Starting Chemo in October 2015

Oh Homeschool4us.  I am so sorry.  My heart is aching for you and your family and I'm keeping you in my thoughts.  Sending you all the strength I can to get through this, and to move forward.

oh my gosh, so sorry to hear homeschool. My thoughts and prayers are with you tonight. I dontknow what else to say...

Homeschool, I am so sorry for your loss. I am thinking about you tonight.

homeschool4 - I am so sorry for your loss. Surround yourself with the most loving and caring people you can find. Let them take care of you and sustain you during this very difficult time. Prayers and blessings to beautiful little boy and to you

Oh Homeschool I am so sorry for the loss of your son. You are surrounded with our support.

Having had a similar experience many years ago, my heart is breaking.

Hugs to you and your family

Hi everyone

I am glad to find this forum. I start chemo 10/27 taxotere Carboplatin and herceptin. I am stage 1 IDC her2 + estrogen+ and Prog+

wonder how long after after 1st treatment hair loss starts, I good with everything else, just want to make a plan.

welcome sween. We have similar diagnoses and same chemo. I started Tuesday. I've heard anywhere from 9-21 days to lose hair, so not sure! I have an appointment to look at wigs nextTuesday.

I am cold capping so no hair loss yet and hopefully none ever! This was taken today, Day 17 after chemo #1:

Let me know if you want information on cold caps!

I have my port consultation on Tuesday with port placement later in the week. I will be getting AC so I am also waiting for an appointment for a cardiac echo. I see some attractive wigs online (Paula Young etc.) - has anyone else used an online source and been pleased?

Thank you all for the kind words. I do feel as you said, must love poodles, that I may die of grief. I cried all the way though my appts yesterday. I had chemo teaching, an oncologist appt and my first chemo. At the oncologist, the resident who came in first was immediately all giddy that they can now do a whole bunch of scans on me to see if my cancer has spread and it probably has he says! He also said the words stage 3c which I knew I was from putting together my path report and online stuff I read. But they had never told me, just said 3 because they knew I was already have a hard enough time dealing with cancer while pregnant. So, not only did he say 3c, but he said most likely a stage 4. I pretty much lost it and then he realized what he had done wrong and apologized. My husband told him no scans for awhile. My MO agrees no scans for awhile, just go forward slightly more aggressively than if I were still pregnant. So, now the plan is AC every 2 weeks for 4 cycles, then T for 12 weekly, then 6 weeks rads. The only things that changed were ac every 2 instead of 3. They also will put in a port the morning of my next cycle and added neulasta.

As for how I feel after round 1 of AC, not too great but not absolutely terrible. In my case right now, it's hard to tell what's postpartum and what's chemo. I am sweating to death when I try to sleep which could be from either. I can't sleep which could be steroids or grief. I feel foggy headed which could be chemo, anti nausea meds or lack of sleep. I feel slightly nauseous which is probably the chemo. I had decadron, aloxi and emend as pr meds. During the adriamycin push, I started to get flush and dizzy so they stopped for a minute. I don't know if it was actually the adraimycin or I had a moment of panic. The nurse had told me about necrosis from adriamycin getting into your skin if the iv wasn't working right and that freaked me out. Wwn she restartes, I ate some sherbet to distract myself and it went well. When I left and up until now, not quite 12 hours later, I mostly feel weak, and weird. And have a dry mouth. Very slight headache and nausea.

Thanks, Tessu. My husband is going to call and make sure no one does anything like that again for awhile. I just can't handle any more bad news right now.

I started Taxol and Herceptin the end of September and will have #4 treatment of 12 on Tuesday. Supposedly I am being given a low dose that should have minimal side effects. So far thinning hair and nails brittle but not sick. How are you doing?

Homeschool. What a Jack Ass that resident was ! On behalf of the whole medical profession, I apologize. Please write that up if you get some sort of satisfaction survey from the clinic or hospital. Feedback goes to the top of the food chain and changes are made. It sounds like everything except difficulty sleeping is from the chemo.

Tessu please stick around. Past experience is so helpful!!!

I was surprised at how good I felt after my first infusion, even did ok enough to work on day 2. Then, day 3 hit me hard with nausea. Today just a little better. I am going to start keeping a journal of my side effects so I can compare each round and know what to expect.

My tongue is burning and has a little white look to it. Coffee tastes terrible. My half a banana went down ok. Toast ok.

I have gone back to the September chemo thread and tried to see when people started losing hair and looking for those with the same chemo regimen as me. I just want to know that my side effects are normal and similar to others. It seems to be comforting to know I am not alone.