January 2016 Chemo!

On TC, I lost my hair during the first round on day 15. It came out in handfuls over a couple of days. I had cut my past chin length hair shorter, and so it was pretty easy for it to come out while I washed it in the shower. Interesting though, I never lost ALL of my hair. I have probably about 10% left and it's growing back now...and looks hysterical. I never shaved it bald because I didn't want any pain or discomfort. As I result, when I wake up in the morning I look like a troll doll after you shake it. If you plan to buy a wig, I suggest going in before you lose all of your hair.

thanks missbee, I have been watching a lot of Netflix. I don't even know how to explain the feeling, but it's good to know that somebody gets it. I keep trying to explain it to my friends and they don't understand what I mean when I say I feel like my whole body is buzzing. It just...is

I've been told neulasta can give bone pain, so can taxols , so the combination of the two also can. I did Neulasta with FEC and had no bone pain, my first taxatore I did, this one so far seems OK. I'm having the occasional achy twing, but nothing like the last cycle where every bone in my body hurt from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet

Hey ladies!

@lovemyviszla my bone pain is from the Taxol itself. I'm not on neulasta now during Taxol but during AC I was and my bone pain was almost identical to the bone pain I feel from Taxol alone. Hope I made sense.

I hate to hear about you guys having the mouth sores. I kept my mouth full of ice (I love eating ice anyway) during all my adriamycin injections and both my taxol injections and haven't had any mouth sores yet. The only thing is my tongue is really sensitive, anything the least bit spicy or acidic makes it burn.but I do think the ice does help

Cathytoo-I am there with you...but am drinking a lot of fluids so thought that was part of it. Is it from something else in chemo?

Jen...it's a real pain...not getting any sleep. If you can find the info, please post it. We should start a "middle of the night pee group"

wonderful Geeper!!!!!

Geeper

So happy for your good news. 60% is a lot, praise be. Glad to hear from you on the board.

Geeper I am so happy for you!!!!!

Hi beautiful ladies,

Just had my last (woo hoo!) of 4 TC treatments the day before yesterday. To celebrate I blew bubbles and bought myself a new pink wig (see below). Today the steroids have worn off and I'm hitting that tired, buzzy, spacy, queasy part. But I know this passes and I have pretty much nothing but couch lounging, reading and computer surfing lined up for the whole weekend. I am going to be really glad to have this chemo phase behind me, and get my hair, energy and memory back....just in time to go through the next big step on my treatment path: BMX and reconstruction surgeries (no rads for me). I've got my BMX + expanders surgery scheduled for 4/26 and DIEP flap will be sometime in late June, assuming expansion goes as planned. Wow there's a lot of tough body image changes and rearrangements we deal with in this process, don't we? Guess I'll have to go stalk the surgery threads now.

RE: Neulasta and bone pain, I had Neulasta shots the first 2 TC infusions, and I only felt the bone pain was bad the first time (and Advil/Aleve and Claritin seemed to help). I had high enough numbers for infusion 3 that I passed on the Neulasta for that round and I have to say I had a much easier time bouncing back from the infusion. This last time my numbers were pretty high too so I think I'm going to pass again on the Neulasta (while of course making sure that I'm staying away from sick people and washing my hands a lot just to be safe...no need to court infection). Don't get me wrong, I think the Neulasta is a great idea as a prophylactic--no one likes the idea of landing in the hospital for a week with a neutropenic fever! I was ok with the relatively minimal risk in my particular case, but everyone has their own level of anxiety and risk tolerance. I wanted to see what it'd be like without it, and avoid more pain and side effects if I was able. So far so good.

Cathytoo et al: yes I'm peeing all the damn time at night too, but I'm also trying to drink 100oz a day of water and I often go too late at night with the water, so there's that. But it does seem to be worse when it's the days right after infusion.

Geeper: yay! Great news!

Phaila: 99.5% of my hair fell out between weeks 2 and 3 after the first infusion. The little bit that was left after I buzzed it the day after it all fell out has grown a bit longer but no new hair has come back. Starting to lose my eyebrows pretty seriously now too, which is a bummer because I was thinking I'd gotten away with keeping them. I heard they're slower to fall out than your head hair though, so I probably shouldn't be surprised. Oh well. At least I learned a little bit better how to draw them on in my Look Good Feel Better class.

Here's that pink wig:

Ok off for a nap now, and maybe I'll have enough oomph for a short walk later before the sun goes down...hang in there ladies and congrats to all who are finishing up their chemo rounds!

Quixhobbit...CONGRATULATIONS

WHOO HOO NO MORE TC‼️

I did my 4th this past Monday. The couch and I are best friends. I have 2 more to go. Regarding your eyebrows, I still have most of mine. I've been trying pencils and bought one the other day that I love. IT super skinny brow power. Very natural. Don't know where you live, but Ulta carries the line.

congrats quix! So cute!!

I haven't been to a lgfb class yet, so I went to Sephora and they gave me a free eyebrow lessons. I just washed one off to show (the "undone" one is still darker than natural here, I just gave it a quick wipe. Fully clean it's barely visible, what's left is completely blond):

geeper everybody compliments me too, they hav no idea the effort it takes. I can barely look in the mirror without my make up on. I do not, I have found that if I line my eyes it barely shows. I also get an eyeshadow listen it's up for him, so that is my eyeshadow looks nice Since there are no lashes to cover it. Since I don't have hair to style, it takes me about the same time to get ready.

Here's a picture With all but lipgloss, no lashes:

See how much see how stubblemuch I have?

Jill ..beautiful and you do have a talent with makeup:))

thank you ladies! I have always been into make up, so I try to use this crappy situation as a reason to learn some new skills!