September 2013 Chemo Group

Hi ladies, I'm in the October group but will be starting Taxol soon. Can some of you give me insight to what it's like? The nurses at my MO office said it is much easier than the A/C and that I should do fine.They said I would probably not have to do Neupogen injections with it. I had to do them with A/C for 6-7 days each tx. Thanks in advance for any info you have

Julie

Gramof2boys - Are you doing weekly taxol or every 2 weeks? I am halfway through taxol and while overall I feel better than I did on AC, I wouldn't say it's "easier". I (along with some of the other ladies on dose dense taxol) get severe pain for several days following chemo. I have my treatments on Thursday and Saturday-Monday or Tuesday pretty much everything hurts... a lot. I haven't had any nausea, though, at all, and the overall "ick" feeling I had on AC is gone. I've heard the weekly taxol cuts down some on the severe side effects because your dose is lower.

hockeymommy - Too bad we're not in the same place so we could be chemo buddies for real. :-)

Gram/VintageGal,

Also going to have first lowe dose taxol this AM. Also getting first Herceptin tx. Will follow up to report SE. Good luck to us all!

jellyk that is seriously unfair for an 8 year old boy to get a cancer diagnosis. Just yesterday my husband made the comment that it's so scary how our infusion center is full day after day chair after chair and the onco office has 7 doctors who are booked solid every day... so wrong! But kids? Grrrrr it just makes me angry.

Josgirl so happy you are done with chemo and how awesome to be getting your port out so soon! I asked my onco how soon I could get mine out and he made some stupid faces and said usually he keeps that in for 6 months and that he will make an exception for me because of my job in fitness and i can have it out as soon as possible. Whatever. Sometimes I swear he forgets i am a sentient human being with the right to choose. He told me I can't skip my last neulasta shot either. Like really what if I just decide not to show up? What are they gonna do come drag me out of my house? Gees.

Taxol #2 this Friday...I too am not looking forward to bone pain and compounded neulasta side effects but hey only 4 more weeks until I am done! Oh ps...anyone else notice the horrible body odor is gone now that we are done with A/C? Or gawd forbid, have I just gotten used to my stench? Oh and for the latest chemobrain haha ...almost threw my car keys in the kitchen garbage the other day. What the heck?

Oh one more thing...what drug should I ask for as a sleep aid? Ambien? Lunesta? I have tried Xanax and Valium..benedryl and Zyrtec and combinations of those and nothing is working. Not even phenergan works Anymore, I have oxycodone but hate to take to unless for pain as I have to take too many laxatives to combat it! Argh.,

peacockgirl, I get irritated too that they seem to forget that we are people, not just another name on the schedule...and that we intend to have lives after cancer. I think they need to be reminded of that now and then.

Mamastewart, i am glad to hear that your sister seems to be coming around. With your experience with your mother and her 3 siblings, she may have had trouble dealing with it. My best friend did not call for weeks after my diagnosis. I finally had to drop something off at her house and she told me that even though it didn't seem to bother me too much about my diagnosis, she was having a hard time with it and was crying a lot, and was afraid she would upset me. I was glad she explained it. I had not considered that as a possible reason. I assumed she was just too busy, etc. i hope your sister supports you more and more as you need her.

Good luck to all hitting the chair this week. I am headed there Friday for number 4, and will find out my Oncotype, and whether or not he will do 4 or 6. My gut feeling is 6, but it is hard to mentally prepare not knowing!

got Ativan and Elavil..he said it would help with hot/cold intervals I suffer with at night and with those random zingers taxol can cause, did not know until I picked it up its typically an antidepressant ? I know Ativan works cuz I get it in the chair before chemo every two weeks...hoping it gets me to sleep. I will see the teams nurse practitioner next visit as he's taking like a 3 week vacay. Then I see him once more before final chemo. He then goes into the shadows when i do rads he said .....good I loved the RO guy that I met shortly after surgery. Then I don't see MO for 3 months or so. I remember the nurses being amazingly nice to me at the radiation center too...looking forward to closing the chemo chapter and moving on to that. Oh and I am glad I called my breast surgeon today...because the soonest I could schedule my port removal is January 8th...at least it is on the calendar now

ANN how did it go? I did fine. Though the Benedryl this time pre med really made me drawsey.

No issue with Taxol. Herception took 1.5 hours, they told me first time thet do it slow, next time that will take 1 hour.

I had an ECHO in Sept but need to have another done in a few days. Guess they feel it is important with the Herceptin.

Hope you Girls did ok!!??

After wards we went to the tattoo studio. Hubby got the outline of a tat he & the artist (& me LOL) have been designing for a couple months. A breast cancer warrior, bald, wielding a sword & a red tail hawk carrying a pink ribbon above.

Viji, hope you feel netter soon.

Vintagegal, Love the tattoo design!

Hockeymommy, Why 4-5 months? Mine took 2 weeks! Love the driver's license story!

Peacockgirl, if you find something that helps you sleep, let me know. It has always taken me hours to fall asleep, and getting up 3-4 times per week to pee from drinking so much makes for some frustrating nights. Most nights i revert tomheading to the couch and putting the weather channel on to distract me.

VintageGal1- it went well! Herceptin was 1.5hrs just like you. Taxol 1hr and 15mins, 15 mins was the slow infusion at the beginning to make sure I had no reaction, then they turned up the drip rate. I had Pepcid, steroids, Benadryl, tylenol and aloxi pre meds. Benadryl made me sleepy too. I left there hungry, no nausea or headache like I would have had from AC. I did paint my fingers and toes a dark purple with a good base coat and top coat last night to try to hold off any nail loss issues. I did use altoids during saline flush to help elevate that funny taste from the pre-filled saline flush. It helped some. I did not use any ice chips during infusion. Onc said I shouldn't have pain issues, possible until treatment #6 because low dose is more accumulative versus dose dense. I did get a prescription for Norco to have on hand.

I'm schedule for a Muga Scan 12/06 to check my heart function. ( nuclear medicine test versus ECHO- ultrasound of the heart). I had one prior to starting AC.

Worried about the blood work tanking on Taxol, weekly dosing does not get neulasta, time will tell.

If all goes like the first infusion, what a difference from the AC.

hockeymommy - that's crazy! Like the others have said, I had my results in 2-3 weeks. Love the cyber party idea for our last. I've been trying to think of something "different" to do for my last chemo.... kind of like a graduation day to me. I was thinking I might wear one of my dd's tiaras and have her make me a sparkly pink sign saying "Last chemo" or something and have hubby take pictures. Just something to mark the occasion.

I am SO SICK of restless legs. Last night I laid on my bed watching tv for two hours before bed. The instant the lights went out & I went to bed, the jumpiness started. Crazy. I had to get up and do some leg exercises and walk around before going back to bed. I've suffered from this my whole life, but never this bad and never every single night. I'm so exhausted. I'm not drinking caffeine, I'm taking magnesium and calcium supplements, I try to walk some every day.... I feel like I'm doing everything to ward it off and still it creeps back in every night. Going to talk to my MO about it on Thursday. I don't really want to take any more pills, but if there's something I can take to help me get through the worst of this, I'm desperate.

Saw all the talk about having ECHOs.  My baseline was in September and the doctor just ordered another one for December.  Joy/Sigh/Uggh. 

Just checking in to see how folks are doing.  Glad there is still stuff to laugh about and glad everyone is hanging on to warrior mode.

I'm tired of wearing hats.  So, I'm wearing them less and less around the office and out and about.  Everyone knows I'm a woman at work, but I'm really tired of being called, "sir", at the grocery store, the gas station, and anywhere else where people don't really look at people.  I miss my hair!

Wow Ann

we are right on the same page! Sounds like your day at the chemo bar went ok too!

My wbc were back up but my rbc still low. They were all reeaaly low last week.

KJ - I miss my hair, too. I haven't had short hair since I was 5 years old, but at this point I would gladly take a pixie cut. I'm SO sick of hats/scarves/wigs.

KBeee - Great idea! The more celebrations, the better. :-) I will finish on Dec 5 (same as Hockeymommy) - two more weeks!!!! I wish those two weeks didn't include about 8 days worth of awful pain, but oh well. At least the end is in sight.

peacock - when I asked my onc what would happen if I just didn't show up for my last neulasta he said - well it's not like I am going to drag you from your house....but your onc sounds less er friendly so maybe he would. LOL I did get a good chuckle thinking about it. And I did get my last one - already doing so much to my body what's one more shot. And my rad team is awesome. Very nice nurses and rad onc.

Mamastewart - so glad your sister is stepping up. With all your family that cancer touched, it probably was/is hard for her to be there for you I can't imagine. But I am glad she arrived and will help you thru some of the rest of this journey. A strong hand to hold is the best pick me up.