March 2012 chemo

Had tx #2 taxol yesterday and it seems easier than the last one so far. Wish I could say 2 more to go like some of you ladies, bot I have 10 more! At least after next week it will be in the single digits.



DH decided to be an ass yesterday and still carrying his attitude over to today. He doesn't know it yet but he got decaf instead of regular coffee this morning! Guess I'll just sedate myself before he gets home so I don't have to deal with him. Guess they have a hard time adjusting when you can't do everything for them anymore.



Hope everyone in and out of the chair today have a great one with little or no SEs

Had my first cup of coffee in three months Friday, another one today, and it tasted GOOD - no dirt taste, no skunk smell (for some reason, chemo caused my favorite thing to taste and smell AWFUL)!!! Yay!!

KCB - Hope you have a much better day today!

kltb - The condo sounds fabulous, and so does New Orleans!! Enjoy girl!! Our trip this weekend was just what I needed. I feel so much better - now planning Nashville for Thanksgiving to celebrate being finished with treatments and radiation. Woohoo!

TG - So not looking forward to brow/lash loss. I have my second Taxol tomorrow.

triplem - Husbands have a way of deciding to be an ass at the most inconvenient times. I second kltb's idea of spiking his decaf with stool softeners lol!

Trailgirl - That's interesting you can differentiate the pain of Neulasta from the pain of Taxol.  I only had pain from Neulasta for one 24 hour period after my second AC.  From my memory, it felt somewhat simlar to Taxol, except for location on body.  So sorry you have both!!  I totally agree with you on the mouth stuff...I feel like I have saliva again with Taxol.  My taste buds disappeared for a couple of days with Taxol, but they did that with AC too.  Your timeframes on Taxol pain are similar to mine and I also do painkillers round the clock!

So atleast 3 DD Taxol (me, Januaryrice, TrailGirl) = P A I N!

I think the dose dense must be the problem as we all seem to have similar SE's. Interesting!!! Today is the first day I can actually walk around not in total pain. Almost a full week from my tx.

Of all the liquids I have tried during this ordeal, soda is the most satisfying. I also never usually drink it and now I crave it.

kam: Another dose dense here. Never had any Neulasta pain with A/C + Neulasta, but was soooo sick and exhausted. Not sick with the Taxol but the pain (I can't tell if its muscle, bone or joint - I just know I hurt EVERYWHERE) seems similar to everyone else's so far. I get the infusion on Thursday. By Saturday mid-day, the pain is awful, worse on Sunday and Monday, and by Tuesday may be letting up a little. All in all, I don't get fully back to myself until the next Wednesday or Thursday. Yuck, but it's still better than A/C.

TG: Coke tastes good too, and I stopped drinking sodas years ago. Now I crave Coke!

Hi KCB, Kltb and ladies

KCB: thanks so much for posting re your experience of a first infusion re Taxotere!

Kltb: sorry to hear about your challenge but you're sounding great. Very spark and funny.

Ladies: We have a good chance of beating breast cancer. Have a look at:

http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/how_serious_breast_cancer_000006_6.htm

If I had the opportunity to run a race knowing I had an 88% per cent chance overall of beating this, I would be so happy...trying to remind myself that everyone is an indivdual but...thank goodness for our treatment.

Whatever it is - surgery, chemo, immunotherapy, radiation - I give thanks to the clever doctors and scientists who at least are giving us a chance.

Love

Alice the Cat

Thanks all DD Taxol women!  I thought it might be something else as so many say Taxol was a breeze compared to AC.  I know some of you still think it is easier than AC, but I'm not one of them.  For some reason, I'd rather be anorexic than feel like I have the flu and in pain, but then I never threw up once with AC.

Interesting that you all are craving coke ..... ok, I just finished watching that HBO special on weight and they said the number one problem vis a vis obesity in America is soda!!!  I've never been much of a soda drinker, but when I'm really really really thirsty, there is nothing that can quench my thirst like a diet coke or a beer.  Neither are part of my usual fare.

Michelle- LOL I will have to remember the decaf trick, although my DH works from home so it might backfire on me.

Sorry there seem to be so many SE's from the taxol.

Well they found a mass on my ovaries during the CT for the DEIP and they want to check it just to be sure.  Looks like tomorrow I get to have a pelvic ultrasound.  I am not sure but I think it involves the less-than-magic wand.  .  Stupid BC, first it ruins the fun of being felt up, now this?!! Maybe I'll ask if they at least have one that vibrates.  Then just for giggles I will run around the hospital naked and see if anyone notices.  Arghhh.

Tellie; that sucks about your ovaries. Lol about the vibrator though, too funny! Way to go keeping your sense of humor!

Speaking of which (humor): you all know had a perfed bowel after my round two and they had to give me a colostomy. Well now of course I have no control over movements or NOISES! So I was at ds's piano recital the other day and of course who should start passing wind right at the quietest moment? Me. Managed to stifle it somehow long enough to see my son play, but then crept out, mortified. My dh said I should just point at him if it happens again... Anyway, seems funny to me now!

lana - I finally started back drinking my coffee again in the morning a couple days ago when I started tasting again.  Right after first TX when I thought I would never drink coffee again, I kept thinking "but I have this new Kuerig and now it is going to just be a waste!"

Kam- I have also read that even if you are drinking diet soda - which we do around here - your body reacts to the artificial sweetener similiarly to sugar as far as how it is processed/stored and in turn it makes you crave other sweet tastes.  I really need to do better on it but don't know if I can give it up - I will think of it later! 

Indigo - good luck today!  And ugh on the telemarketers, we have been getting a lot of calls from political people and from charities lately.  In fact, we know if our home phone rings, it is probably not a real call because everyone usually calls our cells.

TG - I am not a huge meat eater either.  But I started craving steak fajitas after TX #2...just out of the blue.  And I hate, hate, hate, touching/cooking meat so I made DH go to Chili's and get takeout!

Alice - thanks for the article!

 tellie - have fun on your date with the u/s wand.  Seriously, it is probably a cyst or fibroid.  I did a lot of mad searching on ovarian issues after my PET/CT at diagnosis and most things I found on here were people panicking about scans that turned out to be benign. As I have posted before, my PET/CT showed uptake in an ovary but the tech and my MO both felt it was "normal physiological uptake" due to ovulation.  I would have felt better with an u/s I think.

Kim - thanks for the tip on the brows/lashes will have to check that out.

KCB - oh my, how embarrassing.  I think you'll find that others aren't nearly as observant of things like that as we think they are though!

MLB - good to "see" you!

All - hope everyone has manageable SE today and a good day otherwise.  I always find it odd in post TX days when one day (like yesterday) I think "I feel 'normal' again.

Update on my BS appt - yesterday she did a quick u/s and from what she could find - and she had to search around a bit - it appears that at the most, it measures 1.6 cm.  It started at 3 cm.  So chemo is working!  Then she added that there was some shadowing that might not even be part of the actual tumor and if that was the case, we might be looking at closer to just 1 cm.  I also asked her about the other issue and she assured me it was at worst "fatty tissue" in the rib area and not to worry about anything cancer related and as she said "I deal with cancers that are in the body.  This is not that."

Did a lot of shopping yesterday - a lot.  Like I am surprised the bank didn't call and say they thought my debit card had been stolen.  But I got some warm weather tops and capri pants (shorts on my legs haven't been an option in many many pounds), and two, count em TWO new pair of yellow box flip flops! And some new hats!  The halo is going back -I tried it yesterday, it just doesn't have enough hair at the temples to look natural and oh it was a fright after I pulled my hat on and off to try on clothes all morning!  I finally ditched the hair and just wore the cap when DH and I went shopping for his clothes (and that took HOURS - he is pickier than any girl!)

So I have come to my hair decision - if I want to wear hair, it's gonna be the wig.  Otherwise, it is a scarf and hat/cap.

One more thing to add to my novel here.  I had ca-razy dreams all night last night - didn't sleep well at all...but one of them was a ghost from the past - our friend the dead skunk.  Yes, I dreamed I was sprayed by a skunk.  But it was at my kids school and I had to take a bath in tomato juice there.  Odd.

Hello KCB and ladies

I've just read KCB's post. Haven't laughed so much in ages. An alternative title could be 'Not I but the Wind', perhaps?

My sister used to work as a journalist for a trade magazine. One day, her colleague phoned a barrister's chambers and asked to speak to the leading lawyer.

'I'm afraid he's on the toilet,' the receptionist replied.

Brings a smile to my face every time.

Best wishes

Alice

Hi ladies!  Just completed A/C#3 this a.m.  First time for port draw for labs - what a piece of cake that was.  And some news:  the Marrow Plus herbal supplement that Shera had mentioned she took appears to work for me also!  I haven't ever had Neulasta or Neupogen yet (my MO doesn't prescribe it unless the white counts are too low).  I was a little worried about the counts being too low today for chemo because of the labs I had three weeks ago before the port placement - but today, the counts were even better than they were last time.  The only thing was, I bit my tongue and didn't tell the NP that I saw today about the supplement; but anyway, I'm curious as to whether anyone else has tried it.  The only effect I think it has other than the white counts is that it may be causing softer stools, but, that might also be the Prilosec, and anyway, so hopefully this time it'll help with the ride on the C train for the next few days. (Hopefully I don't end up on the D train this time). 

I am this afternoon riding the decadron wave, feeling good (enough to get some work done).  Still with the zofran headache but at least I know by now what to do about that. I need to go walking too, because the only bad news, if you will, was that I gained 4 pounds!  Yikes.  I did chow down on all the grad party food, and over the past week I tried two new desserts at home, but geez.  I got told not to be concerned about my weight per se, but 4 pounds in 3 weeks is not a trend I want to see continue.  Guess the Red Warrior wasn't as hungry this time.

Good news - last chemo tomorrow!! woot woot!!



Bad news - my port incision still wasn't healing after almost 4 months and the hole was getting bigger so they removed it today. They will let it heal for a few weeks then put in another one for the remainer of the herceptin. Tomorrow they will use a vein.

Love HAPPY DANCE FOR YOU on the last chemo! Sorry about the port though.

onvacation hope you managed to get some rest, how is your Dad doing?

kltb you shop more than anyone. lol  I decided I just have to wait on my hair to come back.  The wig itches way too much. 

KCB hoping that you don't get the aches!

Indigo isn't the port nice.  As much as I'm ready to have mine out..I'm glad I have it.  If we lived closer I'd walk with you.  I just need the exercise.

Happy Friday to all!