Starting Chemo in September?? where are you ladies

Hi Ladies,  I am so happy to report that I have had a really good day today!  I walked my usual 3 miles this morning (couldn't do that the last couple of days) and took my kids on a picnic lunch and then took them to decorate pumpkins at Michael's.  My kids were SO happy to have mommy back for the day (two girls 5 & 8).  I was getting so depressed yesterday (sounds like that was the way it was for everyone) thinking that I was going to feel crappy for 12 weeks.  Today was six days after tx-1 for me so there is hope that the next two weeks will be good!  I hope that the next treatments give me only six days of yuck too.  Next time though I will take stomach meds before the treatment to avoid this painful tummy.   Hopfully I can stay up late to see the Packers vs. Bears (longtime Packer fan - grew up in Green Bay).  

And -  I have a recipe to share with you Moose and Venison folks (can use stew meat too).  This is so good.  I will try to put it in a separate post...

Thanx for the recipe urbie, I'll have to write that down.  I'm sure I'll be looking for all kinds of recipes with all this meat we have.

I had a better day today.  Bf came home late from being out with the guys.  He's so cute and talkative when he's had a few.  Laying in bed with him then is my favorite time. 

He asked me if I was mad at him because I hardly looked at him all afternoon.  (we've never had a fight and I can't really recall being mad at him so I think its funny that he'd say that but I suppose he was clueless).  I told him I just missed him so much that it was hard for me to be around him with all those people because I just wanted to cry.  And it was a little tough seeing the moose and hearing everything when I didn't get to go.  Then he grabbed me and said he just wanted to hold me in his arms all night (he's not a touchy feely sorta person unless we've been apart).  It was just what I needed.  And we spent the day together.  That's how it should be.  We don't talk a lot but its not right if he's not there.  So everything in the world is right again.

Except I have treatment #3 tomorrow.  But one tx closer to done.

I'm going to ask my onc more about my diarrhea at my appt.  I've had it pretty much the whole time. 

Well, that's my deal...Take care everybody

Have you tried Aleve instead of tylenol? I have had problems with tendonitis in both elbows in the past and was told to take 2 aleve in the AM and 2 in the PM when it flares up and this has always worked for me. Good luck! If you don't get the neulasta shot then you will have to be very careful not to come in contact with anyone that is sick, which is  almost impossible to do! Especially coming into flu season.

I can definitely relate to the chemo brain. I was in the car yesterday and had to seriously stop and think of how to turn the car off!  SCAREY!!

Back to the nostagia...my lunch box was Barbie, The Partridge Family and The Monkees! lol

My favorite toys were all my Barbies. Did anyone have the one with plastic hair that came with 3 wigs? blonde, burnette and red head.

Wigs...now thats appropriate!

favorite jingles...I can remember all of the ones mentioned but can't be original to come up with any of my own.

I have script for nexium...do you think they may help? I don't like taking 3 zofran every dose. Maybe I should take a nexium a day and back off to one zofran. Any thoughts? Today is day 5, last time I started to feel better by now.  Maybe the se are on the way out.

I'm not taking steriods but its a pretty good bet that those of you that are taking them that is the reason for the weight gain. Be sure to watch your salt intake, including the salt already included in the foods your are eating.

Paxton, I don't have a man in my life but I hear you regarding the emotions. Oh man! I can (and do) cry at the drop of a hat! Then I get made at myself for crying. I had to call the ER to get more zofran and I started crying while talking to ER nurse. She was very kind but I must have sounded like a babbling idiot!

Take care everyone!!

Cheryll

Oh, I forgot the big gun that I cannot afford!  The Emend I also took the day of, and two days after.  I do think that it made a big difference and I hope that they approve me for assisatance.  If not, I will have to sell one of my kids

And on a good note, I had my white counts checked today and they were 9.2!  Yeah Nuelasta!  I will take the bone pain and smile (with meds) all the way to my ps office tomorrow for a fill in my tissue expanders!!  After tomorrow, I will officially have a bust they may take notice in the right shirt.     Have a great night all...

Yea I am so emotional its retarded.  I'm in chemo right now (brought the ole laptop) and I started crying sitting here just thinking about how much I missed my bf while he was away.  I am normally not like this at all.  I do normally miss him when he's away, but he's been home a few days now so what's the deal.  I even cry in the car or wherever when I think how glad I am he's home.  Its so stupid.  I don't want him to see me like this so I'm trying my best to not cry so much.  He's really good about letting me lay on him in his recliner and cry when I need to, but I know women crying makes men uncomfortable so I don't want to do it all the time.  Ahhh!!!!

No big revelations on the diarrhea from onc.  She thought maybe those days I feel like complete shit are from the neulasta (muscle aches etc) so I might try that Clariton when that sets in and see what happens.  I personally think its just from being poisoned by the damn chemo.  It happens after the days where I'm nauseated so about 5 days after tx I get sick.

well, gotta go.  chemo's almost over....thank god

My tx is different than you guys but the nurses load me up with zofran pre chemo and lots of pre hydration. Drink water water water she told me, two days before so I slosh when I get there and then keep drinking for two more days close to a gallon a day. She felt that minimizes the dehydrating effect of the chemo, helps flush it all out and stops nausea. The meds they give me make me so thirsty that it's not at all hard to do. Then she hangs a mini bag of dexamethasone prior to the IV push of 5FU, and Epirubicin. Lastly with another bag of Saline, she hangs the Cyclophosphamide. They send me home with oral dexamethasone and zofran to take twice a day whether I think I need it or not. And breakthrough, metoclopramide and gravol (your dramamine?) for nausea. Also a very good supply of ativan. With the back pain I am also taking pain medication - so hard on the guts- I had to buy one of those little weekly pill boxes because I was getting everything mixed up with everything... lol Then I just carry the little compartment around with me all day. I have also been taking some Vitamin C and a good multi mineral in between treatmets. I don't take them the 4 days I am on the steroids - don't ask me why, just seems like too much I guess *rolls eyes*

What I will do differently is take the stool softener the day of and not wait two days, and will request something for the massive heartburn and acid reflux and have something very bland on my stomach so as not to let that stuff start churning acid up.

Have a great day/week everyone.

Karyll

PS - been thinking about the emotions - could be "chemo pause" as well. Don't beat yourself up, your hormones have a mind of their own right now and they don't what the hell they are doing either.

I'm doing pretty good.  The night went well.  I took the kyrtril, decadron, and ativan when I got home.  And I took compazine and more ativan at when I woke up in the night. 

I dropped my car off at the body shop this morning.  I did alittle house work (one nice thing about decadron; gives u some energy, although it makes me real jittery if I sit and do nothing).

I'm going to bake 1/2 a cake this afternoon and work on finishing the dvd I'm making of the moosehunting trip.  Then I suppose I should relax and watch tv.

I have a cold, too, but I don't feel massively sick yet.  So, wondering if it will be like last time where at the end of the week when the nausea part gets better, the fatigue and just feeling crappy sets in.  I almost liked getting it over all the first week so I had the second full week to feel good.  I only felt good about 3-4 days last tx.  But I only have one more of the AC tx left, then onto taxol which is not suppose to make you so sick.  Yay...I'm hoping.

How is everyone else doing?

MJ: I've wanted to learn clogging.  I took a little workshop at the bluegrass festival 3 summers ago.  The next year they didn't have the cloggers so I filled out the survey and they were there this year.  I really like watching them.  Often between the drinking and playing guitar at our site with all the cool folks in our area, we forget half the time to go up to the stages and watch the shows.  But I almost always set my drink down and head up solo to watch the cloggers. 

Well, hope everybody's hanging in there. 

Paxton:  Glad to see you are feeling better. 

I have AC #2 on Thursday.  I have my Emend and Decadron, so I am ready.  I just started feeling better today, I am hoping and praying this one doesn't knock me down like the last one.  The not knowing part is scary and not being able to plan.

I am finding myself more emotional now.  I feel like a castoff from my friends.  They just expect me to be sick all the time, since I have had so many problems from the beginning.  I know how tired I am of this, so I don't bring anything up to them, until they ask. 

I really don't think anyone can even come close to understanding until they have gone through it.

Prayers being said for all my September 07 chemo buddies!

Nancy

Hi All

Just checkin in. I had a pretty good thanksgiving weekend. Went to wedding on Saturday...didn't get home til 2:30. Hubby was a little ticked, he thought I over did it, but knew I was having a good time. Good to see extended family that you haven't seen in a while.

Needless to say I didn't cook turkey dinner or anything major on Sunday..had to have dinner on Monday which is fine since I'm off work anyway.

Just finished my 2 tx yesterday and I have been up most of the night with extreme heart burn / acid reflex. I drank a bottle of water took my pill and propped my pillows up so I wasn't lying down flat seemed to help a little, I kinda dozed here n there. I'm going to try gravel  tonight  for  a sleep aid. hopefully it works.

Finally shaved my head last night too! Hey did you guys find your head tender where you shaved it? It's okay where the hair came out on its own but where the clippers cut my hair it is tender.:( I will take a pic later and post. 

I also gained 10 pounds since this all started. I'm kinda worried and hoping alot is water but it still is scary.

 Take care and hugs to all

Janice 

I shaved my head 2 1/2 weeks ago with a clipper and my scalp was really tender.  I was leary of using a razor but marietta said she did it cuz her scalp hurt, too, and it felt so much better.  I highly recommend doing that.  I don't know why it makes a difference. 

Nancy: hope you get used to all the new hair accesories.  I've only worn my wig out about 3 times.  I wear a cotton turban with a bandana over it a lot.  And I bought a "fall" as well and that works great under hats.  I'm wearing that right now actually.  I think its a good time of the year for this...cant imagine the summer heat.  At least no we can sleep in a winter hat if we want. 

Janice: glad u enjoyed your thanksgiving.  Every little event helps to get out and feel normal.

Good luck to everyone having tx coming up.  Just had mine monday and feel good.  I seem to hit a fatigue/sick time about a week into it though so I'm not home free yet. 

Hi to both MJ's and methusala who we haven't heard from in forever.  Hope you're hanging in there.  Things sounded rough. 

Other than that I had stitches coming up from my port incision that needed to be cut out.  They're suppoe to dissolve but doc said prob chemo is causing them not to.  He cut little holes above the other ones you could see under the skin.  He didn't us any numbing stuff either when he cut.  I was sort of proud in a weird way.  Isn't that dumb?

Well, take care everybody! 

Glad to hear from you Methusala.  What new drug were consider trying? 

I'm a little shaken by the news report on taxol.  It said that it lowers risk by 40% for those with her+, but is not as effective as thought for those that are ER+. 

Well, I'm triple negative so where the hell does that leave me??  I have one more AC tx and then am on to 4x Taxol, so this is a bit unnerving for me to hear.  Especially with the side effects and if it doesn't really help lower my risk.  Why does it always seem to get more complicated? ACKK!

Marietta:  It is strange how the time does seem to be passing.  My next tx will be my 4th and that is my halfway point for chemo.  This last tx has been going well so far.  I was a little worried because I have a cold with coughing, but I don't feel totalled.  And, I have not had diahrrea in 6 days .  But about this time is when it strikes up so I'm hoping it doesn't come back or at least isn't so bad as it was. 

I'm slow cooking bbq moose ribs for supper.  I'm excited to see how that goes. 

Does anyone else's skin turn red and get really blotchy once in awhile?   What do you do for it?  I've been using Proactive cuz someone suggested it in a thread on advice.  It usually seems to help.

How u doing MJ?  I'm thinking about you and miss you.  I'm not working and have no children so I'm home on the farm more.  I've been slowly working through the supplies and clothing, etc, from the hunting trip.  And I got the house ready for the wood stove. 

Well, have a good day EB!!!   

Oh Urbie, Methusala, Marrietta.. my heart goes out to you gals.

My kids are 15 and 18. 18 year old is in college and is worried sick about me I can tell since she is calling constantly and coming home everyweekend. And she is scared that she might also get this crap.

The 15 year old seems to be in a denial phase, living in her own teenage world.

The Cancer Hospital has a monthly workshop for kids with parents having cancer. I am planning to take my 15 year old.  Do you think your oncologist could suggest such a group ? They group the kids up in one room and the parents in the other, thought it was a good idea.

Big Hugs !!!

Aylin