Starting Chemo January 6, 2014

Hi Ladies - starting chemo tomorrow along with a lot of other ladies here. Good luck to everyone. Hoping no one has horrible side effects. Thanks to all those who've already started to let us know how it's going so far. Good to know what to expect. Got a human hair wig yesterday. It's ok but not loving it. Not sure how much I'll even wear it. Might just stick with scarves and hats mostly. 

My port is never accessed except for chemo. They do blood draws from my arm and the MUGA scan was also done with my arm. 

Carpevinum - Welcome and sorry you have to be here. My cancer was node negative too and I've never had any scans either. Think I'm going to have to insist on it.  

hi calmandstrong. Initially I thought I wouldn't be able to work (I'm a nursing unit manager in a surgical ward), but now I've started chemo I believe I will be able to work. You never know, you may find that you might be able to do a few shifts! 

LIL

Lisacm-if three of your friend made appointments then you obviously made an impression and may have saved one of them!! Good for you!!

hi again, I had scans prior to surgery 'cause we knew I had positive nodes. It all happened really quickly for me. I had a sore nipple for a few days after my period and was able to get a referral and appointment the same day. Within 1.5 hours I had a physical examination, mammogram, ultra sound and 4 fine needle biopsies......and a positive diagnosis of breast cancer with lymph involvement. The next day was ct's, the day after bone scans and a doctors appointment confirming diagnosis and no evidence of metastatic disease. 3 days of unbelievable stress but better than 3 weeks which some people endure. It is a hard call wether to insist on further investigations or not, I just know I felt a lot better when I knew there was not disease elsewhere.

LIL

In 45 minutes I'm off to get AC #1.  I slept 6+ hours last night, thank you Ativan - not sure I can repeat that feat tonight.  

Best wishes for everyone else starting today, and who started yesterday or earlier this week.  Let's all pull together, as we women do so well!  Welcome CarpeVinum and others new to the thread, looking forward to getting to know you. 

I had bone and CT scans in a big rush the day after they reported my 11 positive lymph nodes back to me, which was one week after surgery.  Walked in there with my 4 drains and hard to hold my arms close to my head.  VERY tough 4 days of waiting, but we got the good news of no evident mets and no apparent funny stuff in any other regional lymph nodes, 2 days before Christmas. 

paloverde - I get my first AC in 2 hours. Hugs to you and best of luck. 

Paloverde - It's my quote of the day - "No apparent funny stuff!"

I am in the chair for FAC #2 today.  2 more and then I am on to surgery and rads.  Will be very glad to get some hair back.

I was where you all are a year ago. I started chemo on Dec. 7, 2012, but I bonded more with the January 2013 ladies than the December ones.

I started chemo (AC) on Friday 12-7-12. Two weeks later on Sunday I noticed when I ran my fingers through my hair there would be strands clinging to my fingers. I considered day of chemo to be day #1, so I noticed hair loss on day #17. I had cut my long hair in a pixie the night before starting chemo. My treatments were every 3 weeks. On the day before chemo #2, I buzzed my hair off. I had woke up that morning to find hair all over my pillow. I was pleasantly surprised to find I had a nicely shaped head. If I had been younger & thinner. (I'm 63) I would have put on my makeup, big hoop earrings, and ROCKED the bald!

Blessings

Paula

my first chemo was dec 30th. Began noticing hair coming out about 3 nights ago. So it was about 14 days??  Anytime I ran my fingers through it I came up with a handful of hair. I buzzed it off yesterday. 

2nd AC next week...

I lost my hair on day 15 of my clinical trial of Cytoxan and Taxotere last April. You'll know it will be soon when you start to feel a strange tingling or tenderness in your scalp. That's the day I had my kids chop of my long hair, style it into a sort of Mohawk and we all had a good laugh. The next night I couldn't stand it any more and had my hubby shave it down to 1/4". I would shampoo and rinse and rinse and rinse in the shower and the hairs just kept sticking to my hands, kind of like when you bathe a long-haired shedding dog. I was relieved when it was all out because that tender-scalp feeling makes it kind of hard to sleep. Oh I lost most of my eyebrows and all of my body hair too! Having no body hair was FANTASTIC and wow were my showers short ~ no shampoo/conditioning and no shaving. Anywhere.

The last period I had was 21 days after my first infusion. Hasn't been back since. I can't say that I miss it AT ALL.

I'll be thinking of all of you ladies who are doing your first chemo this week. Drink drink drink water, green tea, juice, Gatorade, whatever you can, even if you can't stand the thought of it. With my last chemo I had terrible constipation. That was hands down the very worst side effect. It's bad enough being bunged up, but you don't want that toxic $#itstorm  in you any longer than necessary. On infusion #2 I drank one cup of Smooth Move Tea (on day 1 before bed) and that solved that problem. I did get some wicked cramps but it was better than the alternative. Some wonderful friends gave me a care package and in it I found some Sea Bands. They really worked for nausea. REALLY. If you haven't got them I would strongly recommend them. Also Chimes Ginger Chews worked well.

Here's hoping for lots of restful, healing days ahead ♥

Soteria - If this works I expect 9 months of looking like Broom Hilda (only with thinner hair).  LOL  I like your byline.  I chose my name because this feels like the fight of my life and I need to win.  

Otceb - The days I've been out on the trails running have done wonders for me both physically and mentally.  I did my 1st TC infusion on Tues and went for a 6 mile walk/run with my dog yesterday.  I went to the gym today and I'll try to run again tomorrow.  I'm a bit nervous because I don't yet know what to expect from the chemo.  I don't want to get far out and be stranded.  When I am running I feel like I'm giving cancer the big middle finger.  LE is scary stuff.  Stay on top of it.  That seems to be the trick.  When it gets bad it is disabling. 

we'll I've just returned from oncologist appointment and everything is good. Bloods etc great, and we have reduced the dex dose for my next cycle so I'm not so wired. I suggested to her that I feel like a fraud 'cause I've been so well, she laughed and put it down to her good management! She said that in her experience this first cycle is pretty indicative of what's to come. I feel very lucky and hope she is right.  I have so much confidence in her and I hope you all feel the same way about  your teams. 

LIL

Yikes, I hope this first cycle isn't indicative of the next - or at least the first 24 hours of it.  

I suspect some of it is from not getting the Emend - thank you, freakin' Caremark - but also possible I tried so hard to do everything "right" that something I did was counterproductive.  An hour after I got home from treatment I felt fine and had plain yogurt with frozen blueberries and wheat germ - active bacteria to prevent thrush! Fiber for constipation! - but maybe it was too soon for food.  

About an hour or two after that I started feeling a little queasy and headachy.  I decided I'd better take my Claritin then, just to make sure I wouldn't be in the position of not being able to keep it down later, and suffering from the Neulasta shot.  Then I napped for 2 hours.  When I got up I tried to drink a bunch of water and eat half a chicken thigh, and proceeded to vomit 3 times in the next 3 hours.  2 calls to the MO triage line, and worked in some Compazine (which I had to take a "replacement" dose of, shortly after episode #2) and then some Zofran and Ativan which finally worked.  Took another Claritin before bed.

I had also really taken it to heart to drink as much liquid as I could stand - maybe that was overdone as well in those first few hours.  Anway, even with the vomiting, I was able to continue peeing last night and this morning so I don't think I'm dehydrated.  

Will see if there's some avenue for the MO to go to bat for me with Caremark to get Emend covered going forward.  Or, maybe that wouldn't have worked much better, I don't know.  

This morning I'm fine, so far - took a Tylenol for the foob pain and had my Zofran and Dex with a piece of white toast and a little Gatorade G2.  Not sure what to expect today.  Taking it easy.  Looking forward to seeing my friend who will take me downtown for my Neulasta.

I hope everyone else is doing as well as can be expected!