TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP

tid - I agree with Ingerp about cycle of losing lashes and brows. Pretty regular every 3 months they would be gone, come back, and then in 3 months all over again. I am 13 months post Taxol and 4 months post Herceptin. Been on anastrozole for a year, just switched to exemestane. The last time (2 weeks ago) I can see that lashes and brows thinned but didn't lose everything, hoping that is the trend now and getting back to normal.

suburb, i hope this clears up your infection finally.

As for eyelashes, mine seem to grow then fall out. Sucks cuz they seem to go right in my eye. Lol.

I was also told that your body will go through changes for at least a year or 2 depending on how much chemo and what kind.

I will say that I am loving my new hair.

I am 8 days past my first treatment. I notice my head is itchy and my scalp burns when i comb my hair. i suppose this is a sign that I will be losing my hair. How long after the first treatment do most hair loss occur? A

Cp7865,

As you can see from my profile, I had the same treatment as you are getting. My hair started shedding on day 12 and on day 16 I buzzed it very short because it was falling out so much. A tip from my chemo group is to use a lint roller on your buzzed hair to help remove the short hairs. Your head will actually be sore for a while during the hair loss. Best of luck to you and everyone else. Chemo sucks and is hard BUT it is also doable.

Annie60, if you update your diagnosis and make it public some of the very knowledge ladies on this thread can give you some information on what is normal.

Hey Annie60, sorry that you have to go through chemo like most of us did but the lymph node involvement makes it so. You will be fine.

Sending hugsand warmth your way❤️

hapa, i meant that your body will slowly change back to normal if that makes sense. Sorry didn't mean to scare. It's been 15 months since I finished chemo and I still have small set backs. Tired easy, catch colds easier, get chilled easier, My MO said it can take 2 years for the chemo to completely be gone. Crazy.

Cp7865, yes my head itched when my hair started to fall out.

Annie, make sure to take a notebook with you to take notes. Helped me a lot.

Cp - what's happening with your hair right now is unfortunately normal.

Annie - chemo was not as bad as I thought it would be. I wouldn't do it for fun, but it's the best way to get rid of the most aggressive cancer cells (and possibly all the cancer cells) and so all the side effects are worth it! Good luck, and join a chemo thread for your month on this board. The ladies from my chemo thread and from this thread were more helpful a lot of times than my medical team, especially when it came to side effects that are less common.

shelabela - thanks for clarifying! You had me worried I was going to sprout a tail or something.

Tresjoli - you look great! Though if I'm being honest, you looked pretty good bald too.

I hope everyone's having a good Wednesday. I'm back to work today after six weeks off to recover from surgery. And I'm going to go into work today and talk to my boss about taking another six weeks off for radiation, lol!

My surgeon said radiation targets what is in the breast and chemo targets everything else in the body. Just wondering if chemo goes after everything in the body, would it not also get what was left in the breast if anything? Why would I need radiation? Questions for the MO. Any suggestions on questions to ask the MO? This is like going to another country and not speaking the language .

Thanks for all the words of encouragement. You all have made a difference in my attitude!

Napa. I second what Special K said about local lodging options through the American Cancer Society. I know they do that here for patients who must travel quite a distance. Annie, you’ll get through it all just take it one step at a time. I tried to focus on surgery, then spent four months focused on chemo and now am amazed that I will soon be done with radiation. Now I focus on staying healthy to get as many Herceptin infusions as I can by March. Then it will be time for hormone blocking treatments. It is a very long haul indeed but everyone here will make it wasier

Special K, Jstarling - yes, I am trying to get things in place to do my rads at MDA in Houston. I've been saving money "just in case" for pretty much my entire adult life so I should be ok on that front. I hate to use resources from cancer charities, I'd rather have that money go to helping people who truly need it or even better to MBC research. My coworker has a good friend who through various life circumstances finds herself living alone in a huge house in Houston and would be happy to host, and she'd love to host my dog as well since she lost hers recently and travels too much to get another. So I will either do that or find an air bnb that will take my dog. We rescued him just a couple months ago and he has grown very attached to me and is not terribly fond of men so I don't want to leave him with my husband for six weeks.

SpecialK—that’s what I thought. I’m half expecting a call from my MO saying, “Oops—I forgot to give you your AI prescription,” except really I’m not eager to start. I have my next H a week from tomorrow but won’t see my MO until the one after that, in early Nov. I’m assuming a month before I start the AI isn’t too long. (Just got home from my last rads—WOOOHOOOOO!!!

Also, some MO like to be able to determine what treatments cause what side effects so separating them (with the exception of the long haul of targeted therapy) with gaps is common. I did not do rads and my MO had a month between last chemo and first aromatase inhibitor

Thanks for the congratulations everyone 

I'm now coming up on being three years out from the triple negative dx - so I'm feeling a lot more relaxed about everything.

Coach - I love that quote too, I felt that way the first time around, not so much the second time though, felt like I'd been blindsided, and it took a while to get my head around it.

And congratulations Trisha-Anne. I am so happy to hear positive stories. Thanks for stopping by.

Hi Vicky you always make me smile. In my cancer breast, the tumour was behind the nipple, so my mastectomy did not spare the nipple, but now in my prophylactic mastectomy they tell me that they may be able to keep the nipple. Like you, my nipples always pointed the way, even with a padded bra. I thought that the reconstructed nipple would not point and that I would have only one pointing...which doesnt bother me. If David Bowie had eyes of different color (one blue one black) I can have a pointing nipple and a non-pointing nipple. Like you I dont care anymore! I didnt even think of nipple reconstruction, assuming I would just get a tattoo -I need to start thinking about it.

This was an unexpected and quick decision upon discussing the reconstruction with my oncologist and plastic surgeon and I am very relieved by it. In the event I survive this cancer I dont want to have to deal with a new primary in the other breast.

hapa, just wanted to say hi. Did you make the decision on your radiation treatment? Is there any difference in the treatments you would receive locally vs MDA? This breast cancer thing is extremely regimented and the last thing you want is to make the effort to travel to end up getting the same intensity of X rays (or proton beams or whatever) in the same exact area, from the same machine that you would at home. The radiologist would not administer any part of your radiotherapy treatment, it will be the technicians and the machine.