CMF Question

Hope all you gals who had treatments this week are on the upslide and doing well.  Fatigue is a definite side-effect of chemo; sleeplessness can be caused by the steroids they give us for nausea.  So sometimes it is hard to know how to handle things.

Hugs

Mandy

Hi, I finished chemo in January but now have sores in my nose. Did anyone else experience this? I know the MO said you could still get side effects months later, but I really thought I had all that crap behind me. I only got a few mouth sores during the chemo so this was an unpleasant surprize.

I hope everyone is doing fine and congrats on the ones who are at the finish line.

Robin,  The Claritin D won't hurt you so I would go ahead and take it.  One thing that I learned from my journey is that it is always much easier to ward off a side effect if possible rather than try to get rid of it once it rears its ugly head.  I took compazine for nausea and I always took it as directed for 3 days after a treatment.  It seemed to keep the nausea away but if I took the compazine once the nausea appeared, it took quite a while to get rid of the nausea.

Robin,  So glad to hear that your second round went much better.  All of our bodies are different and react differently to the treatments.  We learn by trial and error what works for us and ways to get around the side effects.  Keep us updated on how it's going for you.

I made 91 pies for a benefit for a man who has brain cancer. I am tired now. This is about 2/3's of them.

Going to get my kinky hair colored today. Not complaining though. It beats that dam wig. My eyelashes seem to be going through another round of falling out. It's been 4 months PFC. I hope this stops soon.

Hi everyone, my second treatment definitely went better than my first. But now I"m on the nupogen shots. Which entails more trips to the doctor for more shots, but not really many side effects. So I'll take it. I had an appt with my oncologist to see how i was doing. We rearranged some of my medicines cause i've been feeling like a maniac. But I have to say..while this is not fun, this second treatment has been at least doable.  I'm actually back to teaching some zumba classes. :-)  Not as many as I used too, but this week I taught 2. I'm going to keep it to that. My doctor is all for it as long as I feel well. And where I teach they know my situation, so if i don't feel good I get a sub. If I feel good..it's all systems go. Last night was the first night back at the YMCA where I've been teaching for 2 years. It felt so good to see everyone and feel normal. I definitely don't have the stamina...but I got through it and I have to say. Not only did I feel good after...but I slept really well...:-)  Hope everyone is doing ok. we are snowed in here in ct. which is good cause it's forcing me to rest! :-)

Robin

Hope everyone is well!!



I had my 2nd round last Thursday. I'm still in bed. I was off yesterday, thank God because my left leg was twitching, aching, kind of electrical tingling all up & down my leg. It got better yesterday pm. Seeing my onco Tues.



Other than that weirdness. It really is doable. This a.m I noticed a more of hair coming out. Urgh!!

Packy, sorry that you're feeling poorly. I am not an expert on this, but it would seem that it's 8 months since your CMF, and probably 6 months since your rads...I don't know but it seems a long time for the diarrhea to have just started. Two things come to mind--you have just finished your reconstruction--is there some medication that you might have taken then that can cause the upset stomach.  As well,   I just googled "femara" and diahrrea can be a side effect of that. Many of the AI side effects appear as you continue to take the AI.  So call your doctor and see what they suggest to give you relief....hope you soon feel better!!!

It's almost one year since I finished Cmf and I've been on an AI since then.  No rads.

The chemo left me with several things.  A bladder that is just insane.  I never know if I can hold it.  When I have to go, I have to GO NOW!

Then I have strange pains, neuropathy I would guess.  Hands, toes, every now and then, unexpectedly, pain!

Fatigue has not gone away.

Foggy brain is there.

no short term memory.

eyesight worse.

but lately, my stomach hurts.  not terribly but it's something new.  it does feel similar to the feeling i had after an infusion.  I feel full even though I'm not and the stomach aches.

I just hope time heals.

Packy- when I had my bmx they gave me an anti-biotic that said right on it that it could cause diarrhea several weeks or even months after you stop taking it. Sure enough it did while I was out at the pond fishing with my youngest one. Not really good timing. It came on all at once too. They put me on it again for a sinus infection during chemo and had to take me off it because I got so weak from the diarrhea. Hope you start to feel better.

Hi gals, I'm new for this thread and like to have some advices. My onco gives me the options for chemo treatments of either 4 AC (TC) or 8 CMF. The reason I have to do the chemo is because the size of tumor is big ( total size is 8.6 cm, invasive is 4.1 cm), clear nodes. She explains to me that AC has server SE with less time time consuming and CMF has less server SE but longer time consumed. By looking at this board, most of did the AC (TC) vs CMF. Personally, I rather to be cured at first place. Can any one give me some advices? Appreciated!!

Cherish,

I hate that you have to be in the position to have to make this decision. Cancer is horrid. I chosed CMF because it allows me to work full time. I'm a single working parent and I'm not sure how I would have been able to deal with a more abrasive chemo. CMF has been challenging because it does have side effects, but thank God I have a lot of leave at work. I usually take about 2 days after treatment. I have 8 treatments (3 weeks apart) So I do get a decent amount of "feeling normal" time before the next treatment. I have 6 more treatments left. It seems like forever, but my job is so erratic and at one point was on a laying off spree that I really couldn't risk taking a lot of time off.  It's hard to advise someone else because each situation is different. So for me the CMF might be longer, but because of what's going on in my life it's easier to manage work and deal with the lesser SE alone

Ann

Diana, do you understand why with such a low onco score you had so many positive nodes?  I thought the low onco was an indication that it would not spread.  And you only had a tumor of 1 cm?  Grade 2.  Were you given any explanation?

Cherish, isn't it odd that we get to make all of these choices when we don't know very much?  I found this the most anxiety producing part of the whole ordeal.  Sloan was the only place that told me to have CMF.  They suggested a dense dose, every 2 week infusion although the research has not been conclusive yet.  They were extrapolating from other dense dose treatments that have worked well.  But I still went with the 3 week schedule.

I think the "A", if it's adriamycin, is hard on the heart.  No one suggested that for me.  I think if you have any other risk factors for heart disease, they will stay away from that.  As it is the F in CMF rarely causes heart problems.

I had a steroidal reaction when given the steroids intravenously.  It passed in a few hours but because of it I had to have a stress test and a holter monitor.  Both were fine so it wasn't a reaction to the F.  Just the steroids.  At Sloan they give the steroids in pill form and I never had a bad reaction.  

Today is one year since my last infusion.  I've been told that things will improve a lot now.  Sure hope so.

You will truly be amazed by how quickly the time passes.  The worst part is the beginning, the decision making.

But soon enough it becomes a bad memory, thank Gd!!!!

So the cancer wasn't that aggressive but it was there a long time?

Oh this is a sneaky disease!

I got many opinions and they all said chemo would be pointless.  Except for Sloan.  The dr there, the head of clinical oncology, was more conservative and did not put all her faith in the onco score and the AI's.  She said these are new tests and treatment and we won't know for sure for decades.  CMF has been around for decades and since my tumor was over 2 cm, she said "she'd sleep better at night" if i had CMF.  As it turned out I have had a lot of trouble with the AI's and the last visit she said "at least you had chemo".  I think none of these decisions are 100%  My tumor was 90% estrogen receptor but that leaves 10%, right?  My onco score was 14, which is considered low risk, but that still leaves 14% chance of reccurrence (without AI's) within 5 years.  I asked an onco if the AI's starve the tumor why is there still a percentage of recurrence?  None of this is 100% and why not do whatever you can?  OTH, side effects are no fun. 

Good luck everyone!

I hear you Diana!  There are so many things going on at once that i can't say for sure what is causing what.

There are good days and bad days.  So far, Aromasin seems to be the one I tolerate best.