Starting Chemo January 6, 2014

I am getting the white monkey fur all over my head.  It is not as fast as I would like. I have a very few black hairs. I wish it would grow faster.

Is anyone still having se's from Taxol? I am miserable.  I am still tired, still hurt, my fingernails and toenails are brown and one is about 3/4's of the way off and is painful.

How are everyone's muscles post chemo??

My legs are are constantly sore, they feel like sausages! Anyone else experience this?

belleb - interesting... My hip is just about killing me.  I injured it when I was very young and every so often it flares.  But this flare has been since chemo ended.  I told my husband I wonder if it is arthritis starting.  Now I wonder if it has to do with chemo... hmmmmm.....  My RO told me that anything and everything from this point forward, pain, disease, etc... we can blame on chemo and radiation.  Not happy about that thought - but we do what we have to do.  Wish you all a great weekend!!! 

smartasssmurf-Congratulations!!!! It's pretty damn exciting isn't it? I know...I finished 5/12/14 at 4:15pm.

I also have herceptin til January. Well I skipped my last one(prob skip two, surgery 7/1) due to my echocardiogram showing some stress on my heart. Sorry if I'm repeating myself I can't remember who I told what and where.

Congrats to all those done chemo!  I get my last one on Wednesday - can't wait!!!

Crazy - you made me laugh with your lack of blood chunks from your nose!  Yes, I am looking forward to that also.

Does anyone know when the white/gray hair will change, if it is going to at all?  I have some hair on my head now, just a little, but it is white and some dark.  Wondering if this is what it will be or will it change to dark again (what I had before).  I'm only 45, I want my dark hair back!

Also, my eyelashes look good and mostly dark!  My eyebrows have been growing in, but they are almost all white.  Can't see them.  Does anyone know when they will be dark again?

Have a great weekend!!!  I'm going to rest up today. Celebrated my son's birthday yesterday and will some more tomorrow.

birdlover -- this is my 2nd time going through chemo, and my experience has been that that crazy white baby-bird hair that comes in at first goes away eventually. Actually, when I went through this last time, I buzzed off all that crazy white stuff that came in first, and the next batch came in normal. Well, semi-normal. My pre-chemo hair color was a pretty medium brown with just a bit of a reddish/gold to it. My post-chemo hair color is a much darker brown with no red/gold tone to it at all. This time, I'm just letting the crazy white stuff go for now -- even baby-bird hair is better than nothing. ;-)

Congrats to you ladies that are finishing up!!

4 weeks PFC tomorrow and I said goodbye to my final eyelash this morning, the eyebrows left last week, funny how things continue to crop up after we're done!

Thank you for the good thoughts & congratulations on finishing chemo. So happy to be done.

I too will not miss the Taxol nose...hopefully that will go away soon.

I have the monkey/bird fuzz that appears to be sort of colorless. No eyebrows or lashes though. Not. One. It is still a little unnerving when I see myself in the mirror at home.

Good luck Birdlover on your last chemo Wednesday. I hope it all goes well!

Hope it's okay that I posted here! I'm a March chemo chick!

Alli

Marren - a friend of mine had the pulsating eye post-chemo.  She went to the eye dr just in case, but it eventually went away.

Will be praying for you tomorrow and sending healing thoughts.  I already had my BMX with TE in December, so I guess it is easy for me to say, but you should feel so much better once it is done.  I know I would not be able to stand the daily worry for the rest of my life.  We will all still worry, but for me, with BMX, I hope to not worry as much.  Let yourself heal, I hope you can take it easy after surgery.  I am still being expanded, my dr said no rush.  My implant surgery is in Sept/Oct, needed to wait a good 8 weeks or so after chemo is finished.  Take the expansion slow if you need to, don't let anyone rush you.

Good luck tomorrow

Watch TV or read a book today/tonight.  Distract yourself!

I was told the eye twitch is from Taxotere.  I had it bad after rounds 3 & 4.  Eyelashes and Eyebrows: DH and I are sitting on the patio Sunday and looks at me and says "your eyes looked naked, you have no eyelashes" To which I promptly responded, yes I do I have 6 on each eye.    I noticed that the eyebrows are growing back but not the eyelashes.  At 6 weeks PFC I too have the baby bird hair.....

hope your surgery went well Marren. thinking of you!

Marren and birdlover -- Once I was 5 years out from my BMX, my breast surgeon stopped monitoring me and just said to call if I had a problem. My first recurrence wasn't even considered a recurrence, because it was SO far out from my original DCIS (12 years). They called it a new primary, and I was the one that found it -- it was a very noticeable lump. After finishing chemo, radiation and a year of Herceptin, I went to being monitored by 3 different doctors -- my medical oncologist (every 3 months), and my breast surgeon and radiation oncologist ( both every 6 months). My breast surgeon would sometimes do an ultrasound, and once did a biopsy, which turned out to be nothing. My MO examined me and did blood tests -- tumor markers were always good. Even with all that monitoring, nobody caught it until I was symptomatic from having it spread to my lungs. It's hard because you don't want to worry about every little thing that comes along, but apparently a cough that won't go away is cause for concern.

I've responded well to treatment, but I'm not bouncing back from chemo quite as well this time. I hope to keep improving though. I see my MO every 3 weeks (still getting Herceptin and Perjeta), and I have a PET scan done every 3 months.

hello ladies,

I got home yesterday from my surgery. It went well, I'm really sore but I expected that. I'm just resting and popping pills at this point. 

The surgeon decided once she got into surgery that I was a good candidate for immediate implants. So she called my husband and asked if that was okay. That's a dangerous decision to give to a man; I could have woken up to double Ds.

Luckily we had discussed what size. But I thought a was getting expanders, but I'm not complaining I get to skip all that. She did saw sometimes they need to be tweaked. But they look pretty good. It's hard to tell too much right now. Because of swelling and bruising.

Carolsue-I'm so glad your responding to treatment. But sorry to hear it's been harder on you. 

I did the same chemo you did. I did 6 cycles. How many did you do? How long have you been done? Sorry I can't remember.

Okay ladies have a good night. 

Hi Everyone!

I'm finally a chemo grad!!!  Looking forward to feeling better after my few days of yucky are gone.

Marren -  implants all in one surgery - that is great!  Expanders are doable, but not fun at all, so lucky you   I hope you continue to heal well.

carolsue - thank you for giving us all so much info.  You have been very helpful.  I hope you are able to take it relatively easy and let your body heal.  You have been through so much.

Congratulations birdlover! Hope you're feeling better very soon! Isn't it the greatest feeling knowing that you're not going to have to do it again? :-)