Sept 2012 chemo

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  • Waitingforthenextstep
    Waitingforthenextstep Member Posts: 251
    edited December 2012

    Cindy

           I too have had to wait minimum of 40-45 minutes before they even get my treatments started, and this is NYC.  You would think they could come up with a better way.  At my hospital they don't even order the chemo from the pharmacist until you are there and checked in.  This causes the delay.  I am there most of the time for about 4 hours, I wish it could go faster.  If there are a lot of people, the whole thing takes longer.  One time we had to leave and come back, and another had to go to a room on the hospital floor, (kind of good, got to lay down in a bed).  I agree, it is annoying.  I think I just go to a different mindset there, just do my treatment and try to get out of there asap.

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  • Joemommy
    Joemommy Member Posts: 31
    edited December 2012

    Absolutely beautiful pic of you and your daughter, Mariposa!

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  • Cherioo
    Cherioo Member Posts: 305
    edited December 2012

    Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful ladies. Mariposal beautiful picture of you and your daughter

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  • jojo2373
    jojo2373 Member Posts: 662
    edited December 2012

    Mariposa, your pic is beautiful.



    I agree, this Christmas is strangely different. More meaningful in a spiritual way and less in a materialistic way. Blessings to all of you for making this journey together. Praying we all have years and years to remember how we made it through 2012 together.

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  • Melrosemelrose
    Melrosemelrose Member Posts: 3,018
    edited December 2012

    Wishing each of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!  I know this past year has not been easy for any of you but yet each of you has found your way and inner strength to continue to move forward.  Hope that each of you finds a little calm, a little peace and lots of good conversation, laughter and smiles and continues to move forward as I have.  Sending you lots of HUGS, and positive calming and healing prayers, thoughts and energy!!!

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  • butterfly14
    butterfly14 Member Posts: 253
    edited December 2012

    Cindi - I use Florida cancer Specialist and I used have to wait 30 min to an hour each visit, asked one of the front reception girls and was chewed out.  My husband finally said something to the doctor, and let him know how rude the receptionist was to me and now I wait no more than 15 minutes. Like Mariposa, they forgot me once, and the oncology nurse said she had her 9 appt before me, and mine was 830.

    Mariposa - The picture of you and your daughter is beautiful.

    Merry Christmas everyone, I hope everyone has a great day!!

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  • Cherioo
    Cherioo Member Posts: 305
    edited December 2012

    Has anybody been having sugar cravings . I think I have gained five pounds in a week eating cookies and all sorts of bad stuff. I know it is bad but I have never liked sugar this much

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  • Hopex3
    Hopex3 Member Posts: 397
    edited December 2012

    Mariposa: such a sweet picture of your daughter and you. Plus, you are growing hair!! Yay! I have not taken a picture of my "beauty mark" yet. I don't know if I am brave enough to post it.



    Timbek2: enjoy your time away.



    Cindi74: you sound like me with all the different aches and pains. Mine usually starts day 2 after taxol and lasts for 10 days. Then I feel pretty good (like now) and we start all over on 3 days. But I'm having my last one this Thursday! So ready to move on with surgery and all that. Sorry you ran into Nurse Ratched! I would complain by letter. I probably would have cried. I'm so weepy all the time. There is no reason for someone to be that rude!



    Cherioo: I am not to big on sweets, HOWEVER, I am hugely craving them. I wanted chocolate cake for weeks bad. Now, I want candy like m & m's. I'm just craving food period. I hear that cancerous tumors feed off sugar so I was real good in the beginning until Thanksgiving came and then it was over. I've got to get back into healthy eating.



    Merry Christmas to my Bosum Buddies!

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  • Amy4978
    Amy4978 Member Posts: 473
    edited December 2012

    This is def a year to relect what really means the most to us! I am very great full to have my dh my beautiful children and all of you ladies on my side.... Merry Christmas and much love to all of you!

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  • Cindi74
    Cindi74 Member Posts: 363
    edited December 2012

    Waiting,

    thay weight me after they call me (after the 30 min to  hour and fifteen minute wait and, I think, then order the actual chemo.  Then they flush the port and do the saline and four bags of other stuff before the Taxol comes.  I understand that the chemo is proportional to the weight, so I understand the delay then.  No problem with that.  It's the time in the waiting room before the stuff starts that gets me.  If it happened once out of four times, I probably wouldn't have let it get to me, but when it's almost every time, even starting at 9 in the morning, I think they plan it that way.  Grrrrrr.  It shows a lack of respect for our time and lives.  I'm trying to figure out how to deal with it and not let it get to me.

    Oh yes,  Nurse Ratchet seems a good internal nickname.  That should help me deal with it. It shall be my intermal joke.  I intend to laugh over it a lot.  Her lecturing me was a power play.  (She got to lecture the professor!). 

    Hope, my husband was sitting there while she was taking the time to lecture me.  He thought she was being defensive because she had caused the delay.  That didn't occur to me.  A letter is probably a good idea.  I just wonder if I can ask not to have her any more.  The others I have had were nicer, kinder, and more compassionate.

     Each Taxol so far has taken three and a half to four and a half hours AFTER I got in.  I guess that's just the way it is.  I don't mind that so much.  I know I'm making too big a deal on this.  I have been so lucky with no bad reaction at infusion to any chemo.  Some of you have had so many problems. 

    Mariposa, the pix of your daughter kissing you is priceless, but I like the one of her hugging her brother on your blog especially.  Your blog is so open, artsy, honest, revealing.  Thank you for sharing it with us. Maybe you can get a book out of it.  Hugs to all

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  • jojo2373
    jojo2373 Member Posts: 662
    edited December 2012

    Merry Christmas!



    Cherioo I had a craving for a pecan pie and ate the whole thing myself last week!

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  • allurbaddayswillend
    allurbaddayswillend Member Posts: 355
    edited December 2012

    Cherioo & hopex, I was on week 6, 7, & 8 of Taxol in mid-late October. I bought bags and bags of Halloween candy because like you guys sugar was the only thing that tasted good. We still have a ton of it because I then lost my taste for even that in another week or so. Then I started eating a couple donut holes with jelly on them for breakfast. It seemed like my taste buds changed every other week. Hopex, don't worry too much about eating sugar right now.  The chemo is supposed to be doing its job and if a cancer cell tries to grow because it got a bit of sugar, the chemo should interrupt and kill that process. I ate soft-serve frozen yogurt with fruit at least a couple times a week during AC - sugary with a bit o nutrition thrown in? it was the perfect food at the time. I highly recommend it. Laughing

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  • Foreverchanged72612
    Foreverchanged72612 Member Posts: 223
    edited December 2012

    Had my second FEC and Herceptin treatment yesterday. Felt quite nauseaous but luckily didn't throw up because it's a two hour ride home and that wouldn't have been good! Last round I just had to take my Emend and I was fine. Last night before bed I had to add to it with the extra anti-nausea pills they gave me and I was able to get to sleep. DH was in charge of playing Santa and I must have been quite out of it because I didn't hear him at all. Thought I was in the clear for full night's sleep but was woken up at 2am by my 7 year old. On his way to the bathroom his tooth fell out. I told him that the tooth fairy was taking a night off because it was Santa's night so he went back to bed happy.

    At the hospital I told the nurses my story of PMS symptoms and (rather begrudgingly, I found) they agreed to call the on-site oncologist to talk to me. And lo and behold! It was my old oncologist who is so, so, so nice and I'm really bummed that he isn't my oncologist anymore (scheduling conflicts, new job, blah blah blah) but he listened to me and said that in his opinion, the three weeks may allow the pms to come back though getting my period was highly unlikely. He did not feel that the estrogen and progesterone would have enough time to produce enough to get the cancer cells going. He recommended that I talk to my surgeon about it on January 9th when I go to meet him to finalize my surgery and again with my oncologist when I see him Jan. 17. And when he was walking away he used his usual tag line: "Be well!". Later on in the day when I was in my chemo chair he was walking around with another oncologist and waved as he passed by but when he saw that he didn't receognize the person sitting with me (my sister-in-law) he turned around and came back and shook her hand and introduced himself to her. Love him!!

    The Christmas spirit seemed to be with everyone yesterday. The nurse who did my Epirubicin infusion (aka red devil) was actually the head of the nursing unit. She has the reputation among me and my waiting room chemo-buddies for being short, terse and impatient with us gals in chemo. But yesterday she sat with me and calmly and nicely answered all my questions (and I have a lot!!!) about FEC and what exactly it does and what makes it different from the Taxol and I know at any point she could have just given me the same handout that my oncologist had given me but she didn't. She was super nice yesterday.

    So SEs: feeling less nauseous this morning. Got to see the kids have a lovely, lovely Christmas morning. Absolutely no melt-downs. So happy. But I'm feeling flushed in the face. My husband noticed it too. I havne't taken my temp yet. I took another Emend this morning along with one steroid pill. I have another steroid to take later this evening. And the vein where I had my infusion (I don't have a port) feels like it's burning a bit.

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  • cgesq
    cgesq Member Posts: 319
    edited December 2012

    Merry Christmas to all!

    Question:  How many of you have had follow up scans (CT/Pet etc) after getting mastectomies or finishing the chemo portion of treatment?

    I am stage one, and when I told my MO that I wanted a Pet scan to rule out cancer in any other parts of my body (the only "scan" I got was a MRI of the breast area, which doesn't exist anymore, having had a bmx over the summer) I was told that they didn't routinely do any scans, unless there are symptoms which warrant it.

    I am thinking I still want one, if only for peace of mind.

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  • Hopex3
    Hopex3 Member Posts: 397
    edited December 2012

    Cqesq: my onc won't do anything except an MRI before my surgery. I think that seems to be a general rule with all of them. If you don't have any symptons, or you had negative lymph nodes, they don't feel it's necessary to do anymore tests. I don't think insurance would cover it either. A part of me wants a petscan but then another part says no. Even if I had a petscan, three months after, I would still be worrying over every ache I felt. I'm such a worrier.

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  • PatinMN
    PatinMN Member Posts: 920
    edited December 2012

    Cgesq, ditto for me, although I had a lumpectomy. I had an MRI of both breasts before surgery. The onc also told me they don't routinely do any scans or blood tests - they just assume the chemo did its job. I will be getting two CT scans of the upper body in conjunction with the set-up for radiation.

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  • Joemommy
    Joemommy Member Posts: 31
    edited December 2012

    Merry Christmas all! I'm curious why we all get different things. I guess it depends on the doctor/facility. I never received any scans, besides the muga one for my heart. Before the lumpectomy I only received a mammograms and ultrasounds on the breast. Never a PET or MRI. Maybe insurance doesn't want to cover it. Also never a neulasta (?) shot. I'm thinking it is what insurance wants to cover. Makes me a bit nervous!

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  • Mariposa123
    Mariposa123 Member Posts: 267
    edited December 2012

    Hi all,

      I had one positive node- which might have made the difference.  I had the mammogram, ultrasound, MRI on both breasts, and the CT/PET scan.  I am supposed to get another mammogram and MRI prior to surgery.   The CT scan was so scary for me.  Luckily, everything was fine - but I remember being very anxious about it. 

    I hope everyone is having a lovely day.  I can't seem to muster the strenght to clean the living room of the toy explosion- but I am sure I will get to it at some point.

    Feeling pretty yucky.  Neuropathy pains everywhere- tingling in feet, hands, fingers, and toes... exhausted, and feel like I am on the verge of throwing up.  But trying to have a nice Christmas in spite of it all.

     



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  • jojo2373
    jojo2373 Member Posts: 662
    edited December 2012

    I had MRI and ultrasound before chemo and will have MRI tomorrow for pre-surgery evaluation. I also had Pet/CT at diagnosis cause I requested. It is what showed my positive nodes. My MO did tell me I will not have any future scans though unless I have symptoms. I am not happy about that. She did say the more post chemo radiation you are exposed to, the greater chance of leukemia.



    The thought of waiting for symptoms of mets scares me!

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  • Foreverchanged72612
    Foreverchanged72612 Member Posts: 223
    edited December 2012

    Jojo: I saw a question you posted previously about hearing...I have noticed that since I started FEC that there is a constant ringing in my ears and general "fuzziness" with my hearing. I wondered if that was an SE of FEC??

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  • PatinMN
    PatinMN Member Posts: 920
    edited December 2012

    18 days PFC and I have a numb big toe...ugh. I thought I had escaped neuropathy from taxol, but I started noticing the numbness a few days ago. Of course I'm visiting family in Illinois and didn't bring my B6 and glutamine powder with me. One of the chemo nurses told me I should continue with the glutamine for a few weeks after chemo, but I had no problems at the time so didn't do that. Stupid me.



    Good luck to those of you having surgery in the new year.

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  • Amy4978
    Amy4978 Member Posts: 473
    edited December 2012

    Heading to bed since I have chemo in the morning and I went to pull my steroids out cause I have to take them during the night I do this for easy access.... But I realized I never filled the script so I have none to take! Hmmm wonder what happens when I dont take them.... Talk about chemo brain! Guess I will just go to bed and see what my onc nurse has to say...

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  • cgesq
    cgesq Member Posts: 319
    edited December 2012

    Amy, I don't think it should be a problem. I take my oral steriods the day before the infusion and the day after.  The day of, they give me the steriods as part of the infusion.

    Just drink alot before you go to the infusion.  That should make your port or vein easy to access.  

    Good luck today.

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  • allurbaddayswillend
    allurbaddayswillend Member Posts: 355
    edited December 2012

    joemommy, I got an ultrasound workover on my boobs and armpits the day of the mammogram that I had back in end of March. The radiologist did a US guided biopsy then too. Then I got an MRI after the biopsy results were back. I haven't had any further scans. I will have one soon after I'm done with radiation I think and then every 6 months after that for 5 years I will have either a mammo or an MRI alternating. If I switch insurance in there anywhere, I expect that might change... Undecided

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  • Joemommy
    Joemommy Member Posts: 31
    edited December 2012

    I'm terrified to get an MRI but I still would get one if it might reveal any other cancer lurking. Hmmm. I will ask my oncologist when I see him in eight weeks. I will only see him every third herceptin now.



    On another note, my son gave me pink eye for Christmas! Oh joy. I thought I had avoided it but apparently having a suppressed immune system didn't help. Ugh. :(

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  • Amy4978
    Amy4978 Member Posts: 473
    edited December 2012

    Cqesq... Nurse called Im good to go! Steroids will be sent thru my IV...



    As far as scans Ive had a petscan and an mri I was also told afterwards no other scans unless some sort of symptom shows up.. However since breasts are so dense I will get an mri every year instead of a mammo...



    Off to chemo ladies enjoy your day... only 3 left after today!

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  • jojo2373
    jojo2373 Member Posts: 662
    edited December 2012

    Forever I am going to research the fuzzy hearing as a SE and see.



    Just finished my MRI. Thank goodness for leftover Ativan! That tube freaks me out, but on a lighter note my hair wasn't messed up! BS appt later today

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  • Terri07-11
    Terri07-11 Member Posts: 32
    edited December 2012

    Merry Christmas to all!



    cgesq, I am thinking of you today & all that are having a treatment. Wish all are well!

    I am very apprehensive about the side effects that will be coming. Treatment #5 gave me a bunch of new side effects; rash, eye watering, rigids on my nails, bad taste in mouth for 2 weeks instead of one & the fatigue started within 2 days instead of five.

    I asked the doctor if I would live thru the last treatment & she laughed and said I would. She said she wanted to be honest with me and that the side effects would most probably be accumalative but I really wish I would have heard something different!

    I'm an hour into my treatment and then I'm off for the 60% off of Christmas items. That will make me feel better.

    Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season. I get a lot of my strength from you all. Thank you.

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  • wendy49
    wendy49 Member Posts: 45
    edited December 2012

    Jojo, the hearing loss and ringing in ears is due to the taxol affecting the inner ear or auditory nerve. My MO stopped my tx early because of ringing in the ear. I went to have a hearing test one week after last chemo and taxol hits the high frequency hearing, thus ringing. I have mild to moderate high frequency hearing loss in one ear. Sometimes it resolves other times permanent. I'm going in two days to U of M for all these sophisticated balance and hearing tests to find out what nerve was affected in my inner ear because the ringing is making me crazy! I was never warned of this SE. I hope this helps knowing that you are not going crazy! Ugh for MRI too!

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  • fight4two
    fight4two Member Posts: 146
    edited December 2012

    Feeling like a pin cushion.  Ended up not taking that very strong antibiotic cuz my MO said it was precautionary and that I only had a 1/10 chance for infection. My 1.9 WBC was last Tuesday, so I went on Friday to get another blood test and my WBC was 32!!  Got a breast MRI today on both breasts (since we've never looked to see if there is anything other than the lump I found, fingers crossed that there's nothing else lurking!) and the IV hurt. And I still have a bruise from my Friday blood test on my other arm.  Now I just got a call from my MO office saying that I need another blood test right now because they think my numbers are inflated and they don't know if they will give me chemo tomorrow unless I come in for another blood test.  I'm sad because I'm running out of veins to poke and they are actually starting to hurt when poked now.  Now I need a poke for today's blood test, and hopefully a poke tomorrow for my tx!  My veins just wanted to vent. Thanks for listening!

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