Starting Chemo in December 2013

Holli - both of my girls are adopted, so… where does one buy breast milk baggies??  and yes, very ironic.  

count it all - you can buy them at any grocery store in the baby aisle. I get mine at Target or Walmart. They are food safe and freezer safe. Perfect portion size too. 

Happy Birthday Barbara.........I am trying to haul my ass out of this funk.........my nose hurts like hell, it bleeds and runs constantly, thanks for leaving me some nose hair chemo.. ha, it will be a week tomorrow since my last taxol and I feel like the bus has hit me again, I have numbness in my fingers and toes, may be time to try the icepacks.  The hot cold sweats have sucked bigtime since yesterday, like what the hell....gawd......ending complaint list now.

chicopeach -peoples kindness has been unreal, I come home to meals, scarves, hats, cards....its been very overwhelming.  people just want to help in any way they can.

I am totally getting comfortable with my bald head, hey it is what it is.  lashes and eyebrows are still hanging on, have thinned but do exist, I am certain I will be saying goodbye to them soon. 

cheers 

kimmie, I hear you on the nosebleeds. After 2 visits to the ENT, here is what seems to do the trick for nosebleeds: neosporin (or bacitracin). I tried aquaphor & ayr saline gel but the neosporin works sooooo much better.

I also feel like a big long complaining rant. Soooooo tired today. Spent pretty much the whole day in bed.

Barbara, happy birthday and many many more years to come! 

Thanks for the smooth recipe, will get the ingredients this week. Taste buds are getting worse for sure - sweet and salty for AC and bitter taste for taxol. So far, the sour food seems to be good for me: strawberry, tomato, and pizza!  

Hope you all have a great night. 

I made a large batch of chili yesterday and added extra spice...it's all I can taste is spicey or salty...and I don't need to retain fluid and look more chubby than I already do.  So it's chili for lunch all week with a dash of sour cream of course.

My worse SE on taxol seems to be the flu like body aches...my back and ribs are the worse.  No tingling in hands yet this time, I did ice last week so I'm hoping it has helped.  I do get night sweats, but not every night, and I'm feeling more fatigue as well.  For me though, all more tolerable SE than AC.  

I've been wearing only my very short wig, it's more comfortable and when my hair grows it will be very short and the wig is going as soon as I feel comfortable , so I'm getting me and everyone else ready for seeing me with the boy cut...I keep looking for new growth...worse thing about the nose hair is I have to do self checks all day, I don't want to walk around at work with hair hanging out of my nose or on my face.  

BTW....Thank you for all the other rants! I am grateful for all of you, and I can't tell you how comforting it feels to know I am not alone. That being said....it sucks that all of us even have the need to rant. Hoping for better days to come for all!!

Mikesgirl- It does seem like everyone offers at first and then they kind of forget about you. Treatment is such a long process that people get numb to it. Everyone tells me how strong and positive I am. And most of the time I am but last week I spent a lot of time crying in my closet. Didn't even know why I was crying and my house full of men and boys get nervous at crying so it was better to hide it than freak them out. My point is- You are not alone. We all need to rant and we all need to feel special because we are even though a lot of our days just suck right now

mikesgirl - I hope you can pick one person that is right there that you can express your need to.  It's easy to give people the impression that we just want to deal with something on our own, and then they feel they're being loving and respectful by giving us space.  And it's VERY hard then to say "that's not what I need!"  I have never been good at that - I want to be the one helping, not the other way around.  But I was so worried about too much falling on my husband and my girls when I was having bad days, that for their sake I was willing to admit we could use meals and extra attention to my girls.  That seemed to open up the floodgates of people stepping up in a number of sweet ways.  I know you'll do what seems best for you, but I can tell you are a really special person who must be loved and enjoyed by many, so I'll be praying you'll have an opening to let someone know you're open to some extra loving' on!!  Heaven knows we need all the support we can get this year.  

Leealice - I did a lot of crying in my closet when we first moved here, b/c I didn't want my husband who brought us here or my then 5-yr old to have to deal with mommy losing it!  I had to laugh at your description of the hubby and boys who don't like tears… so classic.     

Obviously we have enough reasons to cry, but I wonder how much we're affected by our hormones being all over the place.  I just heard a commercial about menopause, and they mentioned sleeplessness as one of the complaints.  For the first time I thought DUH!  That's probably one of the reasons I'm not sleeping well.  I was chalking it up to drugs, but here I am in early menopause and not giving that any credit at all.   I started crying the other day in sheer frustration over getting so little sleep, and had just been short with my girls over something stupid.  My 9-yd old caught me at it, and I had to explain it to her.  In the sweetest way, she hugged me and said "it's okay, Mommy.  God made us to need sleep, and when we don't get it, we're not at our best," - and then ran off to play.  Gotta love her.  

Hi Folks, I haven't posted here before, but recently found out some info that has pissed me off in re: the drugs given to me during treatment for BC. I was almost killed with my one and only chemo. Taxotere was the culprit. I "failed" all three AI's b/c of s.e.'s. All of this could have been avoided had my MO paid attention to the Cytochrome450 genetic testing. Of the six genes tested, I have abnormalities in three. All are major players in the drugs I was given. Had I been tested, it would have been known. The drug choice and /or dosage modifications could have been made

Rather than rewrite the details here The link below will take you to a thread that has the posts that I have written in the last few days.

I'm not trying to sell Genelex. Other laboratories are doing genetic testing. But Genelex is the only company right now that provides the application of the genetic results to the drugs we are taking. Other companies, I'm sure are trying to build the same business model. It's the future of drug administration.

Why? Patients will no longer except being experimented upon with drugs that can harm them. If the docs won't do this because it's the right thing to do it. Then we have to PUSH them into doing the right thing.

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/73/topic/7...

count it all joy-out of the mouth of babes!

I try to do a yoga video once or twice a week. Just saw an article about yoga twice a week post cancer has better survival rates and better quality of life for cancer survivors. Yoga classes at the gym seem to be much better than my videos. I feel like I've had a massage afterwards

Thanks for the support ladies.  After I wrote that last night, I vented to my husband and accidently started crying.  (  I am so emotional lately.)  He gave me a hug and said that he was sorry he hasn't been doing more for me.  Then he told me he's taking me out to lunch today.  It's a start.

I sense we are all at the fed up stage..........like f*ck you stage.......not that I enjoy reading peoples down times but I realize I am not alone in this war against the Beast. 

Leealice - that will be me a big ole black bunch of chin hairs...they will be the first to resurface.

thanks for the nose tips, ive just been putting Vaseline in it to help with dryness.

I know I keep going on and on about it, but the hot/cold flashes are doing me in, like I am sweating to death but if you touch my head its freezing, so I guess I should go with clammy, "clammy flashes" may be a better word. what an awful frigging feeling.  Can hardly wait to have them during menopause, unless that is what is happening now who would know as I had a full period during chemo and spotting.  man talk about a mind *uck.... your whole body takes off on you.......be nice when it comes back.

Jodi, I do have a blah day and am thinking it is day 3. Hard to remember with all the other SEs. I commented a few of you FB posts. 😄 I just have my regular profile. I have written 7 notes on FB since my DX. They are all set to public as is my profile.

Jodi, That's awesome!

Good luck to all of us that have treatment today and tomorrow.

Deb