Anyone do TC chemo? What was your experience?

I was diagnosed with TNBC in May of 2013. I did 4 rounds of TC.  Luckily, I was one of the ones that had very few problems with the chemo. I did lose my hair (which I expected). It has been 2 years with no recurrence but just recently had a scare. This past week when I had my blood work done, there was an increase in my liver enzymes...ast was 44. My oncologist said it was only a minor increase but he still wanted to check it out. He wanted CT scans but I reminded him that I have a bad reaction to the dye so he said we'd start with a liver ultrasound (of course it was on a Friday, so I have to wait all weekend!) Thankfully got results today...just fatty liver. Woo hoo!. Time to get serious about losing some weight!

Hope your chemo goes as smoothly as mine. Good luck!

I thought I'd share my wife's experience- Background: The hospital did a needle-core biopsy and told us it was TN. She was diagnosed (incorrectly) as stage 2, ultrasounds on axillary lymph nodes were reported as "clear". She was scheduled for a lumpectomy; the surgery ran-on a lot longer, surgeon came out and told me the primary tumor was large- 10cm I think it was, and 9 of 12 nodes were positive. Re-staged 3b. Ended up having a modified lumpectomy/mastectomy of sorts. If she was correctly diagnosed she would have been a candidate for neo-adjuvant therapy prior to surgery had made the correct diagnosis. Either the technicians didn't know what they were looking at or something as some of her lymph nodes were large and matted and over 2cm. I lost faith in them that day. I think maybe there ought to be two people reviewing all scans, mammograms, etc.

Chemotherapy:

She did dose-dense A/C chemotherapy and when it came time for the TC regimen I asked about the platinum drugs, the oncologist spoke with the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis and they felt it was worth a try, so Carboplatin was incorporated in the second regimen. Incidentally I hear Cisplatin has a slightly better response rate.

Anyway- it was tougher, her blood count took a dive so the doctor spaced her treatments to three-week intervals rather than two and the good thing was- she didn't have to take the Neulasta shot and get all wired up from it. Three weeks was ample time for her wbc's to rebound. She came through it all with little or any side-affects. I was never so proud of her.

Good news! Diagnosed Nov. 2013, finished chemo & radiation at the end of June 2014 and is NED. We had a little scare this past February when something was found on a mammogram on the opposite side, but they did a biopsy and said it was benign necrotic tissue or calcium as best as I can convey what they said and that everything was fine. I think it was something maybe the chemo killed that they didn't know was there. Anxiety- is always there. I practice "diversion therapy" on her as much as possible- keeping her busy and less idle time for the mind to wander.

All the best to all of you.

Greg.