March 2012 chemo

Myleftboob - Thanks, here's hoping for less SE! Yes, I had an echocardiogram before my first treatment, and will have another next month. I'm hoping the slowing hair growth isn't true. I have two wigs and lots of hats and scarves, but I do miss my own hair, it's just not the same!!

Indigo - Thanks! I know I can't wait! Definitely going to question the need for Neulasta next week

Lostinmo - Sorry about your day yesterday! Hope today is better!!

Have nay of you tried taking anything to help with sleeping? I've tried lots, Melatonin supplements help me on my off weeks. The day prior to chemo and about four days after I use Ativan or Ambien, these really knock me out but I don't like using them all the time. I've never been a pill taker so all these meds are really wearing me out, but I've gotta do it to get some rest!

The hair thing is a mess, isn't it?  I've always had a bad habit of playing with my hair and now that every time I run my fingers through it and a bunch comes out, I have to make myself stop it.  I didn't buzz it yesterday because I don't have any obvious bare patches yet or anything, but it is driving me nuts.  Washing and styling it now seems like a waste of my time and hair care products and will just make my face hot from the blow dryer - and I wonder if my round brush will pull hunks of it out.  It is all over my shirt.  So... when my son gets up from his post-biology test hangover, I'm going to "just do" it and get the buzz over with. 

CAYH

If it makes you feel any better a GF of mine complained of the same thing after she got a Brazillian wax job "down there".  She is convinced we have pubic hair for this very reason and vowed never to get one again.

Even though I'm now finished chemo I hear you on the energy thing.  I just cleaned my bathroom and am having a break already.  Trying to get the housework done today so I can get some yardwork done over the weekend.  Then of course food shopping, cooking an laundrey.  Tired just thinking about it.

Good for you on the handmade wipes.  I just used whatever baby wipes were on sale that were unscented and hypoalergenic but they were a soothing relief from just toilet paper.

I agree, Bryers is great icecream!!

Cayh- Yeap on the directional problem.  Never knew the hair mattered.  Wonder how the porn stars do it?  The witch hazel mix is a good idea.  After I gave birth I used a squirt bottle mix of witch hazzel and water.  I guess I will go look for a bottle...

It seems 3 is a magic number.  A sucky magic number in this sense.  I am so tired! 9 days out and I'm still taking nausea meds. I hope 4 is better, I have to go meet my surgical team and do imaging the week after tx4.  I was hoping to schedule it during a "good" time but no such luck.  Oh well, at least my new Dr.s are giving me some answers and a timeline.  Has anyone here done DIEP?  What was your recovery time?  Also if you went with implants, do those need to be replaced in the future?

We are strong and we will make it through this.  I think we need to start posting a good thing of the day again or maybe some details of our future plans.  I know that BC has made me rethink all the things I have been putting off.  I have been married 20 years and haven't had a honeymoon yet.  We eloped to Vegas but had to get back for work.  I told DH we were gonna do it, now we just need to decide what we want to do.  Most of my vacations with DH have involved sleeping in the dirt (camping).  We do a lot of 4x4ing, and motorcross.  I told him I want indoor plumbing and little umbrellas in my drinks!

To the future! (and beyond)

tellie - you and I were posting at the same time...yes, definitely you need to make plans for a trip!  We are planning on doing something during my "good week" after TX #4 after school is out.   Hopefully the pattern will hold and I will in fact, have such....

lost - I could gladly stay indoors until October - I don't handle the heat and humidity on the best of times, much less now.   Oh and if I were responsible for supper, no one would eat here.

That is a consideration when we are looking for somewhere to take a trip - I was thinking San Antonio - but yuck - hot/humid.  DH always wants to go to the FL panhandle/beach - again hot/humid and frankly, I am a "sit on the balcony and look at the ocean" type not a go hang on the beach type.  Plus the last few years we have stayed free at my SIL's sister's condo and that isn't an option this year and I hate to pay all that money just for accomodations.

Not really wanting to road trip too far away for just the 5-6 days we will have though.  I figure I could probably get an extra couple of days by skipping my 2 week labs but then I would spend the whole time worrying if my counts were high enough...

Oh wow...yeah, no, kayaking is not for me either.  We always go somewhere for a family vacay but the last few years it has been the aforementioned free condo - but that came with strings of spending the week with bro/sil and nieces and nephews   Oh and the big road trip out West with my parents last year...a few years ago we went to the Smokey Mountains and I loved that...but that is a haul for you, Indigo  

Are you looking to just drive/not fly?  We don't ever fly, which is why our trips any further than a few hours turn into big road trips. But I was used to that from being a kid...we road tripped anywhere we went (West, East, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, all in a truck/camper and occasional hotel).

We can easily drive to Memphis, St. Louis, Dallas, Branson (yuck, not again), but everything I can think to do with kids those places is mostly outside stuff.  And I hate being outside...much less outside feeling at all icky and in a wig...

I wonder if we are allowed to fly during treatment?  I have never asked, but most of my vacations involve flying!  I am planning a trip to visit a friend in NY in November -maybe i will have some hair by then.  I have a BIG trip planned next april - 10 days on a sailboat out of Grenada - can't wait.

Had my shot today, no pain, just tired.  Hope I have some energy tomorrow morning to at least go to grocery and maybe clean a bathroom or something.  Food is more important than cleaning right?!

Hope everyone has a lovely evening 

CAYH - I have heard of those baths - going to get some epsom salt and try it out!  Thanks for posting!

CAYH - That sounds so great - thanks for the link and info!  Although epsom salt reminds me of my poor brother having to soak his ingrown toenails throughout adolescence, lol!

Cailtin - speaking of bitchiness, I have discovered that hydrocodone makes me mean as sh*t...just very short tempered and irritated at everyone and everything!   I have a leftover rX that I take when I don't want to take my Percocet and omg, they make me mean.

Ok, I screwed up today by not drinking hardly any water, much less enough.  I didn't eat much either but I looked at my water bottle and realized I had drank about a half a bottle all day - yikes...I started feeling really nauseous and yucky.  Feeling better now after a compazine and drinking and eating a little something.  Why is it so hard to drink?  Oh, and food for thought - compazine is also prescribed for schizophrenia...good to know...

OK, I finished working for the day, and DS#1 buzzed my hair off.  Golly - it sure is gray at the roots!  With it being cut short before and after shedding the last couple of days, I wasn't too surprised that there wasn't a huge pile of it when I was done. 

My son was soooo sweet... said "You still look like Mom, your eyes look bigger now and more blue - and your head has a good shape!"  We laughed a lot together.  I will say that we did it outside on the back porch, and I grabbed one of my little sleep caps as soon as I walked back into the house and put it on before looking in the mirror.  He didn'tt shave it all the way down to my scalp, and it does feel better from that sore feeling. 

I tried doing the T-shirt wrap - DS#1 helped me twist it in the back - but we need to practice some more because I thought I looked kind of like a desert dweller!  So I just put the cap back on.  Going to shower, see how much more comes out and put on some makeup (just for me).

kltb04 - I have driven all the way to Vegas before, but with DH's bad leg and me getting over the treatments, we wamt to fly.  My plan was really to "run off" for a long weekend, and I don't want to spend two days of it on the road.  I hope to feel good enough *crossing fingers* when my mom and niece come out in July to do something with them, although Mom wants to take my niece to the Renaissance Festival, and I don't want to do that.  It is in a really pretty area and not far away by car, but it always gets really super hot, there are big crowds and long lines, and then it tends to thunderstorm in the afternoon.  I've been in years past and I'd do it if I weren't taking the chemo, but I'm giving it a pass for now.  I'm hoping I'll feel good enough while she's here to go on a little hike like I did the day before my first treatment, or maybe to take a day trip up to the high country like we did last year with my younger niece and nephew.  We'll see!

Indigo- you get used to the hair thing.  I can't say I would choose to be bald, but I am used to it now.  The otherday I pinned my daughter down and rubbed my head stubble on her.  I laugh everyday when I wash my head with shampoo for "unruley, frizzy hair".  Okay, maybe not everyday but on the days I am not too lazy to shower.  Sometimes I stomp my foot and tell my husband his head has to be lower than mine (King and I). 

Good thing- I am watching Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band with my kids and they seem to like it!

I just got in from meeting a couple of my gal pals at the local patio, jeez it felt so good to feel so normal! I only had 2 glasses of wine and my friend picked me up and drove me home. Talk about being a cheap drunk LOL!  My hairdresser joined us too, he shaved my head down to the wood for me.  I haven't been out much obviousely but it was so nice to be in everyone's company having a laugh. Today I feel normal which makes me so happy!

CAYH: I've done the epsom salt baths but I've not tried it with baking soda.  I'll be trying that very soon.  I want to do all I can to rid my body of the poisons I allow into my body every 3 weeks.