Anyone Starting Chemo in June 2016

Update... I finished round 2 of TC today.. I went to my infusion and was back at work by 1pm. Infusion day and the day after is never a problem for me as long as I keep up with my prescriptions. At least that's how it was last time, and I am claiming that instill continue to have "supernaturally minimal side effects" woot!!

I get the Neulasta shot tomorrow and plan on taking the Alleve Sat around Noon when my steroids start to wear off. Last time I just took Tylenol for the bone pain and it didn't touch it, or the flu-like symptoms (acheyness, swimmy head, just out of it) but I took some Alleve the following Monday at work and I was a new woman in about 2 hours!! I am already taking Prilosec and Claritin too. I feel great but will still eat bland things for the next few days and be diligent about using my mouth rinse after every meal to ward off any sores. Just had a brief bout with heartburn just now so I took a few tums and it's gone but that was definitely not needed last time so I'm going to need to be mindful tonight with my food choices seems. Had terrible constipation the first round... We are talking pushing and grunting people... It was bad. 45 min sometimes lol... Had to call my bosses and let them know if be late back from lunch one day Hahahaha. I had been prepared for diarrea so I stopped taking my probiotics thinking that would help... Hoo boy. Well I'm already seeing signs of things stopping up already so I'm going to take 3 doses of probiotics as well as 3 doses of stool softeners today to see how that helps. Wish me luck!!

So glad to hear the good reports so far... Heathet, I get it, but I share in your frustration to just get the show on the road!!! All in good timing I suppose. You certainly don't want any unnecessary complications added to what you are already dealing with. It does seem like a long time for your healing... I will pray that however long it takes, that God is with you and is directing the steps of your doctors and nurses.

As for all of the emotions... They just come upon us so fast! I have a daughter that doesnt mind crying... She'll knock out an "ugly cry" at the movies and not think twice while I'm over here pinching my arm to keep from shedding a tear lol. What I've learned from her is that I am envious of her ability to let those emotions out and not care. When I look at her cry, it gives me compassion for her and I see her tender heart. I don't judge her or think she's a baby or that she can't "keep it together", so why do I think that anyone is judging me? My guess is that when most of the people we come into contact with that see us cry are moved with compassion and not judgement, so I say lets have ourselves an "ugly cry" and move on with no shame!! 🙌🏻😘😂😂

Love you all

-Keely

hi all!

Tomorrow is day 7 for me since my first TC treatment. I feel back to my normal self, and have since about day 6. I too took aleve for the Shots (I'm on Zarxio) that bone pain in brutal!

My main side effect right now is taste. Today I had a burrito (my favorite) and it just tasted like warm mush. I was SOOOO bummed! Anyone else lose their tastebuds? I have no sores or anything. Popsicles seem to help a little- but not enough to make a difference.

Hi everyone.

I hope to begin chemo this month. Had left mastectomy with axcillary dissection on 31 May 2016. Have spent 3 months to get to this stage and given the aggressive nature of this disease I just can't wait to get cracking. My diagnosis with a 3.5 cm Tumor is stage 3 invasive ductal carcinoma following a clear mammography in August last year has kind of freaked me out. My nodes affected 18/22. Her2 / ER / PR all positive. My surgeon is really pleased with what he has done but now it's time to get the big guns out treatment wise.

Take care

Morning!

Some thoughts that may help?

Keely - I take docusate sodium ( colace) a prescription for constipation, as needed. Maybe your doc will approve for u? Helps, with fruit, etc.

Scared67- My first infusion took 6 hours,but I slept through most of it thanks to Benedril and Xanax. I may have been given these because I had port put in first (that only took an hour, plus 30 min set-up.) I plan to see if both can be given next time because it was so nice to sleep. My support crowd took some funny pics though so be prepared!

ClarkBlue- Your daughter is smart. I will have to find a good,sad movie and try an ugly cry. Baby steps, maybe alone first!

Labscientistmom- Love reading all your suggestions.

Everyone- great input. Brain woozy so hard to remember everything you all share but is helps so much.

May today be better than yesterday

LJ,

Please do not be frightened about chemo. I has my first one last week and felt just like you. It was very easy. The nurses were so kind and gentle with me and took great care of me. I came home and went to bed and really just had a day of feeling a tad sickish and then straight back to eating normally and doing tasks about the house. I think sometimes the fact that we are so stressed about this counts for a lot of the fatigue and sickish feelings. Worry serves NO purpose. Every single trip for chemo is a trip closer to normality again. This cancer thing is a huge interruption in our lives but it will end. Get your chemo done and do not panic. You know how to deal with side effects. I kept a huge pink bucket beside my bed for a week!!!! Used it once...and just made sure to get liquids in me. There was always the possibility they might come up again...but they did not. To be honest, I had way more sickness and bother when I broke my ankle a few years back. Granted, I am on round 1 and maybe stuff will get a tad worse. But this treatment is not as bad as we all initially think it is.

Dolly

sitting in my PS's office - fingers crossed everything looks good so I can start chemo. Say s little prayer for me!

Welcome, Helen! I think the HER2+ is very responsive to chemo, so you have a great chance of killing those creepy cells! My tumor was missed on my 2014 mammo. When my team reviewed the 2014 scans they could see it but evidently the radiologist missed it. I was so upset, but feeling better now that it's gone and my treatment is in progress.

Coffee-lover, I requested my port be put inside so that I can wear my hiking pack How lovely that you are going to your DD's graduation today! Something to lift the spirits!

Heathet, I'm praying that your PS gives you the go-ahead today! I feel a lot more confident now that I've had my first treatment.

Dolly, well-said! I don't have a big appetite at the moment, but I haven't felt like I need any of my anti-nausea meds yet. I'm going to choke down some prunes with my coffee

LJ, I got a short hair cut a week ago and I love it so much I will feel bad for it to go. But it will be back! I got a nice wig that looks very similar to my cut and color, just for wearing at work. I'll go with lightweight fun head coverings the rest of the time.

Scared67. I think all surgeons have a bit of an ego My infusion took about 4 hours. That was with two chemo drugs. If you are getting more than 2 it could take a little longer.

Icandoallthings, glad to hear you are feeling good! My taste hasn't changed much yet (chewed on ice the whole time, and maybe that helps), but I don't have much of an appetite at the moment.

labscientistmom, thanks for your uplifting and encouraging attitude - it sure helps to hear it! Pretty good to lose weight on steroids! Many women have said they gained weight thru chemo. I was sick for two weeks before I started, and I'm at my lowest weight ever in my life (and I was a fatty for 50 years). Don't want to lose more, so I'm trying to cram in the calories. Maybe my appetite will pick up in a few more days. This is my first day off the steroids.

Let's all get through this day and have some good moments!

Hi all!

Just learned I'll be starting chemo 6/23. My regimen will consist of Adriamycin & Cytoxan (AC) every 3 weeks for 12 weeks. Anyone else having (or had) just AC, and not dose-dense? I'm concerned because I don't see many others here who have received only AC for treatment--- I mostly see AC&T regimens, and almost always dose-dense. Makes me sort of worry that I'm missing something, or being under-treated? I will be taking Tamoxifen after treatment, as well. My doctors have stated that this treatment is intended to be "curative". Anyone have/had a similar treatment plan?

I am nervous, as I have done some internet searching and see that AC is known as the "Red Devil"... Eek. But, as long as it WORKS. I am utterly consumed with fear of recurrence and/or metastasis!

Thanks! I hope everyone is doing well!

Hi Moondust! Thank you for your response! I am actually being treated by the Chief of Breast Oncology at Dana-Farber in Boston... So, I definitely have confidence in my MO, and I do feel a little funny for questioning the recommended treatment, but I can't help but feel a little nervous! I do plan on speaking with my MO about this further, to put my mind at ease :-)

Hi, everyone. I posted a couple of weeks ago. Just to see what it felt like. Hard to post when you still can't believe this is all happening to you. Makes it more real somehow. I've been reading though, religiously, and latched on to something someone said, that this is an "interruption." Dollydimples123? Was that you? Thank you. I think I'm going to try to take that view.

My second MO appt is Tuesday. If I were to do Chemo at his office, I would start then too. But I've chosen to do it at a Cancer Center that is part of the MD Anderson network. My insurance hasn't approved yet, so if they do and scheduling permits, I'll start around Wednesday. I chose the Cancer Center based on two things... curtains and accommodations for my people. At my MO, the chairs were all lined up in a row, no separation, and friends had to sit along the wall... away from you. My MO said that the worse part of the experience would likely be my first time with the Taxotere. He said it can be kind of harsh. I just can't see myself going through that with someone on my left, someone on my right. Hi stranger... excuse me while I weep. At the Cancer Center there are a few private rooms (with beds) and curtained off areas with places for your "person" to sit -- next to you. This made all the difference to me.

My big question is if there is anyone out there doing the Taxotere/Herceptin/Perjeta combo? Usually, as far as I can tell, Taxotere is combined with something else. Not so for me. And for whatever reason, this is making me nervous.

My next biggest question is this.. has anyone done the Blueprint test? It seems like the only test that might say, Hey, you don't absolutely have to do this chemo thing you are so frightened of... but the writeups and the reports... they are all so confusing. The two men in my life (one ex-husband and one good friend) have inundated me with videos and studies and blog posts, etc. I read through them all, spend time, worry, get hopeful, worry some more... only to find that 90% of the time, the study was based on HER2neu negative patients or focussed on adjuvant treatment or some other thing that makes it less pertinent to me. I don't know how to say, thank you for caring, but you are seriously stressing me out.

I guess that's it. I hope that when I get my head wrapped around all of this I'll be able to contribute support as well as questions. Yesterday, I wrote out a version of the above, but it never showed up. Either I got booted by a moderator or I'm having pre-Chemo brain and don't know the difference between the Preview Button and the Submit.

With aloha!

Krekre,

Yes that was me in my post above who made that statement. That's how I view this cancer...just a rude, and badly timed interruption and annoyance that I need to get rid of as quickly as possible. I have only been 2 months since my diagnosis and I am literally fed up now with the way this thing has made me feel. I am soooooooooooo angry at it. How dare it even attempt to defeat me. On the second day after my chemo, I was still a little rough and had spent most of the day in bed, then all of a sudden I jumped up out of bed and walked around my house in my PJs (just as well I live alone) and started screaming at both my cancer and my chemo....I was like a crazed woman, shouting at both of them for making me sad, weepy and now nauseous. I marched around my house pointing my finger in the air and shouting...'you two buggers will never get me. Give up now. You are not ruining my life like this'....I then sat on sofa and smiled to myself. I felt like I now was in control.

Dolly

NattyB, I totally agree about how hard it is to keep being polite to all the people who are so sorry and tell us how strong we are! What would the weak ones do, lay down and die? That's why I haven't even told them at work - I don't want to hear it!! I'm lucky that I will be done working at the end of the month and my hair might even last long enough. If not, the wig goes on for a few days and then I'm outta there!

Hi Moondust!

Yes, I am getting Taxotere with Herceptin and Perjeta. Don't know why it's not showing up properly. 

I'm not getting the cyclophosphamide you mentioned. 

NattyB and DollyDimple -- haven't gotten angry yet... But no doubt I'll get there eventually!

I am not doing any sort of hand freezing or feet freezing. I am on FEC, should I not be doing this?

NattyB, I am glad to know I am not the only nutter who walks around the house shouting to Mrs Chemo and Mr Cancer. I see Chemo as a girl because she is harsh at times but basically my best girlfriend. But Mr Cancer, he is brutal and if not kept in line, will get out of hand and destroy me haha and NO man has ever got away with taking me down before!!!!

Krekre, the anger bit, I think is part of the whole emotional process. I went through the timid stage of having to be around my parents everyday and talking to my mum and crying and worrying and researching every single thing related to breast cancer online. Then I went to the denial stage...as in this is not going to be a problem for me. It will all be OK and I don't even need treatment, can do this with good food and alternative medicines alone. Then I went through the scared phase of waiting for final results and assuming I was going to die in that week as they might come back some bad bad bad result, even another cancer somewhere else??!! Then finally I got to this stage now, which I like to think is the Scottish mad and mental bit in me. The bit that says, 'come on then, come and try it...try and get me and I will give you one hard smack right in the chops and send you back to where you should be'. I am hoping there is a more peaceful and calm stage to still come as I don't want to be in this 'violent stage' for too long. I am a lady after all!

NattyB, I am a cold capper. I had it on my head for 5 hours! It was tearful in first 10 mins, but got easier after that. I am only 9 days in to my first chemo and there have been no dead animals left behind in the bath yet!!! I am hoping when the dead animal appears that it is just a wee tiny mouse type size and shape, but even if it is massive, I will cope, as we all do.

Moondust and NattyB, I agree with both of you about people and what they do and say. I am a teacher and only informed my HT and one colleague about this. I worked a further 3 weeks right up until my operation and then left work til this treatment is done with. I am very lucky I have an employer who will see me through this treatment on full pay and only wants me to get better and back to work when fully 'repaired'. However, I chose to not tell people because it is my business. I would not discuss a marriage breaking up, so why should I discuss the state of my breasts with strangers!!

I have not had the pity looks yet. In fact I won't have them. If I see them appearing, I will utterly change topic mid sentence and ask them where they bought their lovely shoes from....haha that will get them! AND the beauty of it all??? I can blame it on CHEMO BRAIN!

Dolly

Hi labscientist and Dolly - thanks for the advice on the icing. It will definitely be a learning curve with the icing - I thought about freezing a milk jug of water to keep the cooler cold like we do when we are camping. It'd be a different story if I was going straight to the infusion but there's at least an hour and a half before I even start. Oh well, this first week I'm thinking something is better than nothing. I'm trying to scroll up to see who asked about the icing but it's moved off my screen (weird) but the Taxol group is known for the little gift of neuropathy and doing a number on the nails, I'm not sure about FEC - maybe I read somewhere on these boards that it was not as big an issue? dunno:)

Krekre - my first thought about not getting angry when I read your post was that I see you live in Hawaii, so that's probably why, lol kidding. I think for me, the timing of this was the aggravating part - I missed my first child's high school graduation because I was only 4 days out from surgery and couldn't sit out side in the bleachers for 4 hours in the heat - and lets not add that I couldn't shower for 2 1/2 weeks during an early heat wave. I told my PS that my timing of this deal really stunk - literally and figuratively. No faux bath makes you feel as clean as a shower! A good friend who is also a general surgeon and lymphoma survivor told me early on "this will not take your life any time soon" and that was strangely comforting in the early days and I although nothing is ever guaranteed, I can only control what I can control so I don't really worry about the dark places very often. I'm mostly trying to keep things super normal for my husband and kids which is why all of these appointments and crap are irritating. I'm going back to work in 2 weeks so kind of gearing up for that mentally - I've enjoyed this time at home which has been a cancer gift.

I truly appreciate you all and indulging me while I got crabby. I think we are all the same roller coaster that wont necessarily stop when we want it to Blessings to you all.