Starting Chemo in JAN 2007

Wow, I finally understand the insurance charges.. thanks Rebecca, you explained it so well. Where's the book "Insurance Woes for Dummies" as I need a copy for every room in the house.
T4T I get blisters on my hands very easily, I was cutting coupons the other day and within minutes I had a big blister on the inside of my thumb. I was amazed at how thin my skin is.
I have Taxol #3 tomorrow at 1:00. Today for the first time I noticed my feet burned when standing. I too, have been slacking on germs and not being careful. It's just my hands are so dry I can't stand to wash them every time I touch something. I bought some of that anti- bacterial hand lotion from Bath and Body and now I can't stand the smell of it. Maybe its the lack of nose hairs but smells get to me bad.
I know I am not suppose to clean up after the cats, but my DH is always at work and I couldn't take it anymore so I put on some gloves, a bandanna over my mouth and nose and cleaned the litter pans. Then I prayed I wouldn't pay later for it. Wouldn't ya know it, as soon as I was done, a cat went and dirtied it up. Just like a kid! You would think that for all my effort she could of waited at least an hour? LOL. Be well Chickies I'll talk again soon.
Nancy

How's this for an insurance beef: you are Stage 4 and you've done herceptin, zometa, taxol, and just about everything else and your cancer is progressing. You've got one, maybe two years if things keep going the way they are. There is still one drug though that holds a lot of hope, Tykerb. It just got out of trials. Your insurance won't pay for it.

I didn't make this up.

Lot going on today, I'll try to catch up when I can. Tae, I hope you're feeling better soon. Recovery is in sight. We are the lucky ones.

Mizsissy

Jan, I'm a small/medium, size 10. Thanks for the offer.

Jan, Happy Birthday! Hope you had a nice little party at your infusion.

Caya, I usually get the stronger muscle twitches the same night I get the Taxotere, but I don't think that started until my 2nd or 3rd infusion. They are contant now that I've had 4. I get bone/joint pain but not until around day 3 and mine if very mild, I don't even take anything for it.

Tae, hope you are feeling better, you've really had a rough time!

Mizsissy, hope our sewing project is a success and your laptop is feeling better.

Nancy, good luck with your Taxol today.

Have a nice day ladies!

Rita - good luck with Chemo today

Nandy - good luck on Monday

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes. This stinks - but I am looking forward to celebrating with friends in the chemo room. I'll let you know how that goes. I dread not seeing my girls for the next 2 days while they are at my moms.

Have a great weekend everyone! We are headed to New Hampshire. The kids and DH will be skiing and I will be getting a massage and hitting the outlets. I am so looking forward to getting out of town. I figure I can be tired anywhere. Might as well have a nice, mountain view while I rest.

Hope everyone is feeling well...or at least better.

On the subject of HOT FLASHES, I've been through menopause and my onc is thinking of putting me on Tamoxifen anyway, because I am concerned about all the SEs with Arimidex--thinning hair, loss of libido, but most all the bone problems. I have been trying to comfort myself with the idea that Tamo might have some gentle HRT-type effects since it is a mild estrogen. Anybody know anything about this?

ALSO--now I can ask you. Of those of you who are doing taxotere and have also done AC, which was worse? Maybe that isn't a fair question, because you are on your second chemo without recovering from the first.

FINALLY...now that I've gone through chemo and am recovering I am wondering if I did enough. I had a binodal tumor or two tumors; one was just about 2 cm (which puts me between Stage I and Stage II), and one was "invisible" and less than .5 cm, but identical histologically to the first. I had clear nodes, and my oncotype score came back at 36, which put me in the High Risk range. My oncologist has never really discussed the pros and cons of different chemo therapies or even offered anything more to me than the 4 session regimen. He didn't even discuss my change from AC to TC (that went through the good nurse). My chance of recurrence, according to the test was 25%, which is a lot. He did say chemo would cut that roughly in half. I was very strongly ER positive, HER negative, PR negligible...I do not want a recurrence. If I do get a recurrence, it will be aggressive. Any ideas on what I should be doing (other than changing oncologists, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be an option)???!!!!

Perhaps I should have done more chemo, but with the shape my body was in, I don't think I could have. The urologist told me my entire UT tract is damaged right now and needs to heal, but I am wondering if I should consider another round after RADS?

Mizsissy

Quote:ALSO--now I can ask you. Of those of you who are doing taxotere and have also done AC, which was worse? Maybe that isn't a fair question, because you are on your second chemo without recovering from the first.
Mizsissy, AC was worse than Taxol, which I think is similar to Taxotere. It has been four weeks since my last AC, and I finally have lost the metal mouth, my eyes stopped tearing, my nose stopped bleeding, and my sweat has stopped smelling like chemicals. The bone pain is no picnic and I am fatigued, but I feel better the second week of each treatment than I did the second week of each AC round. My hair is no longer falling out, either. In my book, AC is still the red devil. - Skye

Wow alot of posts we are a busy bunch .
Caya : Hope you are doing ok today , my pains started about 4 days after my treatment but it was not too bad tylenol helped , my nails are ok i think it depends on each individual on the SE hopefully you will not have anyting real bad .
I do know that the Tax is easier than the FEC , but just because i was not "sick " did not mean that i was real tired ..... body tired .... and I also wonder how some go back to work and do chemo ....me no way i need the time to heal ... maybe its my age and the fact i am on the menopause track too being 50 with both ... rather be at home . My job way too stressful .
As for all your insurance woes down in the US , I have mine with our companies insurance to much paperwork and follow up . Now I may have to pay back our gov UI insurance as the long term for work overlapped 3 weeks . Waiting for a letter in the mail for our dear gov. I am not in a hurry to get that !

OH MY GOSH!!! I can not face life without my grapefruit! Just being told that I can not have it makes me want it even more! Yikes. Well, at least, like everything else it is temporary because you do not stay on Tamoxifen forever.

Anyway, I am just back from my consult with a radiation onc, and I was told (as I rather expected that I would be) that I should go ahead with 5 1/2 weeks of daily rads. Blech. I am going to be getting started in the middle of May, three weeks after my last chemo. I am more than a little bummed about it, but on the bright side, during our discussion, this doctor used a wonderful word that I have not yet heard fall from the list of any of the multitudes of doctors that have now seem me without my shirt on and it was....CURE RATE. Wow, it makes the (metaphorical) hair stand up on the back of my neck just to type it. He said that there are some large studies that were done in Canada and Europe that appeared to show that young women with moderate tumors and few positve nodes showed a significant increase in cure rate when rads were used in conjunction with adjuvant chemo. It was not a hard sell for me from that point. He cautioned that this result may not hold true in the states because of differences in surgical techniques etc, but that there is a study underway right now to see if it does....results to follow shortly. In any case, I am willing to take my chances particularly since I think I would be very upset should the results of the domestic study come back replicating the other results.

In other news, I had a great thing happen today that I think only you, my BC sisters would understand... I ate something delicious today!!!!!! vegtable panini sandwich...and I actually tasted something that was not gross or bland. I think I cut my tongue on the bread, but it was worth it. ahhhhhh I think I am going to go back to the place where I got if for lunch tomorrow

and...(as if I wasn't longwinded enough) I was very distressed to read your post Brenda. This is so incredibly frustrating, but I think (if it matters) I understand now what is going on. Your major medical is not covering your drugs, they are being covered by a separate prescrption plan, and whereever it is that your onc is getting his drugs may be an out-of-network pharmacy, and thus the out-of-network rules are kicking in for you. When I was setting up my treatment plan with my onc, we discussed this contingency, and it was agreed that I would obtain the drugs on my own (and be responsible for them) and then bring them with me to my chemotherapy sessions for mixing and administration. In my case I did not have to do that, but maybe you can work something like that out for yourself. On the other hand the words of the billing woman that you related in your post make me want to vomit. That is absolutely inexcusable, particularly given your medical situation. Profit is not at issue here, your life is, and maybe she did not take the hippocratic oath, but your onc did so I am sure that if you stay away from the billing dept and talk to the medical staff you can work it out. I still think that you should double check with your insurance company and make sure that they are allowed to balance bill you...the lady in the billing dept (I think I have already adequately expressed my opinion of her) may just be saying that to you, when in fact it is not true. Keep us posted.

Amera have fun this weekend!
Those of you still aching and feeling yuck from infusions, feel better.


ok, I think that is enough for now. busy morning. I think I may be stuck in the house for the duration because my blood counts came in and they were absolutely awful (WBC 1.8 and platlets 65). Yuck. hope I can go to the gymnastics meet this weekend! hope you are all having a great day!

Hiya Viddie, Congrats on your last AC! That must be such a load off. To answer your question, yes indeed I get neulasta...that is why I am so freaked by my counts. I endured the awful bonepain and fog from that blasted shot and I have no immune system anyway? sheesh. Life is unfair sometimes

Oh Rebecca, I love mushy stories like that. How special! Thanks for sharing!

Sending some healing thoughts from Iowa that your beloved will feel better soon!

Cindy

I now have one chemo left - on April 13. I had my 7 of 8 this AM. I talked to the onc about my port, wondering if it would stay in a few months, half a year or more. She said I won't need it after my last chemo and I can have it out anytime after two weeks after my last treatment! Yea!!! Out for summer!!!

As soon as I came home I called the surgeon to schedule the follow-up appointment that she wanted after chemo. I told her receptionist that I needed to talk about the port removal also. May 1st I can get that scheduled. Makes me do a little happy dance in my chair.

And I talked to the onc about when will I feel better/stronger/alert after the last treatment? She said that after one month I should notice a difference and after 2 months the tiredness should be gone. Unless I'm one of those who chronically are tired (not me). But she also said that many of her patients tell her they think they're never going to get there and all of a sudden they wake up and it's a good day and they realize normal is returning. She also told me to be physically active, it will help.

Last thing - I asked her about the B17/Laetrile that my daughter had ordered for me. She said she wouldn't take it, it does nothing.

I think it's nap time. I didn't sleep too well last night. A little anxious pre-treatment.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Cindy

Hi Mzsissy,
Well, you could certainly be right that Taxotere is harsher than Taxol. I don't get Taxol every week, though. It's every two weeks like the AC. I read somewhere that Taxotere and Taxol are "sister" drugs. I wonder if regional policies and doctor's personal preferences play a part in who gets what. - Skye