Starting Chemo September 2015; join us!

thanks everyone on the heart scan question.

Cajun, I qualify for a herceptin trial. The trial includes herceptin with a possible protien that works with our immune system to prevent HER cancer cells from coming back. It's a coin flip whether I get the immune protien or a placebo. The catch is only the drugs are covered, any scans or administering costs are out of pocket.

I'm a HER 1. We haven't decided. We are compiling a long list of questions.

Shelly, thanks for your info. What compelling evidence did your doc give you for having the ovaries out since you are also close to menopause, presumably, and other parts of your body produces estrogen too so it would only help some. Just throwing the book as hard as you can at it? Benefits outweigh the sx and possible extra SEs if there are any besides the hot flushes which it seems with get anyway with whatever med we take. Thanks!

I guess I celebratd too soon: my hot flashes just stopped after my firs dose of FEC chemo. But guess what re-started a couple days ago. I guess they were just away on vacation. Oh well, the break was really nice while it lasted!

Shelly, that sounds like thrush. Maybe give your doc a call?

Still feel yucky. Have decided to give myself permission to stay in bed this week when I can. I figure since my mom will be leaving soon and I'll be heading back to work, I need to rest while I can. The fentanyl is really knocking out the pain but I feel SO sick. Hard to say which is worse, but I can sleep through quease and not through bone breaking pain.

Tiger, what does it mean to be Her1?

Tessu, you can always contact them directly, but I think you would have to find a facility willing to get onboard to collect the data to send to the study.

Shopgal: good memory! I'm starting 6 weeks of rads on Monday.

Lila-Claire: my feet are more tingly than numb, and the riding I did this weekend was really flat and easy on car-free bike trails. I've ridden a little throughout chemo, and muscle/joint weakness and shortness of breath were my main issues. There is no flat in my neighborhood. I have to get off my bike and walk is occasionally.

Arista, doctors never say any of us are cured of cancer. It can come back decades later. NED is all we get. With Stage IV folks, NED is great, but the general feeling isn't if the cancer will return, but when. For the rest of us, it's an if. You are correct that Southern's complete response to chemo will be confirmed when she has surgery. That the tumor is no longer detectable is fabulous!

Southern: yay for NED!

Cajun - HER 1 is when i have a some presence of the HER cells in my tumor but not enough to be classified as HER + so they would classify me as HER -.

Tessu -

The study is ML25749 it is the herception with the possibility of E75.

"Combination immunotherapy with Herceptin and the HER2 vaccine

E75 in low and intermediate HER2-expressing breast cancer patients

to prevent recurrence"

Yes we WANTED the herceptin but our insurance would not cover it, but with this we get it but still costs $$$. The study is being conducted at multiple facilities and we just happened to be at one of them. we have not signed the complete consent but did do the blood test necessary for it. The blood test was to see if I had certain proteins that are required for the study.

I'm jealous

thanks southern and ElTigre. The brows are about 3/4 of the way grown back. The rest is a brow pencil I got at a look good feel better workshop. The brows completely fell out 2 weeks after chemo. That is when the new growth started filling in. And my lashes were gone when I started taxol. As of today the bottom lashes are back and the top lashes are about 1/2 of their normal length. More like thick baby lashes.

My head was 100% completely bald at my final chemo 12/9 and was still shiny gleaming bald at my deportation on 12/21. Amazing how fast it grows back. I do feel like a speckled puppy with the grey. Too much at 45, but it's hair.

I just shaved my fuzzies Monday night. It seemed like everything had stopped growing for a couple of weeks, and given that some of you are having it fall out again after you finish chemo, I just shaved it and am letting it start over again. Hopefully without the odd patchiness and fuzzy friar head. I am LOVING your eyebrows, shopgal!!!

The girl we wanted to adopt has reached out to me, and apparently has changed her mind. She is begging to "come home forever" and I don't know why. The horrible thing is that I'm quite sure it's too late in terms of how long we are eligible, and now that my diagnosis is so obvious, we would be disqualified the moment they find out about the cancer. It's absolute hell.

CarolinaAmy, that is just heartbreaking. I'm so sorry you've had to go through so much on top of this stupid cancer.

Oh, how sad, Carolina. She sounds very confused. Let's pray that you can have peace in this situation and that God's love would comfort her.

How many of your doctors are doing tumor markers? If yes, when do they start?

I'm pretty sure I never lost 100% of my hair (hard to measure since I shaved it so early). Is that concerning? I thought Taxol was 100% hair loss. I guess I still could, after this 5th round.

My MO doesn't rely on tumor markers. She says they aren't always reliable so she doesn't use it. I've gone through 4 rounds AC and just had round #2 of 4 Taxotere yesterday. My hair has maintained at 1/3 left at buzz cut level.

CarolinaAmy...heartbreaking...;((

Fidget hair, lashes, and brows oh no! 👀

HELLO ladies, 

OMG I can't believe this happened to me. Every day I go on this site looking to see if anyone posts and I didn't see anything. So I thought everyone stopped posting. I had no idea, I was logged out.  Damn chemo brain I hate it. I can't think, talk. 

I started taking tamoxifen, it makes me anxious and hyper so I take it in the morning. I took it at night and couldn't sleep. 

Hair is starting to kind of grow, not as fast as I would like it. 

Has anyone changed their diet? Gone vegan? Anything drastic? 

Aga - I am on a Mediterranean diet. It's supposed to be good for cancer prevention. I've read about the alkaline diet as well. I'm not sure what diet is best but i can handle eating dark leafy green, fish, olives, and hummus