I am starting chemo in July 07. Anyone else?

Chemo for me tomorrow.  It will be number 4 of 6 (taxotere, Cytoxin, and Adrimyacin).  Tomorrow I will be 2/3 finished with my treatment.  Day one and two are usually ok, but day 3 and 4 are generally hellish.  I am taking decadron today and it gets me crazy and also a weird, bad taste in my mouth.  Guess I cannot complain, as this week was very good.  I got to all of my son's high school soccer matches and took pictures for the booster club to boot.  I took my youngest son clothes shopping and went with the family to the county fair, last night.

Tomorrow it will be back to square one and time to face whatever side effects are thrown my way.  Only 2 more after tomorrow.  My patience is wearing thin.

All of you who have or are shortly going to move on to taxol...way to go, I'm jealsous as I still have three more yucky treatments.  My best to you all,   Rose

good luck girls tomorrow i go for my third tx.  i hope they give it to me not sure because of my stay in hospital.  i just want to keep going and get through this.  i figure third time has to be a charm (isn't that they old saying) lol.  I'll try to check in but usually in bed for 7-8 days yuk.  hugs & prayers lori

HI Ladies,

Rose and Lori, Good Luck on your tx's today, I will be thinking of both of you as I get marinated also, last A/C, 4x Taxol to go. Lori I hope you are and keep feeling good. Rose I am glad you got to go to all of your son's games.

Do you guys have anxiety about going to the tx room, like I do?  Guess we all know what our s/e's will be for a few days. Well take care all! Your in my thoughts and prayers!

Take Care Charlene

Hello everyone! I got my first Taxol today! 1 down, 11 to go! Yeesh. The end still seems a looooooooong way away. It wasn't bad, though. They gave me Benedryl in the IV and they said it would make me sleep through the treatment, but it didn't. Which was actually good because my daughter drove me and decided to stay. She went out and got us lunch, then we alternated chatting with reading. It was really nice to have her company. Although she had to turn away when the nurse put the needle in my port, because she is hugely needle phobic. She arranged her college classes and her work schedule to have Mondays free to be my ride, because the chemo nurses said I HAVE to have a ride because of the Benedryl. Right now I feel perfectly fine, but a little sleepy. NOTHING like I felt after an A/C treatment: no fuzziness in the head, no headache, no yucky feeling in the stomach. So, although it is only day 1, the Taxol really does seem to be easier than A/C. Hooray! I'm going to try to get out and run tomorrow. OK who am I fooling - it will be a jog/walk.

Abbi - my hair is growing back also. I asked the chemo nurse if it would continue to grow through the Taxol and she said no, it will fall out along with my brows and lashes. I was sad! I hope your onc is right and mine is wrong! But they did say it is OK to wear false eyelashes. I hope the Taxol goes well for you, too, so maybe it won't cut too much into all the stuff with your kids.

I can't imagine what it would be like to do this if I had young kids (DD is 20 and my only child). You ladies with kids rock for keeping it together.

Rose, Lori, Charlene - you all had tx today as well? I hope it wasn't too bad for any of you.

Well, let's all keep on 'truckin!

Donna

P.S. Abbey - glad you got Emend. It's the greatest thing ever for nausea.

Hi all, hope everyone is having a good week.  Well, taxol #2 down and 2 to go...woo hoo.  So far I feel good.  I take the decodran also 4 hours before chemo and also in my premeds but it hasn't affected my sleeping at all.  It's those darn night sweats that wake me up.  So far no side effects except eating like a horse which is a good thing.  I gained 2 pounds since my last treatment.  I go in for my neulesta shot this afternoon which will kick my butt.  I get terrible migrains and soreness from it.  But after today, only 2 more to go.

I did ask my onco. a few things yesterday regarding how do we know if chemo is working.  His response was that as far as we know right now, i'm in remission.  After treatment they will track my progress with tumor markers.  I asked about removing my other breast and he said we wouldn't do that until we decided on getting genetic testing which I need to do some research on.  And he also said I could get my port removed 3 weeks after treatment!!!  woo hoo.  I would prefer to keep it just a bit longer in case of the unknow but he said it could cause issue if left in so it is safer to take out and we can easily (easy for him to say) put it back in if needed.  So, I have some things to think about yet. 

Best of luck to everyone this week and I hope everyone getting treatments this week can do so with little side effects as possible.

 Ginger

So I was supposed to get chemo #3 yesterday, but after hanging around for 3 hours waiting for an answer they decided not to go ahead due to low white count.  It was a letdown, having even a few more days added to the length of this but I know it's for a good reason.  We're going to try again Thursday.  Has anyone else had a chemo delayed for this?  My count needed to be 1.5 & it was .9.  I hope it doesn't continue to be an issue with future treatments.

Margie

No Charlene, I haven't been getting Neulasta.  My onc never mentioned it.  Maybe now that my wbc's were an issue?  I don't know.  I'm feeling so down today, I just pray they're where they need to be Thursday.

Charlene - I'll be doing basically the same thing with the Decadron 10pm and 6am are my times.  I've been warned by the onc. that it is similar to a strong cup of coffee, so I don't plan on getting much sleep on Wednesday nights (Thursdays will be my treatment days each week starting 9/20).  Onc. says if I don't have any bad reaction to the Taxol we can cut it down to 2 or 3 pills rather than the 5. 

Fatigue is really getting to me.  Same thing happened last time after my A/C.  I was doing alright until about day 13 or 14 and "boom", it's like I've hit a wall.  Unfortunately, I'm still not sleeping well.  I can't remember the last time I didn't feel exhausted.

Oh well, sometime this just HAS to end, right?  I've been forcing myself to take a little walk every morning as exercise.  I was never much of an exercise person, but I'm trying!

Going out antiquing with my mother today.  That should pretty much wipe me out.  But at least it gets me out of the house and gives me something to do.  I'm too exhausted to do much, but the boredom of not doing anything is getting to me.  A real double-edged sword.... 

Hope all you gals who got "marinated" the last couple of days are doing well.

Good to hear that first weekly Taxol was ok for you, Donna.  One week to go before I start mine.  I'm just ready to get going and deal with it, KWIM?

Have a great day, everyone

Does anyone know how to enter a signature in this new format?

Hi everyone. It seems that all of you who are on Taxol are taking Decadron before your tx day! I am not doing that, and my onco never mentioned such a thing. Interesting how they all do something a little different. But I get the Decadron in my IV, and it sure does affect my sleep (so I know what you mean, Abbi). Tuesday night I fell asleep fine, then woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally at 6:30 I fell asleep for a while. Then I felt lousy all day Wednesday from lack of sleep. Fortunately, last night I slept all the way through. I feel like celebrating when that happens!

Margie, I got a Neulasta shot the day after each of my A/C treatments and my white count was always good. I hated the shot, though. It always made me feel like crap for a couple of days. But at least I was able to stay on schedule, so I guess it was worth it. I hope you were able to get your treatment today.

TinaMae, I am finding Taxol to be WAY easier than the A/C was!!!

And Charlene - I see you are from East Stroudsburg. My husband and I ran the Pocono Mountain Marathon this past May! 3 days before my lumpectomy! Tobyhanna to Stroudsburg or East Stroudsburg I believe. Can't exactly remember - the chemobrain again... but I do remember we spent a long weekend and had a great time. It was beautiful there.

Is anyone on Taxol having issues with a runny nose and watery eyes? Don't know if it's the Taxol or seasonal allergies but Claritin didn't seem to do a thing. But my worst problem right now seems to be that I am in a complete funk over the way I look. My eyebrows are thin, but when I use a powder or a brow pencil, I feel like I look like Groucho Marx! and I feel pasty and I'm sick of not having hair!!!!!!!!!! Then the chemo nurse said my eyelashes and the rest of my brows will fall out on the Taxol, which made me feel even worse! I am trying to be positive but it is hard sometimes.

I am going to go to the nursery and get some stuff to start an herb garden. Gotta get out of the house, and planting stuff makes me feel better.

Take care everyone.

Donna

P.S. I don't know how to do the signature, and another thing - whatever happened to the proofreading function??

My 4th and LAST A/C is Wednesday the 19th but I am not feeling great and am worried that I am going to find out that my wbc is too low.  I REALLY want to get this over with.  I still have radiation and hormone therapy ahead of me once I finish chemo but I know that my path is a lot less difficult than many of you.

So here is my struggle (please give me your opinion if you have one):

I was planning to go to DC tomorrow to visit my college student daughter.  Visits with her feed my soul and I have been looking forward to it BUT I am feeling pretty worn out and the drive is 5 hours each way.  Do I risk getting more run down?  AURG!  I am so tired of having cancer get between me and my life!

Also - I was rinsing my mouth with salt water every day at first but stopped a couple of weeks ago.  Now I have some strange and painful ulcers in my mouth (inside bottom lip)

I have been pretty positive through all of this up until now but I must say that I am getting tired of being a good sport about this. 

Seems like we're all having our challenges this week.  I'm just so darn tired, but sleep like crap.  And the depression is getting to me.

Finally decided Wed night (about 1:30 am) that I was ready to try a different anti-depressent.  I had tried Paxil back in May and it was a BAD experience.  So talked to onc and she prescribed me a small dose of Zoloft which she said is traditionally the most tolerable.  So last night I took a nice big breath and swollowed the sucker down.  Up at 3:00 a.m. with my head in the toilet.  Oh well.... I just can't take these things.  Took a compazine which is helping with the nausea, but I can barely keep my eyes open.

Of course, I don't want to nap now because I'm afraid I won't sleep at night...... it's a never ending downward spiral.  No wonder I'm so depressed.

I'm going to go close my eyes.... there's no stopping it at the moment!

Cancer bites!

Excellent point Charlene, most of us are half way through!  I will be after I get my bleeping wbc back up & I can get this round over with.  I was telling my hubby last night I think I've been very positive about this whole ordeal and continue to be so, but it's impossible to stay that way 100% of the time.  To try to pretend I am wouldn't be true to my feelings.  When I'm feeling low I let myself feel that way, cry, scream, whatever I feel like.  If I held it in I would snap. 

Remind yourselves how much you've gotten through already in this process.  It's amazing really what we have overcome already.  We are all strong women who will get past these bumps in the road.  Do whatever you feel up to, try to stay connected to real life.  That's what helps me the most when I'm down.

Oh no Jean, I'm so sorry to hear you may have more tumors.  I'm having chemo first, this is really scary to hear.  Did they tell you why they decided to do chemo first?  I never got details from any of my scans, they just said they looked fine.  Now I'm worried.

(((Jean)))  Seems like you weren't getting the best information from your first onc.  It's very frustrating when they keep you out of the loop.  I probably drive my onc. crazy.  I'm always looking up information (too much sometimes - one of the reasons I'm making myself crazy) and asking questions. 

My onc. called this afternoon with yet another antidepressent to try.  We're giving Lexapro a try.  Apparently, it has the mildest side effects.  It's also somewhat expensive, which is why she was reluctant to try it.   But hey.... like the Loreal ad says, I'm worth it right?

I'll keep you all updated on the results.  Ever feel like a guinea pig?