September 2013 Chemo Group

Big soft hugs to ALL this morning! We are all one day closer to the end of this crap! Keep this in mind as we push through one more day. One minute/ hour/day at a time. There is an end to it. Don't look too far ahead. Look down at your feet if the end its too far ahead for you to see it. Before you know it today too will be in our rearview mirror.

PeacockGirl: I hear ya! This last round I had a second round of Neulasta side effects at like day 14! They went away and then came back again. I had a needle size point in my hip bone that was a level 10 pain (and I am a no epidural child birth kind of girl) that hit every 30 seconds at times. Grrrr. Necessary evil though, I guess. Thanks for the roid rage tip. I think I may have had that issues as well. Luckily I have Xanax in my cabinet. Will need to be getting some more Lortabs though for next round.... And here is a link to the port taste issue: http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/6/topic/759622 My ears pop any time they access my port. It is just the first time in a setting but it has happened every time. Everyone tells me they have never heard of that.

Doc says they muscle pain is hormonal. I guess that possibly confirms that I am in chemopause? She told me to take a Tums or something else with calcium in it. Hmmmm who would have thought? I sure hope it works!

ML40 So glad you are feeling more like yourself.

I have my round 2 of TC tomorrow and feeling nervous but so glad I will be halfway through.

We can do this ladies!!! We can, with each other, one step at a time we can do it!!

Love and light K

OH!!! Fasting news! After my first chemo (no fasting) my ALT levels (indicating tissue damage within the body) were more than double what the high end of the range allowed for...remember that? The results this time after #2 and fasting: within range! Range was 0-33 and I had 22. That is much better than 72! I won't say that I necessarily had much reduced side effects other than my hair started growing, my skin didn't get that horrible "bad peel" layer of painful dried skin, and my mouth was less sore, but I am still taking it for a win. Even if I didn't have a noticeable reduction in side effects and some things were actually worse (more so from Neulasta), if it is reducing the damage to my body at a cellular level, it is worth it to me. I am not fasting this time because I am sick though. I just didn't think it would be a good idea, but next time I will for sure. This way I will also have another non-fasting infusion for comparison as well.

AlFranco - palms and soles of your feet turn darker with some chemo meds especially AC and Taxol. This usually only happens to women of color: African-descent, Latinas, some Asians BUT it can happen to anyone.

Best, V

That is great news JellyK! Thank you for that. I was really worried about all that. I hate the thought of not being able to cuddle and hold them for long periods of time, especially with how ever many months/years of reconstruction looming after the mx. I've actually considered forgetting about about the whole reconstruction thing so that I can just get it all over and done with, from their perspective anyway. My oldest is 63 pounds though, so I don't know what I am going to do with him. I am expecting at least 6 months before I can lift him. Maybe longer because I am thinking I will have to do exercise to build my muscles back up as well. Hopefully I can coordinate with several different nursing companies and have most of his waking hours covered. It is just hard to find nurses who will even work with him because they don't like lifting.

I think this cold is turning to bronchitis. I saw the doc yesterday but she said that it seemed viral, no antibiotic, lots of fluids, etc etc. It has gotten worse overnight though. I am coughing up big green chunks of stuff (sorry for the grossness) Anyone else have bronchitis when doing chemo? I am just worried it will turn to pneumonia or something.

70 - are you getting Neulasta? Your WBC nadir is days 7-10, meaning that is when they will drop to the lowest with Neulasta/Neupogen. You really can't infer from one tx to the next what your SE will be - some things are cumulative, like dropping counts on CBC and hemoglobin, if that is a SE you suffer from, and fatigue of course. Otherwise, many have slightly differing SE each time. That is the frustration because as you learn what to do for each SE you have already experienced, new ones crop up, and the ones you figured out go away! Are you doing 4 TC, or 6?

Mamastewart- I will preface this by saying that my surgical recovery was easier than most, and I know I was really lucky. I also went into it in good shape physically, walking or running a lot, and doing lots of abdominal exercises to make sure those muscles were strong to compensate. I also did not do chemo first. That being said, my surgical recovery was a breeze. I was off narcotics in 2 days and off of Ibuprofen in about 5 days. I was walking a mile per day as soon as drains were out, and increased it from there. At my 4 week follow up, I had no lifting restrictions, and at my 6 week follow up, I was cleared for full return to duty at work. I am a firefighter/paramedic. Now, it would be dumb to go fight a fire while on chemo, so I will refrain from that, but I have taken a few EMS calls on my good days, and that involves heavy lifting. I have had no problems. Everyone is very different, and chemo may slow healing, but for me, going in with strong legs and abs really helped me because those muscles could compensate for the others that I could not use right away. Again, everyone is different, and I was lucky, but I just wanted to,let you know that you may be ale to recover sooner than you expect.

70charger- I hope you feel better soon. Call the MO if you are not feeling better.

Ekaterina and anyone else heading to the chemobar today- Hope all goes well.

70charger - Right there with you the past few days. Felt like I had the hangover from hell (and I've never even had a hangover...LOL). Overall yuck feeling, chills, headache, and I even had the fever to go with it all. Don't give up!!! Just think - however awful you feel from the chemo, the cancer cells feel even worse!!!! :-)

Luckily my fever never reached the dangerous phase, and I'm feeling better today. Managed to run a couple of errands and met hubby for lunch for our anniversary. We're headed to Dallas tomorrow afternoon, spending the night for our anniversary and then I have three appointments on Thursday. A visit with my surgeon who wanted to gauge my progress halfway through chemo, a meeting with a gynocological oncologist to discuss my ovaries and a meeting with the plastic surgeon who will be involved in my breast surgery. Going to be a long day, capped off by a 3 hour drive home. But hopefully I'll feel good and it will all be productive.

So the stupid mystery acne/rash showed up again right on schedule. Seems like I get a lumpy, itchy face about 4-5 days after chemo. Not sure if it's from the premeds or the chemo itself, but it's highly annoying.

Thanks. :-) Twelve years!

Hi Ladies im right there with you. CHEMO sucks. Im so tired of being TIRED. I finished my 3rd round of A/C last Thursday 1 more to go then on to 4 rounds of Taxol. Ladies please encourage me to keep going because this is truly the pits. Sorry to vent this way but I felt you all would understand how im feeling. Between my low energy level and lack of desire to eat or drink I don't know which one is worse.

Hydavis- I sure hear you...I asked for prayer on the spiritual thread because I soooooo wanted to quit. My last and final chemo is this Monday. Now that I am in the good week I have said I can do it one more time...I need to for my family! I keep plugging away and figure I will get there. You can too. In the end you will be glad to know you did all you could do and not always wonder should I have done more. I will say a prayer for you to get there.

Thanks mankotostate I think I will go to this prayer thread also. You are so right I need to just keep plugging along hard as you and I know it is. I do want to be able to look back one day and know I did all I could. Thanks for your prayer and good luck with your last treatment Monday.

Yes Jellyk and Hydavis it doesn't make sense to me why we have rads and chemo. You would think chemo would knock out anything so there would be no need for rads! (or so that sound like that is the point of chemo isn't it?)

LHL- I hope you have a great trip to Dallas, and that all of your appointments go well. Happy Anniversary! On a yucky note, I also have horrible acne....all over my bald head......uuuuuugh!!! I did last round too. I have to go buy my son more acne medicine, because I have used it all slobbering it all over my head. If anyone has acne tips, I will take them; I have been using neutrogena soap on it as well.

I am on day 5 of round 2. So far, this has been almost a duplicate of round 1. Sunday night I felt flu-like for a few hours, other than that, just fatigue, sore throat, and bone/ muscle aches...abdominal pain, back pain, leg pain. Ibuprofen pretty much takes care of it when needed, but until it kicks in, I feel like I am in labor. I have a temp of 99 tonight. Last round I had the same pain, same places, and had the same temp. I think that my body is just fighting these poisons! Hoping tomorrow brings more energy and less pain.