Starting Chemo January 2015

Mommacat - well that's one week in the bag then! Good for you. I think its a good idea to keep the skin as moisturized as possible. I found rads made me tired also. Tough to go for walk in Arizona heat but they say keeping active does help. I liked my nap though!!

Lara - I heard that the pool chlorine was bad once radiation started as it dries out the skin even more. I also heard that because of chemo, you have to be very careful in the sun. If it were me though, I would take the hour poolside with the strong SPF sunscreen and enjoy your time before rads starts.

Lara, congratulations on finishing chemo on the 24th!!! Party it up! I love that you decorated your car!!!

jlstacey, I'm sorry that your CT showed a lung nodule. Do you remember, I had a scare with a large lung mass (over 3 cm) when I was first dx'd with BC. It turned out to be nothing important, but caused my family and me great anxiety for two months. PET and CT scans do show nodules that pop up all over our insides that disappear as easily as they came. That is why Drs don't like to do those scans unless necessary, because they are then obligated to follow up on them.

I am glad you are putting this out of your thoughts. Rightfully so! Enjoy the 4th and let us know what the Dr says about your diep flap blood flow mapping

Wendy, Marjo, and all our northern friends...Happy Canada Day!

Can you see the orange under my nail bed? That's got to be The Red Devil. Then the white line must be my shortened course of Taxol. Then the pink is chemo free growth. I'm using my nails as a guide to when I will have all of the chemo out of my system. Very un-scientific; maybe a little nuts; but it is so noticeable in person. Are you all seeing the same thing?

SweetHope and jlstacey, my nails did all of the weird things also. Black streaks, lumpy growth, yellow ridges, and then some of them fell off. But I am 7 months PFC and my nails are very hard and long. They are growing like weeds actually and all pretty pink and white again. I polished them yesterday with a light sparkle. Have you tried Biotin? I take 800 mg every day since I finished chemo. And my hair is growing very fast and wavy. Thankfully the Biotin has worked well for me. And it's cheap OTC. Time will tell, it's just the dang wait for it!

Sorry I have missed so many posts, I went back to work so I am having a hard time keeping up. I love the job, but trying to adjust to the schedule has been a killer for me. I am working the night shift 10 pm to 10 am but I only work 3 shifts in a row before I have 2 nights off. So I like the time off, I am just tired. I'll catch up soon I hope. Cheryl

That's it for me too ladies! Last Taxol this morning :0))). Two anecdotes for you:

1) I have been going incessantly to Rads department to try to control the beginning and the end of my rads sessions, aiming for Augustt 4 start. By now they all know my name and are probably thinkin I am a freak. They keep explaining that no, it doesn't bother them and that they do everything possible to work around the patient's schedule given that with summer, staff vacation and patient holidays, it is best to let them know everything in advance. So I keep reminding them that I am foing on vacation from July 12 to 19, and that I am moving the last two weeks of September, so 5 weeks starting August 4 would really be ideal. I go to check the pre-rads scanning session yesterday and when did thy book it? Right in the middle of my vacation - I even said I wouldn't be able to confirm the appointment that week as I would have no mobile phone reception... And there was plenty of other possibilities. The morale of the story is do what you have to do as error is human so I just keep on top of my file... And I also read everything that is in it, as if you remember, paragraphs about a previous cancer were inserted in my file and I had to insist that this wasn't me and that these notes needed to be stricken out of my file!!! They never found what actually happened... So be vigilant.

Second, yesterday I was scheduled for a thorax follow-up scan. I get there early and they asked me if ok to go to ER as they would then take me right away instead of waiting two hours (the original appointment was at 8:30 and I was told I would be first or second and to fast for 2 hours prior). So I started getting nervous when everybody else was taken away or given a shake to drink - by then I am envious of the people drinking the shake (many of you know what I am talking about, mind you the one I drank last was kind of pleasant orange tasting). So the enthousiastic technician walked me to ER which is brand new and pointed out the new triage area where everyone has a small cocoon and a lazyboy, he said. Wow, I wanted to see the lazyboy area for sure, I thought! When my face dropped, he asked me what was wrong. Those are chemo chairs, I said in disbelief lol. So while we will likely always relate this way to the green chemo chairs, others will feel that this is the coolest ER with everyone in their little cubicle, similar to business class travel but less fancy of course, and a nice chaise longue to help them be comfortable while they wait. Hilarious, no??? It is sort of teaching me a lesson about different perspectives lol.

Jlstacey, I know that by now you are reassured but I also had two or three very small spots on my lungs, which they deemed were totally normal. I want to see if we can still see them after chemo on this new scan though - will keep you posted!

Happy Fourth of July holiday to all our USA friends and a lovely long weekend to the rest of us!

Marjo

Marjo, I'm very happy for you that chemo is over, yeah!

Cheryl, very sorry to hear about the shingles. I hope your shingles-drugs give fast relieve. I heard about late effects of chemo, but never would have thought shingles was one of them.

I'm now 10 days after UMX and everything is ok, but boy I'm so tired. I can sleep 20 hours a day I think. Hope this doesn't last long, because I would like to enjoy summer with friends.

Noo

Hi PMR and Noor, thanks! I didn't know either until I saw it online, now I do in a big way. Very annoying and painful for sure. I'm just glad it wraps my hip, I can at least hide it. I feel like the Build a Bear again, fake hair, fake eyebrows, fake eyelashes, fake boob, where or where do I get a new hip? My bathing suit skirt won't cover this! LOL this whole thing is crazy.............Cheryl

JLStacey

I just stumbled upon your post about the lung nodule and wanted to offer my support. I too have a small single lung nodule. It was found on my original work up scans over two years ago. I almost lost my mind as I had never heard of lung nodules before. After much research I realized that they are very common. I have had mine scanned three times and there has never been any change. I have to have a final scan in Oct but I am actually thinking of maybe skipping it. We shall see if have the nerve to refuse it.

Anyway good luck to you and I am sure yours is an Incidental finding as it is for so many people with these types of things.

RV6Gal, All still goes well, I will see my BS friday. I hope the pathology rapport will also be available then.

First days after I got home from surgery I was very tired, but now I have much more energy.

Are you all done with treatment now and are your se from taxol getting better? I had very little se from taxotere, but the other day when I touched a hot casserole with my hands, the skinjust pealed all off. Very weird. I noticed that I am much more sensitive when I touch something hot.

Noo

Hello everyone, how is everyone doing? Beachbum, how are you doing with the shingles? Are they healing?

Noor46, Rv6gal, Jlstacey, SweetHope, shoppygirl, Pmr53, tennisfan, cherylfg, LCH033, Brandi, and Jenn . Please forgive me if I forgot anyone. I hope things are going well for you all. I am assuming most of you have all gone back to work and some are still working Right? I planned on going back to work this month but I may not. I have new developments that may require more attention.

I am still going through radiation until the end of July. However, new things have come up. I had a well woman check (long overdue) and my pap came back abnormal. Never have I had an abnormal pap but it has been several years since my last woman check and I had just finished chemo a month and a half ago.

They also did an abdominal ultrasound. The results of that came back with my endometrium wall being thicker than it is supposed to be. (it is supposed to be less than 5mm, mine is 9.8 mm). I personally am scared to death that it is uterine cancer but it could be something else. I don't know yet. I have a biopsy scheduled for later this month. I will keep you updated when I get the results of the biopsy. Chances are I will end up having a total hysterectomy. I will talk to my med onc today about the situation. He may just wait until the biopsy results come back to make any suggestions.

Ladies, have a good day. Talk to you soon

cat

Hi all,

Been a rough couple weeks for me. STILL doing chemo, but last treatment will be on Friday. FINALLY! My treatment last week was the first without steroids and this week I feel better than I have the entire course of treatment, although I am having to manage nausea pretty regular (but it is manageable). I am still waiting to hear precisely when I will start radiation. My RO is on vacation this week, so I was told to expect to hear next week.

I also got the news that my surgery won't be until Nov 26th, a whole month after originally planned as that was the first time both surgeons and an OR are available for a day. I was told not to worry, that the extra month won't affect my health and it is unlikely anything will come back that soon since I have chemo and radiation. Gee, thanks--and my mental health during those 10 weeks?? The plan is to dance. A lot. lol

At least I have a date now, and good it was scheduled now and not after radiation as I would have been looking into the New Year before surgery. Unfortunately it will be the second Christmas spent recovering from surgery

Can't wait for Friday to be over and put all this chemo behind me!!

Cat--so sorry to hear about your test--I hope things turn out well!

Jenn

Wow I had a lot of catching up to do in here. I'm impressed with everyone who has done all the treatments regardless of the S/E. I ended up losing it over the radiation and ultimately refused to do it. I think I did a little TOO much research on it. I also never finished my Taxol because my body was saying NOPE NOPE NOPE. Way worse than A/C was. My docs were NOT happy with me considering I'm only in my 40's. I'm taking the pills though. I'm also working on my bucket list. Maybe I'll live a long time and maybe I won't but by gods, I will have quality of life no matter how long it is and I'm okay with not living to be old. It is what it is. Now I have other issues to deal with such as adhesive capusulitis, AKA Frozen Shoulder. If I could redo chemo to get rid of the FS I totally would. I'm learning that it can take years to go away and I'm pretty much disabled from it. UGH.

Yes, I had it on May 13th and just updated my info today. I hadn't realized it wasn't already in there. If no one is offended I'd be fine putting a pic in here. I have no nipples to offend after all. ;-) I still need a revision surgery for my left abdomen but that probably won't be for a while yet. You are right. It's all a crap shoot. Personally I'd rather have a higher quality, yet shorter life than the other way around.

Hi everyone I am an infrequent poster but follow the group.

I finished chemo mid-May and my hair is growing back, head, eyebrows, eyelashes, new places! - chin, neck... Why does neck hair grow the fastest?

Cheryl - I did not have shingles but rather Ramsey Hunt; chicken pox in my brain, causing a lesion. Ramsey Hunt was hard to diagnose 2 hospitalizations, really odd symptoms. I still have lingering neurological problems, difficulty walking, hearing/pain in my left ear, tiny but annoying facial problems... One neurologist told me it was a brain mets 2 hours before the PCR came back positive for chicken pox. I was so happy to have a virus in my brain! 2 weeks of prednisone, month of high dose Valtrex, now low dose, but the lesion is the same size.

I wast told no vaccine now. Infectious disease doc said to wait at least a year after all treatments are finished and my body is back to normal. Then have my PC test levels to see if this has served as a vax.

Surgical pathology was "disappointing" 16/18 positive nodes which is not good. The chemo did not work on me, nor will it god forbid, in the future.

Started arimidex immediately, estrogen 100% progesterone 40%.

Starting radiation next week for 5/weeks.

Hoping these will have a great effect.

My new favorite nausea/vomiting drug is Tigan! Had iv in the hospital and left with a script.

I really enjoy summer hope you are too,

Barbie