Best Of
Re: Starting Chemo April 2024 Support Thread
oh, that all sounds very positive! I’m so glad everything is going as well as can be for you and hope it stays on the up, @grammie2 💕 It gives me hope with my upcoming round.
I’ve been feeling like myself this week, working and doing all the normal things, trying to get all of my protein and produce in to get ready for round 2 this coming Thursday.
My hair was coming out in handfuls and I looked like a patchy, scraggily mess with random strands hanging on. I had to return something at the mall, and I felt so self-conscious. So I bought clippers, went home, and shaved myself bald just now. I look like Dopey Dwarf in a baseball cap, but I HATE the beanies and scarves I have, and the free hospital wig is horrendous. I have no clue what I’ll do with myself yet, but I feel much better. I hope my eyebrows and eyelashes hold out for a while!
Re: Starting Chemo April 2024 Support Thread
How is everyone? Been quite on here! I hope everyone is feeling good and things are going well!
Prayers worked! My platelets went from 98 to 233 in a week!!! All other bloodwork was good as well! So number 3 done! They started me on oral mag. so will see how I handle that. D could be an issue. But I usually start out with constipation the first 4 days, followed by 3 days of having to take immodium before eating. If it's a big issue those 3 days, I'll just skip those days.
grammie2
Re: Starting Chemo April 2024 Support Thread
@bailey.boo I am so glad you had a good time with your family!! I read on the eye thing that the watering may be coming from the eyes overcompensating for the dryness and become super watery. I'm trying to use eye lubricant to see if that helps. I have normally dry eyes anyway.
I have lots of fuzz left and one strip of hair about 1/2 inch wide and 4 inches long that is refusing to fall out LOL. It looks like a small mohawk left side on the top of my head LOL. I'm doing the wig thing for work, but generally just some kind of beanie the rest of the time. My brows and lashes are thinning too. Everything from the neck down is still hanging on for now. A little thinner maybe. Ugh.
If you are a praying person, please say a prayer for my bloodwork to be good for treatment tomorrow. Thanks!!
grammie2
Re: Starting Chemo April 2024 Support Thread
Hope everyone had a good (long) weekend. I didn't do anything exciting really, but enjoyed the extra day off.
I'm preparing for #3 Thursday. Trying to eat plenty of red meat and legumes to hopefully help build my hemoglobin, platelets and mag. Praying platelets are way up by Thursday!
How's everyone feeling? Anyone with watery eyes that just pour for no reason? I first thought allergies, but a friend who went through breast cancer treatment said that is a SE. Ugh.
grammie2
Re: Bone Mets Thread
Oh Shana - I so feel for you! Mine is spine, neck, ribs, shoulders, and sometimes hips, knees, and ankles. I too have weakness and unsteady feet, and occasional tinnitus and headaches. Also get occasional nausea and less so the big D. I think most of it is side effects from the drugs - especially since you and I have some similar stuff going on. Mine does get a little better at times, then a little worse, etc., but there is always something there. If I miss a day or two of Verzenio I feel much better. I always feel worse the first week or so after the faslodex shots (like now), and feel really, really bad after the Zometa. Tylenol helps some but I'm rather afraid of the other alternatives for pain, e.g. nsaids, opiates, etc. I guess I'll just keep trying to put up with it, because I'm not sure there is really anything out there that would work better for the cancer at this point. How are your electrolytes? I have had a low sodium/low potassium problem ever since I started cancer treatments. They used to give me IV's fairly often. I've managed to keep the potassium up with a bottle of coconut water and a banana every day, but I have not yet conquered the low sodium. I have gotten the sodium up a bit though, and I have to say, it does seem to make a difference with some of the aches, weakness, and headaches. If my sodium is up higher, that stuff is noticeably better, but not gone. Just a thought, that you might want to monitor what your electrolytes are like when they do your labs.
Re: how about drinking?
May Lori's memory be for a blessing, as her life certainly was. She will get to shoot the breeze with Cami (camillegal) whom she visited and who left us a few years ago. Raising a glass to her tonight. (Perrier-Jouet Brut Rosé Blason). She'd have urged us all to do the same.
chisandy
Re: MBC and working
@exbrnxgrl thank you for those words. I need to save them somewhere and read them repeatedly, especially when I’m feeling not very hopeful. And you’re right - no one knows how it’s going to play out for any of us….cancer diagnosis or not.
harrow
Re: MBC and working
I’m going to say one thing on “Why bother, I have mbc…” issue. The thing is, neither you nor your mo knows how your mbc will unfold over time. When I was dx’ed, over 12 years ago, could I or anyone have imagined that I’d still be chugging along 12+ years later? No, of course not but I’m sure glad I didn’t put my life on hold. While I am not typical, neither am I unique.
Re: Wife given AC/T + HP for --+ (her2 3+)
laughinggull. Appreciate the info, TY :) It seems both regimens are good choices.
Re: How are people with liver mets doing?
Letting you all know that tomorrow (Friday may 31) at 12noon, ET we're hosting a special meetup on Questions around Palliative Care with Dr. Joe Straton, a specialist. If you would like to join, register here:
https://breastcancer-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvc-CoqjwrHNL4jnVXMjOjAer-KDlYte1M
