Anyone starting Chemo in Feb?

lightphoto

Well, the first tea party is done, 7 to go. Today's visit went well considering it was our first treatment date. The staff at the oncology office are some of the kindest, most gentle medical professionals we have EVER dealt with. We learned alot about what to expect in the coming weeks. They might have told us all of that a couple of weeks ago when we first visited, but we were on overload that day. The treatment regimen is the AC + T. Will get Neulasta tomorrow. Also got a script for Compazine to be prepared for the nausea. Looks like the next tea party will be in three weeks.
We also learned about the likely cause of discomfort that Theresa had last night. She had gotten a 50cc fill each side on Monday and had gotten 100cc's last week. That, combined with the port install procedure, added enough additional trauma to the area. She felt much better by mid-morning today.

Catherine, you asked about the pain related to the bilat-mast... I don't recall Theresa having much pain in the upper chest area but did have some on the back of her arms and axillary region. Any pain was easily controlled with Anexsia. The tightness you mention is similar but flexibilty came back quite quickly, all things considered. She had 4 drains for a total of 13 days.

linnieva

Thanks Karen, for the info on the MRI. No, I haven't had one. I couldn't believe the other day when you mentioned that your surgeon recommended not doing an AND for your two micromets because I had the same thing happen and mine never mentioned it. Too late now. It was the final wakeup call that I need to be my own dr. And the MRI sounds like a good place to start.

Sorry you're still having problems with your seroma (sp?). I thought that had finally worked itself out.

I'm not feeling any side effects so it's a happy day.

Linnie

Tonimad9

Linnieva,
Hey, I'm in VA too! I too was freaked out and just wanted it all gone asap. My surgeon is really great and I am about to go back for a little more clean up on my lumpectomy site next Friday, then start chemo on the 27th. My surgeon said I could have a Bilat Breast MRI and a PET Scan but didn't really think there was any need to look further. However my Onc said if it'll make you feel better, lets do it. I had the Bilat MRI and that was good. Whew! Friday I go for a PET Scan whole bod thingee. Praying for good results there too. If you think you need to look further then do it. Tell them you need this. I think of this situation as a team effort with the Surgeon, the Hemotology Onc and the Radiation Onc. We are all on the same team trying our best to win this thing and everybody counts....especially you. Peace of mind is priceless.

Tonimad9

Ooops! Forgot to introduce myself! Hope I am in the right place and please forgive me if I goof up, I still haven't quite figured out this posting thing. So ragged out I can't remember who I am. My name is Toni and I will be 52 in March, married to a great guy with two kids (one 8 yrs and one 32 yrs)and a four month old grandson. I was diagnosed in Jan with grade 1, stage 1-2 (borderline) invasive ductile carcinoma HER-, Estrogen+ with 1 positive node. NEVER turned up in mammos or echos. Someone finally noticed the node thank goodness. I have had two surgeries so far (lump and node removal for biop, then lumpectomy and node dissection-7 total) and will have third surgery next Friday to further clean up my margins. Went into shock when I found out, fainted right in the surgeons office! I have one more test to go this Friday (PET Scan) then I'm cleared for take off on Feb 27th so I'm barely squeeking into Feb. Glad to get going so I can get it over with but still dreading it in a big way. Okay, I will try to learn the ropes here and get this posting thing down. Wish we didn't have to be here but its nice to meet you ladies!

marshakb

Wow! I came on and there were 18 new posts. Took me a while to get through them all. Scott, I ama so impressed with you and your coming here. You make it very clear that this is happening to the two of you and I really like that!

Thanks for updating the list, was that Phyllis? I can't go back to the previous page without loosing what I've wrote! Anyway, periodically we need to copy/paste and add the new gals.

PET scan is my reccommendation. It is more expensive but WAY more diagnostic than doing a bunch of other ones. This should show the whole body.

OK had my first chemo today. NOthing to it really. Peed red for a little bit, but tonight it is clear. I am about to float away with all the water I've drunk! Went to my accupuncturist afterwards and came out of there feeling great! She has me on a herbal mixture. Day before chemo and the next 4 days the herbs are to fight toxicity and then do another batch that builds red/white cell production. Tastes kinda like earth but not bad. Just mix it with an ounce of warm water and shoot it like a shot of tequilla! HAHAHA

Will let you guys know how I feel as the days cruise by! Hugs to all my chemo cruiser friends, Marsha

CommandoBarbie

Hi all! Another Feburary here; hopefully that is. Met my Onc yesterday and we planned on starting in 2 weeks (before surgery). Had my CTs today and I think the only thing left is the MUGA. That said tho, I took a little nap when I got home from the CTs (me and barium didnt get along) and when I woke up, I have a sore throat. Everyone at work is sick, and I cant believe I'm going to catch the crud now. Other than just learning what my cocktail will be the only other thing I've learned is that they wont start it when youre sick:( Its so funny, as bad as I dont want to do chemo, I cant wait to get it started and kill the beast!

So, I will keep you posted; looks like I'll either be a Feb or March cruiser!

Hope you are all feeling well today. Talk to you all soon!

Carynn

MAJ01

Hi Everyone,

Linnie, Julie for Mom, Kim, Jen, Marsha, Pat, Leah, Sheryl and any others who have gone through 1st round that I may have missed - Hope you all are feeling better today.

Tomorrow Nancy, Tracy and I are up!! It's great to have a wonderful support group going through this all together.

My port is still bothering me greatly, and wondering if this is going to make it worse with the sticking and probing of the IV tomorrow. I haven't needed pain pills (just tylenol) however my chest is very bruised. My hubby and I went for a walk this afternoon with the dogs, but had to turn around. I feel it as I'm walking!! Is this normal?

Terry, Tracy, Pat - I'm located in Mansfield Texas
30 miles southwest of Dallas. I just moved here
a couple of years ago from Florida. Go Gators :-).

Hope everyone has a nice evening.
-Melody

southtx

Hey Melody,
Yes, tomorrow it's "go team go"!!!
My port is still sore too. I feel it every moment, but hopefully it will become to feel more a part of me soon.
I'll be thinking of you ladies tomorrow and hope you have good experiences..me too.
Hugs to you all, Tracy

horsegal

Linnie -

End of day 2 for me as well. Not a bad day at all. I actually went out with my hubby to do a few errands this morning. I have a son in Iraq and wanted to get a Valentine's box out to him! Had a good day - no nausea at all, but heartburn a big issue for me. Tums works on that!

And, yes - an MRI will take a look at both breasts - see if there is anything else. I had one done prior to my lumpectomy. They are NOT fun - not painful, but uncomforable! Face down, arms over your head, boobs in holes in the table, and an IV to boot (for the dye). Then, you're in the tube for like 34-45 minutes - NO MOVING! ugh! When I had mine done, they were having a computer problem - went in the tube twice - in about 15 minutes, and had to stop! Then they put me in another machine - had to start all over! What an experience!

But, it is a good test, worth doing - be calm and think of relaxing things while you're in and it goes fast!

Jen

wayover20

It's been great getting caught up on the postings and a warm WELCOME to the everyone newly boarding the FEB Cruise Line. I'm going to try to sleep now as tomorrow is my first "tea party" like Scott said (I like that Scott, can I use it too?). I'll let you all know how it goes.

Goodnight to all my Breast Friends,
Pat

Primel

Hi, Marsha, glad to hear you sailed through OK. Have sweet dreams. CatherineH

Primel

Thank you Scott for taking the time to answer my questions regarding post-op pain. I wish you both the best possible recovery until the next tea party... considering the brew they serve...
Take care,
Catherine

ErinsGram

Marsha, Linnie, Scott&Theresa - So glad you have #1 under your belts and are doing well.

Thanks to Karen for updating. Karen - I'm on drain #5 this morning (have about 1/2 a grapefruit under my arm). Are you wearing any type of compression bra or sports bra? My nurse says it won't do any good, but I'm wondering if keeping it compressed will keep fluid from building up. It's getting very annoying and with that sunburn-type feeling on the underside of my arm and the bulge from the seroma, the 2 rub alot - terribly uncomfortable.

Nancy, Pat and Tracy - wishing you well today - enjoy your cocktails. Hugs!
Phyllis

llmyner

Hi Everyone,
I start chemo the 9th--this Friday. I have ILC-2.5 cm, 1 positive node, ER/PR+ Her-. I had to have 2 surgeries--bilateral mastectomy on 12/21 and then more lymph nodes and port put in on 1/4. Tumor was in my left but had right one removed also--I didn't have much to loose and they 4 cycles of A/C, followed by Taxol or another drug(clinical trial) and then Bevacizumab-- about 46 weeks.

marshakb

Nancy, Pat, Melody and Tracy...godd luck to today on your first cocktail. Had mine yesterday. That dang steriod kept me waking up all night long. And peeing like crazy! Finally about 3 am took another restinol and then managed to sleep till 7 am. I feel fine, not naseaus or queezy but kinda of icky in my stomach. Am taking the compozine and go back for a shot this afternoon, I think the procrit one.

Try not to worry about the port being tender. My surgeon told me they could have used it the day it was put in. The stick is something you can feel but very shortly, then can't even feel the fluids going in at all. The red pee is a little disconcerting but my has already gone away. LOTS of water ladies, before, during and after!

Welcome Sally Ann, Toni and Carrynn.

Physllis, so sorry you are having so much problems with the underarm. The drains suck anyway but added to the rest of all that, hope it gets better soon.

Hope everyone has a great day. I just wake up every morning and say, Thank you God for a new day............Marsha

linnieva

Welcome to Sally Ann, Toni, and Carrynn! Toni - where in Virginia are you? I'm about 20 miles outside of D.C. near Reston. We were just about to put our house on the market when I was diagnosed in December. I wanted a change of scenery and we decided to move to the Delaware beach. We're now putting it off a year because my treatment options are so much better here. Everything happens for a reason I suppose and it's not like we were unhappy here -- just wanted a change. And thanks for the info on the bilat MRI. I did have a CT scan and that was fine but I don't know how closely that looks at your breasts.

Jen - glad you had a good day #2. Me, too. No problems at all so far. The decadron made me wired yesterday but it was good in a way. I buzzed around all day with lots of energy and then took a Ativan at night and slept. Today was my first neupogen shot and it went fine thanks to Rob, my partner. He's been so strong for me throughout this.

Phyl and Karen -- I'm sorry you're both still having problems with your drain areas.

Marsha, glad things went ok for you yesterday. Good luck today Melody, Pat, Tracy, and Nancy. Hope I haven't missed anyone.

Have a good day everyone! I worked at home yesterday but if I continue to feel well today, I think I may venture into the office tomorrow. I've also signed up for the LGFB class next Monday night.

wildabouthorses

Nancy,Tracey and Melody...hope all is going well for ya! I had the same MRI as Jen when I changed surgeons after getting a second opinion. I thank God she ordered it because it found I had a spot in my right breast, which the other surgeon hadn't caught doing just mammo's. It turned out to be worse than the left breast and took priority over it and changed up my path as it was invasive cancer and twice as large and then chemo was added in my treatments. I had already been set up for radiation treatments in the left when the right side was found to have cancer too. Now will have radiation after chemo is done.

Sounds like the port is very painful to have put in, my doc said it looks like I'll be okay with the veins. Are most of us with lumpectomies without ports for chemo? Or are most of you with masectomies have to have the port for chemo? Just wondering how they determine if you need one.

Tommorow is my Muga scan, I'm more concerned about the weather than I am with the scan. The cold seems to be bothering me alot since having both lumpectomies and we are having one of the coldest,snowiest,icy winters in a long while.

Oh my hubby told me he ordered me that shirt so I can have it to wear to chemo!

KimberlyC

What's a seroma? My breast is filled with fluid and they can't get it out now. I can't start chemo until it stops.

ErinsGram

KimC - A seroma is a fluid-filled pocket which forms to fill a void. I looked back to several of your previous posts and if I read correctly, you had a lumpectomy and 15 nodes removed. Either of those 'removals' can leave a void which the body will try to fill with serous fluid. Did you have any drains after your surgery? I had 2 under my left arm (had a left mast and 26 nodes removed). The drains usually stay in for a couple weeks until the fluid production drops below a certain level - mine never dropped to that level but they took them out anyhow. Now the fluid is staying in the pocket and a couple times a week, the nurse inserts a needle into the seroma and sucks the fluid out. Eventually, the void will heal over and the drainage stops - when the drainage gets quite low, the body can absorb what's left. I wonder why they wouldn't consider aspirating for you? (Sorry - that's probably more than you wanted to know but . . . hope it helped.)

CommandoBarbie

Just curious - was anyone going to take doxorubicin as part of their chemo and changed to something else due to concerns about heart disease? There's a very long list of heart problems in my family and I'm curious as to a possible alternative. Of course I'm going to run it by my Onc, but was curious if anyone else looked in to this too??

Carynn

Primel

Erin, I had the 2 drains removed after 15 days, when I reached 24 and 20 cc/24 hours of liquid (had a bilat mast on Jan. 10th). I can see some fluid under the skin under the left scar (the breast removed because of high risk, but had no cancer and they did not touch the nodes). Curiously, the drainage has been less on the right side where they did an axillary dissection at time of mast. I see a nurse tomorrow for "chemo teaching" and I'll ask her to look at that to make sure I am not building up too much fluid. The surgeon assistant told me to keep the brace they put me in after surgery to attach the drain to, since she said compression helps... so... go figure... I like this fabric belt around my torso, makes me feel supported and warm...
Best to you,
CatherineH

Primel

Sally, sounds like we are in the same study (200 women for the entire USA?). I'll start the same protocol on the 13th. I learnt today that the randomization process put me in the group receiving abraxan (or equivalent) that is administered in 30 minutes (the other group receive Taxol, that takes longer to infuse). And I will get for 46 weeks the Avastin (the chemical name you mention). I'll be very interested to know how you do with this treatment (every 2 weeks, right, with neulasta the following day?). Hopefully this will help make approve this protocol for BC.
Keep me posted, OK?
Wishing you the best,
CatherineH

talbrig13

Hi all,
Had my 1st chemo today. Went pretty well, except I had an allergic reaction to the taxotere. They tried it 3 times, giving me Benadryl and a 1/2 hour wait. They finally replaced it with Cytoxan. We will try it again in 2 weeks after I premedicate the day before with Decadron. Other than that, just a long day (7 hours). I feel pretty good right now and have nausea meds (Zofran and Compazine). So we will see....next one in 2 weeks.

CommandoBarbie....I am doing Carplatin, Taxotere & Herceptin. Because I need the Herceptin and it has heart toxicity, the carboplatin is in place of the Adriamycin, which also has heart toxicity. Search Carboplatin on this site and you will find some information on some recent studies.

Well...going to call it a night....love to all,

horsegal

Karen & Linnie-

I missed something here! You guys both had micro mets in your nodes? I have micromets in one node - I have elected not to do the additional surgery so far. Can I please ask what your situations are? I am hoping that I made the right decision!

Jen

horsegal

Caryann (hope I spelled right!) I am taking Adrimiacin - same thing as the doxerubicin I think. Yes, I have family history as well, but my family's was in clogged arteries, heart attacks - this medicine they told me has nothing to do with that - it affects the heart muscle itself. They usually do a test, MUGA - to see how your blood flows out thru one of the ventricles into the rest of your body. That "score" is how they base whether you can have that medicine or not. Ask your doc, they can explain further.

Jen

Tonimad9

Linnie,
How/where did you go to sign up for the LGFB class? They mentioned this to me at my onc doc office. I have had so many tests, appts, and surgeries to schedule and go through that I haven't had any time to look into the emotional well-being side of this and I am suffering for it I think. I start chemo in less than three weeks and I haven't thought about hats, hair, etc., and I need to appear as normal as possible for my little boy to not be afraid. It just seems all so overwhelming that I want to crawl into bed and hide under the covers!
Thanks,
Toni

KimberlyC

Erinsgram,

I had a drain for one week, then was fine. A week later this happened. I did have it aspirated on Monday (three large syringes) but it filled back up and now they can't get it out. I just bound my chest for 24 hours and took a pain pill. It is getting better. The piece they removed was 8cmX6cmX2cm so there was a large space to fill. I wish I would have known to wear something tight earlier so that I could have prevented this. I could have also used pressure after he emptied it on Monday but he didn't mention this. It would have saved me a lot of pain. Thanks for the info! Maybe this will keep someone else from going through the agony.

MAJ01

Hi everyone,

Today was the first day. I am more scared of nausea and vomiting then the actual infusion. I was given Aloxi and Decadron as pre anti-nausea. I've read about Decadron but not Aloxi?
Has anyone received this?

I was also given another presciption Phenergon for anti nausea for later on if I get nausea. Has anyone taken this?

My chest looks like it's been run over. The nurse
sprayed the port area with a cold freeze and I couldn't feel a thing...Thank God. I'm going to ask for this everytime.

Hope you all have a great evening and everyone is doing as good as can be expected.

Take care
Melody

Primel

Marsha, delighted to read your post: your wonderful frame of mind seems to help a lot. When you say drink a lot, could you be more specific? How many glasses and how big the glasses??? I make a conscious effort to drink (especially since in Denver, where the air is so dry), but I am not that thirsty (4 glasses x 8onces of water and/or juice, plus a cup of coffee in the morning, a cup od tea in the afternoon, and maybe another glass of water at night if i wake up...). Thank you for letting me know... I do not want to flood myself either and loose too much minerals etc from going to the batheroom every hour...
Wishing you the best of break until next treatment.

Also: did anybody feel funny after the port placement: I got a subcutaneous port (small titanium round thingy that is place under the skin and is meant to be punctured each time it is used) with a long catheter that travels up a vein in your arm all the way to the vena cava, I believe, above the heart. I have the impression I can feel something different today in my upper chest, especially when I bend down to pet my dogs, for instance, or pickup something... I am imagining all kinds of complications (migration, thrombosis, you name it...). I see a nurse tomorrow, I'll ask her to check, but still... I was wondering whether it's just me or it is a common feeling... Thanks in advance to whoever will comment on this.

You all have as good a night as they make them... Hugs,
Catherine

wayover20

I had my first a/c chemo starting about 9am today. The port was "slow" to flush at first but after they played around with it, it was ok (thank goodness). Premedications included Decadron, tagamet, protonix, Aloxi and benadryl. Then came the Adriamicin given IV push over 10 minutes. It was in 2 large 60cc syringes and the patient sitting next to me exclaimed "she's getting TWO of them??" to my nurse who then looked at her and said "YES". Well this patient proceeded to advise me to keep the Emend that they were going to give me, right at my bedside table and take it immediately upon awakening in the morning.
My doctor had told me that I would most likely start feeling the stomach upset WITHIN 4 HOURS of treatment. Well boy she was right on the money! I came home at 1pm and started with a headache at 4pm then nausea that took me right to the edge of vomiting, at 5pm. I took the meds right at the onset and although I tried to keep drinking the water, I had to slow it down since it felt like it would come up any second. I switched to ice chips and it helped. By 9pm I felt a whole lot better stomach wise but the nagging headache continues so I will take tylenol and try to get some sleep.
We'll see how tomorrow goes as I'm wondering if I feel this way this early, will I still have the usual down days 2-3 days down the road?

Pat