Starting Chemo June 2013!?!?!

Hi all! Welcome Mazie!



Annika - I have the opposite problem - my eyes are constantly watering and weepy. They're so sore from wiping them. Have you tries drops to help with the dry eyes?



Alibeths - I start Taxol in two weeks. How about you?



Just had AC #4 today! So happy to be done with that part. Now onto weekly Taxol.



Hope everyone is doing well

Kati and rachel you can do it - congrats on finishing AC!



Taxol was a lot easier for me so far. I had my 3rd dd infusion today. I had some muscle and joint pain after Taxol #1 but almost nothing after #2. I was high on steroids the day after and tired on the two following days. NO nausea at all! I had som pulsating tingling for some days in my right foot but that's gone again - took some l-glutamine and vitamin B. I took a zofran pill 1h before Taxol and got pepcid and steroids via iv just before the infusion starts. I still have to do neupogen shots althoug reduced from 7 (during ac) to 4.

2 more weeks then I am done

Hi everyone-

Been busy this weekend and for some reason my email notifications aren't working from here. I'm feeling pretty decent today, been working all week. Still getting random headaches, but take Ibuprofen and usually that's all it takes. Also taking my Claritin religiously and haven't had anymore bone pain. Got my EOB from my Neulasta shot - $11k for 1 shot. Insanity. Thank God I'm 100% covered now! Go in Thursday for Round 2 AC. Hoping the headaches aren't so severe this time. Good luck ladies - and praying for no SE's!

Round 4 is in! Good ridance to AC!! Feeling like crap right now, headache and nausea. I just took compazine and anexia. Hoping to feel better. Going in for Neulasta (mines $24,000 is that a racket??) And fluids tomorrow. Onc says the Taxol has its own issues ; higher tisk of infection and/or allergic reaction but! Less nausea. Yay! And bye-bye to what little peach fuzz I have left. He says it will slow me down some more. He says 16 weeks of chemo + 6 weeks of rads means you owe your body 22 weeks of recovery. I just want it behind me. I'm frustrated cuz last time Alaska had a summer this nice I was pregnant and had "kankles". My friends and neighbors have been awesome tho, helping out and bringing food.

Good luck everybody. I'll plowing furrows in the dirt with my nose for the next couple days.

Day 13. Didn't even make it to my 2nd treatment and my hair is falling out and shedding everywhere. Ugh! AC #2 tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Kati, so glad you made it through AC. Everyone I've talked to says Taxol is way easier. Friend of mine is an oncology nurse. She says her patients are downright happy to be done with AC and Taxol is a breeze in comparison. Hope it is true!!

Take Biotin for hair and nails

Wow the price for the Neulsta shot is outrageous.  I got my shot from my drug company delivered to my home. I gave myself the injection.  The cost of the injection was $4,107 luckily it only cost me $38.   I do not understand why some places charge such a rediculous fee to administer the drug.  I wonder if insurance marks it down to the real cost when they pay the bill. 

Ocean,

That's good news. Take Claritin24 in a day or so after your antihistimines wear off. I swear by the stuff! I have no bone pain from Neulasta as long as I take 1 a day. I made the mistake of going off of it and within 18 hrs I was hobbling like an 80 year old woman with arthritis. Anyway, if it hits you, try the Claritin. It's my new best friend during AC.

Kati, yes L-Glutamine is an amino acid - I bought it at the local Vitamin Shoppe. There is indication that it helps with peripheral neuropathy during cancer treatment: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11350883

Mine was $11,900 and BCBS paid 5600 of it. The rest is dropped as a preferred provider. American health insurance is a racket. Big pharma charges exorbitant prices because most people are covered by insurance so they figure they can get away with it. My mastectomy was billed out at over $100,000. Fortunately my out of pocket cap is $5000. So everything for the rest of the year is covered at 100% so long as I use preferred providers.

Hello ladies so I was so ill the onc and Np both decided I would move on to taxol as I would not do it again I researched and found sometimes less chemo is better than to much. I had 1 taxol and it's so easy compared to AC. Can someone please help with the lashes and eye brows my eyes tear so much and the lashes and brows are fulling out. Western medicine and good food matters. I remember reading about Brian Jo dose it really work and id it to late now since there shedding already. Hope everyone has a good weekend. Ttys. Be careful with vitamins as some can block the effects of chemo ask Dr first

This is a weird little story but hopefully some can relate.  I haven't posted in awhile, but had round 3 TCH on Monday and have been feeling crummy all week.  Today, my husband and I decided we would take our kids to the GA Aquarium so they could have some fun and we could try to do something normal together.  I made it through with the help of sitting down for a few minutes everywhere I could and took advantage of the beautiful large gallery where you can sit in the dark for awhile and watch the fish swim by.  The whole time, though, I was very self concious about my lack of hair (I am wearing scarves) and feeling like everyone was looking at me some way or another:  with sadness, a little nervousness, that pitiful smile...  Bottom line is that I really felt that I stood out.  

As we went to leave, we had to walk all the way around the building to get to the parking lot. I was really tired by the time we got there and needed to sit down.  (you know... heart pounding, can't quite catch breath, feel a little feverish) While my daughter and husband went to get the car out of the parking garage, my 10 year old son and I walked in to the "Ocean's Ballroom" entrance, which is a separate entrance to the Aquarium located INSIDE the parking garage.  There are some double glass doors with a desk inside, and two vinyl benches.  My son and I went in and sat down on the bench awaiting my husband pulling up with the car.  Almost immediately, a GA Aquarium employee came up to us and asked, "Can I help you, Ma'am?"  I responded, "No thanks, we are just waiting for our car."  Thinking that would be the end of it.  I was quite shocked to hear him then say, "Well, this is a private function ma'am", and then correct himself, "this is a private area".  Now- let me again set the scene-  any private partying going on was INSIDE the aquarium BEHIND the desk and the meager benches in the vestibule.  I replied, quizzically, "this is a private area?  So...  I can't sit here?"  Then, sarcastcally, thinking he would come to his senses, "I guess I will just go outside in the parking garage and sit on the floor then?"  And his response?  "Yes, thank you."

Two lessons learned here:  1-  Just because you think the world is looking at you with your bald head or your scarf or wig or whatever, they may not even notice or care.  

2- Just because you have cancer and expect people to be slightly more nice to you doesn't mean they will.

and 

3-  Some people are assholes

LOL....sorry about your experiance,but the story was good..and i know how you feel.Went to walmart with my husband yesterday,and was so tired i had to sit down,while he went through the line.I had on my baseball hat,and nobody would sit down beside me.The last comment was the best...#3....lol

Hi Judieheyjude,

I'm 59 and also on TCH, visiting over from the May group. As for food, it seems to change somewhat. The first three treatments I had my go to food was watermelon. Tasted great, full of water. After the 4th chemo, it torn my stomach up! Doc said it was from the high fiber. The GI tract slows way down with chemo and can't handle the fiber as well. As for things still tasting good...not much luck there. I used to juice every morning...mainly green veges with some fruit. Loved the taste! Now in chemo, the juice litererally tastes like sewage - so I've put the juicer away until after I finish all my rounds. Even plain water has a "soapy" taste to me after chemo. Fortunately, the taste buds come back after a week or so and are good until the next infusion as you have probably experienced. The things I'm eating now that taste ok are olives, potatoes, rice, yogurt, and every morning I fry or hard boil an egg and eat it on toast....tastes wonderful every time and is good protein. 

I just had TCH #5 last Thursday and am doing pretty well except for the chemo fog and fatigue. I also started bruising a little - doc said it was from lower platelet counts. When I asked if there was anything I could do to up the count he said no....just tough it out til the last treatment and things will return to normal then. Sigh! But luckily I only have 2.5 weeks until #6 and then I get to ring that darn bell. Yea!

Netter, did A/C chemo instead so I don't know if it would be the same for you.

My eyebrows didn't start to thin and my eyelashes didn't fall out until about 3 weeks after my very last chemo.  The brows were no problem, just filling in the thin spots with eyebrow pencil looked natural.  As for the eyelashes, I lost them, but a bit of pencil/crayon-type eyeliner applied to the upper and lower lids and then smudged a bit effectively mimicked real lashes.  They did grow back and then fell out again and regrew, after which they stayed.

By putting aside my contact lenses and wearing my regular glasses, you couldn't tell I didn't have eyelashes to begin with.  A great disguise.