Chemo in May 2014

Oh yes. I'm sorry about the name change. Was having some privacy issues with extended family members. 

Hi Ladies,

I am concerned about my fatigue. It's getting worse rather than better. It's been about a month since my last chemo. Fatigue started to get worse around the 3rd week after my last chemo. I am concerned about anemia. I saw my RO last Tuesday and asked him to order a CBC so I didn't have to go to my MO an hour away. He ordered it and the tech said the numbers were fine. I checked the ranges (given to me by my MO) and they are within the normal range. However, the online lab report (which wasn't available until later in the week) says they are not within normal range and they do not correspond within the normal range based on those listed on cancer.net (my onc's website of choice for patients).  I'm surprised i didn't get a call from my RO.  I don't really want to call anyone on this 3 day weekend because i am not sure how severe it is.  How bad can it get in 3 days? Then if i do call, who do i call?  RO or MO? If i call my MO she'll say the numbers aren't low.

 My only symptom is fatigue. But it has increased over time and spread (to arms when intially it was just legs).

Any thoughts?  Anyone have this experience? What would you do? Of course i'd hate to call the doc.

writing helps - I can tell you that I felt just as tired if not more tired a month after my last chemo. Remember this stuff is cumulative in your body.   If your HBG is low you are going to have muscle aches and tiredness and mine was still low  6 weeks PFC and I am pretty sure it is still low.  My Mo told me that it is not unusual for blood counts to remain low for a long time after chemo and that it isn't uncommon.  I  am over two months  out now and I am finally starting to get energy back and having less muscles aches/burning.  

Its 5 days PFC for me. Feeling bad, but not as bad as previous rounds due to dose reduction, I assume. I'm reading the posts on how long it takes to recover and wondering how my body will react to the mx and diep recon in just 29 days! Yikes! Hopefully they know what they're doing and my body can withstand getting knocked down one more time, but its hard to believe. 

Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend. School starts on Tuesday, can't wait to see the kiddos! I don't think I've ever been so excited to go back to work.

Oh and what we (actually DD & DH) did this labor day weekend.

I got peach fuzz and i got henna. and a smiley face.

Love the peach fuzz and the artwork writinghelps! I saw it before going to bed last night and ot prompted me to dream about brushing my hair, lol, one day.

The effects of chemo are cumulative so the se can be a bit worse wiith each round. Let your MO know what you are experiencing so he can make adjustments. For me, round five was horrendous so my MO gave me an extra week to recover before tx #6, plus he did a 20% dose reduction and scheduled 2 days for fluids. This made the last tx bearable. I took B6 for neuopathy, I had tingley toes and a tingley nose, but its all going away. I'm still fatigued, but feeling better each day. I'm almost 3 weeks pfc. I have some hair growth on my legs and an itchy scalp with some liitle hairs poking through I think!

May Ladies that did chemo first - yes WritingHelps, that means you too, when do you start feeling better. I'm still so sore in my muscles and I feel the neuropathy in my hands and feet keep getting worse. I had TCHP and my last chemo was 10/29 and I'm having a BMx with TEs on Tues. BTW - anything I must get to help with the recovery. Really freaking out about that. Thought my MIL was bringing a marcoupial drain puch belt, NOPE, just 1 hand made pouch by a lady from her church. Very nice... but.... too late or order the belt now. I'm thinking of clearing a path to my sewing machine and trying to concoct something.

Kmntwins, so sorry to hear you're still having problems. Hang in there. It will get better. My last chemo was 8/27 (6 rounds of TCHP) and I had surgery on 9/30. My tumor was completely gone from the chemo, so I opted for a lumpectomy with a lift. Going into the surgery I was still having a ton of side effects from the chemo. Particularly extreme muscle pain and pitted edema in my ankles and feet. It wasn't until 2 weeks post surgery that I started feeling a bit more normal. The thing that helped me the most was an anti inflammatory that my MO put me on. Once the muscle pain started to subside I was able to resume more of my normal activities. I still have some numbness in a few of my toes, but it doesn't bother me much. My MO recommends taking B6 to help. I'll start taking it when I get home from Thanksgiving vacation.

I had surgery first but I'm assuming you remember that. The fatigue that i felt from chemo (you know the one that would make you stop halfway up a flight of stairs) it finally left about 2 months after my last round. But i only had 4 rounds and i had TC (oh, I just scrolled up and noticed that's what you had too +HP). Maybe the HP causes it to linger? I've heard from some women that i am on another board with that H causes some back pain and such.

I don't know if I'd clear off my sewing machine unless you just needed something to distract you before surgery. They gave me a belt at the hospital that worked fine. I had to have a drain last year with a lumpectomy and then had 4 with the BMX. Intially, when they were all taped up real nice on me they were not a big pain. But when they removed 2 and then left 2 for a few more days, that is what was tough. For me the discomfort was in the area where the drains came out of me. Occasionally I could position them just right and they wouldn't pull. Gosh that seems like ages ago. It was 7 months ago.

One thing I found useful was a pain pump. Have I mentioned that to you? It's not really what it sounds like. I wanted to avoid meds after surgery (because I've been sober for 20+ years) and the doc and anesthesiologist decided to install (haha) the pump. They inserted a small catherter across my chest and it was like a soaker hose that distributed a constant flow of Novocaine or something in that family. It came with a ball that was filled with 5 days worth of the stuff. I think it made my recovery a lot easier. But remember i also didn't have reconstruction. I don't think they do this with everyone. Not sure why.

Well wishes to you on Tuesday.

Writings - I'm going to recover in such a short time I'll be at our support group's December dinner... or I'm hoping too. Please come. If not, hopefully I'll see you at the monthly meeting. BTW - I think I needed something to do, I got to the sewing machine and made 'pouches' for my camis. Gotta go down a bottle of water before my midnight cut off. I'm missing my morning coffee already. Oh, better take a stool softener!!!