Starting Chemo, November 2013 Group

bec, quirky: Thanks for the feedback on post rads SE. 

Lisa: No worries! Everybody is different so you may not experience the same SE. And radiating hair sounds nice!

Ellen: Your curls are impressive and stylish! I love it! How far are you PFC?

I tried to dye my hair today with all natural henna based product. The idea was to colour the white hair dark brown. After an hour of keeping the thick paste on my head I washed it off only to find out that my white hair actually turned.... Wait for it.....ORANGE!!!

Thank goodness this stuff is only temporary and will wash off. 

As far as my rads skin,  I noticed after 8 days PFR that the little grainy blisters are turning into a dry, itchy, peeling skin. The underarm area feels like an abrasion. Yay! Some progress!!!

Here is a pic of my hair creation.

ellen: Lol. I never thought I would be a ginger one day! You have been shining your light since the beginning!

Amazon, what is chaga tea?  What does it taste like? Also, love the goner hair!  My daughter is a red head.

Ellen, yiurmhairmlooks great, and it grows,fast!

this is my hair, it's growing fast. My hair used to be brown but now it's pitched black

inks: Thanks soooo much for sharing the study. 

What are/ will be your daily doses for all your supplements? 

Smrlvr: Chaga tea is a medicinal mushroom with one of the highest antioxidant properties. It is also anti-tumour. It tastes like light coffee and can be re brewed several times to get the max benefit. 

I drink it daily throughout the day. 

Phebe: Wow! Great hair! I wish mine came out as black as yours. 

My hubby commented on my hair length a couple of days ago saying that I don't have 'fly hair' any more, but a 'WW2 Japanese soldier hair' style.

There is some progress!!! Lol

I am 9 days PFR and my skin started to peel. So my patchy looking hair is matched by my patchy looking radiated skin. Actually the colour of my skin ranges from pink to red to more purple. I feel like I am blotchy all over:,from my partially regrown lashes and brows,  through partially regrown scalp hair, to partially regrowing skin.

Yay!  

I am PARTIALLY REGROWN !!!

smrlvr: I ordered mine from a Canadian company from New Brunswick.

Here is the link: 

www.fiddleheadheaven.com

smrlvr - yes, I take the turkey tail mushroom in capsules as a supplement (the dose they used in the study would be at least 8 capsules a day but I do not take that much). But I also read somewhere that eating white button mushrooms once a week would be beneficial with breast cancer, but I have no study to back that one up.

I have been working outside on our rentals for last 2 days and I finally feel like a human again. It's great to feel the wind blow through my brand new hair.

Amazon, mine didn't look quite as red, and I didn't get the greyish hue, but I had the same 50 Gys as you.  Both my RO and MO seemed astonished at how good my skin looked, so I think the expectation was that it should look like yours.  You're still so early PFR, that I bet it will start healing up rapidly in the next week or so.  I hope so!

If I could give you some of my tummy fat, I would. I don't want reconstruction myself, but I don't really want my tummy fat, either.   Now there's an advance they should look into: Tummy fat transplants!

ACK!  Lymphedema....maybe???????

So here are the details:  The skin on my left side (mastectomy and axillary dissection side ) has been "tingly" for a couple of weeks.  It doesn't hurt, but it's a bit sensitive to the touch.  Some parts close to my armpit are still numb, but the tingly area reaches from my front around to my spine.  All at the same time, I've been trying to rebuild my upper body strength....nothing major, just some push-ups against the kitchen sink, lifting 5-8 lb. weights.  I've also been painting the kitchen and polishing the cupboards.  I've been feeling a fullness, tightness, sometimes achiness on my left side, but I've attributed that entirely to what I've been doing.  After all, I sat on my duff not lifting a finger for months, now I'm acting like a normal human.  I figured the skin tingling was the nerves waking up.  

Well, the night before last, when I finally sat down on the couch to watch TV, I noticed my bra felt tight.  Visually, things looked the same.  I consulted Dr. Google ("truncal lymphedema"), and I saw a reco to wear the swell spot pad I have at night.  So, I did a chest measurement and wore the swell spot thing to bed.  By morning, my "circumference" was over a 1/2" smaller...and more comfortable.  I could even see the swelling I still have over one drain scar reduced.  

I called my lymphedema PT yesterday morning and relayed all this to her.  She says that it sounds like my lymphatic system is getting worked with my additional activity, that it's figuring out its new normal.  She wasn't concerned, but she also kindly reminded me to to the manual lymphatic drainage twice a day and to wear my compression sleeve.  

Here comes the whiney part.....I DON'T want to live with the achiness/soreness/tightness/fullness, and I HATE doing the stupid MLD and I HATE even more wearing that compression sleeve.  

That's it.  I realize there's nothing here that's going to make me happy.  BAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

P.S. Amazon, I love your red hair!!!  I wish mine were your color!

Agreed!   Very sassy!   Bec, glad you are venting.  Sorry you have to deal with the issues necessitating it.

Ellen, quirky: 

Bec: So sorry to hear that you have to deal with swelling. Perhaps, you need to take it easy on yourself as you may have been overdoing it. It's not fun that you may need to wear the sleave. I understand that you would be tired of wearing it. Yet another thing! 

Please, vent as much as you need. We are here and listening!

I am 15 days PFR and this rads gift seems to keep on giving. Today, for instance my skin became very tight, leathery, super dry, peely and it feels foreign as if I had a thin transparent film stuck all over it.  Also, I have some shooting pains radiating down to my finger tips with a warm sensation in my hand and a sore, swollen spot near my axilla.

When I am attending to my badly burnt chest I am reminded of the biblical Job who after being struck with many disasters like losing his children, property and servants brakes out with sores. He then sits by the garbage dump, takes out a piece of broken pottery to scape them. 

When will this end?

Bec65: are you doing the exercise the surgeon give you to do after operation? I got a book that I tried to follow daily. Like you say our arms have been resting and need to slowly work our way up. I'm seeing a physio therapist twice a week. I'm learning how to exercise properly and to keep it up. Different movements. My right arm where they insert the port needs to be worked on. I find it so frustrating to continue with exercises but I have to do it if I want my right arm to be able to move same movements as the other arm where I got the operation. Hope your arm gets better soon.

Smrlvr, all I can say to that is sh*t, that is NOT what I wanted to hear!

But, I'm going to try to be a big girl.  I didn't like flossing when I was told about fifteen years ago that I'd better do it twice a day if I wanted to help my gums keep my teeth in my head.  Now I can't stand it when I don't floss.  I will try to put TFS (its new name until I develop an affection for it) on before I go out for a walk tomorrow morning.  Argh.

bigt: LOL