Sept 2012 chemo

I can't wait for the cherry blossoms:-)

Toastiecat... Good luck tomorrow! Try not to be to nervous... I know that's hard to do but your gonna do just fine..



Thanks for the comments about my pic I had a photographer come over and take pics thru shoots for a cure so it was rather inexpensive. I get all my proofs back this week. I figure why notcapture the moment cause I am pretty hopeful I will never be bald again!



Field trip with my son today..... Going to the fredrick meijer garden to see the christmas tree displays and then a movie!



Have a great day everyone!

Queen kong ... I'm Glad that your surgery went well ... Specially that chemo did its job... You will be fine for spring we all will be!!!!



Toastiecat good luck with your surgery ... Sending white energy!!!! Everything is going to be alright!!!





Knock on wood but I still have my eyelashes and eyebrows lost few of them but I still have them and my hair is growing I look like chia chiaaaaaaa lol.... But who knows what will happen cause I just started Taxol on Wednesday ... It's been 5 days and feeling ok....



Had a great weekend... My DHs family came to celebrate early Christmas with us from New York ... My nephews and brother in law are very young around their 20th ... I have always been their favorite aunt.. I had always made them feel like if they were my age when I was 28...and they all are boys!!! So this weekend they took care of me!!! Hug me and cried with me since they weren't here when I was diagnosed !!! They carried me... Dance salsa , merengue and some oldies till 5 am!!!!!! But most amazing thing is that all of them told me that I was such a great woman and survivor that I would get through this!!! And one of my nephew slowly lifted my hat and kissed my bald head... And I just cried cause they showed me so much love and it felt so good to have my "fans"love me so much!!!









We are all strong woman here .... We put up a hell of a fight every day!!! DON'T YOU FORGET THAT!!.........





No SE...please!!!!!!

Mariposa... I love Ikea! And I to am guilty of keeping my kiddos home here and there to spend quality time with them... Cancer def makes you enjoy the little moments more..

Thank you so much everyone for the well wishes! All your good vibes worked. The surgery went very smoothly. This little swap was not even on the same planet as the BMX. For instance, I walked out of the hospital at a normal pace, and even walked my dog when I got home. That took almost a week with the BMX. Only downside is that I have drains again, bleh.



Patricia, what a wonderful story about your nephew!



Hope, can't imagine how sad and

unsettling it must have been at school today. I am looking at everything differently now.



Hugs everyone!

Hello Ladies , met with My MO today said blood work was great , I still have one more chemo to go but I don't have to take the neulesta shot thank god .



I have a question for all . Do any of you feel extremely tired all the time like you can sleep all day? I feel so exhausted all the time

Hi Cherioo - Not only have I felt like I could sleep all day and night after chemo, I have a done it a couple of times. The exhaustion is unreal.

My blood work was good for chemo #7, just got back. Need Neulasta shot tomorrow and have chemo #8, the last chemo scheduled for Dec 31!!! yay, what a great new years present to myself.

Starting to get stubble on my head, cannot wait for hair to grow back. Someone on the board previously mentioned taking biotin supplements. I spoke to someone that had breast cancer 10 years ago during chemo today (she was there for her husband) and she said the biotin worked to help speed up hair growth. I asked my MO and he had no issues with me trying it.

JoJo - I asked about monitoring, PET scans, CT scans, blood work. My MO said that he does no scans unless I have some type of symptom or, he finds something suspicious. He said he would start out monitoring me every three months, and doing blood work each visit. It makes me a little nervous about recurrence, but I do not want to dwell on it.

So far only SE is fatigue, I hope everyone in BGC this week had no SE's.

Have a great day!!

Hi everyone--just thought I'd check in and say hello.  I've been feeling really anxious today.  Not sure why, but just analysing every ache and pain and wondering what it might be.  Probably all post chemo residue stuff, or my mind running wild. I've been thinking alot about how to manage worry after treatment is all done.  How do all of you think you will approach this?  I've just taken a Diazepam which should sort the problem out for this evening (!) but I'm sure that there must be better strategies than constantly raiding the medicine cabinet!

Interesting article on potential cancer fighting effects of marijuana: http://www.salon.com/2012/09/23/study_marijuana_prevents_spread_of_cancer/



We just got medical marijuana in NJ, but it's regulated to a ridiculous degree. Something like 100 people in the state are taking part in the program.

Thanks for the post melrose... It hit home!

Off to chemo number 12 today... Only 4 more weeks to go!

I'm just joining this now and wish I had found this group earlier. This has been so scary to face. Now it's nearing the end and I'm scared to finish, what's wrong with me? I had my 3rd taxol Monday and maybe it's the decadron crash making me feel low. I'm scared that without chemo the cancer is going to rear its ugly head again.

Does anyone else feel strangely scared to end chemo?

Feeling a little down.  On day 8 of my 2nd round of taxotere and doing so much better than round 1.  Much less pain and swelling, side effects were manageable. Had my neupogen shots reduced from 7 to 5, because my wbc were 27 last time and are usually around 7.  I was feeling great, like I can do this!! My last two sessions had been moved two days later because of the Christmas holiday, which bummed me out, but I was still feeling optimistic.  Was counting down the days til being done!

I think because they reduced my neupogen shots, my MO asked me to get a blood test early.  So I went and got one a week after my chemo.  The MO office just called to tell me that my WBC is at 1.9 and that I will need to take 3 more neupogen shots and a weeks worth of antibiotics (precaution, I think??).  And they told me not to take my dex (pre-meds the day before) next wednesday, but just to come into the MO's office on Thursday.  I'm so sad.  I was feeling great and now it seems like they aren't even sure if they will give me treatment on Dec 27.  I don't want anymore delays.  I was counting down the days til moving on to the next step - surgery. I am so ready to start feeling better. I am wondering if it takes longer for my body to react to the neupogen shots.  I've never had to take a test one week in, maybe its always low at that point and fine by treatment day.  Maybe the test was a mis-read? Why are they already acting like I can't have my treatment as scheduled??? Dec 27 is plenty far away for my counts to rebound!  And due to my possible allergic reaction on treatment 1, I had two extra days of dex for treatment 2 (maybe thats whats affecting my counts).  And now they don't even want me to pre-medicate???  So if they do decide to give me treatment, I'm not gonna have dex first except through IV?  That sounds scary!  Sigh, I wish they would wait til I do my usual blood test before treatment and then just tell me to pre-medicate as usual.  Doesn't sound promising, and I am sad.  Depressing when you feel great, but your blood test says differently. My mindset is more like Timbek2.  I so want this to be behind me.  I'm not feeling scared to end chemo, I am desperately anticipating it.  Maybe there are two groups of us - the ones that are afraid to end it, and the other group that have a mind consuming desperation to end it.  Maybe we can change camps, but right now, I'm firmly in the group that wants and NEEDS to be done.  The two day delay was enough to depress me, this new news has me irrationally depressed.

Thanks for listening.  Hopefully my mood somehow lifts today.

But on a more cheerful note, congrats to those of you who ARE finishing chemo or are getting really close.  I can't wait to join you.  I can't wait to join the HAIR HAIR HAIR forum!!

NjeanRN--I don't think your post was callous sounding at all, and because we are all going through this at the same time, plus or minus a few weeks, it's a safe place to be able to share how you feel.  I know exactly what you mean.  For me, treatment provided a comfort blanket.  My cancer couldn't possibly come back during chemo, right?  Even though I still have radiation to go, I feel worried now like when I was first diagnosed about it coming back.  I'm trying to be rational about it, but it's those moments at four in the morning when it becomes more difficult.  I think that before this happened, I simply assumed that I would be around until I reached a ripe old age.  I certainly never even considered not being around to see my kids in to adulthood. At the end of the day however, I suppose that no-one knows what is around the corner, and although I don't think I could ever say that I am glad that this has happened to me, I hope that in many years' time I will look back on this as one of those lightening rod moments which taught me to not take things for granted.  I think I might actually find someone at some point who has proper training who can teach me how to listen to my rational, not my "Oh my God I'm doomed" voice! 

Melrose, thank you for your sensible words.  I'm glad you're still checking up on us regularly!

Thanks English Rose! That's the exact feeling- that cancer can't come back if I'm getting chemo, crazy.

I feel almost an overwhelming rush of conflicting emotions knowing the end of treatment is here. I think I've been holding a lot in. It's helpful just to read the words of other women dealing with this. Thank you!