to anyone else? Anyone have any idea why the magnesium levels drop?

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  • artiecat
    artiecat Member Posts: 257
    edited August 2011

    My surgeon tells me he wants to do the axillary node dissection.  Any info out there on this?  From what I read there are several opinions about the value of this and there are often complications.  I have a feeling when it is a T3 level and invasive it is still recommended.  I dont want to have this done, but I also dont want to go through this hell again either!!!!!

    Surgery tentatively scheduled for 8/29.  

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  • jackifp
    jackifp Member Posts: 185
    edited August 2011

    Hi back, Sarah! What I call flushing from the Herceptin is turning red. I get red from neck/shoulder to chin, feels warm as if I've been out in the sun, but no fever. Lasts a day or two, but nothing else. I've been lucky; others have had sharper SE from Herceptin. Twice I got the heavy weight feeling across my chest, but as I said, it went away in a few hours.



    I had several nose bleeds for a couple of days after the first three chemos - taxotere and Carboplatin. Nothing uncontrollable.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2011

    Hi, Artie - I had a long conversation with my breast surgeon about the axillary node dissection. She convinced me it was the right thing to do. I am glad I did it, even though I run the risk of LE as a result. I would rather develop LE and have some debilitation and disfigurement in my arm than know my lymph nodes were cancerous and still in my body and putting me at risk of recurrence and metastasis.

    One way of thinking about it is that the cancer may have spread into the nodes, so the nodes themselves may have become tumors. In the same way you want to get the primary tumor out of your breast so it's not a factory pumping out BC cells, you want to get the cancer out of the lymph nodes. My situation was pretty bad. Apparently some of my lymph nodes had become so completely cancerous they could no longer even be recognized as lymph nodes. I am glad they are out of my body!

    That said, there is a huge chorus on these boards in the opposite direction. And it may make sense not to mess with the nodes, especially in the case of a small, Stage 0 or 1 tumor, for example, where there is little risk of lymphatic involvement. The women suffering with LE make it clear it's a terrible trial, and I many of them would love to go back and undo the axillary dissection. So it's not a thing to take lightly! But in my case, being Stage IIIc where I knew there was cancer there, I just wanted it out.

    In a way taking the risk of axillary dissection is similar to having chemotherapy. Nobody in their right mind would do chemo if they didn't have to -- because it's freaking dangerous! Hearing loss,  neuropathy, brain damage, these are side effects that would make me run screaming from any other drug. But because cancer is even more dangerous -- and it's side effect is death -- we take the lesser of two evils and pray.

    Nobody wants to get lymphedema and nobody wants to have a recurrence. But if you gave me a choice between guaranteed lymphedema and a guaranteed cancer recurrence, the answer would be easy. Of course, what makes this game so tough is that we have no guarantees about anything and there's no way of knowing "what might have been" if we had taken a different route. So again, we make the best choices we can, and for the rest, we turn to God and pray.

    I hope this helps.

    Godspeed to you, sister.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2011

    Artie: I poked around on PubMed and found this for you. It appears to confirm what our surgeons said.

    J Surg Oncol. 1999 Jul;71(3):162-6.
    Axillary lymph node involvement in stage III breast cancer: treatment implications.
    Voss M, Schneider JW, Apffelstaedt J.
    Source: Department of Surgery, University of Stellenbosch, Tygerberg, South Africa.

    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
    The introduction of multimodal therapy has improved the prognosis in stage III breast cancer. A knowledge of the likely axillary lymph node status at presentation is important, both to plan surgical therapy to the axilla and to establish the effect of induction therapy on the axillary nodes.

    METHODS:
    The study involved a chart review of 114 patients with stage III breast cancer who were treated by modified radical mastectomy without prior systemic therapy. A standard method was used for axillary dissection and numbers and levels of pathologically involved lymph nodes were recorded. The incidence of lymph node metastases was correlated with tumour size, grade, and clinical T stage. The accuracy of clinical axillary staging and the relationship between level III invasion and the number of level I and II nodes invaded was also assessed.

    RESULTS:
    Overall, 96 of 114 (84%) patients had axillary nodal metastases, and 37 of 114 (32%) patients had level III metastases. Eighteen of 43 tumours (42%) 30 mm or less had level III metastases and 27% of larger tumours had level III metastases (6/25 31-49-mm tumours, and 12/42 50+-mm tumours). Of 98 gradable cancers, only 1 out of 10 well-differentiated tumours had level III metastases, but the rate in moderately and poorly differentiated tumours was 36% (19/53) and 37% (13/35), respectively. Clinical node staging was unreliable. A group of patients with a low likelihood of level III metastases who might benefit from an axillary procedure less than level III dissection could not be identified preoperatively.

    CONCLUSIONS:
    Patients with stage III breast cancer have a high incidence of level III axillary lymph node metastases.     A subgroup with a low incidence of level III metastases could not be identified in this study. Until axillary downstaging has been convincingly demonstrated with induction therapy, a less than complete axillary procedure may leave the patient at high risk of axillary relapse.

    Copyright 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10404132

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2011

    Hi, YaYa - I agree with you that chemo is like a friendly enemy. Or maybe like a really mean and insensitive friend. Deep down she has your best interests at heart, but she sure has a harsh and painful way of getting there.

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  • pawprintgirl24
    pawprintgirl24 Member Posts: 173
    edited August 2011

    today is my rad appt. consult...i hope its not a waste of my time!!i hope they do something!!

    jackifp - i have jelo limbs after my herceptin and my i get this weird taste in my mouth ...not sure how this will be when they up the dose next week!

    have a great day ladies!!

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  • artiecat
    artiecat Member Posts: 257
    edited August 2011

    Windlass, thank you so much for th einfo, and for sharing your experience.  I am stage IIIc, too.  I havent been really afraid of anything through this - I am not afraid of dying - but I AM afraid of this ALND thing.  Thank you for the wonderfdul support!

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  • jackifp
    jackifp Member Posts: 185
    edited August 2011

    Paw print - yes! The weird taste in my mouth! I've been putting the blame on taxotere, but now as I head to that triple dose every 3 wks...I'm wondering how the SE will change. I assumed this phase would take longer as it's more drug, but the onc nurse said they push the triple dose into the same half hour as the single dose was. We'll have to let each other know how that goes. Anyone else - was this part different?

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  • scc218
    scc218 Member Posts: 163
    edited August 2011

    Windlass -- You said it SOOO well about the lymph nodes.  I concur totally!  I was not at all excited about the lymph node removal and/or the possibility of lymphedema.  I didn't even want to have a needle biopsy of the main tumor for fear of "seeding the track" and spreading the cancer cells.  But I got "swept off my feet," and the surgeon convinced me to do the needle biopsy and the lymph node removal.  The thought of recurrence was very scary, and I just wanted them to get all the cancerous things they could get surgically.  Thankfully, I haven't had any problems with LE, and I hope I never do.  I know it can happen down the road, but I hope it doesn't. 

    On another note, I had Taxotere #5 today.  7 more to go.  Feeling good so far except for the yucky taste in my mouth.  Got some peppermint oil at the health food store and I put a drop in a big glass of ice water -- the economy version of MetroMint water -- and it's quite tasty and refreshing.  I asked my onco today if the dexamethasone could be causing the severe abdominal pain instead of the Taxotere.  He said it was possible and gave me an RX for 2 mg instead of 4 mg of the dexamethasone that I have to take the day before and the day after chemo.  I'm going to try that and see if it works.  I'll keep taking the Bentyl, too.  I really don't want to go through that pain again.

    Hope everyone is doing well. 

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  • RangerMom
    RangerMom Member Posts: 604
    edited August 2011

    Thanks Windlass and Suzy C about the lymph nodes. I too had tried to go the route of "just take my sentinal node" or the one cancerous node that they say on the MRI PET and other scans and my BS said no can do. She didn't recommend that and wants to do the lymph node dissection. I totally agree with her now and thanks for your info as it just reinforces my chances of having clean margins and cancer free nodes. I'm a IIIa with 1 lymph node showing involvement but till she gets in there and they do path on the nodes we really don't know and this will give me peace of mind. My surgery is 8/16. 

    Thanks Articat for asking the question. Have you seen there is a August 2011 surgical forum started.

    Merilee - Thanks for the updates on the RADS, how's the skin area and does it have a cummulative effect? I heard it makes you really tired, how's that been?

    Love to all... 

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited August 2011

    Hi everyone

    I had healing  Rad blast #11 today and I can see a bit of pink but no big deal. As far as tired, it is hard to know if it is after effect of chemo or rads. I feel better than I did a month ago is all I know.

    Am I imagining things or is everyone sort of doing ok right now. I am so happy if this is the case. We have all been through hell. The support here has been a life saver for me. I owe a debt of gratitude to all of you.

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  • pawprintgirl24
    pawprintgirl24 Member Posts: 173
    edited August 2011

    i had my appt today for rads and have to do a ct scan next week and it looks like i will have 31 blasts of radiation!!! hopefully on the 25th!! i just want to get started....

    thank you merilee! you have made us all laugh and cry through all of this.. all of have. i just know that when i am having a bad day you all know what i am going through.

     i told my husband just a few minutes ago that i was sick to death when people try to compare your se with their normal life issues .when i complain about something they have the nerve to say is that all i have back pain too or watever!! just makes me made because they have no idea what its like to go through everyday life with tummy aches and back aches and so on and so forth....i try not to complain so when i do its bad!!but anyway...thank you all :)

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  • scc218
    scc218 Member Posts: 163
    edited August 2011

    RangerMom -- We'll be thinking of you on the 16th!  To me, the surgery was way easier than the chemo, except for the awful drains.  Or maybe it's cuz the surgery was so long ago (2/25) that it's a distant memory.  But I don't really remember it being that bad.  Anyway, just know that we'll be thinking of you.  And that aspect of the journey will soon be behind you.  Forging ahead......

    Merilee -- I'm glad the rads are going well and you're moving right along.  You're right -- we have all been through hell, and the support on here is wonderful!   

    Pawprintgirl -- I hear you.  It gets me so annoyed when people complain about the most trivial things.  I really try hard not to complain, but I just feel like I have so much more to complain about than some of the stuff they come up with.  If they could only "wear the shoes" for a day....or a week....or a month..... Not that I would wish this journey on anyone!  But that's the way I feel when they complain about stupid stuff.   

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2011

    Merilee - I'm doing great, but I start Taxotere on August 31, so I may be complaining then...
    Anyone else still doing rough chemo drugs Sept - Nov? I get rads Nov-Dec, right through Christmas.

    Suzy - glad to hear you haven't had any lymphedema troubles. I haven't either, but I did have several sessions with a physical therapist trained to work with mastectomy patients after my surgery. She was a wealth of tips for avoiding LE.

    Rangermom - I'm glad our conversation here helped.

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  • geocachelinda
    geocachelinda Member Posts: 223
    edited August 2011

    Chemo #7 done on Monday.  Only one more to go I hope and then the chemo nurse said something about scans.  I really didn't know what comes next except Rads.  Need to find out from the Dr. when I go again.  My regular Dr. moved to Wisconsin so I will be getting a new one.  He has been around here for years so I feel very comfortable with that.  I canceled my trip to Atlantic City also and got a refund because I don't think I can handle the trip.  I am taking a one day trip on my birthday however that will be a lot easier on me!  Lots of relaxing! 

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