Cytoxan Taxotere Chemo Ladies- February/March 2013
Comments
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School - Happy B-day. Glad you got a massage.
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SC- my surgeon gave me an ID card for my TE's that says explicitly no MRI's.
. I'm sorry that the test was cancelled. But as he others have stated, given your stage, grade, and lack of lymph node involvement (and the fact you ARE doing chemo currently) it's likely not something drastic. Hugs to you...AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!Audra- yes, I go for round 3 tomorrow. Just hoping I don't get scolded for the bruise on the back of my hand.... I'm pretty sure I will
dreading chemo but at least I can say 75% done tomorrow!!!Wishing everyone all the best!!
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SC- Happy Birthday!!!! Glad you were able to get a massage....
VirginiaNJ- Good Luck tomorrow. Wishing for an easy time in the BGC and minimal side effects. Good to know that you will have only one more after the infusion tomorrow!!!!
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Thank you so much Melrose!!!!! Interested to see what happens as some of the SE's were different with the first 2 (and some, of course, were the same).
Jeesh- wide awake (thank you steroid). Tomorrow is an 8 am infusion :O
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VirginiaNJ -- I'm in the chair, too, tomorrow for chemo4. I'm slated for 6 infusions so I'm half way done. I think SC will have a treatment this week, too. Anyone else? Good luck to all!
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SC -- Happy birthday! Hope you had a great day -- a massage sounds delightful -- and are feeling more optimistic about everything
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bluegrass! Best wishes to you! I will be sending you good karma from my chair to yours!!!
hugs -
Happy Birthday Schoolcounselor!!!
Bluegrass, I'm in the chair today, too. Going to be a tight fit getting us all in there at the same time. Having a pre-chemo coffee before the day begins.
Hopkins has the prettiest stained glass wall as part their meditation room in the main cancer center. Going to try to do it justice in a minute with a photo from the lobby.
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"meditation room' stained glass wall entrance at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. All the "clear" glass actually looks like giant swirling soap bubbles. It's absolutely lovely.
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Thinking of you all in the BGC today! Wishing minimal if NO side effects! That would be SO nice!
Happy Birthday SC!!!
Like the scarf Quirky!
Be strong! Virginia NJ, Bluegrass, Quirky- KILL THOSE CANCER CELLS!!!!
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Good morning everyone! At the center now receiving treatment 2 of TC. Have it 6x. Anyone out there who have to have 6x? Treatment 1 was minimal side effects but lots of fatigue! And bone aches from the neulasta shot. Taking Claritan before,during and for 3-5 days after. Hope all is well for us who have treatments this week!
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Virgina, Bluegrass, Quirky, Joan (SC, I lost track, are you having tx today too?) -- Hope the time in the BGC goes smoothly and the SEs are minimal. Pamper yourselves! Quirky, great pic of the stained glass -- what a beautiful way to welcome patients and set an atmosphere of serenity! Virginia, you look lovely in the BGC -- Is that a quilted bed jacket you have on? Did someone make it for you? What a great idea! And the crocheted blanket is nice too -- you must have crafty friends! Go girls -- one more tx to cross off the calendar!
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Good luck to all who are doing TX this week! One more down.
Thanks for sharing the photos everyone.
Happy Birthday SC:)
So far, this one has been better than the first, on day 4...very achy yesterday, but better today; I still have hair on my head and it seems to be staying put so far.
Have a wonderful week, ladies! I don't know what I would do if I didn't have this forum to come to...it is very comforting to know that others are facing the same challenges and getting through them.
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Happy Belated Birthday SC. Good luck to everyone going into the chair today. Love all the pics and the pretty bald heads. Such great attitudes about it all here. It is inspiring.
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Joanmj58 -- I'm doing 6x TC, and I'm in the chair getting treatment #4 right now. I haven't had neulasta -- my blood work so far has been okay except for borderline anemia. From what I hear about the neulasta SEs, I'm glad to have avoided it so far!
My main SE is upper body muscle aches -- worse on days 3-5 of each treatment so far, but pretty constant and increasing with each treatment. But I have to say that it's not debilitating -- I've been able to get out for walks most of the time, and to the gym to lift (reduced) weights and swim in the 10 days or so before a new treatment. Also have some (so far) more minor SEs -- fingertip skin thickened with some possible finger neuropathy; a little nausea/diarrhea and a "sandy" feeling mouth in the week after treatment.
I think I've been really been lucky so far, but I am a little scared about increased SEs after this next treatment. Let's keep in touch -- I can be your "canary in the mine" since I'll always be 2 treatments ahead of you
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so sorry the picture is upside down
not sure why that happened.... My infusion was fine today - had the BEST nurse so far! She avoided my hand and got a vein in the arm the first time! No pain with the Benadryl (which burns in the hand). Had the weirdest feeling when they were infusing the taxotere - so restless and uncomfortable but not in pain or nauseous. WEIRD weird feeling....like I wanted to jump out of my skin....Kim - the new quilted blanket is hand made. My nice was talking to a mom in her town telling her about me....she brought the quilt to my sister to give to me... It's a long narrow blanket that is meant to "give you a hug" when you need it. I've never even met the woman and for her to give me such a gorgeous hand made quilt.......she is ALSO a breast cancer survivor...... So so sooooo thoughtful and special!
Was able to do a bit of shopping after chemo but I am super tired now.........
Hope everyone else did ok today!!!!!!! Hugs to all
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Joan and BlueGrassHarp- I had 6 rounds and made it through to the other side. I know I was more fatigued after each round and dealt with RBC that were continuing to drop. Fortunately, the RBC never dropped so low as to require a blood transfusion. As those RBC counts dropped, I noticed I was a little short of breath and sometimes a little dizzy if I got up too fast from laying down. Although I asked my onco about taking some iron supplements, she said no and that I just needed to increase foods that are iron enriched since the body absorbs the iron better through foods than through supplements. That meant I had a great excuse to lean beef steak and also ate beans, iron enriched cereals ( Cream of Wheat, Total, Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares), etc. The one vegetable that has lots of iron in it is spinach but I can't eat that because it contributes to my kidney stone problem. I don't think my other side effects got worse; I just felt more tired and a little more winded. Do your best to keep eating well, sleep and rest whenever you can and get a little walk in everyday. Hang in there, gals!!!! Once you have gotten past the 3rd round, just take comfort in knowing that you are at least half way done and the final Round 6 will be there soon!!!!
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Had a good day in the window alcove bed getting my second TC. When we were leaving the building someone was playing the grand piano in the lobby. And after dinner tonight we walked out into a laser light and firework show! Great day, no significant SE effects yet. Those should start on Day 4. Loving the posts and photos.
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Melrose, you are a wonderful resource for all of us!
So of course, I have a question for you. At my 4th infusion today, my MO and clinical trial coordinator were concerned that my fingernails are turning yellow; and the skin on my fingertips has thickened, dried and peeled a few times, which makes it look like the nails on my thumbs are lifting up off the fingertip.
My MO didn't think there was much that could be done to increase my chances of keeping the nails. But the oncology nurse suggested using tea tree oil. When I searched BC.org about it, I found someone who thought tea oil might have estrogenic properties, which might not be good for ER+ women. Your thoughts?
And if tea tree oil is good for nails, do you use 100% tea tree oil! and how often do you apply it?
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Bluegrass -- I don't know if this helps, but I iced my fingertips during the T part of the infusion, and (on the advice of my MO) kept my nails very short and painted my nails with dark polish. The ends of my nails turned yellow/orange, but it has faded since treatments ended and is growing out. I am still keeping the dark polish on and keeping them short. Somewhere on one of the BCO threads (maybe SpecialK on the Oct Chemo thread) I read that the reason for keeping nails painted was to keep out light during tx. Now that tx are over, I am taking Biotin to help skin, hair and nails, also a hint I found on these threads. I will be interested to see what Melrose says as well.
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Thanks, TeamKim -- I missed the boat on icing this afternoon. Grrrr! I had read about this some time ago, and just forgot it until you mentioned it. I haven't seen anyone doing this in the Fort Collins treatment center, but I think I'm the only one doing TC when I'm there.
I have been very careful not to do anything with my nails since I started treatment -- no fiddling with cuticles, no polish, I just keep them clipped straight across and short enough to remind me not to use my thumbs to pry anything open! As a result, my nails look like h*ll, but they don't hurt and are intact with no fluid or infection or anything. They are just yellowish at the ends and striped near the cuticles (one stripe for each treatment) -- and what a fashion statement that is!
Good luck with rads this month -- keep us posted on your progress there, TK.
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Bluegrassharp- I iced my finger nails and toe nails during the Taxotere portion of my 6 infusions. That meant 1 1/2 hours of icing . I had read about icing on the BCO chemo threads and asked my onco about icing. My onco told me to use clear nail polish (Sally Hansen Hard As Nails) and suggested that I ice. My nails did have a yellow tinge to them plus there were horizontal lines/dents. Those lines seem to coincide with the number of chemo rounds I had. I used Essie All in One Base and a pink color called Mademoiselle. The reason that I didn't use a dark polish is because my onco wanted to check my nails at every infusion. I can't say whether the icing helped or not. I had pretty good strong nails prior to having chemo. However, the icing may have helped prevent the neuropathy since I had a very mild neuropathy. I never used any tea tree oil but I do know some who did because it helped the nail fungus. I also kept my nails short and always used ( and still use) rubber gloves when washing dishes or doing household cleaning. Try not to use finger nails as tools for opening cardboard boxes and for staple removal. You may want to try icing for the final two rounds of the chemo. It may help. I remember that my hands and feet as well as the rest of my skin got very dry from the chemo. I made an extra effort to put Cetaphil cream ( not lotion) on my hands and feet and then put cotton gloves on my hands and socks on my feet. I also wiggled my fingers and toes often in an effort to keep them flexible. I sometimes got trigger finger if I held a large mixing spoon in one position too long. When it happen, I would just straighten my fingers out and wiggle and bend them. I know it sounds like I was a little obsessive about taking care of my hands and feet but it was one way for me to have some control and to help take care of me. My nails seem to have recovered..... the yellow and indentions are now grown out and gone..... my nails are not chipping as much as they did for the first year post chemo.
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at my treatment i was given iced mitts. They were big bulky heavy things which meant i couldnt do anything with my hands. The nurse just came and put them on me but later when i was trying to get comfortablw and grubted about them she said they wete optional. I kept them on. They wete cold but not freezing.
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Melrose, many thanks for the thoughtful answer -- you have given me/us a lot to think about!
For one thing, I haven't been careful about using gloves for cleaning -- I hate 'em, but I can see how keeping dry might decrease the chance of fungal infection. An infection would be awful! The good news/bad news about the Colorado Front range is that it's dry dry dry here -- so maybe that (and a DH who is in charge of loading the dishwasher) has compensated for my no gloves behavior.
I, too, had wonderful strong nails before taxotere, so maybe that will save them in the end
(Can you see the nice thumbnail on the emoticon?!?) -
Wrenn, I will ask about cold mitts for my last 2 treatments. They sound evil, but losing fingernails sounds even worse!
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Bluegrass: I iced for all 6 taxotere tx but I used frozen peas. They are more flexible than ice. I was the only one at my center who iced so no cold mitts, but I got the tip from Special K. Unfortunately I didn't ice my toenails correctly the first time & I'm going to lose both big toe nails. It does need to be the full taxotere infusion time + 15 min before & 15 min after. My infusions were 90 minutes so that meant 2 hours of icing. I used Sally Hansen clear Hard as Nails, but put dark polish on just for the infusion day - to keep out the light. Nails are brittle & sort of soft but otherwise OK.
As for the thick skin on fingers, I have that now with the Adriamycin/Cytoxan but did not have it with the 6 tx of Taxotere/Carboplatin. Maybe it's a Cytoxan SE? Fingertips & thumb are sore & peeling just like you describe. Using CeraVe cream (not lotion) & when it gets too bad I'm using Neosporin & bandaids.
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MinusTwo -- thanks for describing your experience. I hadn't even thought about my toenails!
Okay, I got my slippers back on -- my toenails look fine and no weird skin thickening either. Speaking of weird, how weird will I look during chemo with both hands and feet cozying up to all those peas?
I'm so sorry about your toenails! hope it doesn't hurt too much, but it sure sounds uncomfortable at best!
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Bluegrass - After wrapping in towels the first time, I went to WalMart and got some of those soft sided coolers. I just kept my hands stuck inside those with the peas. My infusion center let me put the peas in their freezer and brought out my 2nd batch half-way through.
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