Chemo May 2011
Comments
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Who wins? Benedryll, Decadron or Nyquil?........DECADRON! ANother sleepless night. They did chemo because my counts were good and no fever, but my heart rate is fast?! They also put me on antibiotics.
Candice, so sorry you are having a setback. Each treatment does seem to get a bit tougher. Make sure your sweet hubby and daughter spoil you rotten!
Diana, I understand about the down days. Some days I am so upbeat and able not to think about the c word and then the next day I am crying my eyes out! I seem to have more down days than up days, but i do really appreciate the up days! It is so hard to feel normal when you have no hair, get tired so easily and have weekly doctor appointments.
Blondelawyer, I fret about the incisions and drains, I feel for you. I am a wimp when it comes to new scars! You have had your fair share of doctor appointments! When I had my 4 week chemo break I was like, what am I suppose to do? I had more time for myself, but I got used to it very fast. My onc told me I should set up my surgeon appointment soon, guess I should call tomorrow. I still have 8 weeks of chemo left, 4 abraxane down 8 to go. The first 4 went pretty fast.
I better take my temp. I am laying here sweating....Hope I don't have a fever, I am already on antibiotics.
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I saw the exercise doc and the surgery nurse this week and both assured me that my incisions actually look good from a medical perspective. I am just hoping that they eventually look fine to me! I didn't think that I would have such an emotional reaction to the surgery, but it has really hit me. I am hoping that it will get better as time passes. I had one of my drains taken out yesterday and that feels great. The other will not come out until Wed. at the earliest because of the holiday and scheduling. I am seeing my BS that day for a "wound check."
I'm wondering how soon I should see a PS. The BS said that it would probably be a year before I could have reconstruction but I feel like I need information, like what type of reconstruction would be best for me, how much weight I need to lose, if I should go out of state, etc.
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Anyone take Xeloda? I will be starting it on Sept. 19th...
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not me
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blondelawyer, I think Suze35 is on Xeloda, she usually posts on the triple neg thread.
Just stopping by to say hi to all the may 2011 chemo gals! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I am still getting over a cold so have been pretty lazy. Abraxane has been ok, I have had a little bit of a bloody nose either from the avastin or from the cold I have, but nothing too bad. I am one third of the way done with abraxane, 4 done 8 to go.
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I got to chemo this morning feeling like junk. my numbers were not totally tanked but due to my neurapathy that has gotten worse and the bloody noses that I was getting and dismissing as part of my sinus cold and cough. I found myself being sent home
so disappointed, especially since I will be on 20% reduction when I come back. I feel a bit like a failure.
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Oh beagle I'm sorry. I know how much you want to get this done! Hang in there sister !
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Beaglesgirl... u will get back up there soon and finish em .How many u got to go ? Sounds like they were realy to hard on ur body. Hang n there try enjoy your break if u can.Hopefully u will get some good days inbetween .
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beaglesgirl,
how are you doing? how many more Taxol you have left? I have two more and will be done the week of 19th. hair is slowly growing. lashes and eyebrows coming back. still unable to shed the 20 lbs i gained. i will rest for 3 weeks then start rads.
mamav,
how are you? i read beaglesgirl's msg that you will be back to chemo? why? hope all is well.
Laureen
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Laureen,
i think mamav just meant she would be checking back with us here on "chemo" .. she is almost done with rads and I would be heartbroken if she really had to have more chemo. but i dont think so
I am still bald and have no brows i think i have 10 lashes holding on with all their might. It looks like i will be doing my rads in november. wow... this has been a long road. glad to hear your doing so well!
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LaureenRomero07 we have the same time left with taxol : ) 2 more for me too and done the week of the 19 th
Then i get ultra sound mamgram and Mri done that week on friday. I havent had surgery yet so he wants to see where we are at shrinking wise . Have u had surgery ? I am afraid of the drains and healig up. I am thinking bout mastectomy .The doctor said no muscels will be cut so i hope its not bad and i dont want reconstuction .I hate pain and i hear it s just more pain. I wanna so be done. One step at a time i guess. If margins are clear and lymnodes are clear i am all done with taxol if not i get 6 more I totaly can do. : ) If all goes well radiation for 30 days each day . I can not wait to get there .I am sure we all cant wait to get to the end of the roller coaster .
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Hell NO! No more chemo! I have my last full rad today and then onto 8 boosts. So ready to be done with all this crap! Planning a HUGE party in October to celebrate the end of BC treatments!
Keep up the fight ladies!
Vicky
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just me1,
yey, 2 more Taxols for both us! Yes, I had mastectomy of right breast before i started chemo. personally, surgery was SOOO much tolerable then chemo. i was able to handle the pain, discomfort, and the drains well.
goodluck with your scans. hopefully there will be significant shrinkages. goodluck with surgery as well.
Laureen
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mamav,
sorry, i must have misread the msg in the thread. i'm so happy you're done with rads, wow! this truly calls for a celebration for you!
i still have a long way to go - rads for 2 months, reconstruction, and hormone therapy. I will get there!
Laureen
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Just checking in with everyone. I read but don't post often. So glad everyone is making it through treatment and there is light at the end of the long journey. I think about and pray for each and every one of you.
I am now 6 weeks PFC and feel pretty much normal. The body is resilient and recovers quickly once it stops getting knocked down with each treatment. It is an amazing machine.
Hang in there girls, you are all on the home stretch and your body does recover.
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Laureen - It'll be over before you know it ... think how far you've come. (Oh and I am so NOT counting the hormone therapy as 'treatment' - that's 5 more years - way too long to include in treatment schedule!)
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I am having breast pain again grrrrr when i found my lump i had breast pain io took a/c and the pain went away ,now i am on taxol and the past 3 days i have pain . kind hard pain not so much i cant handel but i am kind scared that bugger is growing again. I got two weeks before my scans .I ask my onoc. dr and he said probably the weather ..... REALLY I dont know bout him . I am going to call my surgen who seems so much onboard with me tomorrow if hurts again. Its not constant just shoots pains sometimes. grrrrr Anybody ele experience this?
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Justme1 - I think I have a little pain every now and then when I have my treatments. I've already had surgery, I don't know if you have
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I havent had surgery .Its been going on since monday kinda freakin me out.I was on the hard stuff a/c and it shrunk really good stopped hurting now i am on taxol and begin hurting .How did your surgery go ? Did they do the needle in your nipple to see if the lympnodes were ok? I am so dreading that . The recovory i hope its fast .LOL My mind is going 100 miles a hour tonight .
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Justme1 - I did have the needle in my nipple and let me tell you I was a BIG baby. It hurt like heck but it only lasted for a few seconds at a time, not nearly as bad as I was acting. I also had nothing explained to me before hand, just told to show up at one place to get a scan and the nipple needles, then off to another place where they stuck a wire threw the tumor then I actually had to leave and drive to the surgery center. I was so busy running around there wasn't time to worry until I got to pre-op where they did not give me anything to calm me down, it was my first surgery ever and I bawled like baby but thankfully I was taken in right away. I healed very quick except I didn't know I was supposed to keep myself compressed and I developed a hematoma which got infected and delayed my chemo. Do yourself a favor and make sure you keep yourself nice and snug after your surgery and you will be fine. I'd take surgery again over chemo anyday.
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Oh one more thing you might want to know. The needle is not in the nipple it self it is around the arola (spelling)
Also the blue dye they use you will pee it!!! It looke like tydy bowl.
I agree with Mccrissom that you need a good sports bra after, if you are haveing a lumpepeny. I am not sure if you are having a mascepeny. (sorry about the spelling)
Worst part of the surgery is waiting. (I had mine April 21 of this year)
Candice
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thanks ladies i think the needle thing is my biggest fear but hopefully it will not last long i am worrying bout it longer than it last.LOL
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Justme1 - I swear, I had no idea about the needle thing, when I walked in the lady who was going to do it apologized beforehand for hurting me. That made me panic. It was just really weird, they did 4 shots in the areola and they hurt ALOT but it really only lasted for a few seconds each, most of my worrying was waiting for the next shot. I've also heard from people that you pee blue, I never did, or I was so doped up I never noticed. Also, never really had any pain after surgery.
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a wire threw the tumor then I actually had to leave and drive to the surgery center.
Does everyone get a wire too? I had a clip put in me when i first begin . Wonder if that will do ? A wire does that hurt?
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Believe me I was freaked out. This was a first type of any surgery for me at all. I couldn't believe I had to drive to three separate places let alone with a wire sticking out of my boob! I also had the clip put in during biopsy, the day of surgery I had to go and get my boob stuck back in that god awful biopsy machine, they numbed me up and stuck the wire in, forget why but then they took a styrofoam cup and tape it to me and sent me on my way.
They numbed me, it didn't hurt at all. Those stupid needles for the SNB hurt more but really it only lasted seconds and wasn't that bad, I was just so unprepared for everything.
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wow weeeeeeee
that crap they numb ya with dont work good on me . It takes alot to get my mouth numb for the denist . OH meeeeeeee welll me and my good surgen gots to talk .LOL
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Number 5 of 12 done. Doc decided to up the dosage because I have been tolerating treatment so well. Well, not anymore! I feel like crap today, and the day after is usually my best day!
We haven't heard from blondelawyer and Marybe for awhile, hope both of you are hanging in there!
Justme, when is your surgery? I still have surgery to look forward to. BMX probably sometime in late November or early December. Stupid question, when is Thanksgiving? The last or third Thursday? I know I can look it up but doesn;t show up on my phone calendar.
I had the blue dye injection 8 years ago before my lumpectomy and I don't even remember if it hurt or not. I'm going with that it did not hurt, so I don't freak out before hand this time! Sometimes denial is best, until the time comes!
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The spot on my lung is still there and the MRI results are definitive. My MO said that it would be a strange place for a benign lesion, which suggests that he thinks that it is more likely cancer (though he didn't say that and I didn't ask). But, at the same time, it is pretty much unchanged since they first say it and it seems like it would have changed some one way or the other with all of that chemo, etc. It is just depressing. Right now the plan is to watch it by doing another scan after radiation and then doing more chemo (ugh!). The thing that no one is really saying is that if it is cancer that means I have Stage 4. I am freaking out about it, to be honest. My oncologist is out of town this week so I have to wait until the 19th to talk to him about it. In the meantime I am going to make a list of questions so that I am sure I get my questions asked. Not sure exactly what I want to ask. But, the main thing that I want to know is if I am going to make it through this--or at least what my chances are.
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blondelawyer, I agree it seems like if it was cancer it would have shrank with all your chemo. Seems odd that it would not change in the slightest when you had such great response with your breast tumor. They aren't saying it is stage 4 because at this point they do not know. So that spot has been there all along? The waiting sucks. When do you start rads? I am so sorry about my pm to you, just bad timing on my part and I don't want to to anything to upset you. Ugh, cancer sucks. Why wouldn't your mo say it was in a strange place before? Could they do a biopsy are is it in a bad spot for that? I know about the not asking further questions right away, it's like I am not ready at that point to fully know.
It has been over 7 weeks since my last pet scan, and even though the doc told me about the results I wasn't ready to see the report until last time, when I finally asked to see it. I did not ask for a print out but he sat there and read it to me as I looked at the computer. It said cancer in breast can't be seen and internal mammary nodes resolved, this is after he told me 90% reduction, but I think that is because the nodes are still there but no activity. The report did not say ned anywhere, do they usually if they think you are ned? He told me he is keeping me on a short leash, unlike my last oncologist, who he happens to know and they even still speak. (Previous mo is retired) Sorry I am rambling again....why can't I ever keep it short?
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He did say that it was a strange spot before but we thought that it could be a bruised rib (I went skiing for the first time a few weeks before so the timing was right), but now that it has been months, the bruised rib hypothesis doesn't really work. Because of the location, a needle biopsy isn't possible, so it would have to be surgical. The MO said that we could have a biopsy done if I want, but he is recommending the wait and watch approach since the treatment will be the same. I will talk to him about it more when I see him on the 19th. (I only talked to my onco on the phone briefly and he is out of town for the next week).
The last week has just been hard because it finally sunk in that I could actually die from this disease. My reaction is that I am going to be pissed if that happens! I feel like I have been fighting and am just scared that it will all be for not. That stress of everything is just getting to me I think. The mental/emotional stress of this is worse than the physical stuff for me!
And, I am had the brilliant idea of going away for the weekend, so I am just here alone in Ocean Shores with my thoughts to keep me company and drive me crazy
My radiation start date got postpone because I still have one drain in (today is day 26) and my chest needs more time to heal up. I go in for my rads set up on the 19th and will start sometime after that.
Please don't apologize about the PM, it didn't upset me. It has been hard and I think that anyone who has lost someone close can relate to that.
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