2012 sisters

Well, i got news to take me to a happy place and want to share.  My son just got engaged !  He is a law student at U of Tennessee.  They often went to the zoo when first dating at Ohio State.   He arranged for Knoxville zoo (from a picture he gave them ahead of time) to get  "randomly" chosen for a behind the scene look at the penguins.  After seeing how they are cared for and fed etc..a very friendly penguin walked over to them with a ring box on it's wing with ribbons.  She saw this and turned to find my son on one knee with the real mccoy.  Made my day... 

Mrscich. I'm Oncotype 22. My dr said the opposite. "You're too young, just suck it up and do it so we aren't sitting here in your 50s with a recurrance"

Ladies, too tired to catch up yet. My red cell count is low (white apparently fine). I had chemo Thursday, IV fluids Friday and more tomorrow. The Thursday I get this ducking painful irritation of S port removed!!!!!! I'll Takeuchi gambled with my one last trestment through my arm.



Ok nap and more naps. Yes 2.5 weeks until zero more chemo treatments (god willing) 😁😁😁😁



Welcome to our new comers. You're home.

Geez, Juneau...lol. I think I would have left if my doc said that to me. Granted, I say that but just the other day I said I WANTED someone to make the decision for me. So I'm just a nut case I suppose. Lol



Aruba, that is so sweet. What an awesome way to propose.



All, is Adriamycin red? My onc said that there was one chemo she's trying to keep me off of because its brutal. He said they call it the red devil.

Ok, as soon as I wrote that, I regretted it. Adriamycin is difficult, but it's doable. It just isn't fun. There was an interesting story in the New York Times online today that said in the future adriamycin might not be used for triple negatives. Thought that was interesting.

MrsCich I could not find a reference explaining it, but my observation from these forums is the majority of women get Adriamycin + Cytoxan followed by Taxol, and others get Taxotere + Cytoxan.  I am guessing the Adriamycin is used only for more advanced cancer (higher grade and/or stage).

From my understanding Adriamycin has a higher rate of heart damage - Which is not reversible. I thought, of course, this is my opinion, taxotere was a bitch!



But I did not have adriamycin, and I pray everyday that I will not have to visit another round of chemos ever again!

I got 2 forms with some side effects. I have to call them tomorrow and tell them my decision on whether or not I'm doing chemo. The chemo nurse sets up our "chemo class" and I pick a date to start.



Taxotere is a bitch?? Oh for the love of (whomever you believe in). This is scary shit.

Has anyone had issues with fingernails? mine turned black and blue, likeyou shut your finger in a door, after tx #3. then they started to grow and i saw what ithought was healthy nail. now at 3 weeks PFC they hurt reallybad and it looks like at least 4 or five nails are lifting likethey will come,offf? I was not expexting this, doc saw the bruising and said that will grow out but nothing about them falling off!

And for the past week I have had a 'backache in the strangest areaof my back, up high like above my bra strap. not where iusually get back pain, and i haven't done anything to hurt my back at all... should I be concerned? before bc the only time iwould get back pain woulxd be after gardening too long, raking,etc.

And my teenage daughter is sick with a cold and possible bronchitis and all she want is to cuddle with me andI can't. breaks my heart! but with surgery in 10 days cant risk getting sick now!

oh, and can i mention that my husband is acting like everything is fine... having an emotional, and when i realized the nails were falling off and started to cry he said stop it... you know it wont be like before.! Thank god I had put the knife down I was holding or I wouldd be typing this from jail! Sometimeshe need to egage the brain before speaking... I havent spoken to him since that comment!

I think I'll go have a good cry in the shower and make myself feel better...

Sorry for the long vent.. its been a tough day and notlookonh forward to work tomororow...

Ugh. My arm feels tighter today than it has. I'm going to call my PT tomorrow morning to see if they can get me in sooner than Friday.



On the positive side, the wound where my drain was seems completely closed up and the gauze was dry tonight. I left it uncovered after cleaning it.



The weather is cooling off here, and I am extra-glum for this time of year. (I hate being cold, I hate winter, and I hate all the winter holidays. I am usually depressed and grouchy from October through April.) I have mortality on my mind. Obvs bc is a factor in my feelings, but it's a pretty all-encompassing feeling. Not good.

Thanks, Websister & all for the encouragement.  My hair started to fall out this morning.  I know you've all been through it, so I feel like a baby crying, but I am pretty sad for my hair.   On to chemo this afternoon.

MrsCich, I didn't have any problems with my nails.  I made sure to keep them trimmed very short all through chemo so I didn't catch them on anything.  My MO recommended keeping them painted with clear polish to help strengthen them (she didn't want me to use an opaque color, so she could see them), but I didn't.  I did get some weird lines in them - you have to look closely, but there are stripes of darker pink and stripes of lighter pink.  Otherwise, they're fine.

Nails being affected is a possible side effect, you could lose them completely.  That doesn't affect everyone, though. 

Morning Ladies, wow.. few days not posting and I can't even begin to catch up or respond to you all - that's great.

Regarding chemo regimes.... I was on AC (4 tx) and then Taxotere (4).   On Taxotere they iced my hands... big gloves, like oven gloves, that were put on 15 minutes before tx, during tx and 15 mins after.   Although my nails became very soft, never lost a fingernal... different for toenails.  I only iced toes last 2 tx and lost toenails... big one on left is about to come off.... it did not hurt though.   Demand that they ice both hands and feet.    Remember, we can all get different SE's.

Positive healing thoughts to all and big (((((hugs)))))

Another beautiful sunny day here so I am going to enjoy it and these next couple of weeks before I start rads.

MrsCich, just want to reiterate what Tazzy said about the icing of the nails during Taxotere. It really helps a lot. I iced my fingernails every time, but was not given the option of icing my toenails. Only for the last chemo, and after I had educted myself, I had my toes buried deep into two large Costco bags of frozen peas. One of my toenails fell off about 8 weeks after my last chemo, but the new nail was there already. I still have a little neuropathy in some of my toes, but it is definitely getting better, and my onc assured me that it will eventually disappear completely. He strongly advised Taxotere because it causes less neuropathy than Taxol, according to him. I was so scared of the chemo, but it turned out to be okay, not nice, but okay. Maybe stop reading about all the possible se's now - you may get a few, but not all. 

Allurbadday, sorry to hear about your husband, and I hope he can get some help. You don't need extra stress right now.

Juneaubugg, hope you are beginning to come out of the #3 chemo haze, and that those blood counts will return to normal. Hang in there!