Starting Chemo in March 2014

Kris - so sorry to hear about you having to go to the hospital. How scary for your 17 year old. But yes, you should absolutely be proud for you guys getting through that.

WifeWBC - glad to hear your wife is feeling better. For me I found that I started feeling ok again by about day 8. Today I'm 11 days out from my infusion and I feel great.

I did get some bone pain last night, I had stopped taking Claritin two days ago. I really didn't expect to feel anything. Woke in the middle of the night with a sore back.  I took Claritin this morning and now it seems to be fine again. Really unsure if this was due to Neulasta or just a coincidence.

So far minimal neuropathy with the Taxol. I do get some tingling but I give my hands a massage with lotion and it goes right away

My onc said 8 days out from the Neulasta was pretty late to get aches.  But I did.  Heating pad was nice.

Morning ladies, Xrayalli, so sorry to hear about your abd. pains. Hope your getting some relief now. That seems to have been my only side effect so far since my 1st chemo tx on Friday was constipation. I ended up drinking a bottle of Mag Citrate like they have you buy for bowel prep and boy did it work. I admit I did not ask my doc about it, I just drank it but it sure did resolve the problem.

I gave myself my Neulasta shot yesterday and I've been taking my Claritan and so far so good other than a slight tenderness at injection site. 

So, Nina, was it you who made the gloves with the ice things in the fingers? Did you use them. I think I want to come up with something like that for my hands and feet before my next dose of Taxotere. I really would like to avoid the neuralgia, I do hair for a living tingly fingers and toes sound like they might get in my way. Anyone out there tried the cold pacs for hand and feet?

Well ladies hope you all have a good Sunday, and the nasty SE's stay at bay.

Hey!

Genny, I have road-tested the gloves and they work like a charm. Make sure you get large or extra-large gloves, as you'll need the room to wiggle the ice cubes into the fingers. And take your time with those ice cubes. They should be room temp, NOT frozen, when you put them in the fingers, because they're much easier to work with when they're not frozen.

When I put the gloves on, I slipped my fingers underneath the ice cubes and all was well. If my fingers got a little too cold, i just wiggled them out from under the ice for a moment but kept the glove on, then wiggled them back under the ice when I was ready. The first taxotere infusion was 3 hours long, so I didn't use it all the way through the infusion, but will definitely use it again during the next one.

Alli, I'm so sorry your stomach decided to go rogue on you! I hope you call your onco and let him know. Have you been sticking to a bland diet? 

I just wanted to make a plug here for something someone recommended a few days ago.  For those of us who are going to lose our hair....check out Patti's Pearls on You Tube.  I watched a couple of them and she is awesome and so encouraging.  I have already cut my hair short and am now waiting for the tingling, itchy scalp thing.  I wanted to know the best advice on shaving and she has one called "The Shaving Experience."  It was great and gave some little tidbits on the best way to shave our sensitive heads (she suggests leaving a little layer up there).  Not only was it a great and informative You Tube video, but she also reads a little thing at the end that was pretty powerful.  Just wanted you all to know....

I think the dulcolax makes you "have to go" but since you are probably constipated, you can't. So the pain is just pushing and pushing away inside. I took Colace 100 mgs, 3 times a day for 2 days and it worked well to relieve me.

thanks jmg58. Good to know. I will let you know how it turns out. 

I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome, support and advice. You all are the so very nice.

WifeWBC. We are both in our early 60's. You and your wife sure have a full plate. Four children under 12. Wow.

Mitzro. Could you tell your husband that he would benefit others by posting here. I am a veteran of some other types of support boards and I have noticed that no matter how long you are on a board you learn things from both the oldies AND the newbies.

NinaW. Remember that all those people that are 20 years older than you grew up in the 60's and 70's. I am sure many of them had some experience with pot. ( Of course I am just guessing about that. )  : )

Txplanner. So you are a dosimetrist who can not only plan the Rad treatment but might be able to get us a nice tax refund. : )

Xrayyalli. Do you use the bed buddy rice bag? My wife has 3 of those, 2 homemade corn bags and 3 different heating pads. She has so many types of cold packs that there is hardly room in the freezer for food. She can thank a rare and nasty form of arthritis for that collection.

She is getting her port put in tomorrow morning and then her first treatment, so things are a bit tense and edgy at this old man's house. I am keeping a positive attitude about all this. Of course she is very worried.  I just keep telling her that so many people have been through this so she can handle what is going to happen next just as others have handled all of it. I have relayed the advice that you all have given and she has found comfort in the things that I have told her.

Thanks again to everyone.

My head is killing me.  Day 6.  It just occurred to me that it might be my hair.  Sound reasonable?

My daughter is 16 and her first reaction to hearing about my cancer and upcoming chemo was to be concerned about my hair, and my son who is in his 2nd year of college had a different reaction: "Does that mean you get to take medical marijuana?" It's kind of funny actually how each of them has reacted with their own perspectives. My husband asked "How worried should I be?" and confessed he doesn't know what questions to ask. 

This started with a mammo on 3/4, a callback for ultrasound on 3/6 and a core needle biopsy the same day of a solid mass, followed by the official diagnosis of breast cancer on 3/10, surgeon consult that same day, another mass found in my armpit, and a needle aspiration confirming more cancer on 3/13. Off to radiology for PET/CT this Tuesday, 3/18. Consult with med oncologist the very next day to lay it all out for us. Every brutal but necessary detail. Having a port placed the next day, then commencing chemo. From mammo to chemo in less than 3 weeks. Amazing.

How is this happening so fast? Because I work in the lowest level of the building in radiation oncology and everybody's working me in. I've been a health professional involved in treating cancer for 26 years, first as a radiation therapist and then as a medical dosimetrist from 2008 on. And Xrayalli, I used to do mammography back in the mid-1980's, just as the first dedicated mammo units were being rolled out. There were still film-based back then, with dedicated dark rooms that had very strict QA. My interest in the cancer field as a career came from curiosity about breast cancer. I was wondering what happened to those women once we found cancer on their mammos, and I wanted to do more. So then I enrolled in a radiation therapy school because I wanted to treat cancer, not just diagnose it. The rest is history, except that now life is going to let me experience the patient perspective first hand. I know what I'm in for when it gets to the radiation part, at least. (And I'm happy to help answer any questions anyone has who's going through that.) But first, there's the dose-dense chemo regimen, first one this Friday.

Good morning,  cancerjourney, how ironic about your heart....here we think we do all the right things!  This new normal is so crazy.  I love what you did with your kids.  My hair is sort of short to begin with...I wonder if my kids would be as interested in helping me.  Right now my teenage daughter is really struggling,  somehow I don't think she would think it was fun....

I began this journey… (and i am beginning to see it as a journey) just about 5 weeks ago when while blow drying my hair I noticed a slight dimpling on my left breast. Didn't think a whole lot about it, kinda looked like cellulite, but not quite, so I called my PCP and she got me in 2 days later on a Friday, then waiting till Monday for the mammo and ultrasound, very next day to the surgeon, day after that a biopsy, and on Valentine's day my dx. Invasive lobular carcinoma with at least 2 lymph nodes involved, 3 days later my metastatic work-up. See, my husband and I were getting ready for a long ago planned trip to Key West for 1 week and they wanted me to have as much info as I could before we left. I am grateful at the way they hurried it along because truly I think that is the worse part. Anyway, after vacation I had to go right in for a second scan of my ovary for what they thought was a cyst, which it was, thank goodness. Then to the oncologist and last Friday my first go-round with Cytoxan and Taxotere, and of course Saturday the Neulasta. Saturday was great, got up and took my dogs for a 1 hour walk in the woods. Yesterday, went to a yoga class and then out to dinner with my hubby for our 12th anniversary. Then I woke up at 1am feeling just …blah.., minor stomach cramping, nothing to speak of really, took a couple of Tylenol and went back to bed. I arranged to have the day off of work because I wasn't sure how this first week after chemo would be. I am up and about now, and feeling ok, but it's like it's just hitting me. The fear, the uncertainty, all of it, just hit me this morning! I'm not sure what to do with it just yet, I truly haven't sat and cried since this whole mess began, maybe that's what I need. Anyway these boards are great for venting, and that's just what I felt like doing, so thanks all for listening. I'm just feeling sappy today.

And may I just say, I applaud the courage of all of you with kids at home having to face this. I am 56, my son is grown and I have a new 2 month old granddaughter that I can't wait to watch grow up. But having to deal with this while still being strong and brave for your children has got to put a huge weight on your backs. I wish you all the best and am thinking of the days when you'll all be watching your grandkids grow up.

Txplanner, one more thing, I am happy to ask for advice and understanding of the whole radiation process when I approach that phase.  It also scares me.  So THANK YOU!