Starting Chemo in October 2015

homeschool, increase the frequency of your baking soda gargle to as often as hourly to see if that helps. I did not use salt. Your MO can prescribe a mouthwash to help with the pain but obviously that won't be until Monday.

mustlovepoodles: I am so sorry to see that you ended up with such a high fever and had to go to the hospital! I started chemo the same day as you, so I was interested in how you have been doing. I returned to work the next morning and made it through until Friday early afternoon. By then, I was quite fatigued. SE's pretty minimal...can't complain. Had hubby do the first "trim" on my hair, so I can start adjusting. I could sit on my hair and I have had it long for 46 years, so I am going to take care of it in stages. It is to the middle of my back now. Next time, to my shoulders, etc. Then I went out and bought a couple cute little hats...want to be prepared.

Cherey,

This is the first treatment of my second round of chemo and so far it's much like it was the first time around. After infusion, some grogginess but no real side effects but I wasn't feeling great to begin with due to an anesthetic event the day before.. Friday kind of foggy and tired, some off balance moments but wasn't too bad. Last time around, I would go to work the day after an infusion. Saturday we low key but GI side effects began to be evident by mid day--mild cramping, bloating and frequent movements. Nausea was managed but if I hadn't stayed on top of it, it would have been worse. My mouth and tongue are getting rough, my urethra burns and vaginal dryness has already kicked in. I don't remember having those symptoms until my third treatment last time. I guess it happens faster the second time around. So far everything is very manageable. GI side effects have always been my worst complaint and I never fully recovered good GI function after chemo last time. This is the most challenging part of going back to work ---that and the fogginess and inability to think clearly and quickly.

Hope your symptoms are well managed.

homeschool - my chemo nurse recommended I purchase Chloraseptic spray for numbing. Not sure if it burns or not though because I haven't tried it (no sores yet). I would test it in a small way first. Maybe others have tried it.

Andraxo,

I'm so sorry about the hives. Hives can really drive you crazy. I hope they figure out how to control it. Glad you were bake to do some fun things anyways yesterday. And, it's ok to be sad about your hair. Mine is the same as yours, long, straight, I never do anything to to it. But it's just one more thing, ya know? I'm on day 10 past 1st treatment and I'm on pins and needles just waiting for mine to start falling out. I tell.myslef no big deal, but when a few hairs come put each day (probably just what normally would!), my heart starts racing.

Living this,

Thanks, I tink we have some and I'll try anything.

Everyone on AC,

Are.you allowed ibuprofen? I tbink my MO said it's ok, but I've read differently online. I took some for mymouth last nightnight MD it did help more than tylenol.

My husband found some great recipes for healthy eating from dana-farber.org Health Library - recipe search. I won't mention specific foods here but so far we tried a couple of recipes that appealed to us and I give thumbs up to both.

biscuit, I hope you continue to do well. I so fortunate to be able to work from home most if the time. I go in to work about once a week.

I'm feeling A little better today, still pretty weak though.

Hi everyone! Going on day 3 in the hospital after spiking a fever of 102 on Friday. I had been having diarrhea for days and they thought it might be c.diff but ruled that out. They're still waiting on cultures to grow to see if they can figure it out, but the MO said they often can't identify the source of the infection. In the meantime, heavy duty IV antibiotics, IV fluids and at least one more night in the hospital.

And this is just round one of six...*sigh

Keep positive ladies, your bodies are going through a lot right now. I remember all too well the symptoms and the side effects of Taxotere and Cytoxan. I'm a 7 + yr survivor--I had to take meds for a week prior and 10 days after each treatment just to beable to take the chemo treatments. A positive attitude is what helped me to be here toda

homeschool:  My oncologist said NO to any NSAIDS, which includes advil, aspirin, aleve.  Only allowed to take Tylenol.  .... because of:  1) potential GI problems and 2) the blood-thinning aspects of NSAIDS.  They use blood thinners with the port already, and when your platelets are already low you don't want ANY chance of bleeding.

Rats! Gotta stay at least one more day. All my blood counts dropped precipitously overnight. They are still not sure if it's from chemo or infection.

Must love poodles and durhamgirl, How are.you both today? Did either of you have neulasta after you treatments?

homeschool, my heart goes with you tomorrow. I know it's going to be a hard day, no matter what. I hope you will be able to feel strong, physically, at least.

To answer your questions...I am going home today. They never found the source of infection, but whatever it was, it responded to the antibiotics. I did receive Neulasta the day after chemo, so they were rather surprised and a bit shocked that my numbers dropped so dramatically. I'll be seeing my MO tomorrow and she'll draw labs, I'm sure.

homeschool, my thoughts will be with you tomorrow.

I did get Neulasta after my first treatment. I had no side effects from the Neulasta. My WBC count was high when I was admitted to the hospital on Friday. As of my time of discharge earlier today, my WBC was back to normal (pre-chemo) levels.

Although my infection seems to have responded to antibiotics, I am still suffering terribly from diarrhea, probably from the heavy duty antibiotics I'm on for the infection. I'm feeling right now that it's just going to be 3 months of diarrhea for me, which is a really depressing thought...