Anyone starting Chemo in Feb?

Hello from South Texas, fellow chemocruisers. I haven't posted in a long time and am so far behind on reading posts, I'll never get caught up.
I'm due for my last (4 A/C) treatment on Thursday.I hope!! I've developed shingles on my right arm. Anybody else had them? I've started on Valtrex and using hydrocortisone cream for the itching.
Anybody aware of any other method of relief, besides cutting my arm off?!!!??
My wbc's were 1.0 last Thursday. Hope it's up by next Thursday.
I've been back to work for 6 weeks now and it's been difficult. It seems I'm down weak and dizzy for about 6 days after every treatment, so I have to use my sick days as I build them up. Hug to everybody and hope you all had a nice Easter.
Sorry to be such a bad cruise member.... Tracy

Hi all,
I spent all day yesterday down and out for the count. A fever over 101, vomiting, etc etc. Called the onc around 2 to find out what I should do. He directed me to the local hospital ER. Ack..on Easter Sunday! He called back within minutes and suggested Tylenol, Immodium and to give myself 4 hours. If the fever broke I could avoid ER. It broke. Thankfully. Feel like crapola this morning but it's my first day back to work after my 'vacation' last week. I'm going to go in and give it my best try... foresee a nap later this afternoon though. Hope all is well with everybody.

Oh, Twink, so sorry to hear about your fever and vomiting (stomach virus?). In fact we really have no idea of what is going in our bodies... clearly the chemo is not in there just the time to be flushed out and continues its "mole" activities in the depth of our organism... I wish somebody would come with a good animation movie explaining how the different drugs work, where they stay, etc. like there was a journey through the human body years ago.
Hope everything is back to normal, have a good day at work,
CatherineH

Did pretty good after tx # 3. A little more tired than normal. Baby girl is due August 20! Won't it be a lovely summer in Texas! I guess one positive is that because of the chemo I haven't gained nearly as much pg weight as I did with my son! We had a great Easter! TX # 4 is on 4/25. Hope everyone does well at the bar this week. Ya'll are in my prayers!

Hey everyone, had an absolutely fantastic visit with my parents this Easter weekend. I think they went home feeling a little better about their baby! LOL I'm gonna go back and catch up with what everyone has been doing .....Love to all, Marsha

Phyl, thank you for your update. Wishing you minimal anything and a great week! I called the onc office to ask for instructions in preparation of Abraxane tomorrow: nothing to do, nothing to take... I'll go along with this... I am not even sure I'll need Neulasta for this series... Will find out more tomorrow when they do the blood work before tx...

Marsha, glad to hear from you and learn you had this special time with your parents. Come back soon to tell us more... Take care.

Hoping everything is OK,
Hugs to all,
CatherineH

Hello, my friends, I have been offline for days. I wasn't feeling well, what I didn't realize was that I was starting my descent down the deep dark hole of dehydration. The further I descended, the less I could think and function. I attributed the symptoms to chemo drug SE's, I still have a terrible problem figuring out what is causing what -- is this from the chemo drugs? is that from the drug to minimize an SE of a chemo drug? is this just a headache? is this from need-to-eat low blood sugar? is this pelvic bone pain from the Neulasta? or is it something else? Ultimately the dehydration caused me to become constipated, when I am used to the opposite situation normally.
The drama started when my DD, my DH and his elderly uncle arrived at a restaurant Sat. about noon, and my body finally said 'enough' and punched my lights out...I not only fainted but I was eyes open completely unresponsive and I threw up on my daughter's shoulder as she held me (is turn-about fair play in this case?)
Paramedics came, I declined to be transported, and ended up in the ER about 15 minutes later anyway, with thready pulse, low blood pressure, dizziness and abdominal pain.
I said to the ER doctor, "You think I should have listened to my oncologist when she said, 'keep hydrated'?"
Over the next 7 hours, they fixed me up with IV fluids and enema -- I haven't had one of those since I was in labor with my daughter 37 years ago.
This will never happen again. I will push fluids even if everything tastes hideous, foul, oily, gross. And watermelon is my new friend...so cold, so sweet, so.... juicy......
Still don't feel great but 100 times better than Sat. I loved catching up on your posts.... Sybil

Linnie, Hi, I am pretty sure it was my posts about differing opinions re: my HER2/neu status to which you refer, possibly on here but also on HER2/neu threads, probably around Jan '07.
Are you saying that you still have to find out your HER2/new status, too?
Coincidentally, this became an issue for me again, too, and last Friday, despite feeling weak and dizzy, I had my daughter drive me up to L.A. so I could hand-deliver slides from my biopsy and my lumpectomy to Dr. Micheal Press at USC so he can determine once and for all whether I am HER2 + or -. He is highly regarded in this field, and due to an accident in timing, I got to meet him and shake his hand. I hope to hear the results this week, as my last chemo is the 4th week of April. If it ends up that I can benefit from Herceptin, I have been told it is typically a year's course, and I could have been having it along with my other chemo drugs, saving about 4 months of treatment.
I, too, find it difficult to believe that I have yet to know conclusively, I had been frustrated by differing opinions...more recently, my onc and her asst. attended a conference and the speaker spoke about HER2/neu and it was decided my status should be evaluated further.
Please tell me what is going on with you. Best, Sybil

Hillary, SammyKay... well, girls, we're all in it together tomorrow... will be thinking of you...

Sybil, so sorry to read about what you had to go through. Do you try to measure what you drink in a day: there are 32 ounces cups with a tube to drink... you need 2 of those (minimum), but it is relatively easy to do (you can put whatever you want in there (cafein and alcoholic beverages do not count..:))... juices, water, green tea, broth, soup, yogurt (not all mixed together, you understand ...) It has become a second nature for me now (was not drinking much before chemo). There is one thing I cannot stand anymore is ice chips... I wish you never to go through this again... scary... Hope your evaluation process will be completed soon by the right onc. Take care.

A good restful night to all to regain strength...
Love,
CatherineH

Good morning all! Had a very restful night despite all the decadron in my system. No anti-nausea meds needed last night or this morning. Used my trusty Ambien CR (which I do thru Friday night - then switch to Restirol). Feel great today. Need to give myself the Neulasta injection around 3:30. By the way - I am taking 2 100mg B6 (morning and night) to ward off neuropathy. I haven't gotten anywhere to pick up the L-Glutamine but I think I'm going to wait to see if I experience any of the bone pain. Gonna take the dog for a 3 or 4 mile walk this after when the temp goes up to 50.

Hillery, Catherine and SammieKay - hope you all have a great and uneventful trip to the bar today. Please keep us posted.

Sybil - what a dreadful weekend for you. Hope you're feeling better.

Twink - hope you're finally on the mend.

Piper - good to hear you're enjoying your trip to Nebraska.

Off to work! Have a great day.
Hugs!
Phyl

arrrrgh now my genetic testing is back to unapproved statis with insurance, something about the diagnosis causing the problem with them.

Hi All!

I'm back from the first taxol. My onc thinks that taxotere is more toxic than taxol, which is why he sticks with it. I had pre-meds of decadron, tagamet, and benadryl. I don't take any pills unless needed. I did not have any problems with the taxol. I did have a bit of a problem with the benadryl drip. My arm started to hurt, feeling squeezed. This continued until minute 8 beccame unbearable and my husband got the nurse. She put heat pads on my arm. The pain stabilized through minute 10 (when the infusion ended) and continued to decrease over the next 30 minutes as they dripped the saline through prior to starting the taxol. Next time, we'll put the heating pads on at the start of the benadryl. The nurse sat with me during the first 15 minutes of taxol, dripping it slowly. Once it was clear that I was fine, she increased it so that it could be done in 3 hours.
The premeds will be reduced since I had no allergic reaction. They'll still check carefully next week for allergic reaction.

My onc said that any bone pain could begin Thursday afternoon (basically >48 hours from treatment). I go tomorrow for neulasta. If my Hb continues to decrease, I'll probably need an aranesp or procrit shot next time.

I asked my onc nurse about L-glutamine and B6. She's fine with the B6. She doesn't think that L-glutatmine is worth it. In the clinical trials, the amount of glutamine needed to show a response was so much that it caused intestinal problems. There are other drugs that they will try if I have a problem.

So far, the only side effect is feeling woozy from 1 mg ativan (which I always take before treatment) and the benadryl. I watched a movie during the long infusion. Dh went and got me a turkey sandwich to eat for lunch. I'll keep you all informed if I have any additional SEs. Phyl and I are really the guinea pigs, aren't we?

Jan -- Sorry to hear about your insurance woes. Are you triple neg? My onc said that he asks all triple neg patients to be tested even if there is no history. In my drug-induced phase, I can't remember why, but there is some correlation between brca1/2 and triple neg.

-- Hillary

Hi everyone! Put in my 6 hours at the office and came home and collapsed! Power napped and starting slamming water – for what it’s worth, much better now. Sybil – honestly, I think I’ve been too lax on my water and I’m taking your story as a lessoned learned!

Jen – big congrats on the last A/C! The ham and green beans sounds delish! I think I’ll have to make that next week when I get my taste back!

Hillary, Catherine, Phyl – thanks so much for keeping us updated as we start the new cocktail. I’m so happy that everyone made it thru the infusion with minimal issues (although Hillary, I’m sure the numb arm was frightening!)

Jan – I’m sorry to hear about the insurance. Geez, sometimes I swear they do this stuff for job security so we’ll have to call back and go thru it all again! I do hope they work it out soon.

Marsha – so curious to hear what your Onc says about glutamine (guess I shouldn’t have bought it so soon!) Mine had a bit of a take it or leave it attitude, but because some have reported good results, she wasn’t adverse to me trying it…..

Going to slam some more water and take it easy. Have a great nite all.

Hugs..

Hillary - good to hear your day was fairly uneventful as well. Hopefully our good fortune continues.

Vegas - My onc says if the bone pain starts, try 3 Motrin first and if that doesn't work, they'll give me a script for Percocet but I still have a full bottle from the mast. She's expecting I won't need it since I'm not bothered by the Neulasta. Hope all goes well for you Monday. I'm still feeling absolutely awesome tonight - no nausea, no pain, plenty of appetite, etc. Lovin' it. Getting very sleepy tho - I start the day at 4:30 or 5:00 and didn't get any nap today. As for work, I'm in the same situation as you and I believe Carynn, maybe Leah - my commute is down the stairs to the keyboard. I can rest when I need or take a 15-minute power nap if necessary. I must admit, there have been several days thru the AC tx where it took me 12 hours to get an 8 hour day in - sometimes just the sleepiness from the anti-emetics. Sure don't miss that.

Carynn - keep on drinking!

Terry - miserable weather to be sitting outside at a baseball game - sure hope it warms up here soon.

Been quite on this thread today - how's everyone doing? Catherine - hope you're doing well!

Hugs to all - especially those at the bar tomorrow.
Phyl

Good Evening...
Phyl...the secret to sitting out at baseball is wearing hubby's battery operated hunting socks!! And pretending it is a football game!! But I love watching my boys play. So it is worth it.

To those of you admiring those of us who are working...I am at the bank every day except chemo day (so far...went home early the day after last time) Please don't admire too much. My butt is dragging for sure. Last nite I fell asleep on the couch around 8:oo pm...went straight to bed around 9 and slept stright thru...was still dragging and wishing I could call off sick. But I am afraid to "waste" my sick days. I might need them later during chemo if I get too run down or if I have any negative reactions to rads.

You girls starting taxotere...I have not had any bone pain or neuropathy with it...have had 3 taxoteres so far. So maybe it won't be so bad for you. It is important though to take the premeds...decadron & benedryl.

Well...I am still dragging...so off I go to lay down...

Good luck at the bar tomorrow!
Love,