Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin
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Good luck with your exchange on Friday Lago!! I will be thinking of you.
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Dragonfly1-You have been such an inspiration to me! Special K also. You have been so faithful about providing posts to help us all through. I have TCH #4 tomorrow, and it scares me to read that others had a hard time with 4 and 5. Plus, we are heading to Hayward, WI for 9 days to camp. Not tent or roughing it camping, but camping nonetheless, Days 4 and 5 usually knock me down from fatigue, and joint pain. I get Neulasta the day after chemo. My Onc will schedule my blood draw at a satellite clinic up in Hayward...so I'll know if my blood levels are good.
We had camping on our calendar for a year, and I told my family...cancer will not change our plans...the plans will just need to be modified a smidge
!! Can you tell I'm a stubborn German. 100% baby.0 -
kqteaches - thanks, glad to be of help. There are so many women who were helpful to me at the beginning, and still are - happy to do the same for you. If it is any consolation, #4 was not too bad for me, #1 and #5, whole other story! I was just more tired on #4, and my RBC and hemoglobin slipped even more. Strangely #6 was OK. I am tired and counts are still not very good. We are going out of town for the first time since I was diagnosed for my MIL's 80th b-day this weekend. First time to see any family since diagnosis too - should be interesting. I think you should camp and enjoy it as much as you can - darn right, BC takes enough from us!
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Hi ladies, I have been MIA for a few weeks. I had my 1st TCH about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I did okay. My WBC dropped in less than a week from 5.0 to 1.8.. so I got Neupogen shot for 3 days. Got bone pain by the 2nd day but took a aleve and it helped. I got tired a few days after my first TCH and had D here and there. I lost 2 pounds in a week also but as soon as I could I started eating more to get some of the weight back. I was feeling pretty good this week..then my hair started shedding 2 days ago and is shedding batches daily so I'm gonna have to take it off soon. This next Tuesday TCH #2
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Kqteaches--not everyone has a hard time with TX4 and/or 5. I braced myself for the storm and both TX4 & 5 were fine. Who knows? Maybe TX6 will be the nasty one but I won't mind since it's the LAST ONE. There's no point getting so stressed that you talk yourself into a hard go of it. Keep an open mind and see how it goes.
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kqteaches I'm so glad we've been able to give you helpful advice. Hopefully #4 won't be bad for you. Good for you that you are still going camping-that's exactly what I would do:) And I'm German on my Dad's side-my DH likes to point out how stubborn I am but it certainly comes in handy during this battle, doesn't it? You've come a long way and you'll be more than half way after this!0
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cotrinh76 - did the Neupogen bring your WBC up? I would assume that taking Claritin 1 hour prior would work for Neupogen as well as Neulasta. If you didn't try it take it an hour before and for several days afterward. It sounds like you are hanging in. It is hard to get past the hair thing - as it falls out and when you take it off, but then somehow it is OK after that. You just adjust to it.
kqteaches and dragonfly - I have the German thing too - on my birth mother's side - don't know about paternal side. I am sure my family would blame that for my admitted difficulty in admitting I am wrong, and when I am wrong, apologizing. I know it is a character flaw - but I am just wrong, not really all that sorry.......just embarrassed that I am wrong!
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Cotrinh76 Sounds like you are right on schedule with the hair...mine started shedding heavily on day 15 or so and I had to buzz it off on day 16 because it was such a mess. It was very emotional for me on the day I did it and then I was absolutely fine. It has turned out to be the least of my concerns as I battled all the other SEs and I've been so happy to just put the wig on and go to work every day and have a low maintenance hairstyle that takes no effort. Don't get me wrong, though, I'm very excited to see the peach fuzz growing now that I'm done with TCH and can't wait to have some real hair again:) Best wishes to you as you go through TCH!0
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I posted this on the triple positive forum too, so apologize for redundancy. But has anyone had pimple problems? And what did you do for it? My first TCH was June 9 and these buggers keep popping up, mostly around my mouth. Thanks.
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Hi Wendy - I had a bit of pimple problems during chemo. Not a lot but it was pretty annoying because I had dry skin around the center of my cheeks but 2 or 3 pimples near my nose or on forehead or chin. Shortly after losing my hair, I also had little pimples on my head. My onc perscribed some acne cream with antibiotic for that.
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Hi Wendy I had them on my head. But anitbiotics help and also I get a fash wash from my derm called clenia. Try changing toothpaste also, flouride causes acne around the mouth and is possible with lower immune it could creep in. Toms of Maine non flouride works for me.
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Thanks Omaz. I think it's about time I collected my "boobie prizes!"
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thanks nmoss and bluedasher. Glad to know I'm not the only one!
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Thanks all for clearing it up about the cold for the fingers... Will def discuss with my onc when I see her on Wed! If I can help my nails, I surely will
Well, I'm day 4 and doing great... Sort of anticlimactic, but in a good way, of course. I feel the Neupogen shots more than anything, but nothing crazy, just little tingles. I've already had surgery, and I can feel the scars tingle - so weird. :-/ I know this stuff is cumulative, and that the SE's might come down the line, but right now I'm just so happy that I've had a good week! I can do this - yay!!Congratulations everyone who's celebrating finishing their treatments!! You are all amazing!!
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Lili2 - I would suggest taking the claritin for the neupogen shots too if you didn't already - I think the neulasta is time release neupogen and the claritin, using it's mysterious ways, helps with the side effects from neulasta.0
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My last neulasta shot gave me really bad chest pain across the sternum and intense hip and leg pain. I asked my doctor about claritin, and he wrote me a script for vicodin instead. I hope it works. I thought I was having a heart attack from the pain, but no rapid heart rate, diziness, or anything like that.
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kqteaches - the Claritin should prevent the pain and the Vicodin would be treating the pain, did your onc say he wouldn't approve you taking the Claritin? The Taxotere could also be contributing to the pain. Claritin won't work for that, but Vicodin will
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lago - good luck tomorrow!
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Thanks ladies for the suggestions. My WBC did go back up after the shots. I didn't get pain til the morning after the 2nd shot but the Aleve kicked in about 20 min after I took it. I asked my nurses about the claritin and they had no idea what I was talking about. I will have to ask my onc.
I also got some sternum pain but I also get a couple pains under my boobs, I think it's the tissue spacers, the BS said something about slings. I haven't seen him in awhile since i decided to wait to expand but when I wake up i feel pings on each side underneath, anyone else?
I also have pimples on scalp but mainly near and around neck. Thanks for cream info.
As for the hair I will give myself a couple more days and than let it go. Thanks SpecialK and Dragonfly
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cotrinh76 - when I asked my onc about the Claritin, he said I could take it if I wanted to and also said that it is acknowledged that it can help but not clearly understood why. He said it is not contraindicated, so to go ahead. The pain from Neulasta is from the expansion of the marrow in the bones. The bigger or longer the bone, the more the pain. That is why so many have leg and hip pain. The antihistimine in Claritin helps mitigate the pain caused by that expansion, thought to alleviate edema and inflammation in the marrow itself.
I have had trouble with shooting pain around my expander(s) too. They are sort of fleeting and random and sometimes kind of a pinching feeling. It feels weird because the expander from the left side is gone and the pain is on both sides, but the sides are different.
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Lago-
Thinking of you this morning...knowing that everything is going to go great. We all can't wait to hear from you.
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Good luck today Lago!!!
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I just returned from the Onc office-and boy am I mad. I got #5 last friday and have been sick since. I have been 1 of the lucky ones with little or no SEs so I wasn't sure what to do.Several of the ladies commented that #5 was their bad one so I thought Iwould just tough it out.
After a miserable week I called the office yesterday and they had me come in this morning. I got a huge bag of fluids, steroids and anti-nausea meds. they had me see the onc due to am 11lb weight loss. I asked him "What did you guys do to me last week?" I was shocked when he answered it wasn;t what we did= it was what we didn't do. Rat bastard insurance co denied the Emend last friday so I got Zophran instead. I didn't notice that when they showed me the bag. Onc thought I might be Ok since I have done so well!!! Still seems like they could have told me-or called me when they go the denial so I could appeal it.
I am furious that I have spent a week being sick because some bean counter thought he could save some money. For crying out loud I am almost done!! I have calls in and it will be straightned out by # 6.
I hope they charge the hell out of them for the appt today. The whole Emend thing was a fight in the beginning but I had no idea they would deny what I have been getting from the beginning. I mde it very clear to the Onc office that I am to be notified of any denial-no matter how small-in plenty of time to fight it.
Since I am removing a prophylactic breast I am already going thru the procedure of appeal on that. am assured they will pay but I havetime to make sure all is right with that.
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lilylady That's just awful!!! It's bad enough to go through this but the insurance piece is just an added headache. What a shame that your weren't told right away so you could fight it and so that you would be prepared for the difference in how you might feel! I hope you are feeling better soon.0
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Get this - I just received a letter in the mail today from the IRS. Someone has filed a tax return (and got a refund) using my SSN#. I received a call about 3 weeks ago from my bank that someone had used a credit card number of mine in Georgia. The charge was declined because it was not from my home state and if you don't let them know you are traveling they automatically decline it. I am starting to get that sick feeling that my identity has been stolen. I am totally stressed out and have been on the phone all afternoon with the IRS, FTC, SSA and the credit bureaus. I also decided to go back to work when my ADA leave expires next week, and I was already stressed out about that when I went out to get the mail!!! Argghhh!
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SpecialK What a mess! I went through the identity theft nightmare last year. Someone used my SSN# to open several cell phone accounts, run the balances up and then close them. By the time I found out it was already in collection and was on my credit reports. I had to file a police report to get the charges cleared and to have the credit bureaus clean up my record. I found out that my state allows victims of identity theft to place a free "credit freeze" through the 3 credit bureaus which prevents anyone (including me) from getting a new line of credit in my name/SSN# without a special pin number. The problem is that it only fixes half the problem and won't stop people from fraudulently using established accounts. It's so bad that I now have all of my credit/debit accounts set up to alert me by text for every transaction so that I can catch fraudulent charges quickly (what a pain, but it works). We've had to close one card 3x in the past year. My DH travels a lot and Amex has told us that hotels and restaurants are the worst because dishonest staff will sometimes write down the card info and use it or sell it! I hope you are able to unravel it without too much difficulty-you definitely don't need this right now!0
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Lilylady - that is absolutely AWFUL!!! I am appalled. AND - there is NO WAY you should have noticed that anything was different about the drugs you were given. I NEVER looked at what drugs they put in the drip. That is the onc nurses' job, IMO. So it is a double-fault - SHAME on the insurance company, BUT the onc practice should have told you AHEAD of time if they were changing your tx - so you could go into it knowingly, or fight to change it. I am livid on your behalf. (But at least you know what happened and why you got sick - so you CAN get it fixed before your final tx.
SpecialK - that is a horrible story as well (on a whole different level). You DO NOT need extra stress- I would think there will be a lot of red tape now - as evidenced by what Dragonfly went through (above). TRY to detach from it, just go through the motions of getting it resolved without letting it get 'inside' of you and add stress. Easier said than done, I KNOW. But your health is MORE IMPORTANT than anything and peace of mind and calmness is very valuable to you. I am so sorry you have to deal with this on top of everything else.
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lilylady - my onc nurses always showed me the list of drugs before they hung the first one, gave me a copy of the list, and then they tape their list to the IV pole. It is ridiculous that there was a change and they didn't tell you in advance.
dragonfly and amy - I am normally a pretty chill person and I have been through this dance before (sadly!) but I think I am stressed more about the return to work than the SSN deal. It is just that the work decision was made today, and then I went out to the mailbox. We were aware back in March that someone had filed a tax return using one of our numbers but we honestly thought it was my husband's (reference above!) number. The person filed a tax return using my number before our return so when we went to efile we were rejected. Turbotax tells you why your return is rejected, so I called the IRS and they said we had to mail our return in with a letter. This person got a refund so now the IRS will be after them to get it back. It is still possible that they made an error when entering their number (my number!) but I will probably never know because the IRS will not give me info on the other person or any info about the situation! I did call the credit bureaus and they mentioned the credit monitoring package. Dragonfly can you PM me with what service you use? I am thinking it sounds like a good idea.
I did manage to get a surgery date to put the left TE back in, it will be July 20. So, I will return to work July 1 but only stay until July 19, a total of 12 working days. Then be out for a few weeks. I think it will be long enough to figure out if I want to go back after that.
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Wow so sorry to hear Special K and Lililady!
liliylady-My onc nurses always write on the bags so I see whats in them. Thats really crappy that you didn't get emend. Insurances suck sometimes, I got a call from the drug co last week telling me my herceptin wasn't covered and nupogen shots. I called insurance and she told me that both were denied and my Dr. had to fill a form to fight it. Turns out the drug co was trying to run it thru the pharmacy side of my insurance. They were suppose to run it thru the medical side. Where its fully covered.
Special K- I did what dragonfly did and put a freeze on my acct. I also requested my credit reports from all 3 bureas and checked my addys listed. I had my ex-bf addy on there and turns out he tried to get a cc in my name sent to his addy.
On another note shaved all the hair off tonight after 4 days of shedding..feels kinda good! all that shedding was getting gross. I had waited till I thought my mom would handle it ok. She'll see it in the AM.
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I am so frustrated! Today was supposed to be chemo #5 for me but unfortunatley my platelets were to low to get chemo. I want to be done with this already. I am so afraid of skipping a week. I am afraid the cancer will start to grow or come back if it is gone, Has anyone else had a chemo delayed a week due to counts?
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