April 2015 Chemo Crew... Starting in April? Please join us!

AndreaC, you look great! I see a lot of positivity in your eyes!

My BF came over and shaved my head the first time- my MO said it was alright yo have a "glass or two" so I bought champagne and we celebrated that I was the one making the decision to go bald- not cancer! I found it very empowering

KBeee - your posts have really, really helped me as I think about recurrence after treatment. My MO would likes to tell me that everything will be fine and I am essentially 'cured'. I really don't like medical providers reassuring me when they don't even know what will happen in the future. I like to be on my guard since BC came out from nowhere and knocked me flat on my behind - I don't trust those cells! I would like to be proactive - can I ask how often check-ups were post chemo for you the first time around? How can I be proactive moving forward through treatment? I am almost done with chemo (AC) and then begin tamoxifen. I had a BMX, Oncotype of 20, decided to be aggressive and am getting AC chemo for 4 sessions, and then tamoxifen. I will ask my MO whether they tested all of my tumors for the Oncotype DX.

getting fluids right now. 😥I hate cancer.

well heres my story. i am 29 married with 3 kids (11,6,2) I had my first child when i was only 18 and still have a year left of high school. sadly before my daughter was even a year old the father committed suicide, so then i was left to be the mommy and the daddy. me and my daughter moved out of my parents house when i was 19, i spent only a couple years by myself before meeting what is now my husband. we have been together 8 years and have 2 children together. i live in a small town close to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY. Its a very nice quiet town and a great place to raise a family. well lets jump to my diagnoses. in December of 2014 i was laying in bed with my husband and my youngest. i remember brushing my hand across my chest and feeling just a little lump sticking out. i was also nursing at the time so i really didn't think too much of it, actually thought it was a clogged duct but i knew that it wasn't there before. days went by and i told my husband the lump was still there. he wasn't concerned because hey i was nursing.....breastfeeding is supposed to lower your risk of breast cancer- so they say. a few more weeks went on and i began to notcie that the lump was actually starting to cause me pain, like a burning pain that would shoot over to my shoulder and down my arm. now i was worried. i made an appointment with women's health and from there she made a referral to see a breast surgeon. the first breast surgeon i saw was a joke. his words exactly "well breast cancer doesn't typically cause pain so im not concerned" he said to come back in April for a biopsy if it didn't go away. i left there still wondering what the hell was in my breast. i went home and let it go another week before i finally called and demanded a 2nd opinion and man i am blessed that i did. i managed to get the most highly recommend breast dr there. She looked at me and told me that she didn't think it was anything BUT if it was that its very small and she would expect me to do well with treatment. she scheduled a biopsy for the following week and man oh man did that hurt. 2 days after the biopsy i had the results. Cancer. so some reason i wasn't surprised. i felt like i was getting signs from everywhere. i would open a magazine and see something on tv and it was about cancer. i also found out i am BRCA2 positive and the cancer is triple negative. just ducky. I found the cancer early. Stage 1A no lymph node involvement. Thank god. I underwent a bilateral mastectomy on 4/1- that was a cake walk compared to the 3 c sections i went though, i thought anyway. i started chemo on 4/21. the first A/C whopped me for about 5 days. the 2nd treatment was much much better and tomorrow i go in for my 3rd a/c. i will have a total of 16 treatments and cant wait for them to be over. i am hoping to get through this journey in my life with my sense of humor intact and be here for many many years to come.

I ended up cutting my hair chin length before it actually started falling out. When it started falling out really fast I had my husband shave it with an electric buzzer. I wear a scarf around. You will also notice the rest of your hair falling out because you will find tiny little hairs all over. You can do it.

Stephmoen my breast I had the cancer in also didn't produce as much as the right. That's weird.

I'm thinking that the first doc I saw is aware that is was cancer now. They do weekly tumor boards and I'm sure once he saw my stars pop up he felt like crap. Well at least I hope he did and I hope he knows better now. He was hair so sure that it was nothing because I am only 29 and was breast feeding.

some people have no compassion. I was blessed with my MO, plastic surgeon and breast surgeon. My breast surgeon when I see her every time she comes over and pats me on the shoulder and sits right next to me to talk to me. My breast surgeon is the same way. Actually when I had the mastectomy they both stopped in both days I was there to see how I was doing. My oncologist is just absolutely amazing. He's serious yet comical and makes me at ease.

I love all the personal stories - so great to get to know you all! Okay, it's my turn...

I'm 52. I am the middle child...older brother, younger sister. Grew up in Victoria BC - daughter of a teacher. When I was 14 my dad got a job teaching Army brats in Germany so we moved there for three years. We took advantage of it and travelled every chance we could get, all over Europe. It was amazing! I graduated from grade 12 once we were back in Canada, worked for a year in the office of a stockbrokerage then moved up-island to Nanaimo to live with (and subsequently marry) my boyfriend. We had two kids together but a miserable marriage...we divorced after 13 years. By this time I was a nursing student, halfway through my program.

I met and married my soulmate Ian about 4 years later. He's so kind and understanding...exactly opposite of hubby #1!

Anyway, my kids are now 32 and almost 29. My daughter Christina (also a nurse) has a 2 1/2 year old son and 5 month old daughter...the grandkids are absolutely the best things in my life!

My son James lives in Ottawa - all the way across the country so I don't see him much. But he is doing well, has a good job with IBM and is happy.

I graduated from nursing school in 1997 and since 1998 have been working at a small community hospital in Duncan BC, where we moved 10 years ago. I have been working in ICU for the last 9 years, although I am on medical leave now.

I was anemic for a few years and it was getting worse when I had a FIT (fecal immunochemical test) in fall of 2013. It was positive...so I had a colonoscopy which showed a tumour. On Dec. 5, 2013 I had a left hemicolectomy followed by 6 months of chemo. The cancer had not spread and I was deemed to be cancer-free.

Early December of 2014 I had a screening mammogram. I had not had one for 7 years..too busy...so I said. But I felt that I was low risk because I do not have a family history. Well, they saw something in my left breast so I went back for a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound, then a biopsy on New Year's Eve, I found out about a week later that it was cancer. I was going to have a lumpectomy and radiation but had a screening CT, at which another tumour was detected in the right breast. I could actually feel that one. It had been missed on the mammogram.

So...the plan changed and I underwent a BMX on March 26 and am now on chemo - four cycles of TC - and will have radiation once this is over. I have lymph node involvement which is a bit scary, but only on the left side which was ER and PR positive. The tumour on the right was triple negative, which would have been bad if it had spread to the lymph nodes but it did not! It's very weird having had bilateral breast cancer - diagnosed at the same time but two different types of tumour. Neither has any relation to the colon cancer either. I am having a genetic counselling appointment in a year or so.

That's about it...sorry it's so wordy!

Andrea

this week is my chemo cocktail. Tomorrow actually. I go for my 3rd a/c. Last chemo my nurse asked me if I wanted a juice- I asked for pineapple juice, then told her "I wouldn't mind if you added some coconut rum to that either" oh how I miss mixed drinks already. It's finally getting warm where I am and right about now I would be having a drink and sitting on my deck while I watch my kids play. But that's okay. This time next year I will be doing just that.

May I join you for Pina coladas? First day back at work here...about as tired as I expected to be. Going out in the feild tomorrow for a while...hope I can hack it! Moved my final AC to this Friday, so I will be wheels up most of next week....then on to taxol. Ladies who have moved on to that...how is it treating you? Hope everyone is feeling OK today! Thanks for the song Kbeeee!

I've done 3 TCs and while I am having SEs, they've been better than I expected. I don't know if I can sort out T versus C, but what SEs are you worried about?

one lady I spoke to had an allergic reaction to it during her infusion and actually had a hard time breathing, the other lady I spoke to had horrible reactions to it. She said her nails fell off. I guess this is all stuff I will speak to my MO about before I start.

that's good to know. I will be sure to tell them how I'm feeling during the infusion. I still have 2 a/c to do.