Starting Chemo January 2015

Chemo day 1: on my way....tense, nervous,  & anxious. Im not one to request anxiety meds BUT I hope I get something today. Emotions ALL over the 

Thanks for listening,  I just needed to vent cause I know you all will understand. Hoping for minimal SE. Have a GreaT day all!  

hopefulmomof3. Hope your day goes really well! They say the first day is the scariest and it gets better from there in terms of anxiety. Thinking of you today!

Love

Kristin

RV6gal,

Thank you so much for the guidance re the phantom pain. It helps! Hope you are having a wonderful day

Kristin

HopefulMom - you got this!! Had my first chemo treatment last Thursday (1/8) and it went much better than anticipated. Thinking of you today and sending good positive thoughts ♡ Kim

Whehew, Wendy, and Cheryl, shave your hair girls! I am going to let my dad shave mine this weekend. He kind of wants to do it, I think it will be kind of fun and a way for him to take care of me. This is hard on him. I will take picture of my new look and post it.

I am three weeks out from my port placement and most of the discomfort is gone; it was pinching a nerve for a while but that has stopped now that the swelling is down. I been grateful for it every time it has been used so far. So it gets better!

I am a week out from chemo. Trying not to think about it so staying off the boards and working as much as I can. Feels pretty good. Walking 2 to 3 miles every day.

Good luck to all who start/ started chemo recently!

Dana

hopefulmomof3 - hope your first treatment went well, fingers crossed.

PMR53 - I think you had your first treatment today as well, hope yours went well too!!

beachbum - I agree with the colorpurple.  Your insight and humor has really helped ease some of my anxiety.  Thank you for being a part of this thread. You only did 4 rounds of Taxol, correct?

dstar - you and I start the same day.  Wishing you the best as you prepare.

I did find out that I will get my port the same day as my first chemo, so I'm happy to get it scheduled but anxious about the procedure.  It will make that first treatment an extra long day but I'm ready to move forward.  I've been very emotional about chemo altogether but today I have come to terms that it is going to happen. So I'm going to grit my teeth and face this storm head on.  We may get a little battered and tattered but we are going to heal.

Hi Cherylfg, I met with the RO yesterday and got my marks and tattoos for radiation. The Tumor Board meets on Tuesday and they suggested rads before going back to chemo. So I have the dry run on 1/22, and they are probably going to start the rads on the following Monday. So rads beat the chemo this time! But my MO was on vacation for the Tumor Board meeting so she didn't have a vote. I'll just be glad to get something going. I'm a little nervous about being out of chemo for so long, but I hope they are right with the plan they gave me. I have to trust someone. Seems weird to want to go to chemo, but necessary for me.

If you are having trouble with the SE's right off the bat, tell the MO when you go. Maybe you need more meds during the infusion. I always felt good day 1 and 2, and dropped on days 3 and 4. But AC is rough no matter what, and we are all different. I ate a lot of Zofran to keep the nausea away. And I never ever had to vomit. My worst nightmare!

Well anyway I won't be starting chemo again until March. But I like this group!

RV6gal, congrats on the hair shave! I wash my head with Baby Shampoo, no hair just my head. It seems normal. LOL I wash my wig and fuss with it. It's funny when someone calls to see how I'm doing and I tell them I'm doing my hair. They always want to call back later. Really? Why? My hair is in a bowl!!

LynnM, dstar, thecolorpurple, cherylfg, I finished the AC, but I am waiting for all of you at the finish line!! Plan a special treat to celebrate, it is rewarding to claim that prize at the end. I bought a new car, with 72 payments Just because I wanted to make sure I made it through to pay every payment, 6 years from now!

Positive attitude matters, even if you laugh and smile with a tear in your eye, we are all worth the fight, and more!

LynnM, I did 4 AC and 4 Taxol. I was supposed to go to chemo on 1/20 but the Tumor Board voted for rads then chemo again. So that is my plan for now. Any questions, just ask! Drink water, it flushes the chemo out. I loved popsicles! The cold felt good.

Bon, so Justkeepswimming we're in this together lol. I just want to like like like Beachbum today - a la RVgal. If there is no like feature we can just make one up ;0)

So my day started a little wrong because yesterday I had this huge bout of what I thought was fever. I asked my employee "Are you warm?" Yes, he says. So I removed my wool jacket. Ten minutes later, I asked again "are you still warm? Yes, he replied, so I opened my office door to get a bit of fresh air. Last night I took everything under the sun to curb the sore throat and twosneezes. This morning I called my onco nurse and she recommended that I come in urgently to measure my white count cells. I should have listened to myself and gone first thing in the morning but instead I had to go from downtown in the middle of the day SIGH.

I called my sister on the way and she said "Hello - have you ever heard of menopause???" So it dawned on me that I actually had my first hot flash. Are you laughing at me yet? I nevertheless went for the blood test, to be confirmed that all is well and that I am still going for chemo tomorrow. PHEW.

Hope I made you smile :0)

Think of me tomorrow! I am sorry for not remembering but I know there's someone else starting tomorrow?

Marjorie aka Tennisfan

I don't know if anyone plays Trivia Crack, but one of my questions today in the Science category was what type of doctor treats cancer patients? Trivia Crack humor, haha.  At least I got it right!! 

Good Morning dstar, Thank you, very kind of you, I appreciate your thoughtful words. I had my mastectomy 12/15. I had planned for reconstruction at the end of the surgery, however the tumor had attached to the skin. My BS and PS decided that they wanted to close without the reconstruction. The PS wanted to rearrange the remaining skin so he could have a better result to do the reconstruction after the site healed. So now that I am healed, I am leaning towards staying flat. It will depend on the remaining treatment, and how that goes. I really don't want to waste time recovering after the multiple surgeries.

I was supposed to stay overnight, but I stayed 4 days when my blood pressure would not stop dropping. My lowest bp was 70/34. But I must say the hospital was wonderful, the room service was very good, and the nurses were fantastic. And since I live alone, 4 days of the princess treatment was a huge bonus. I felt fine, but I have heart damage from the chemo, so they wouldn't release me until the cardiologist released me. But the mastectomy super easy for me. Even the drains were easy, annoying, but easy. Drains were removed 12/26.

I will go back to chemo, but rads are first. I just hope that the rads do the job to hold off the next chemo for a while.

Have a great day all!

Hi SweetHope, Adriamycin has a list of serious but uncommon side effects. It can interfere with the pumping action (EF) of the heart. It showed up on my Echo 4 weeks after I completed the AC chemo. I have constant fatigue and shortness of breath because of it. And I take meds twice a day for the rest of my life. I'm not sure why I wasn't sent for the Echo during treatment, and maybe could have stopped the AC. However, the AC shrunk my tumor about 60%. I cannot have Adriamycin ever again. Heart related problems can occur as late as 7 to 8 years after the use of Adriamycin. The information is available on Chemocare.com. I also had Taxol, and I cannot use any of the Taxanes again either. The tumor regrew during chemo. The growth started at the second infusion. Even though I finished the 4 Taxol, the response was less than desired. The information for Taxol is available online at Chemocare.com. I am triple negative so much harder to control and stop being invasive. I talked to my BS and she said while most patients do respond well to the cocktail of the 3, there are some cases that have growth on Taxol. But she did say it was unusual. They retested my receptors along with the removed breast after surgery to see if they had changed to explain the growth. The test returned results of all 3 triple negative. So I really don't have a good explanation of why it happened the way it did. At this point, I'm saying everyone is different and responds differently, with a frozen smile and grinding my teeth! But we all have to decide what treatment we choose to go through with, and the risk seemed low compared to possible benefit.

I don't even know if I'm posting in the correct forum. Heck I never thought I'd be here. Long story made short I've been diagnosed at the age of 41 with stage IIb. I have 2/4 lymp nodes positive. My tumor was 2cm. I start TC chemo Jan.21. I'm so scared. There are a few things I'm doing emotionally and I guess I want to make sure it's "normalish".

1. I'm scared since I had positive nodes the cancer is all over. I'm convinced I have bone pain etc....my onco didn't suggest any additional scans. Honestly I'm afraid to even ask for more tests.....my stomach is in knots as it is. Is it normal to feel this way?

2. I'm trying to save my hair with chemo cold caps and of course, it's another thing my onco is not happy about. I just want to try to control something happening to me. I feel like I've been on this massive rollercoaster ride since my diagnosis. Does anyone else feel this way?

3. Both onco and breast surgeon feel I'm disease free, but of course the nodes pushed me to the chemo/rads route. Even with a mastectomy. They didn't expect the nodes to come back a week later positive after they initially cleared them. Should I ask for further nodal disection?

4. I just don't even know what to expect. I'm afraid to look to much up. I really thought I would feel so much better after the cancer was removed. Now I feel obsessive. I have my "handout" on TC chemo and well, that'll make "chit" yourself. Then I hear the it's not too bad, but the neulasta shot is worse than anything. Shouldn't I be celebrating the chemo killing anything that may be left? I don't know, I just kind of needed a place to get some of this off my chest. My family is supportive, but I don't want to upset them with my concerns. Any advice would be appreciated.

5. Finally, I am a teacher, so in my building there are about 10 of us that have had BC. I think I'm the only node positive one and that scares the crap out of me. I feel like I have no hope because of node involvement. I'm 100%er/pr positive her2 neg. So definitely tamoxifen in my future. Again, just kind of reaching out, the node involvement seems to have thrown me way over the anxiety edge. Thanks for listening.

Michelle

U4iachic, stomach in knots? Then that is a yes, and probably everyone here had that. The unknown and waiting is the worst. Knowledge is power, and calms the nerves. Visit the forums here, a lot of good solid info in real time. Stay away from Google, a lot of bad, old info there.

I can't help you on the cold cap, but others in the forums will have answers for that. I had a real hair wig made, and I love it. Wash it once a wig, flat iron and I am good to go. I don't have energy to fight with my own hair. I am so hoping my hair grows back better than I had before. My hair is about 1/2 inch long, and my eyebrows and eyelashes are growing back already.

I trust my care team to guide me, and I am not going to over think a choice, or procedure as things change without warning. I have 14 Doctors and I hope they get it right.

Is your TC Taxol and Cytoxan? I had 8 Neulasta shots, one after every chemo treatment. I had AC/T. It was fine with the AC, I had bone and muscle pain with Taxol. The MO suggested Claritin 2 hours before the injection and every day for 4 to 5 days to relieve the pain. It did not work so I switched to tylenol with codeine. Worked fine, the last Neulasta was only a half dose.

Please don't worry about the nodes, it's nothing until it's something. I had 5 positive nodes before my chemo and mastectomy. Surgery pathology ZERO positive nodes. And everyone reacts differently to chemo, rads, and results. You are blessed to have a supportive family, enjoy the love and laughter that will bring you. Use the boards for research, venting, and ranting.

Any questions please post away, everyone here will help you!! We all have questions. There will be many things you can do to make it through chemo, we all have a long list of tips that will help. If you ask for suggestions, you will get a lot of replies. I can PM my list for you if you think it would help you. Take a break, and enjoy the weekend!

Welcome to this January Chemo thread Michelle but sorry you have to join us here. I think all you are feeling is totally normal. I was so worried about the cancer spreading initially that I thought I could actually feel pain. I did have a bone and CT scan (nothing found on either) which goes to show how powerful our minds are as I no longer have that pain. A positive mind encourages me to keep looking forward and to work hard at remaining positive also. As far as asking for more tests or more node surgery, I think you should definitely have that conversation with your doctor if only to hear their opinion about it. I have a very similar DX to you (my tumor was 2.8 cm) and while I know it can always spread despite surgery and treatment, I choose to keep it more to the back of my mind. The information found here and each step forward has helped me incredibly. You will get there too.

Hoping chemo for Tennisfan and Hydranne went very well today and everyone else is doing well too.

I went in today to get blood work done and it seems my white blood count was just a tiny bit too low! Boo!! So chemo #2 is delayed 1 day to Jan 20th. Not too terrible but I wasn't expecting it because I thought things were going well. They tell me that there was nothing I could do differently to get the count up. Sometimes this just happens and it doesn't mean it will happen each time. The good news is that it shows the chemo is working.

Take care everyone.