anyone starting chemo in Nov 2005

Lat56 - good to hear from you. I am 4 weeks post chemo and so far have not had any other tests done besides the mammogram and breast ultrasound. I do have an appt with the Onc later this month and I think he said he would order a PET scan but I'm not sure. I'm trying to take this journey one step at a time.



OK ladies - I could not look at peach fuzz anymore, it had become very messy and uneven so I buzzed it! Maybe now the real hair will come out. Anyone else thinking of buzzing their fuzz?



Good night ladies, hope everyone is doing well tonight.

MaryLou - I read in another thread that the fuzz starts to fall out a month after the last chemo. I don't know if this is true for everyone but mine was certainly falling. Yesterday I found fuzz in my coffee...yuk!!! The last taxotere took whatever hair I had left and most of the eyelashes and eyebrows too.

Great to hear you are trying to find things to do. I too have experienced a new burst of energy and have been very productive lately both at home and at work. No more chemo fog!!!!

Margerie- Hope you are doing okay on your "boohoo, cranky" Thursday. The emotional roller coaster we endure throughout treatments. Hang in there!! Rest up & take care!

I'm exactly 3 weeks out from last chemo treatment and my fuzzy head has gotten fuzzier!! AND...I had to shave my legs today - first time in months! My eye lashes have started to grow back (hurray!) and my fuzzy eyebrows are quite comical looking!!

I have decided not to have reconstruction surgery. I had a small margin - close to the chest wall- so I am concerned about "covering it up". Has anyone else had this fear? (Even before my surgery, I said that I did not want the reconstruction done.)

Thanks to all for being supportive & inspirational with your strength & humor!
Hugs & prayers for all-
LAT56

Just a tip I 'm going to use when I get some eyebrows. Take a toothbrush and a little Vaseline and comb them. They have to be trained again.



Brush straight up, and then run the toothbrush over the top and then down to shape, this can later be done with a little hair gel too.



I really don't have anything to share tonight. I know I'm in a lot of pain. I see my Onc tomorrow morning. Sure hope he has some answers. My legs and feet hurt so bad. Did to much yesterday I guess.



I feel down today



I have stayed in bed most of today and felt sorry for myself. Only my legs think they have been standing all day. I just don't understand this at all. Can all of this pain be from the Nueropathy????? It just sucks the life out of me.



I'm sick of this journey, and really wanted to feel better by now. I have been post chemo for 4 weeks. Thought I had been through the worst.



Hope you all are feeling okay. Bless you all.



Sorry I'm in a foul mood

I won't say goodbye to my chemo nurses till next January. I get my last Taxol/Herceptin next Monday but then go in once a week for the Herceptin alone (for 42 weeks!), so I guess I won't be celebrating the end of chemo like the rest of you. Sigh.

This time my Decadron high seems to be extending beyond the normal two nights. Dare I take an Ativan again tonight? I have only ever taken it two nights in a row. I'm so wound up....

Oh, Mary Lou, are you taking the vitamin B complex, the B6 and the L-Glutamine? I'm so sorry to hear you are in such pain a full month after the end of your chemo! I hope your oncologist gives you something helpful.

I look like a boy with a good quarter inch of pretty healthy looking hair on my head. Not fuzz. It's too short to be curly, but it is swirly, so I know I'm getting my curls back. I wouldn't mind straight.... It looks blondish, actually a little lighter than before I shaved it. I rub it all day long. What will I do when it's too long to rub? I love how it feels dishevelled when I first take off my fleece cap.

I have down on my face, though. Very very pale, but down all the same. Weird. Nothing anywhere else. I never had much to speak of on my legs. My eyebrows, which have always been pretty pitiful, have stayed with me through chemo. They're still as sparse as ever, but they're a little presence all the same. And I still have a few eyelashes. Funny how I have learned to like my face more through this experience. I don't feel like I absolutely need to darken my eyebrows or eyelashes anymore. I used to feel naked without a wee bit of mascara, but now I'm quite okay just with my three or four very blonde lashes. I guess my perspective has changed.

Has this past year been the strangest experience or what? I had my "bad" mammogram on May 5th last year. I'm reliving those days and everything that led up to the diagnosis. I hope I only put myself through this re-enactment once. It's not necessarily a good thing to do, but I feel I have to take myself through everything step by step.

Silly me.

Enough of this, I will take that Ativan.

I send hugs to all my sisters and hope we all find beauty and hope in the renewal around us.

Anna

Debbie, good to see you. Yes, I'm going to take the nurses a cake when I go for the flushing of my port. That will be in two weeks.

Their kindness has been just wonderful. It is the least I can do.

Thanks Margerie. Wow, 4 to 6 hmmmmmm, I thought I would get to start before that. Oh well. I need to find out what that lump is first. I really dread having to worry about that again. Lumps are a PIA.

I just want to get on with my life.

Hello all. I sent a message earlier (or tried to) but I don't think it took. Anyway, I found a lot more messages from you than when I originally logged in. Weird but wonderful.

I have a vision of all of our heads looking like Easter chicks. Anna, sounds like you have the most. I'm waiting for rads when I am not traveling and have 7 weeks for it to go crazy. I have about 4 long eyelashes and others--I'm not sure if they are new or old. Anna, I love what you said about learning to love your face. I too have really connected with my 2000 parts and feel very tender about my scars and dings.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Nancy

Mary Lou, I am sorry you are in so much pain. I hope the new meds will help. When are you going to know answers regarding the lump they are following?
Debbie, good to see you. I've been pretty sparce myself. I haven't seen the package yet. Anxiously waiting.
Margerie, I am so happy to see you have finished chemo treatment. Yahoo!!! I won't be joining the rest of my sisters finishing up chemo this month. That makes me very sad, but with mets who knows how long before dr's figure out what chemo is working and controlling the mets.
Being on the Xeloda, my hair is sort of coming back on my head. (nowhere else) It is coming in some grey and then I have dark patches all over. It is weird. My son (9 years old)asked me when is my hair going to come back to the old way I don't want to see you bald anymore. Oh that made me so sad. I asked him if he wanted me to wear my wig and he said no I just want your old hair back.

Kim

It's all up and down, isn't it? My husband is off visiting his daughter for the weekend and working through some issues with her; it's nice to have some quiet time to regroup. I go in on Monday for Taxol/Herceptin #12 of 12, after that it's the weekly Herceptin alone. The nurses tell me it will take 30 or so minutes each time and that I won't get any pre-meds after Monday. It's weird, I'm scared of this change in routine. It was getting so I knew what to expect, now everything will change.



These days I am trying to learn not to worry about every little dull pain or twinge I feel. After all, I had twinges and pains before breast cancer, right? I didn't think the worst then, why do I imagine horrors now? I've been having dull pains on my right side, where I think my appendix might be, or maybe an ovary. I'll bring it to the oncologist's attention, then let go.



I still absolutely love my dishevelled crewcut, I can't keep my hands off my head!



To all my sisters, I hope you have a peaceful Sunday full of love, calm, healing and no pain.



Anna

Hi Ladies -
I haven't posted recently, but have been keeping up with all your posts and keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers!

I've just signed up for the Boston Breast Cancer 3-Day to be held in August! I finished 8 dose dense chemos on 3/22 and will start radiation this month.
Thought if anyone else is signed up for a 3-day somewhere, we might be able to offer moral support, training tips/encouragement, fundraising tips, etc.
Chins up!
Lana

Mary Lou, LOVE the website! Very cool idea!

I feel pretty decent tonight....I plan on going out tomorrow and getting Daniel's Easter stuff tomorrow. We didn't do anything for him last year (too young!), but I think Mommy (Easter Bunny) will be going a little nutso this year.
Love and prayers, Debbie

Hi Carol and everyone else,
I just saw a post on the original invitation I posted, and yes, Peggie went to Florida and said her son did not send it out for her like she wanted. She felt badly, and said it is on it's way. YAY!!

Ugh...I'm joining the neuropathy club....feeling it in my toes, bottom of right foot, and right index finger.
Time for bed! Love and prayers, Debbie

Oh Mary
I am so sorry
you have to go through this

Hoping and praying for B9
results for you

xoxo
Patti

Mary Lou,

So sorry to hear you have to go thru this. Not fair!! Well, none of this is to any of us

I am routing for b9 and that you get your groove back soon. My little friend Justine is in the mail heading your way.

Take care and big hug,

Margerie