Lupron with dense dose ACx4 with taxol to follow

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    Thank you! Everyone has been so helpful. I just took an Ativan, but still feeling so anxious.

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  • hopefour
    hopefour Member Posts: 459
    edited April 2013

    Just checking in on you...sorry to hear you are so anxious, but hopefully you find it all more doable than you fear. I also changed my make to those with out the parabens. I used frozen grapes instead of ice chips for my mouth. I froze them at home and brought them with me. If I had to wait for treatment I would ask the  clinic to put them in the freezer till I needed them. I bought Gin-Gins off of amazon to cut the metal mouth and help settle my stomach. I would look into Emend as meds to help with the nausea...and agree to be pro active with taking them.

    I bought a wig before I lost my hair. Understand your little girl wanting her mom to wear a wig. Each make their own decision as to handle hair loss. Due to a lot of sorrow and trama in my family prior to my dx I desired to keep as close to normal as possible. I wore a wig that most looked like me. My children never saw me bald...that is how I wanted it for them, but each has to decided for themselves.

    Sadly life brings us sorrow and brokeness regardless if you think we can handle it. I had learned that before my dx. There were times I truly didn't think I could handle anymore, but you really have no choice but to keep moving forward and with each step comes grace. I did numb myself at times to keep going, but than there is the end...you'll get there.

    Three months after treatment was Mother's Day and my son( who is my youngest and saw me each day) wrote me a precious letter that made me realise how closely he was watching me through treatment. I won't share it all, but he wrote how sad he was watching me suffer, that he has never seen a human suffer like he watched his mom going through treatment, but that I showed him how to have dignity and strength in sorrow and suffering while never showing self pity ( lots of self pity in the shower). Please know I don't share this a praise to myself, but rather to remind you that you will be teaching your kids as you walk this journey through treatment. I really never thought of it until I read my son's letter. The real praise is for our stage 4 sisters who live with such dignity and courage each day!

    I will thinking of you tomorrow and trusting that you'll have the grace and strength to get through it...you will!! Let us all know how you do!

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    Thank you, Hopefour. Your son sounds like a good and sometimes rarely empathetic young man. You must be a good mom.

    Goodnight, ladies.

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  • hopefour
    hopefour Member Posts: 459
    edited April 2013

    Hope treatment wasn't to hard yesterday...was thinking of you! I think many moms who go through cancer treatment try to protect their children ( especially those with young children) from witnessing the worst of it....sometimes the hardest part of cancer is seeing the fear it brings to your children's faces!



    Remember to drink lots of water to flush the chemo, that you've got one chemo done and you will make it one day at a time!

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    Things went really well. I get Neulasta today and took my Claritin this am. Is it true that I will prob start to feel awful tomorrow? Yes, I know everyone is different. So far, I am doing fine, but nervous about what's to come. Drinking water constantly. Staying on top of meds. Woke up in cold sweat, drenched and left eye was hard to open at around 3am last night. I panicked a little and made husband help me to bathroom. Changed clothes, took an Ativan and woke up feeling fine.

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    Oh, I did cry a lot as they accessed my port. Was terrified and sad. It got better and we had fun. I used ice and Popsicles with the mouth. I am apparently a strange and rare case, so lots of sweet and cute med students want to ask me questions and give me attention.

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 7,859
    edited April 2013

    LK, yeah on making it through your first chemo. Way to go! I cried too the first time, because  of the scary weirdness of it all.

    You won't necessarily feel awful. The first couple of times I did get really tired the first days, but that was about it. 

    Which poison are they giving you? AC?

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    Yes, AC x 4 dense dose. Taxol after. Had neulasta today and I did take the Claritin, but am still just waiting for the intense agony....

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 7,859
    edited April 2013

    LK, What agony? I never had any from the neulasta. A few times my hip bones got a bit sore for a day or so, no biggie. 

    When they put me on taxotere, I did get some nasty inflammation one time, which was like the body aches from a flu, just worse, and went on for days. When I told the oncs next time I came for chemo, they scolded me for not having called when it was going on. Apparently I should have taken some ibuprofen or similar. If I had discussed with them, they might also have given me some steroids or something. It had not occurred to me to take anything.

    But that was the only time really that I had bad stuff happen that lasted more than a few hours. There was lots of discomfort and tiredness etc, but not much agony.

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    Thank you, Momine. I think I love you. I have read some horror stories. That's the thing about bc.org....I get so much good from it, but it also scares me a lot sometimes. Another question....when I went in for first A/C..I had a slightly elevated WBC. I also had a low grade fever. I believe it was a stress response and my daughter was sick and we had snuggled to sleep night before she came down with it...BUT my WBC count has been slightly elevated before with no clear cut reason. Could it happen from stress? TE fill day before? I guess I'm wondering if it's from the stupid cancer. :(

    I straight out asked my onc about recurrance for me stats...

    She said 15-25% it's just gone after surgery.

    Chemo adds a good percentage for me, but hormonals are my big guns bringing me down to around 85%

    Adding diet and exercise even better.....etc.

    I want to feel good about this.

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  • wildrumara
    wildrumara Member Posts: 450
    edited April 2013

    Everyone is different, that's for sure.  For me, my first Neulasta injection was pretty tough.  I remember feeling like my bones were on fire.....especially in my pelvis.  That was before I knew about Claritin.   It felt like early labor for a few hours!   From that point on, I always took the Claritin and had very minimal symptoms. 

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  • Natlie38
    Natlie38 Member Posts: 39
    edited April 2013

    Lk, I continued to have low grade fever all thru my treatment. It always ranged from 99 to 99.6. Nobody had any answers for that. Now after 10 months I finally show 98.3 to 98.6 types. I am always alert after the nurses take my temp and I finally get a relief when they say the 98 number. 

    Every doctor, nurse would give me a new explanation. "Maybe this is your normal", "99 is not a fever, we only consider 100 plus to be a fever", "Maybe chemo is causing this", "Maybe you are coming down with a flu", "I wouldn't be worried about it" etc. But it always caused me some degree of anxiety. And I knew my "normal" was not 99 and above. 

    Anyway after 10 months of treatment I can say I am back to normal. So I am not sure what it is, maybe it is the cancer after all as some of the websites say!

    Not sure of the WBC concern you have!

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    Thank you everyone for such helpful contributions.

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  • hopefour
    hopefour Member Posts: 459
    edited April 2013

    Sounds like your first round of chemo went well..Yeah...and Yeah for all the fun attention!! I too cried as the disbelief that it all is really happening to you became overwhelming for me. My clinic is not very well organized, sounds like yours is and that should bring you comfort too. Yes, I remember the crusty eye stuff, I assumed it was from the chemo and after I had my last chemo( waited two weeks) I started to detox because I was tired of the crusty eye thing. The first day after chemo was a good day for me, it was the 2nd-5th that I was tired, heart pounding when I did to much, no desire to eat and such, but than it would get better.

    The stats MD Anderson gave to me was that for my cancer chemo gave 17% and hormone blockers gave 22% in helping prevent recurrance....than as you said add surgery and life style change which all added up to hopefully keeping us healthy!!

    Keep walking, drinking and loving your sweet kids...you'll get to the other side of this all and life will go on!!

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  • LKSHER
    LKSHER Member Posts: 209
    edited April 2013

    So, I got the lupron shot yesterday. Also, found out my Ki-67. It was quite high at 40. Scares me a lot.

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  • hopefour
    hopefour Member Posts: 459
    edited April 2013

    Sorry about the new fear. I am not sure how the Ki-67 plays into stats, but I think it means it responds better to chemo the higher it is...but there are a lot smarter ladies here than me so maybe they'll share. 

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