January 2016 Chemo!

How long after chemo did tastebuds come back.  I am a month PFC and still have no taste.

Butterflydiva- It's so interesting to hear your breakout cycle. I have chemo every Monday, and every Saturday and Sunday, I break out like crazy. I think the steroids keep it at bay and then as the steroids wear off, we get the Taxol effects. My MO said to expect it to get worse through treatment.

Thank you Smurfette, I agree!! hugs back to you.

Had my 6th Taxol today, my counts were low but not too low for treatment. They are having me come back for Neupogen so we don't run into problems next week for Taxol/Carbo, I'm thankful they are being proactive, I don't want to get behind in treatments.

I was also told by the PA to try American gensing for fatigue, she said it's been known to help women going through treatment, I figure it's worth a try. I'll post about it if it works.

So weird how every place is different, I told her that I'm getting some intermittent tingling in my toes and she pretty much just said that it's a known side effect. I'll definitely be mentioning it to my MO when I see her next week.

I'm laughing at myself that it took me so long to write this because I couldn't think of some words. Gotta love the ton of Benadryl I got today and the chemo brain!

Right there with some of you ladies .....getting ready for Taxol #8 tomorrow and am really tired going into this one.......the ladies who have finished are giving us good inspiration!!!!

LifeAloft, so sorry to hear that your BF doesn't get it. Do not let that get you down on yourself - this is real! Does he need a bit of education about this?

Re menopause and taxol and dryness - how about both? My mouth gets so dry the week after Taxol that I wake up in the middle of the night and my entire mouth is like the sahara. Have even woken up with my lips stuck together, had to try to lick them to wet them so they would separate. and if I do any exercise, it's like my mouth can't keep up with the evaporation and it gets so tacky and gross. So if that's happening upstairs… I am also having chemo hot flashes and regular hot flashes - the ones I call chemo ones are so much more dramatic.

I admire those of you who are having sex. I got all amorous one night and thought it was a good idea, and then had to stop because it was so uncomfortable, and I think my poor DH is totally scared off. Haven't felt the least bit amorous since, myself. Looking forward to that part of life feeling more normal again...

Myra, fingers crossed for your MRI! I'm having surgery sometime in June. I'm not a candidate for lumpectomy because the cancer is multicentric, they would have to take out all the areas where there were lumps, i.e. the whole breast. Axillary lymph nodes have to go too. Meeting a PS tomorrow and BS on Monday.

I live north of Seattle. The pictures were taken a ferry ride away from me on San Juan Island. My friend just sent me this pic of me with one of the adult foxes.

For those who did chemo prior to surgery, do you have plans to do a little more chemo after surgery too? I'm thinking of suggesting to my MO but feel perhaps a little crazy doing so.....

My Mo said it depends on my pathology report after surgery. She said some medications (soft word for chemo) are only sucessful on recurrences and/or mets due to my TN status, but she is open depending on my path report. She bought it up.

I've opted personally NOT to have more. I'll take my chances I'm done unless it recurs or spreads. I'll do rads (33) after surgery but that's it. I feel if 5 months did not get it, then 2 more won't. My roll of dice no matter what the 'path' report says..

hello ladies 😃 I just had my last of 4 rounds of dense dose Taxtore ( did 4 rounds of AC before that). They have been doing my tumor marker blood work through it all and my markers have gone up from 17 in the middle of February (this would of been during AC) to 45 last week (during Taxtore) my oncologist says that Taxtore causes tumor markers to go up. Has anyone had this happen to them? It just makes me wonder 🤔

Thanks!!

I had an awful cold, I took Tylenol cold and flu. I also used nasal mist for nasal congestion, dristan. I spoke to the pharmacist at the Chemo Clinic, and they were fine with both.

A few days and I had blood work done. Once they saw that my platelets were fine, they also okayed Advil with the Tylenol.

Feel better soon!

I also had a really bad cold when I first started Taxol. The nurse at my MO's office also told me to take Tylenol Cold & Flu and Flonase. They also made me go into an urgent care center and get a strep test, which was negative, thankfully. I hope you feel better soon.

Re: chemo after surgery, it will depend on the path report. I am crossing all fingers and toes that it's not recommended though. I am so done with part. I am 99% sure I will start radiation in July, so hopefully that will be enough.

Same here, I'm fine with flat surfaces but hills and stairs I have a really hard time with, my legs feel too tired. It was worse with AC than with Taxol.

Ditto for me. After a while whether flat surface or an incline, have to rest, or thighs will start aching.

I'm sorry that so many of us are experiencing this but feel better I'm not alone. I'm used to bounding up the stairs no problem but on Friday declined going for ice coffee with my work friends because I knew I'd have to go up 8 flights of stairs. I wonder what it is about the chemo that does this. Weird