Starting Chemo July 2013

Hannariggs, I love the story about your dog. I needed that.

Hello everyone ! Havent been here in a while , struggling with round #2'and the loss of my mom . I miss her terribly

Wishing u all health n se free txs . {{{{{hugs}}}}}, to All of you

Momx2, so glad to hear from you. I know that we can't imagine what you're going through but you have a lot of people supporting you from afar. I hope your side effects pass quickly. It must be so hard to be physically sick and mourning at the same time. Hope you have family and friends around you to help. Hang in there.

Hi All,



2nd chemo today, I was so drowsy. Got hom around 3pm, had early dinner and nap around 4pm, didn't wake up till 7:30pm. I didn't get to exercise today :-(, . SE didn't effect me yet, usually hit me 2 days later. Will get my neulesta shot tomorrow at 11am, claritin here I come. Friday morning my nurse told me to go in for IV fliuds, since I had nausea pretty bad on 1st cycle, so I hope this will help me with my nasusea.

I shaved my head even before starting to fall out, I was afraid I mite get freak out if I see my beautifull hair fall out in clum. So far I noticed some of my hair fell off here n there but no bald spot yet.



Hannarig, I love your dog story, cracked me up, thanks for the laughs.



MomX2, I can't even imagined what you're going thru right now. Please take care of yourself. Be strong!!!



Hugsss to All!!!

Hi Ladies,

Sorry I haven't been here for a while. I've had a cold that turned into bronchitis and let's just say I couldn't cough without peeing my pants. TMI I'm sure but very annoying! Went to see Primary Doc last week and got an antibiotic and an inhaler. Was feeling so good this past week I have cleaned house, went through a box of photos that I've had laying around and got them into photo albums where they belong. If you knew me you would know I don't just stick a picture in a photo album, I write down occasion, person in photo, date it was taken, etc...I had those old albums where you opened the plastic page and stuck the photo to the white board and closed the clear page, remember those anyone? lol well my updated photo albums have clear plastic photo pages that you just insert picture into and come in different sizes and are easy to take out. So this has what has been keeping my attention lately.

I was just reading about everyone and what they are dealing with in their lives. I send Big Giant Hugs to all of you Ladies!! Hope you are feeling better soon and staying tough to get through the next round of chemo. To the ones losing hair, I have lost mine as of last week, I have some really dark fuzz coming in but figuring in the next couple weeks it too will fall out as my 2nd round of chemo is tomorrow.

If you don't know me I am a Type 1 diabetic and have started my steroids yesterday (Wednesday)...Needless to say blood sugars are over the moon!! Keeping blood sugar watch consistently and because at 2:39 a.m. central time zone my blood sugar was 350 after changing my infusion set in my insulin pump I can't sleep I have also noticed the steroid is giving me major heartburn, I thought this was a side effect from my first chemo treatment July 18th, I believe now it is the steroid as I haven't had my chemo yet but will in 7 hours or so. I have my tums handy and if they don't help Maalox or Pepto is on my shopping list after chemo treatment today if I am feeling up to it.

Primary Doc says first treatment was nice to me and to be ready to be knocked on my butt with the second one...I hope to prove him wrong. He doesn't know how strong I am and even at my lowest I will not crawl. Just me, just the genes given to me.

Anywho just wanted to check in Ladies and have missed you all. Hope to be here more often in the next couple weeks while laying down resting lol. Heal On Ladies, Heal On!! xoxoxo

Hi All,HVV my onco has me taking otc prilosec,its expensive(16$)but totoally worth it,he has me take 1 a day for one week after chemo infusion.Hannariggs,I got the severe headache immediatly after round#3 too,its still terrible today,this didnt happen right away after first rounds,its keeping me up at night.Ive made an appt with my eye doc ,my onco said the type of chemo we r on can cause pressure behind the eyes.Hope its not that.Momx2,it must be awful missing ur Mom and having to go through this.Hope u have nice friends like Sheila to help u through.And Sheila when i read about ur omellette i got such a craving for one,thanks for helping boost my weight up!Hugs and love to all us fighting this fight,Angela

Honeybunny I think your head will get a little better after it sheds more.  No great advice except I found the irritation to be improved by washing it every day rather than waiting two days. 

I wondered if my dog would recognize me after the shave but he didn't even seem to notice.  Maybe he can't see as much with the curly hair in his face. 

Realitycheck, such a good task to get done, the photo albums.  I have cleaned and re-arranged my bathroom drawers but that's as far as I got. 

Hugs to everyone.  Triple hugs to Momx2.   

Every day I look forward to getting home and turning on the computer to hear how you're all doing! It's like we're on a giant seesaw - some up, some down, then it all changes.



Rambo, I'm so glad that your new job is going well and no bone pain is a great plus.



HoneyBunny, I've had lots of positive remarks about my scarves this week too. It does make it kind of fun. I'm doing the same thing with earrings - buying the dangly ones I never wore before. The shock is when I take my scarf off and see another giant bald spot!



Mellie, I think a lot of us have been surprised at how difficult the hair loss has been. I don't think it means we're vain or self-absorbed, but it is such a low blow. Like, come on, isn't the rest of it bad enough but we have to lose our "crowning glory" too?! And some days I don't know if I can answer one more "How are you doing?" Does that sound ungrateful? I don't mean to be but I am sick of thinking about myself so much! How long until normal returns?



I am so exhausted from working so hard the last week. So much to do before the first day of school, even with friends to help. I'm getting worried that I will be going into round 2 on Monday already drained. I'm going to try to rest up this weekend. Thinking of all of you wherever you are on the chemo seesaw.

Marsha, watch out for the sun! Chemo makes us more prone to burn quicker (at least that's what my MO told me)



Glad you are feeling better this time around.

Call for magic mouthwash if you need it.



Pat

Greetings to All You Sexy, Beautiful, Wonderful, Gifts to the World!

Update from me: Had my 2nd round of chemo yesterday. 2 changes made for possible recurring side effects. Prilosec OTC for the acid reflux like some of you have received. Took some when I got home yesterday as the steroid was really causing it to flare up. It worked! I ate dinner with no acid reflux!! Yayyyy, Second change was eating ice cubes during chemo infusion for both the taxotere and the cytoxan for the mouth sore situation. I am truly hoping this works. Onc said eating the ice would cause blood vessels to constrict in mouth and chemo couldn't invade so easily to do damage. Keeping fingers crossed as that one seemed to be the worst and most painful for me. Go for my Neulasta shot at 11 a.m. I had no effects from the last one and nurse said my counts were good so that may have done the trick and my counts were excellent according to my Oncologist yesterday after my first round of chemo so hoping no side effects this time either as far as bone or hip pain.

Got another new wig and lol gotta be honest, have never been a blonde or a redhead and I'm experimenting now! I have two and one is human hair the other is synthetic. Going today to have them styled at my hair dressers. I'm still liking the headscarves, head turbans and my little ole yellow fishing hat the most. These don't make my head sweat during this heat.

It's only been a few hours since my 2nd chemo treatment but I truly have faith it won't be as my primary doctor has said and kick me to the curb this time. I just don't foresee that knowing who I am and what I can accomplish when I pray and have positive thoughts.

Hugs to all and I hope Mellie you are feeling better about losing your hair soon. Yes it's a very important part of being you but remember after chemo it will grow back and maybe better than before!

I am so very glad to see most of you are doing things, planning things, having an upside to all of this that you are going through. Just remember it won't last forever and then we truly can get on with our lives! Heal On ladies, Heal On!! xoxoxoxo

Lark thanks for the story I laughed so hard.

Nocompromises  love the idea of being compared to survivor....Out wit, Out last, and Out play the "c" word!

Realitycheck love your faith!

Angel-I am day 3 of Round 3 and feels like round 3 of a boxing match !  Thank goodness I don't have the nausea(thanks to the drugs), but the analagy of "getting hit by a truck" pretty much sums it up.  

Mellie-I think we all have days we want to quit, but we have committed to kicking Cancer in the ass.  Just keep looking toward that finishline.  I keep a journal, and mark each day off on the calendar.  I don't care for winters here in the midwest, but can't wait for the snow to fly. 

Lark-loved the story.......especially since I run an animal control agency and we may get a call like that.  Will have to warn my officers, as it may be my car next. lol.

While waiting for my neulasta shot in the waiting room yesterday, I spoke with a woman who was coming in for her consultation of her breast cancer that had returned after 3 years.  Long story short, she chose NOT to receive chemo the first time. Her diagnosis was alot like mine, so made me feel better about my decision.  There are many of us who use every excuse we can not to receive treatment(I know I did at first-maybe it was denial), but even now as I lay here feeling lowsy, I know it was the right thing to do. There are many of us that don't get a treatment plan because the cancer has advanced.  I guess my point is to be grateful we have a chance at a full long life, we just have to get through the bad times.  Keep the Faith ladies......we can and will do this........

Hannariggs, thanks for sharing that story about the woman who didn't do chemo. I was feeling so upset this past weekend about chemo and was thinking well maybe I just won't do it. In the back of my mind I know that wouldn't be the right decision. My doc did the adjuvant online tool to show my rate of non-recurrence; without chemo its 55% and with chemo 77%. At first I was like that's not a major difference, but I'm going to do what I can to prevent this cancer from coming back. 

Hannariggs, stories like the one about that poor lady's recurrence do make us feel like maybe we did make the right decision.  The chemo is hopefully like the final Spring clean before, for some of us, the new paint job of reconstruction.

It is strange, Jerigrace, Soriya123 and Mellie289, how this hair thing hits us.  I was actually excited about wearing my wigs (I have two) and trying out different colors on myself.  I'm getting a lot of grey, which was making the texture like straw, so it seemed like it wouldn't be a great loss to me.  But when that day hits, you're right, it's like the final blow ... okay, you feel like crap and now you're going to LOOK like crap and everyone will know!  I had DH give me a buzz cut this morning and wore my wig to the ps office.  She walked in and seemed genuinely in awe of it, wishing her hair looked like that.  I said, "Me too!"  I think the thing's giving me a headache now, though.

Honeybunny9, my hair's still about an inch long, so don't know about the blackheads yet, but there are definitely zits up there I'm going to have to be careful about.  Still fighting the nasty raised, red, infected acne bumps on my face from round 1.  The topical antibiotic gel my mo gave me doesn't seem to do much.

Momx2, I hope you can feel your mom with you, giving you strength, because I'm sure she's there.  I hope, too, that you can find a way in this difficult time to be open to the healing love and light everyone is sending to you.

RealityCheck, ugh, bronchitis is the worst!  Hope you're well over that now.  Peeing in your pants I can also relate to ... but that's another story!!

Ckmoss, it does sound like a lot of us are getting the stomach upset problems in various ways.  Maybe I should keep some crackers by my bed, too.

Marsha1970, I do agree that exercise helps.  I'm trying to get back into my Pilates routine.  I have been walking, but getting bored with the same old route around my neighborhood. Walking anywhere else means getting in the car, which is too much hassle.

Nocompromises2013, what are survivor buffs?

Loved your funny story about the wig, Lark !

So, my daughter starts this new homeschool on Monday.  We've been doing orientation the last couple of days and I've been so glad to feel my old self for it.  Part of it is on campus, which will be good, but I'm still concerned about how much I'll be able to help her on chemo "down" days.  I have to know the software, too, and I have a low frustration tolerance for computers .

My ps has put me on antibiotics for some redness on my right "breast" (if you can call it that).  She doesn't think it's infected but wants to err on the side of caution considering I'm on chemo.  My second round is next Thursday.  It seems as soon as you start feeling better, the next one is due!