September 2013 Chemo Group

Ugh, no fun Simplelife! A few weeks is long enough! I just noticed a couple areas of the hypersensitive skin on my chest. I put on a tight tank top that I had. I just can't stand a shirt rubbing against me. 

I have some fluid buildup today. What is done about that, if anything, and how much does there have to be? It is pretty uncomfortable. I probably got my drains out too early but I couldn't stand those sons a beaches. Do you think it will affect my fill tomorrow? I hope not. I really want to get one one so it will hopefully do some unfolding and fix some other pain issues, and I am going to a good friend's birthday party this weekend. Never imagined that I would be feeling anywhere up to it when he invited me a month ago, but I think I will! 

Art: good to hear she is doing so well! I am still taking Lortabs. I was down to a half a pill twice a day until today I had a  bad day. Tell her not to be a superwoman though! If she needs them, she needs them. It helps the body to heal easier when you don't have the psychological trauma of pain. 

Art, Glad to hear Nat is feeling a bit better.

KJ,  Interesting about the compression shirts.  I wouldn't have thought of that.

Mama, Hope you get your fill today!  Glad you heard those 3 amazing words!

Simplelife, I hope you get some answers about the hypersensitive skin.  My skin  on my chest is not hypersensitive to touch, but it does seem to be hyperreactive now.  Any adhesives and I break out immediately.  They had to give me benedryl after my exchange because of one piece of tape.  I do not get the same reaction on my arms, etc.....odd.  I hope you can get some help with the cording too.

Betterday, I hope those hair sprouts take off and grow, grow, grow this week.

Running, hope the exercies help with the cording.

LHL, I hope the headache is gone.

I thought my fill was today but it is Wednesday. Soooooo sad  

70s charger: O....M....G... is that yours?!!!!!!

Miss Mamma  The first pic ( dark green) is ours. That was taken at one of the car shows last year.

Hair watch girls - there is hope!!!  This first pic was me the other day, 12 weeks PFC.  The second pic was two weeks ago.  

Still not enough to go topless (for me), but getting there.

Had to take Hubby to the oral surgeon this morning.  This man needs sedation for a teeth cleaning, so you can imagine how he was today.  So stressed out and now he's SACKED OUT.  He'll probably sleep the rest of the day.  

KJ - Hope the rads boost goes ok today!

mama - bummer about the fill!  

vintagegal - mine was pure white when it first started coming in too! I still have about half gray but some of it did darken up.

70Charger,
I hope you aren't saying you caused the crumple with a chemo brain accident?!?!

LightHouse,
Looking good!  Looks like it is thickening nicely.  I probably have about the same, but mine is finer and very light.

The boost rad went ok today.  I decided to blindfold myself.  Put my knit hat over my eyes once I got on the table.  :-)

70Charger,
Those look like a lot of fun!  Stay safe and don't accept any challenges from Bieber.  ;-)

70 - I miss those cars!  I graduated in '74 and the parking lot at my high school was filled with cars like yours!

simple - after ALND I found relief from the weird hypersensitive skin feeling with fabric between the arm and the skin on my side - as long as I did not have skin to skin contact I was more comfortable.  The good news is that this does subside over time.  At this point I have full feeling on all of the arm, the only place that is numb is the actual underarm and I only notice that when I shave.  It took a number of months of gradual improvement though, so be patient.

congratulations on finishing rads Alfranco

Josgirl, they probaby just thought you had a hip super-short haircut.  I whipped off my hat the first time in public last week by accident.  My brother had just called on my cell phone and I couldn't hear him so I took of my cap to hear.  It was several minutes before I realized what I had done.  I felt naked, but nobody fainted.  I was standing in a line to check in at the breast center for a doctor's appointment.  If I had to be bald anywhere by accident, it was probably one of the best places to do it.

{{hugs}}  Betterday - I know what you mean.  I've been extremely fatigued the last 3-4 days.... like going through chemo fatigue, and this is after weeks of feeling pretty darn good post-bmx.  So all of the sudden I'm like, what in the world is wrong with me?!?!??!  

Saw my MO today and he didn't see any reason (other than having $##%$@#$ cancer) for me to be so tired. My blood counts were good, my weight is steady, blood pressure was normal, I haven't changed meds.... so why do I feel like I can't even get off the couch???? I was feeling good up until last week.....then it's like I hit a brick wall. Migraine Saturday and extreme fatigue ever since. I feel chilled, too, but no fever or any other symptoms. Very weird. Oh well... I guess if something was going on like an infection it would have shown up on my white blood cell count. Maybe my body is just telling me to slow the heck down.  He is going to run thyroid tests, but I've had those before and they always come back normal, even though I have most of the symptoms of hypothyroidism.  

LHL: I have long suffered from all of the symptoms of hypothyroidism but the tests have always come back normal, too. I started looking into they hypothyroidism thing a bit shortly before I was diagnosed because I was REALLY run down and my PCP was trying to figure out what was up. I read that they only test a couple of the different hormones but the other hormones could still be low. I read this in reading about some natural hormone supplements that are derived from (I think) pigs (forgive the chemo brain). Then I read about iodine supplements after diagnosis. That is something that I think I am going to do. It is said to help with all the hypothyroidism type symptoms and that the American diet doesn't get enough iodine because there really is barely any in table salt. You would have to eat a lot of kelp to get it. Iodine deficiency is also said to be a possible cancer cause. I will get on it pretty soon and let you know what you find out (and if you look into it first, let me know!)

Went to my 2 week with my BS today. She was super excited about my surgical outcome and things I am going to have great results and that my PS should be able to fix anything that is cosmetically off. She okayed my appt with a Lymphodema PT to be proactive and also get me back up to par sooner. I don't have to go back to see her for a year! I teared up. That feels like a big milestone. One less doctor to visit. 

70scharger: Thanks for the pics! I used to be really big into muscle cars and go to car shows all the time. Ooooooohhhh how I love them! Beautful stuff there!

Alfranco,
Congrats on being done with rads!!  You too, Peacock!!

LHL,
Sorry you are still so tired.  I think you are doing too much and expecting too much of yourself. ;-) 

Running,
I think we will all have that breakdown at some point in the next few months.  I've been putting it off until after rads.  There is just so much mental work for me to get through rads that I don't feel like I can break down right now.

Had four appointments today.  BS drew 70cc's from right chest (the infected side) and it is feeling better with the relief and the antibiotics.  Doc didn't expect me to feel the needle.  Well... I DID!!!  Right before they started the procedure, I intentionally put my right hand below my bum so that I wouldn't grab anyone or anything if it was painful.  They thought that was unnecessary until the needle must have hit the only remaining nerve in my right chest!!  They wiggled around in there to make sure they could aspirate as much as possible.  Felt that too.  :-(  Necessary evils.

Increasingly Maddening Right Ta-Ta.

Next was the appointment with the Lymphedema Doc.  She took measurements and my arms haven't swollen since she first measured about 5 weeks ago.  Then she measured my ranges of motion in both arms.  Left arm actually was better than right.  Then, she massaged the drain sites to help break up some of the scar tissue.  It was painful, but will help in the long run with range of motion.  After the PT visit, I headed to work for a few hours and then to radiation.  After radiation I had my weekly visit with the radiation oncologist.  My skin is holding up better than they expected (thanks to a little help from my friends here with the lotion plan!!).

All these doctor visits are deductible, right?  The mileage?  Start at home, drive 30 miles south to the BA appointment.  Drive 30 miles back to my home town for the PT appointment.  Later, 30 miles North for radiation.  120 miles.  And I put in six hours of work today.

Needless to say, I am home now and exhausted.  But, when I got home, my son had done the dishes AND made dinner!!  Life is SO Good!!  ;-)