Starting Chemo in March 2014

I'm getting my port put in next Tuesday. what should I expect?

I hope I can go to work the next day? Taking so many days off. Thank goodness for Family Medical Leave.

Great to hear everyone is getting through this week. I have my lymph dissection in the morning. I am still tender from the last drains. I won't get my port for another two weeks. Power ports are really useful. Arm veins get worn out when only one can be used after  lymph dissections. 

I went to school yesterday. It was nice to talk about something other than cancer. Although nursing management theory and hospital organizatiinal structures can be dry. Rest well ladies.

Hi, awesome March ladies!

Meeting with the first of 2 MOs tomorrow, so I'm pretty sure I'll be swimming around next to you all in the cytotoxic pool within the next few weeks. Couldn't have asked for a nicer bunch of people to compare side effects with, honestly.

My short story: I'm Nina, and I turned 50 (gasp!) this past Sunday - I was really hoping for something a little nicer than a tumor to mark my reaching the half-century point. My sig tells the tale of my IDC, although I'll update this once I wrestle the final path report from the hands of my breast surgeon tomorrow at my post-op checkup.

My baby sister was diagnosed with Stage IV in January 2011 (nodes, bone, and liver), so I'm probably not as "deer in headlights" about this diagnosis as I might otherwise have been. She just wakes up every morning and decides to find joy, which is pretty much my plan as well.

Dawn, my son is a little older than yours (he turns 12 in April). I don't know how you'd feel about doing this, but I decided to tell my boy that I was making him a part of my cancer team. I figured that giving him a few easy tasks would empower him a little and let him know that neither one of us is helpless in the face of a challenge like illness. He's in charge of making sure my water jug is full and in the fridge every night before he goes to bed, and he monitors how much of it I drink over the day. I let him scold me a little if I don't make it to the 80-ounce mark :-) He'll also be in charge of cutting my hair before chemo starts, so that we can donate it to Locks of Love. If I manage the side effects well enough, I might also let him be my "trainer", and we can jump around the house to horrible pop music for exercise. 

Now is definitely not the time to be Type-A about doing everything yourself. It's hard to ask for help, but everyone around you really, really wants to do something, so LET THEM.

I can't wait to have treatment underway. That sounds completely insane given what this treatment involves, but I'm betting you all know what I mean! 

Nina

I will start treatment in March as well. Just getting another consultation in with a leading clinic and then will start scheduling port placement, etc. Yesterday was a rough day, the tears just kept spilling out of me. I havent cried like this in years. I'm 43 and have two young boys who need their mom well. 

My doc recommended TCHP every three weeks but I'm interested in the dose dense weekly treatments instead. I live in the center of town and have a flexible schedule and getting to treatment is a 5-10 min drive. I'm just comimg off of breastfeeding consecutively and I'm a bit tapped out. I am already working with a doctor of Chinese Medicine to boost my systems up, taking herbs, eating nutrient dense foods and cutting out almost all simple carbs. I feel that my body, which tends to be a bit sensitive anyway, would better tolerate lower and more frequent dosages. Anyone else looked into dose dense treatments?

I would give anything to not be going through this experience but at least it is only stage 3 and the idds are still in my favor.

Mary, I like your description of using the  "cancer card". Sheesh, my littlest is 3-1/2 and just starting to need me less and I was looking forward to getting more time to focus on myself. THIS is not quite what I had in mind.

Ann

Hello, ladies - Another March treatment gal here. My chemo is neoadjuvant Cytoxan and Taxotere, so I haven't had the surgery experience yet. Chemo class this afternoon, and port placement isn't until March 5. I've had to go through all sorts of additional testing after I was first diagnosed in December, so I'm quite anxious to get this going and get it over with! Then on to surgery and rads.

I'm a 58 year old single mom with a 17 year old daughter with Asperger's. I've kept her informed about what's going on the whole time, and she's been great. I've gotten tons of hugs from her the past few weeks, and that's something that's not easy for many people on the spectrum. She's also gone scarf and pin shopping with me, and has picked out some really cute fabrics that she wants to make into caps for when my hair falls out. I expect this experience will turn into quite the role reversal for us in many ways, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  She knows that I've beaten cancer before (cervical in situ stage 0 when I was 20), and I have no doubt I'll do it again. This time it'll just take a little longer.

I dont have much time to write as I have family in from out of town but I have read all of your posts and of course can relate to all of them.  Lots of great ideas and support and I am so happy I found you ladies!! I wanted to let you all know that after close to 4 weeks since diagnosis I found out yesterday that the cancer has NOT spread to my bones as they suspected!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yeah!!!!!!  They did find however that is has spread to the lymph nodes which means I will now have to go for radiation after chemo and surgery.

Xrayalli I am really hoping for good news for you!!  Why is it taking them so long to get your results?  Also when I had my first mastectomy 7 years ago I had the drain in for 3 weeks!  Not sure why but my body was putting out alot of fluid.  I actually didnt mind it as I would rather get that bad stuff out.  Ok well I will write more later.

Alli, or anyone else with a port,

I read that during chemo, if you have a port you should wear a button down shirt so it is easier to access. Would you say that is true? I dont have too many of that style so might go shopping for a couple tomorrow. I just pictured myself wearing tshirts.

CancerVixen - woohoo!!!! 

Great news, Alli!!!!

Congratulations Alli!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So happy to see the results of your lymph node biopsy!!!!!  What a relief!!!!!

It must be hard to be here again Vixen. I know you aren't the only one as I've read through posts on the board. I hope treatment goes really well for you and that this time you kick BC for good.

I am hoping for the best for myself as well, but it still seems like a bad dream. Where once I imagined living into my 90s like my great aunts and uncles, now I'm just worried about being around for getting my kids through elementary school and I have no idea what comes after that. 

Breast cancer is such a fatal flaw in our human design. That it can take mothers from children is even more cruel.

Ann