Sept 2012 chemo

I also attended Look Good Feel Better today and enjoyed it very much. It took me getting cancer to learn how to apply makeup properly! I brought my wig with me and got lots of positive reinforcement about how I look in it.

During the LGFB session my hair was firmly attached. Later in the evening I was with some friends, ran my fingers through my hair and noticed its now starting to come out. Ack! I thought I'd have another day! Amazingly, I'm not too freaked out about it. I'm mostly just fascinated by the process.

Hang in there everybody, we'll all get through this!

My chemo nurse said we get chemo even with a cold.

Cindi74, could you post that article if it is easy to do? Thanks!

First chemo was Thursday. Found my first bald spot at 11:30pm Monday night. Hoping it hangs in there til the weekend. I want to have a "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" party and let my friends help me buzz it off!

 Fingers crossed!

Keep laughing!

Okay, Ladies - I have been told by the chemo nurse that my port should be for chemo, only.  That blood draws should be through my arm.  Is she wrong?  My blood draw is Thursday morning and I need some courage if I need to stand up to,yet another, nurse!

I used to not care about needles until the procedure prior to the lumpectomy, done with no "soothing" meds, whatsoever.  For me, it was torture in the extreme.  The anesthesiologist had to spend extra time prior to the actual surgery helping me get calm, again.  It frustrates me that nurses (and docs) minimize our pain (nausea, fright, etc.) and we have to explain ourselves.  I spoke to the oncall oncologist Saturday regarding my bone pain from the taxotere - who proceeded to try to tell me I really didn't hurt that much!!??  I asked him if he had given birth and proceeded to tell him that until he did, he had no right to judge my pain!  Jeez.  thank goodness that guy is not my regular doc!

Four Tops, Carole King, many favorites from my generation (a long-long time ago, now) encourage to call on our friends.  Thanks for the reminder!

My facebook page has become fairly generic.  Those who know what I am going through don't want the reminder and those who don't know - I don't want them to know ---ever! 

Thanks for being such a great support group. So much encouragement, here!! We can do this, ladies! Like I tell my younger daughter, "Watch me fight like a girl!". This is a battle that I shall win!!!

Sherrie

Good morning my ladies........i just wanted to share that i went on to buy Melotin to get extra sleep even though i was sleep great i just had one bad night and i figure why not try it.....well it trigger for me to have hot flashes all night long , nasty presure on my head some chest pain and im still with some heart pain...i dranked so much much to try to get out my system and pee all night long it cause me back pain and my DH awake all night long.....i didnt really needed it but i though i can get some extra hours of sleep....so now they will go straight to the garbage....im glad that works for some people but for me it trigger nothing but pain.....

new look ladies make it fun and itwill be pink today...should i do pink all the way..or just the design was not fan of the star it would liked it really small 

David, I had read on another website by a cancer suffering guy how he had the problem of "no port nurse available" and he insisted no blood draws unless port and he finally won.  Waited a long time--but won.  So I knew it was a problem and asked at the Cancer Institute where I go if they had sufficiently trained nurses.  OH Yes!

 So yesterday, when i got the argunent again and one nurse came by to say I had good veins,  I found my voice rising and quivering and, I'm sure my body fear mode in technicolor, and I started telling then about my two days and seven attempts during port and echocardigram, and that I had asked ahead BEFORE settling on that location.  She got that disgusted look on her face, and stalked away saying, "Well, you will have to wait."

Secretly, I was very happy.  I had put the cream on at about 10 for an 11 apt and  they took me early and it was going too fast for the cream to take effect.  I also take a Tylanol before going in always by the way.  By the time a VERY compassionate port nurse got there, it was so numb, she could have been standing across the room when she took it.  Then she waited until the report came that all was well before disconnecting--al the tine telling me that she had the same needle aversion and understood.  When I talk with her again, I  will also point out that it's not just the aversion, it's the PAIN.  Hand in there and figure out who to talk with.

aic- Here is a link to a similar newspaper article about the the new study of categorizing breast cancer.

http://www.chron.com/news/article/New-breast-cancer-clues-found-in-gene-analysis-3887887.php

Here is the link for the NY times article that Cindi was referring to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/health/study-finds-variations-of-breast-cancer.html?_r=0

rsdavid & Cindi74--You go girls!!!!!!  I'm glad you spoke up for yourselve to the on call onco and to the nurses because I'm sure it wasn't easy to do.  You are your own best advocate here and know your pain tolerance better than anyone else.  I still have blood draws before my Herceptin infusions.  The last one required me to fast ( no food/drink after midnight).  The infusion nurse tried to draw blood from my port but because I hadn't taken in enough fluids, it was hard to get the blood draw.  She was very apologetic that she would have to take from my arm and even more so when I told her that she would probably have to take it from one of hand veins.  I told her it was okay and I'd blood taken from there before.  After the infusion was over and she was flushing the port, she checked to see how the blood flow from the port was.  She said it was fine and was better since I had been able to drink fluids after the initial blood draw.  It is seems weird to me that your infusion nurse didn't want to draw blood from there, especially when one of an onco's selling points about getting a port is that the blood draws can be taken from there. 

aic: my Look Good Feel Better session also went the full two hours, first half makeup second half wigs/scarves, etc. Even if you have to miss some of it I would recommend going. A lady in my group came late, but one of the presenters caught her up with everyone else.

Patricia: your designs are awesome! Way to rock the new look!

Y'all are amazing. I wish I could remember who said what by the time I get to the reply box so that I could respond to everyone directly!

i though it would be nice that their options for the new look for everyone and if you are bald just get pretty supportive fake tattoos with ou ribbon ladies....feeling much better...

Cocobean,

I was very sick last week after my first round of chemo on September 17. I was in bed for three days very nauseated and would vomit every evening.  I called the oncologist's office yesterday and spoke with my doctor's nurse. I told her how sick I was and she said that there is another route they can take with the anti-nausea meds. She didn't give me specifics, but she said that the other drug needs to be approved by my insurance company, but it works well for people who repond like I did. I also have a "nurse advocate" through my insurance company; it is part of my benefits. She and I spoke yesterday also and she said that if the nurse can give me a bag of fluids the day I return for my Neulasta shot that the fluids may help me too.

So, I would let your oncologist know how bad you feel and see what options are available to you. The good news is that there ARE options!

Here are some practical things that helped me:

- sip liquids and don't take too much in at one time

- try tiny bites of a saltine cracker

- drink ginger ale - this helped me a lot, but remember to take tiny sips

- fritos - yes, fritos! A friend's bc surviving sister suggested fritos. I didn't try them until I was past the worst nausea, so I would suggest exercising caution, but they have helped me overcome the nausea that creeps up once in awhile. The gal who suggested it actually ate her fritos with bean dip. I'm not that bold...

I hope this helps and that you are feeling better today. It's a real drag, I know!