Told by phone, Invasive Ductile Carcinoma-- little other info

Thanks SlowDeepBreaths and SpecialK.

I'm mostly eating bland foods... nothing too sweet or fried. I've gained back some weight.

I think the pedialyte helps. I wasn't taking that before.

I really want dairy for the gentleness on my stomach and the protein but am trying lactose free milk to we if that can help.

I really am feeling better... mostly because my body is slowly recovering.

I'll be going in for chemo tomorrow. I hope they will use my port (there is a small red dot from where the needle went in... the nurse was hesitant in case it was infected but a radiologist saw it and said it should be ok. ..was probably just irritated maybe from a trace of chemo).

I sort of want to get my 2nd round and maybe see if I can avoid the dehydration this time since I'll be more prepared... but we'll see what the MO thinks!

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MO. called to tell me he's going to reduce thee taxotere. .. I feel a a bit like a wimp for not getting through my first cycle more easily. ..

Now please let my port look ok enough to use!!!

2nd. Chemo achieved yesterday! Had a different nurse who accepted the diagnosis of only a slight irritation of the needle price but port safe to use. Yay!

Oncologist reduced the amount of Taxotere. He also has me on a prescription of powdered glutamine mixed with water 3 X a day. And BioK probiotic.

Feel fine today. Had my first solid bm... but I'm sure it's just due to my body recovering. I'll have to see if things go bad again in a week... but the lower taxotere might help... plus being more prepared this time!

Sjacobs146 -- Thanks for your comments. I totally wasn't prepared for the D problem during my first cycle. I was still figuring out if I was going to be nauseous and if the neupogen shots would cause bone pain (didn't). And I had no idea about what I could eat because my sensitive mouth and stomach just refused to consider a lot of things.

By the time the D hit the immodium didn't have any effect. ... but I also didn't start early enough. And I wasn't up on what to do and watch out for regarding dehydration.

Now I check my blood pressure because low bp and high heartbeats is a sign (I had just been watching my temperature. .. but Luckily my blood counts were good). I now know to make sure to have pedialyte to keep my electrolytes up. And eat bananas to restore potassium and magnesium. And I'm taking BioK which is a probiotic. And was prescribed l-glutamine.

I've figured out what foods work but that was secondary to the D and dehydration which was the big danger.

I'm a bit sad that my taxotere had to be lowered this round since it would have been less than the loading dose and I do think I'm better prepared this time... but then the big D problem peaked around my nadir and I have yet to get there.... so things may go down hill then. I'm hoping it will be much better this round though.

Great to hear that I wasn't the only one who had a big problem with this. Also good to hear what helped with it. I can definitely use all the tips I can get as I don't want to wind up in hospital again. .. or have it interfere more with my treatment.

Hydranne -- I know... this totally feels like I've landed in a strange dream where it's all about cancer and medical appointments. *sigh*

I really am just trying to get by a as best I can. And like everyone else, am posting here to find support and information. This is a journey that people here might know something about... and be able to share their knowledge about. It's certainly more complex than most individuals can handle alone.

There's a TCHP thread... about results but others have also posted about their experiences and side effects.

There's also a TCH thread which can be useful since they are getting similar chemo drugs.

There should look be a thread for those starting chemo this month which will be helpful to join.

Best to you in your treatment. Plenty of people are doing ok.... it's not all bad side effects! I'm sorry you have to join us in this journey, but it's nice to have your helpful comments.

LATEST NEWS:

Nearly through 4th Cycle! I'm getting 2 weeks of 24 hr a day IV drips with a home unit to keep me hydrated and out of the hospital. Will probably have to continue to do that for the remaining cycles. Nothing is making a dent on the diarrhea... but as long as they can mitigate any danger by using the IV drips, I guess I'm good. Hopefully things won't get worse during the last 2 cycles due to cumulative effects... I haven't been able to get any exercise, so my muscle-tone is nil these days. Hopefully I can get back into some basic kind of shape after the chemo ends!

I just saw a surgeon, Dr. Giuliano at Cedars-Sinai (who helped pioneer SNB so fewer nodes would be removed). He said he should be able to do a lumpectomy with no problem, even though my breasts aren't very big (smaller with the weight loss!). That sounds OK to me. He said it looked like my tumor has shrunk... looking at an MRI from several weeks ago. Not a lot... maybe down to 2cm from 3cm... but I'll take any shrinking at all... and I do have several more cycles to go.

SlowDeepBreaths-- thanks for the good thoughts!

The size of my tumor has been a little worrying for me... I'm still annoyed that it wasn't caught earlier in a mammogram. Sucks to have dense breast tissue, I guess... Or maybe sucks that my regular tests didn't include something a bit more effective at catching bc earlier? But oh, well! (although... one wonders how effective future tests will be, if they seem to miss so many things???)

Size mostly worrying since a big size might mean a MX was called for, which would mean I'd have to think about reconstruction and maybe BMX...

So having it shrink a bit was good. And hearing I was still a good candidate for a LX was good. Sure, things could go south and I'd need a MX down the road, but why worry about that now?

Anyway, it's all very reassuring, seeing the course of treatment sorting itself out a bit more!

And I can't wait until chemo ends... geesh. What a bother it's been!

SlowDeepBreaths -- So... since mammograms don't seem to catch these things... Will you be getting a different sort of regular screening test in the future? I'm really curious about that... I'd really like a better way to catch these things before they grow too much!

SlowDeepBreaths -- Oh, that makes a lot more sense! I hope I'll be able to do that, too, when it comes to future screenings. (and I'd prefer ultrasounds any day... those mammograms are just awkward and painful, as well as being no good at catching my tumor!)

SlowDeepBreaths -- Yeah... I bet it's an uphill battle! I was asking about other screenings than mammograms even when I was getting my diagnostic mammo. I mean--I'd heard that mammograms weren't that effective with those with dense breast tissue. I'd had mammograms and yet found a lump in my breast... It was a no-brainer that mammograms weren't all that useful! So I asked them while I was getting the mammogram, and then when I was getting the ultrasound with needle biopsy (by then I was pretty sure things were NOT looking good)... and they STILL kept telling me that mammograms were it... that they could not possibly use ultrasounds for screenings since they needed somewhere specific to look for things...

So right then and there I was a bit disillusioned and frustrated.

I also asked why they didn't mammogram my other breast while they were doing the one I'd found a lump in... I mean, if I had to find a lump myself, who is to tell there wasn't something smaller that I couldn't feel in the other breast? But they said, "Oh, No... it doesn't work that way! You won't have anything in the other breast! It would have to be another cancer and the odds are against it." But--the odds were against me having the cancer in the first place, and yet I had it (I wasn't diagnosed yet, but I knew...). It just seemed to all make no sense at all. I mean--it made a little sense, but hey, if mammograms don't catch things like tumors, then there has to be another way! And there ARE people who have tumors in both breasts! And what if it had metastisized? Geesh...

Anyway-- good to know that you can at least TRY to get them to do ultrasounds... *sigh*

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NEWS:

SO... It looks like I'm having problems with neuropathy!

I have no nerve pain at all. I tripped over my own toe and twisted my ankle and then discovered that the top of my foot is now numb and I can't lift my foot at all ("drop-foot"). My MO sent me to a podiatrist. He did an MRI that didn't reveal anything obvious and sent me to a neurologist. The neurologist said it was most likely neuropathy... from the chemo. That it was affecting me peroneal nerve in my lower leg... that I tripped over my toe because it was gradually becoming affected... and now the nerve is blocked!

He said there's not a lot to do about it. He believes in infrared light therapy, but it's still in the testing stage. I asked him about possible homeopathic remedies and he suggested tumeric and alpha lipoic acid-- but said to go to a reputable homeopathic pharmacy, because there's no regulation on the over-the-counter stuff...

So... I'll probably need a foot brace to walk more easily... and i'm thinking of paying for my own infrared light kit (around $500-- no insurance coverage), and will need to check out the tumeric and whatever... Neuropathy is no fun, even if it isn't painful in my case.

Getting weak legs and a foot that drags is no good...!