Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin
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Yea stlcardsfan!
I've been cheering for you along with myself throughout this process...
Hugs to you.
I hope to be deported next week...
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That's so awesome stlcardsfan! I bet your more excited about the port removal than finishing Herceptin.0
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Has anyone had their port removed before the end of the year of herceptin? The port is really irritating me and hurts I am hoping my onc will allow my PS to remove it while he is in there fixing me...don't see the reason for yet another procedure later on if I can avoid it.
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Basia - I know how you feel. I want this port out in the worst way! Since I got the te's back in June, the two were very close. The last fill was awful, the te is pushing on the port, or at least it feels like that. You should talk with your dr's, but keep in mind with nodes removed at least one of your arms is off limits, or maybe both if they were removed from both sides or you had bmx. That is why I am thankful for the Port, but of course I am counting the days until it is removed also! Best of luck!
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I had nodes removed from the right side, so the left is good to go! I have always had good veins and understand the need for the port with chemo and all the damage chemo does to the veins, but enough already!I haven't had a good night's sleep since this thing has been placed, I roll over the wrong way and I get a shooting pain in the neck. Also, I am a very active person or should I say was an active person, I can't do most of the things I used to do because of this damn thing. Was hoping there were others that had it removed before the year was up to use as amunition with the onc.
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Hello ladies. I've been reading lots but not posting because of computer issues at home. Wish I could post from my phone!
I've been on the cancer crash course, everything has gone so fast I haven't had a chance to catch my breath. I went to the Dr. in Oct thinking I had an infection. He scheduled me for a mammogram and ultrasound, biopsy the day after, and cancer diagnosis the day after that. Nov. 1st was my bmx and I started chemo last Tuesday after a PET scan. I had a port put in on Monday and have been lucky that it's not bothering me very much.
So far so good. I'm tired and my stomach is "off" but nothing major. I keep waiting for the side effects to hit me hard but I'm savoring the good days.
Sorry to hear the port is bothering you so much Basia. I don't know how hard the herceptin is on the veins but if you're past the chemo maybe it won't be bad? Good luck, it would be nice to skip a procedure!
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hi, has anyone done chemo without a picc or port? Ive had two chemo tx without a port or picc and am a little worried.
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stlcardsfan! I get 18 treatments so I have 2 more. One Monday the 29th and then another that should be the 20th but I am going to push it a week to the 27th because I will get gone for the holiday!
I didnt have any recon started after my mx in May so I will have my expanders put in on December 29 and my port taken out at that time! My port has never bothered me so I dont really care about that. I am starting to get a little anxiety about being done.
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Allisonton911 - great to hear from you. My Port was no problem all thru Chemo and Herceptin only. It only started to hurt when the TE got filled up around the 350 to 405 cc range. The te is resting right below the port - and occasionally moves up when I do some type of arm movement that I am not supposed to.
Good luck tomorrow on # 17! Great to hear from you!
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Congrats to those finishing up with tx. I will have my last TC of TCH Thur. then finish the rest of herceptin til Aug.
ibliving- your se my be minimal. I went water skiing a week after my 1st chemo. I actually went water skiing 4 weeks after my bimx. my surgeon didn't give me restriction either lol I didn't even take the pain meds. I wonder why some ladies have PT? I can tell you I have no nausea and I don't takes the meds. for that either.Emend at chemo time gave me bad diarrhea so I only took it the 1st x .For me the fatigue got a little worse each time, but I only missed 1 day of work from not feeling well, that was 4 days after #4. Losing my hair was hard, I think that happened 18 days after 1st chemo, while we were camping. After #5 I have started having some of the numbness in my fingers and toes. None of it is fun but it is doable. Hugs and prayers ladies.
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hi all, my wife had her port put in this past tuesday, she was put out for the procedure. Overall it took about 45 minutes, we arrived at the hospital at about 9:15 AM and were out by around 1:00 PM. So far she really has had no issues with it, it was sore a bit the first day, but she's now 5 days out and barely notices it is there.
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imatthew - Glad to hear it!0
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About ports, I had mine put in back in Aug. and have had 0 problems. It sticks way out but has not bothered with anything. For me it is a wonderful little thing and they can leave it in if they want. I have horrible veins to access and it would almost always take them 2 sometimes 3 tries to get a needle in them. So I thank god for my port.
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I'd have to say, my port bugs me and is uncomfortable, but it's much better than poking my veins with each treatment. I've realized, I'll just have to deal with it. I asked if it's normal to have it give me pings of pain and my surgeon and nurses said yes because it's a foreign object in your body.
My friend is getting Taxotere an Cytoxin and didn't want to get a port after so many other surgeries. Well, her first chemo was very uncomfortable and she has a red line up her arm where the Taxotere almost burned out the vein. She went and got a pic put in for the next treatments. It made me very thankful for my port.
If you have made it through a chemo cycle and didn't have a reaction, then veins must be fine without a pic or port.
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I need to decide between PICC and port. Could anybody share some experience about which one would be better? Thanks so much!
I am in Canada the onc suggest to go with dose dense AC every two weeks, then taxol plus heception every three weeks. I tried to talk him into TCH regime but he did not buy it. He said my heart can handle AC first.There is a incident about taxotere causing lung infection in Canada clinics so he wants to switch to taxol. Is taxol the same as Taxotere?
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meglove - taxotere and taxol are both taxanes and have a similar cytotoxic effect on cancer cells. There seem to be pros and cons to each but both seem to be very effective as far as I know. As far as the port or picc line, I think you will have herceptin infusions for a year, correct? As I understand ir the picc line has external hardware that has to be maintained. The port-a-cath (power port) is completely internal and you do not have to do anything personally to maintain it (they do it at the center, flushing when needed). When I met with my surgeon he described the pros and cons of both to me, I thought the port sounded better in that it would have less impact on my movements.0
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meglove - my wife's Onc put her on TCH, he said Adriamycin could hurt the heart, and since Herceptin can as well, he didn't want to give both at the same time. TCH seems to be standard protocol for early stage HER2+ diagnosis. She had a port installed 2 weeks ago and has had no problems with it.
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Thank you guys. Will they draw blood from port too?
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I have a power port. Yes they can draw blood from it. I am on Tatotere, Carboplatin, Herceptin but I am node negative. I do see that some go on AC then T(H) if they are node postive.
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Meglove, you might want to look at these two links off of Chemocare on Taxol and Taxotere as you'll see the difference as well as other information to help you know what to expet on Taxol:
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meglove - They do draw blood from my port but it seems kindof complicated so when another doc needed blood for a lab test I waited until my onc appt so the onc nurse could use the port to draw blood for him.0
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No one would ever use my port for anything except doing chemo/herceptin. The blood lab wouldn't use it for my blood draws, the nuclear med dept wouldn't use it for my MUGA scans. I still did love having it for chemo and all those Herceptin infusions, BUT I still got stuck a lot with regular needles along the way. They always had excuses - not trained to access a port, didn't have the right equipment, the Muga people said it was too close to the heart to put the nuclear meds into it, could affect the results, etc etc. I found it frustrating (I hate getting stuck and wanted to avoid as many as possible) but I did think it was very handy to have for treatment. Can't imagine having those 17 Herceptins without it.
Just didn't want anyone to think that once they have the port, they won't get stuck any more.
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AmyIsStrong, that would be frustrating! I get blood draws through the port but they do it at the onco office I don't have to go to lab for blood draws. I love the port and am so glad I got it, I am like you with the ongoing herceptin once I am done with chemo, i also hate regular needles now!
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Amy - I have only had blood drawn by the onc nurse, that is what I was trying to say, but didn't say it very well.0
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Anyone have any suggestions for the eye twitches, other than endure?0
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Oh god don't get my started on eye twitches. It's the worst when they both start going… and of course they are always out of sync. Sorry I'm just "enduring".0
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Eye twitches...CRAZY!!! Mine twitch at the same time...more like constant fluttering. What's really frustrating is when I'm trying to visually FOCUS on something small and they start...Like at 46 I don't already have issues with close vision! LOL!
How about the "chemo-brain"? The week of TCH, I have to concentrate on concentrating. I forget things constantly even not on TCH weeks, those are just the worst. Even if I make lists, I forget to put something on the list. I find myself making far more typos when typing, and when I talk, frequently I transpose words, muchhhhhh more than what used to be my normal. It has seemed to get progessively worse with treatment. Anyone else?
Omaz - you have one more tx, right? Lago, etc. (or would it be "et al"?), after next week, we are two-thirds of the way there! At least with the TC, which I think (hope!) will prove to be the worst part of all of this...
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Omaz
I wish I had an answer on the twitching! Mine started after treatment 4 and it's pretty darn annoying! Mostly my left eye for some reason.
If anyone has a solution, let us all know!
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Betty:
I forget things…Even if I make lists, I forget to put something on the list. check
I find myself making typos when typing, and frequently I transpose words.check
Like at 49 I don't already have issues with close vision/astigmatism. checkproblem is I was doing all that before chemo and it really hasn't gotten worse. It's me not chemo ;-) BTW trying putting on eye liner with a brush with twitchy eye lids AND astigmatism!
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I'm pretty excited about being 2/3 of the way through. Just can't wait to start watching my hair grow. I hear it's as exciting as watching paint dry :-b Still hoping my eye brows hold on and my hair doesn't grow back curly/frizzy. Just think next fall we will be done with Herceptin too.-------------------------------------------
Omaz: Only solution I found for eye twitch was to shut eye and put finger on lid. Of course you are then rendered totally useless with eye shut and hand preocuppied.
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