October 2015 Surgeries

I will be going to my "Teach" appt for chemo next Wednesday, and start my AC chemo either Thursday or Friday. Nervous right now, I will be glad when the 1st round is over so I know what to expect. I will be getting 4 rounds of AC followed by 12 weeks of Taxol. Then a month if with 5 1/2 weeks of radiation. Should be all done before my 60th birthday. Always look forward....

Lemint- my surgeon placed my port last January  on my right upper chest. I had her put in under wear a tank top strap would go. I also found a swim suit with straps that covered it all summer. It's not very noticeable. It's small. 

Through this entire ordeal I have tried to live my life as normal as possible for myself and all my loved ones. I have one more Herceptin infusion. My MX with TE was Oct 7 on right side. It feels weird and is annoying. There is extra fluid and it had to be drained once. I will get my port out when I have my exchange. Sometime in March or April.  It will be a long year for all HER 2 + but you can and will get through it.   Please feel free to PM me for any questions about The TCHP chemo regimens or any thing. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

PMR53

Thanks KCinMN. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Anxious to get all of this started so I know when it will end. Life is good, dinner is at my house. It will just be a day of food and family.

Will keep everyone posted on AC.😊

Scilla, Welcome...though wish you didn't have to be here. Are you working with a physical therapist? I've not had any problems with lymphadema, fortunately, but it seems like maybe some lymph message may be in order. I am sure some swelling and fluctuation is normal after surgery, but better to be safe.

Hi Lemint. My MO meeting went ok, but she has decided to get all of my pathology slides reviewed by another team of pathologists and have them do a presentation to the Tumor board before we talk about whether to add tamoxifen to my treatment plan. She thinks that they might retest some to confirm the findings. If so, she doesn't expect that there will be any evidence based studies to rely on to make treatment decisions, because it is rare. On the plus side, I'm healing well, and have full range of motion back, and today I got three vaccinations (I'm just about 6 months post chemo) - pneumococcal pneumonia, the flu shot and the shingles vaccine. I'm not feeling great tonight, but I'm glad to get the vaccinations done, particularly the shingles. Apparently, shingles after chemo is not uncommon, and my DH suffered terribly when he got shingles about five years ago.

I had a port for my chemo (dose dense AC, followed by dose dense paclitaxel), and it was great. My veins are in good shape, and the scar is fading reasonably well.

Hi Lemint. The shingles vaccine doesn't prevent all cases of shingles, but it is supposed to protect you from a severe case, so it sounds like your stepmom did benefit. My DH just ignored his shingles until it was very bad, and he was totally laid up for weeks. In those days, it was hard to drag him to the doc, but he is much more diligent taking symptoms seriously now. If you get to a doc within 3 days of the rash initially appearing, there are antiviral drugs that can help.

PMR53,

I am doing cytoxane and taxotere. I have not heard anything about icing or nail issues? What is that about..

PMR53, hugs right back to you (((()))), are those hugs???Lol. !!! Really want to get the show on the road and look at in the rear view mirrors. I think my mild depression symptoms will greatly improve once I'm actively getting the TX done. I bought some mits and socks on amazon to ice my fingers and toes. I'll ask Dr Google on way to hospital about temp and time. I'll place the items in the cooler where the cap being used was occupied. Hope that works. Thxxx

MSVspaulding, Iceing your toes and your fingers may help or prevent your nail beds from lifting or possibly discoloring. It's also from my research anyway shows to help neuropathy pain which can be very annoying. I bought the mits and socks on Amazon and I'm just going to add them to the cooler than I'm already bringing. I think frozen veggies work as well. I'm cold capping so I'll untilize the dry ice

My chemo centre provides frozen gloves during the Taxotere infusion. I have had no issues with neuropathy.

Also my breast nurse recommended that I paint my nails with the darkest nail polish I could find before each infusion. Black or dark blues are good. It helps protect the nail bed. My nails are feeling very strong though not pretty. I'm not much of a nail painter. LOL.

I iced my feet and hands through 4 rounds of taxotere and carboplatin and have not lost a single nail. I also kept them painted with a dark purple the whole time too. I did develop some moderate neuropathy, but it is getting better the farther I get from treatment. I also took L-Glutamine during treatment to try to mitagate the neuropathy side effects. I really hope those of you starting chemo treatment have minimal side effects.

Morning Ladies ... last couple weeks have been busy trying to get the Christmas shopping done before starting chemo next week.

I had my port placed last Thursday ... one of the nurses indicated the placement would be a piece of cake ..local anesthetic, 30 minutes .. I'd be home having coffee by 9:00 a.m. .. LOL!! It was a longer ordeal than I expected, hurt like a son of a gun .. thought I was going to have my neck at a 30 degree angle forever .. but alas.. the port is in .. I survived ... and on to the next experience.

I start my chemo on Tuesday, and will be receiving FEC-D ( 5-fluorouracil–epirubicin–cyclophosphamide followed by docetaxel). Am a little nervous, but thankful to get this show on the road.

LiLNutmeg.... it will be ok...the first one is the hardest because it's the "unknown". We did learn to take snacks, ipad (fully charged) and headphones so I could listen to music and anything else sort of mindless....like a coloring book if you are artsy....my chemo/biological took about 5 hours so we had to think of things for my DH to do too. Noticed that folks brought small coolers with snacks- we did fruit and nuts and waters- just wasn't hungry. How long do you think your treatments will be? I was able to sleep some but was mostly awake.

KCINMN - I also had chemo May - Sept and was 3c after that and sx. 15 radiation treatments left for me. Are you looking into clinical trials to help prevent reoccurance?

Hi ladies, my surgery isn't scheduled until early Feb, but I wanted to get your advice on some things. I'm probably having a UMX with node removal on left side. I'm going to consult with my surgeon about the right side. I'm BRCA- and cancer free on that side. Also not planning on any recon until next year since I still need to do radiation due the node involvement.

My questions are:

1. For recovery, do you recommend a recliner? I don't have one, but Christmas sales are a great opportunity. Or just go with pillow stacks?

2. The hospital where I'm having the surgery done is a 4-5 hour drive from my home. My husband will be driving, but assuming I'm recovering well at that point, should I be up to making the drive home once I'm released or within a day or so?

3. For those of you who have needed radiation, did you have recon done with the mx or wait until the skin healed up months later?

Thanks for your insight and hope recovery is going well.