January 2016 Chemo!

I'm right with you. Taxol for me dose dense is the devil. But it's still better than AC. I have been knocked down since Weds with the bone pain, and my bladder and vagina hurt too. Today is better but still awful aches. Ugh. I iced my hands, chewed ice, and am drinking tons of water. UGH. So glad I have here to vent.

Val

I'm glad I'm not the only one having issues with the Taxol! The nausea is so much better than with AC but that pain.... My pelvis/hip area also hurts. It hurts if I sit, hurts if I stand, hurts if I walk. I'm taking Claritin, B6, E, and Ibuprofin. I may try an Aleve when the ibuprofin wears off in a bit. I haven't had the dizziness or anything so I hope that is better for you soon LovestoFly. I hope the pain lessens every day!

Just finished round 4 of TAC on Thursday. Lovestofly, you are so right about hydrating. I had a liter of saline pumped into me when I went back for my Neulasta shot on Friday, made a big difference, wish I could go back for another today. I have such a hard time drinking anything after chemo. Paxton29, my hot flashes are insane. I am up half the night, covers on, covers off with fan full blast. Same thing at work, all day long jacket on, jacket off. Two more treatments then surgery. Really scared to be facing that. Will they do radiation with implants in. I wanted to do the BMX and implants all at once if possible

Look at this nice ring a couple of friends at work

got me. It says fight like a girl on the other side. It from Avon.

Congrats, PaulineK.

Geeper, so sorry for your losses. What a sad week.

Taxol ladies - the grumpy monster has been awakened! I was thinking it would start tomorrow, but apparently not - guess it is "Day 3." Wow. Am I ever cranky. And sore! The fingertips are the weirdest. Not looking forward to more of the bone pain - starting some meds now.

Warrior on...

DFWFLYGIRL...Aleve works wonders. Try it. Better than Rx pain meds. Feel better

Thanks Cathytoo and Valstim52!!::Aleve.....water and Epsom bath on deck tonight. And I agree...it's better than AC:))

a warm bath felt great

I'm glad to hear everyone's doing pretty well with Taxol. I did get to have #7 on Thursday - new system has everything screwed up. But the doctor found some infection in my shoulder which continued spreading on Friday, so I've been in the hospital all weekend with cellulitis - a nice lymphedema present.

I asked the nurse Thursday if I was going to have a second round of hair loss when I switched to FAC and she said no, that most women's hair was growing back by then. Whew. Not that I couldn't be the exception, but it's nice to know what the general rule is.

Really sad about not getting to go home this weekend. The next two weeks are going to be trial prep unless that gets moved.

Anyway, happy daylight savings, everyone. I love this time of year. Last year I was planting flowers every evening. I guess this year I'll be making some flower beds at my sister's house.

Jill: That makes wayyyyyy more sense with what I'm experiencing with Taxol and what I read on the basic info sheets they gave me re FAC. I had the fall out, but it was way shorter timewise, and only on my head. I got one haircut - the one where we did that buzz clip, but not the shave one. I didn't do another one. I shed heavy after that for a few days then stopped.

TBH, I've spent a small fortune on scarves, so if I could just keep my lashes and brows, and have to lose my hair again, I've got plenty to keep me occupied on top of my head. I'd just rather *not* go through it again. It's out of my control and over a month away.

I went back and saw you were having lots of joint pain...mine has eased up considerably and I don't have it any more.

Oh - the MO was really impressed with my RBC and platelet counts, he said they were higher than they usually see at this point in chemo. My sister has been the cancer chef, but boils down to lots o' spinach. I have fresh spinach salad at the hospital 2-3 times a week and I swear she puts spinach somehow in every meal. I may have an elephant arm, cellulitis, and low WBCs, but I'll take what I can get.

One last thing - here's the HILARIOUS hospital story for y'all. I'm looking at my discharge paperwork and it says: Secondary diagnosis during hospital stay: anemia of malignant neuroplastic disease. Hmmm, what's that? I ask the nurse and she says, "Hmmm, you should google it." GOOGLE IT?! I say that well, actually I did. Then she goes to the nurses' station which is right across from my room and they say, "Google it." I repeated myself. They printed out google stuff for me that gave me no information.

If anyone's heard of that - I mean, I know "malignant neuroplastic disease" is cancer. But I came in with everyone knowing that. What's the anemia part? I can't believe I'm at one of the largest hospitals in the world and they say, "Google it." I'm half laughing, half wtf.

You ladies look great!!!.

So the nurses said to google it? Oh my!!!

Paulinek,

Frill & Jill, you girls look lovely. I'm finding scarves and caps more comfortable than my wig. Its been awhile since my wig is just sitting there. I should honour it wear it sometime

Here we go again! I've caught something that has me down and out. I think it's just a cold b/c my husband and kids have it too, but the aches are terrible! I was in bed all weekend and am missing work today. My doctor just called in Levaquin. I had to have this after my first round too when I caught something. But it worked then, so I'm hopeful it will this time. So, I'm due for round 4 on Wednesday, but I'm worried it won't happen. Has anyone had an illness just a couple of days before chemo? How were your counts? What should I expect? Of course, it figures. Initially I though this 3rd round was the easiest, but now I feel absolutely ROTTEN.