Starting Chemo March 2015

Welcome, Neverthought! You have a lot of variables going on with chemo so it's hard to pin down causes. Best to just treat the SE without regard to exactly which poison caused it.

I for example, am terribly sensitive to steroids because I am bipolar. They make everyone crazy. The primary complaint is sleeplessness. Of course, if you could sleep, you might not notice the pain as much. Your tapes should help, but maybe the doc can prescribe something to relax you, or a sleep aid on a very short term basis.

You can ask for oxycodone for pain, it is pure pain med with no added acetaminophen or NSAIDs. But you have to prostrate yourself to get it because it's a narcotic. There are no refills allowed, each time you get your prescription, it is a hard copy (no fax or computer submission allowed) that must be handed to the pharmacists.

If you are receiving Neulasta shots the day after chemo for white count stimulation, this can cause moderate to severe bone pain. Claritin is not a pain reliever per se, but it is scripted to help with that specific side effect. All of this should improve as you get deeper into your cycle of this first treatment. I would definitely call your MO TODAY, no matter that it is Sunday. There is always someone on call. Tell them what's going on. There is a lot they can do to make you more comfortable. This is no time to be a hero. No time to suffer in silence. Take any help you can get! Good lug. Big hug. Katy

PTMully, welcome to our community, and thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. It is really helpful!

Neverthought, you may want to look at this section for sleeping suggestions:

Treatment for sleep problems

Insomnia

Thinking of all you wonderful women!

hair is shedding. Every time I run my fingers through it or comb my hair about ten strands come out. Argh. Do I chance wearing my hair to work tomorrow in a pony tail? So frustrating!

On the positive side, at least I have no scalp pain or headaches. But the whole strand is coming out, from the scalp.

PT: Thank you so much for your post.

Meme: I can't comment on the medical stuff as the other ladies but I want to send hugs to you.

I am trying to read all the replies. We just landed in NOLA so hopefully I can get the chemo issue resolved. I have joined the NOLA FB group and several of them tell me they had chemo first.

Thinking of all of you.

Good evening ladies.  I started chemo on Feb 26th and am on the 12 week Taxol with Herceptin.  I would love to join you if you have room for one more.

I was diagnosed with dcis on Oct 14th.  I went in for the lumpectomy.  During the mammogram to place the wire, they found my stage 1 triple positive invasive cancer.  The lumpectomy was canceled and we did a biopsy instead.  Because I was the proud owner of two different kinds of breast cancer, I had a bi-later al mastectomy on Jab 16th and started chemo Feb 26th. 

My only side effects as of now have been horrible heartburn for which I take Pepcid.  I started getting very painful lumps (pimples perhaps) in my scalp and have noticed my body hair is thinning (I haven't had to shave my underarms since Monday). 

My only major issue is the port.  My port is in my arm and is rubbing so badly on my swollen side boob.  It's irritated and painful.  I'd love to discuss the arm port if anyone has any suggestions!

and a warm welcome to you cja. You started so late in Februrary you're a natch for the March group. Of course we have room for you. We NEED you because you are just that little bit ahead of us that you can shine the light onto the dark path in front of us.

I can't help with technical info on the arm port. All I can say is I was sore to the touch a lot longer than they warned me I would be. But it is slowly improving.

How is your surgery reconvert going? What's special in your chemo bag? We have a lot to catch up on, girl

Thanks Jackbirdie!

Recovery has been great other than intense swelling.  My plastic surgeon said this is still normal but I have D cup side boob.  Not normal to me.  He assures me that it will go away.  I have expanders and will have the exchange in July. 

The only thing special in my chemo bag is a prayer shawl that was given to me and pictures of my 4 and 7 yr old daughters.  I'm not a very religious person, but this shawl brings me comfort and the pictures remind me of why I am fighting.  My infusion center provides everything I could need otherwise.

cja- I'm glad the shawl brings you comfort. Your daughters (and therefore you), are so young. A big but gentle hug to you. Katy

thanks for posting the pics Shaz. They help. I think I am right behind you, sigh. The hardest part for me will be wearing all the contraptions. I don't like wearing things on my head, and I still haven't told anybody at work but my boss and Cheryl, my riding buddy. Oh well, we will see how it goes. My husband is on standby with the hair clippers. We went for a long beach walk so I would quit combing my hair and obsessing over how many hairs are coming out. So that helped.

I guess for me it just makes it more real because right now I have no external physical evidence of what I am going through. I'm not depressed, actually I'm kind of pissed off that the only tool we have is this barbaric treatment with chemo. And since I am Er/Pr negative and only slightly Her2, chemo is all I've got other than Herceptin, which may or may not work for me given that they had to do three levels of testing to figure out I may benefit from Herceptin. No Tamoxifen or AIs down the road. I just keep telling myself that the majority of women do fine with just surgery, and the chemo is insurance.

I actually had a doctor say to me oh, your breast cancer is the worst kind with a terrible prognosis. Needless to say, I tore her up and fired her that same day. I mean, how insensitive can a person be? My current oncologist has scanned the crap,out of me, and is being so brutal with treatment because she said she is going for cure. I hope so.

Welcome C! Auto correct on kindle kept changing your acronym ha, argh I can't say much about the port since mine goes in tomorrow. I plan to add pics of my kids to my chemo bag for ties. They are grown but still a huge motivation to stick around. Shaz you look great and since my short cut looks bad I may buzz sooner than necessary. Rip the bandaid off I guess

Italy I could just see you and hubby walking on the beach. I know you must be worried about the work situation, I am too. I did decide to not be so secretive...what if someone else gets BC and they could use me to talk to? How would they know if I don't let the rumor mill pick me up?

Katy thanks for the info on green tea. I will read up. Hope you're enjoying some nice weather this weekend and little Jack is well.

Have a great week everyone!

Good morning! I'm getting ready for my friend to pick me up and it's off to AC number 2. It's about an hour's drive, so I'll take me Zofran, Emend, and dexamethasone just before I go - that way, my med levels will be up by the time the infusion starts.

It's two weeks today since the first one. My hair is pretty "loose" - not quite falling out on its own, but if I touch it or grasp any hairs, they come right out. Won't be long now.

Wishing everyone a healing day. Gentle hugs.

Leighrh, I'm not getting Neulasta shot either, it has never been mentioned to me by my MO. Only heard about it on these boards .

I'm not getting the shot either. I wonder if it's because of not getting the Adriamycin, as that seems to have the most SEs.

I am lurking here even though I'm part of the February group. I think the Nuelasta shot comes into play when you do a dose dense A/C. I'm trying to decide whether to do one or the other right now as I'm still doing Taxol.

If you do a dose dense A/C, you can get your infusions two weeks apart and take the Nuelasta shot 24 hours after the injection. If you do the routine A/C, then you get the infusion three weeks apart and no need for Nuelasta.