October 2011 Chemo group

Hi,

I just came back from my LAST chemo!!!! Yipee!!! Now I will wait for the side effects to begin and hoping I can breeze through this one.

I have a mammogram scheduled for next week for the beginning of radiation and will be on the table planning it on Thursday 1/5 . I signed up for a clinical trial and will either get 3 weeks of radiation at a higher dose or the typical 6 1/2 weeks. 

I had a wonderful time seeing my family over the holidays. It is always a little adjustment when the kids come home from college. They have such different schedules of sleeping and waking than I do.

Lucie-I am so happy for you!

Fred- I am on AC and I have eye tremors only on my right eyelid. It drives me crazy sometimes! I agree that it gets worse when I am tired.

St. Jude I am in WI and we still don't have any snow on the ground!

Sherry I don't blame you for dreading chemo! Now you know what it takes to get through it but you only have two more and soon you will be done! 

I hope everyone is doing well.  

Mary 

Hi everyone - just checking in after the holidays.  It went pretty good but I'm glad it's over.  I just couldn't get in the spirit this year. 

Mary - congrats on finishing chemo!!  WooHoo!!  I just can't wait until my treatments are over.  I'm on the same schedule as Mary and dread No. 7 almost more than the others.  I guess the longer this goes on the harder it gets.

Malinda - I was so sorry to read that you had been in the hospital.  We were worried about you when you hadn't posted in a while.  I sure hope that you are feeling a lot better.   

I can't believe the eye tremors.  I had them like crazy last week and wondered if it related to chemo. Speaking of SE's does anyone else have ankles that look like watermelons?  I am swelling so bad these days.  Even my water pills - which I was on before chemo - aren't helping much. 

Hope everyone has a good night!

Carla

Hi everyone. I hope everyone was able to enjoy at least part of their Christmas. I think ive gained 5 pounds this past week. I'm going in today for my 2nd taxol tx and will be starting herception today also.

Tappy,, onc told me no driving on taxol after the tx bc of the benadryl.

Lucie.. Very happy for you.

Mary.. It must feel great to be finished and I hope you do breeze through the SE this time.

Carla.. I've been lucky and have had no water retention but I remember reading to try to sit with feet up to help with it.



We got our first snowfall that stayed on the ground last night. Not too much, maybe just a couple cm.

I locked up my drugs today. I had my ativan refilled on dec 15. I had to go back to pharmacy causethey miscounted. I didn't recount but it seemed right. Today I counted them and there is no way I used all that many. Talked to both my girls. Im sure they aren't lying. One did have friend over

Im not positive what happened. I don't want to accuse this kid when pharmacy could have miscounted again.

Hi, everyone. So good to catch up on the posts. What with my fatigue and the holidays I'm not checking in very often, then realize how much I've missed all of you!!

Just had TC #5 yesterday, and my onc says I am doing very well compared to most ladies. I have a ton of SE's: runny eyes and nose, funny painful fingernails, tight sore muscles in arms and legs, crazy hot flashes with dripping head, now my ankles are swollen. The ankles and toe numbness are the only ones that can last after chemo, so I have a new pair of compression knee highs and have to stay off my feet when I can (doctor's orders, stay on the couch!) One more tx in three weeks, they do get harder to go each time. I'll be so glad when they are done. I have 3 weeks of rads after that, but I've heard that it's nothing compared to chemo. After my last dose of steroids tonite, I will probable crash for the next 5 days. That's the worst part for me.

My daughter is home this week from NYC, and today she went and had 10" of her hair cut off for Pantene program for cancer patients in my name. I'm so proud of her and she looks so cute with a very short sassy do!! She is 29 and a teacher, and is going to have a program of awareness with her 7,8 and 9th grade students and encourage her girls to donate hair. Living so far away from mom, she feels not so helpless by doing this, I think. 

Malinda, you inspire me. Your posts are so positive even though your hell sounds much worse than mine. Thanks!

For everybody who feels forgotten by their friends, I don't think they don't care. Before I had cancer, I had NO IDEA what it was like going through treatment. My best support people are the ones who have had cancer. And even though it's so hard to ask for help, I have learned to do it and most people are glad to know what to do for me. And it also helps to keep my expectations for myself at a reasonable, very low level, and be easy on myself if I still can't do as much as I want to. And I have a feeling that I might not feel like doing much of anything for a long time after chemo and rads are done. More practice with patience.

This is a hell of a long journey, and I don't really see the light at the end of the tunnel. But I'm sure glad to have all you ladies to light the way with me!

I'll be ringing in the new year in my recliner or asleep in bed. and looking forward to 2012 with all you great ladies.

Barb 

Happy I think I'm in xanax.im such a dope. But I can count.had long talk with older dd. Her friend isntallowed over. I had gotten really close to this kid.there's no way to prove it.he'll neighbor kids could have come in when we were gone. We've left front door unlocked couple of times. I usually take 1 mg xannax. Then addmy ambient if I wake up

My sister takes trazadone. Wish I could switch to that. She has extremely hard time waking up

I feel upset someone took my drugs.told my husband about it after chemotherapy





Has anyone tried that relaxation cd by bells Ruth?

Mine 2nd Taxol treamtnt  took from 8:30 - 2 today.  Made for a long day.    Gave me extra steriods and nas meds cause I was nas today.  Never happened before - Glad I packed a turkey snadwich and other lunch items  (I hate the crackers and juice they offer, just have gotten sick of them)

Glad to know about they eyesight...they have been so dry to...but it is the weather here as well...

I drove and went myself and it went just fine, but I live close by.

Hi everyone - I had my fifth treatment today - TAC - one more to go!!!  WooHoo - can't wait.  I'm getting ready for the crash from the steroids.  When it happened last treatment I slept for two days straight.  I sure hope the SE's aren't as bad this time.  Just knowing that there is only one left will help me get through this stuff though.  Then it's on to radiation. 

I made the mistake of getting on a radiation thread last night with some folks that have really had bad experiences.  I just keep telling myself that everyone is different.  At the end of the day I have to do it if I want to kick the cancer's butt once and for all. 

I hope everyone has a good night. It's hard to believe that it's almost New Year's Eve.  2012 just has to be better!

Hi Everyone

I am hanging in there after my last A/C on Tuesday. I now know why they made me take prilosec the entire time! I am expecting a crash today.

I have more appointments for next week for the start of radiation sometime in mid-January. There is a lot of scarey stuff written on here about rads. I have tamoxifen following rads and even more horrible discussions about that. I am going to put my head down and take it one day at a time and get through this the best way I can. I want to do everything I can to kick cancer's butt!

I started to fill out the household 2012 calendar. I was adding a lot of dates of mine that were not doctors appointments and it felt good. Little by little I am going to get my life back and try to make it an even better life than is was before. 

I wish all of you a wonderful New Year! I hope and pray 2012 will be a better year for all of us. Thank you so much for being here to help me on this journey.

Mary 

Sometimes you just have to take a break from reading about all the bad stuff...I know I have had to do that a few times or it just brings you down and makes you worry more.

 I crashed today - bone pain...but at least I was prepared for it.   I  only have two more Taxol treatments  to go...so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 - How soon do they put you on Tamoxofin ?   I dont even want to think about all the side effects for that yet....

I had my final chemo followup yesterday...filled my prescription for femara today. Spent the morning taking down the Christmas decorations, and the afternoon lying exhausted on the sofa from the effort. Grrr! So ready to have the fatigue behind me. It sneaks up when I least expect it.

 I am sure many of you will join me in saying GOOD RIDDANCE to 2011. May your 2012 be filled with increasingly good health, high energy and unremarkable mammograms!

I just reached out to one of my friends. I feel so scared,and sad.I cry every day.last year just sucked so bad, I know im depressed. I started taking celebrex a few weeks ago. It hasn't helped that im not working.I miss work so bad. My friends coming to take me for walk. I feel like a dog. 2012 has got to be better.

Hi everyone - Fredntan - I know how hard it is.  I am a raging lunatic right now with my husband....(trying to keep it from the kids).  So tired of feeling like this. Once we get back into some normalcy (Christmas done and over with) hopefully I will feel better.  Taking down decorations right now.....hate this processs.  I am such a "negative Nelly" right now......want the kids back in school, and some peace and quiet and be able to do "one thing at a time".....not try to do be doing 10 things at a time.....my brain can't process this!!!

Hi 

I totally understand when people talk about the metal taste in their mouth from chemo. Yuck! This side effect can go away any time now. 

The after holiday blues happens to me every year. The pretty lights are slowly getting turned off around the neighborhood, the trees are coming down, and all the family gatherings are over. After all we have been through the past several months, I think it is okay to feel blue right now. Keep reaching out to family and friends, try to exercise, and do something good for yourself that you want to do every day.

I am thinking about planning for a nice make-up/facial/eyebrow shaping face thingy sometime in February(if I have any eyebrows left by then). I have never done anything like that except for the Look Good class. I haven't looked up close on my face lately and wouldn't you know when I did, I had a long dark hair growning out of my chin!!! Didn't anyone want to tell me about this?!?!? Why would that hair decide to grow when all the others are falling out? Someone has a cruel sense of humor!

Hang in there ladies. We can make it!

Mary 

Hi there - I sure wish the chemo had gotten rid of facial hair too.  No such luck. Isn't it crazy to have more hair on your face than on your head!!??   

I've been so sad today - now that I think about it this starts to hit on Day 4 or 5 after a treatment.  I just want to cry all day.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  Even my "happy" pills don't seem to help. 

Diane - I started to get the neuropathy really bad after third treatment (I take mine all together - TAC).  Even my tongue was going numb.  I told my oncologist about it and he cut back on my treatment just a tad.  It sure helped - I haven't had the numbness since then.  I was scared to cut back but he had me on the strongest dose since I'm triple negative.  He told me that if he thought it would hurt me he wouldn't do it.  I just didn't want to have permanent damage. It's worth having the conversation with your doctor.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.  Hope you all have a good night.