Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin
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No - not icing. I kind-of want the chemo to get in to every nook and cranny! My toenails are fine...no discoloration or anything...just my fingernails. Looks like they bleed a little under them so there are faint lines of darkness for each chemo.
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Gotcha love74 - completely understand! Somebody on one of my other threads mentioned tea tree oil helped...I have no clue if this is safe or effective, but it may be something to look into.0
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Finishing my last T/C today. YIPPEEEE!!! Now to continue herceptin. Anyone have issues with heart rate staying up all the time? I also have edema and tingling in hands and feet. I have to have some scans and a cardiologist consult now. Hopefully no changes since my last initial cardiac work up prior to chemo.
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Congratulations msbelle!!!!0
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Msbelle I don't know about my heart rate but within the last several days I have had a heavy feeling in my chest and then yesterday I had a lot of swelling in my hands and feet. I have left my FNP a message and I have an appt on Monday for my 2nd TCH. I am a little bit scared. Hopefully it is nothing! I had reported that I had not had that many side effects so maybe I jinxed myself! LOL Also my hair has started coming out this morning...
. Did anyone just let theirs fall out without shaving? How long did it take? 0 -
congrats msbelle! Oh to be done with the TC!!!! I have only had one TCH, no heart issues for me so far (knock on wood). There is another thread called Herceptin heart attack that you may want to post on. Not saying that's what is going on (our symptoms can mean so many things), but those ladies can guide you really well with heart related questions.
mt4ever, we are only one day apart on our schedule (sorry if this is the 2nd time I've said this...I forget who is where on their tx's!). My 2nd TCH is Tuesday. I would definitely talk to your onc about those symptoms before proceeding. Hopefully nothing, but if you are retaining water or something (Tax does that), they may want to get it under control before your next tx, maybe? I don't know. It's just good that you have called to make sure it's nothing of concern.
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DanceT I tried icing once my started to hurt. I think it was too late or just didn't work for me.0
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Lago I was wondering if it would hurt once you already have symptoms. It sounds quite uncomfortable. 0
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The tea tree oil makes sense if the lifting happens due to infection. I'm using cuticle oil with tea tree in it.
Lago - Is it infection that causes them to lift?
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Nope. I never had an infection.I even had one get all swollen that my LE MD thought was infected. My old dermo said no and didn't give me any antibiotics. It eventually deflated.
I still have some lifted fingernails. My onc gave me a dermatologist to go see who is familiar with cancer & chemo stuff. I am just so sick of seeing doctors. I don't even think there is anything she can do.
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Uggh lago. Do they still hurt? Hope you find an answer/relief. I'm sick of docs, too!
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Well a couple of them I wouldn't use to scrap the label off a product. More tender but they don't really bother me. I have to be careful no to catch them on anything because they feel like they could be lifted more and that might hurt.
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FYI, There is an app for the phone that gives your heartrate. You can check it whenever you need. I got a free one that works just fine.
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Moonflwr which one. There are several free ones. Not sure which is a good one
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I use cardiograph for Android. Simple and I like it.
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I made it through my first treatment of TCH. Actually I am also having petuzumab as part of a clinical trial. Since I was having so many drugs my first infusion took 8.5 hours. Made for a very long day. My port worked great. I did get a little fever after my herceptin. Does anyone else get that? It was so hard to ice my fingers, toes and mouth. I will have to work on my methods here. So far I feel very normal. Just waiting...
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Glad you made it through ladybug! Drink lots of fluids. I found that eating a little bit but more often helped.0
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Congrats ladybug - that was indeed a long day! My onc broke my first one into two days b/c they did my infusion so slow (I have a history of allergic reactions to lots of things)...so I understand the long day! Interesting about the trial!
I had a low grade fever nonstop for 10-12 days after my first TCH. In fact, my low grade fever came back yesterday, again (16 days post infusion), for no apparent reason. It appears gone again, today. I think my story is unusual (to have a fever so long and often). I don't think it is uncommon to get a fever for a few days after TCH, though.
I understand how rough it is to do all of that icing - you are only doing it 15 min before Tax, during the hour, and 15 min after Tax, right? That was the most miserable 1.5 hours for me! An electric blanket helped. I ended up with a few small areas in my mouth that felt like they were going to turn into mouth sores...but I kept them at bay...can't imagine how much worse it would have been if I hadn't iced. It's motivation for me to keep suffering through the ice treatments.
You will likely feel normal day 1 post chemo, maybe day 2; most start feeling symptoms start day 3. Keep us posted!
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I posted this on the triple positive forum but wanted to make sure you all read this.
Here's a very informative article from the Miami Breast Conference....My links never work but it's well worth reading the entire article!
So, endocrine treatment and anti-HER2 treatment are based on targeted biological sensitivity; but chemotherapy is just based on overall risk, not chemosensitivity?
In 2006, we learned that we could in fact target chemosensitivity. The analysis of the B20 study using the Oncotype DX 21-gene recurrence score showed that patients who had a low score had no benefit whatsoever, and patients who had a high score had a lot of benefit from chemotherapy. That was a huge change in our understanding. However, translating that change in understanding to a change in practice is a different matter because we grew up with a very strong emotional attachment to this notion of a “kitchen sink” approach for someone at high risk. If we saw a patient with a lot of positive nodes or a high-risk tumor, we were conditioned to think, “This patient needs chemotherapy. Her risk is high. We know chemotherapy helps with high risk.” And that’s what we did—treated the patient with chemotherapy. Even though we understood targeting with ER and HER2, it still was very difficult to let go of that notion and embrace individualized chemosensitivity targeting.There is a difference between understanding the new information about targeting chemotherapy only to patients who have chemosensitivity versus applying that in practice. When we began to understand that chemosensitivity can be measured and can be identified, and absence of chemosensitivity can be identified with a low recurrence score, it was still difficult not to use the approach that we have always used to treat the patient with everything we’ve got. I think the fact that we could understand targeting based on ER status and based on HER2 status enabled us to abandon the old paradigm based on risk, and move to a new paradigm based on targeting real chemosensitivity.
Would you say that most oncologists have overcome this hurdle and have started offering treatments other than chemotherapy?
I would say most oncologists are over this hurdle—this intellectual and emotional barrier where we reflexively think of chemotherapy benefit as a proportional benefit for all patients. We’re now moving into an era where we can actually target the patients who benefit and avoid unnecessary treatment in the patients who don’t. A few years ago most medical oncologists weren’t ready to make that change, except perhaps in very low-risk patients. In those very low-risk patients they would use an Oncotype DX 21-gene recurrence score to perhaps find a potential chemotherapy benefit for a patient who wouldn’t get chemotherapy based on traditional parameters We’ve gone from that very limited application just two or three years ago to a situation now where the vast majority of medical oncologists avoid chemotherapy in nodenegative patients with a low 21-gene recurrence score, in spite of traditional factors like larger tumor size or premenopausal status.It seems as though there’s been an explosion of information and commercial options for targeting breast cancer treatment. What’s the next hurdle / challenge?
Well, there’s a tremendous amount of excitement about next-generation sequencing. But at this point we haven’t fully incorporated more established genomic profiles in practice in a lot of cases. We’re just learning to use those to help us make decisions about patients who might benefit from neoadjuvant treatment. Some very innovative thinkers and clinical leaders have found ways to treat patients with a short course of either endocrine therapy or chemotherapy, assess the response in a tumor, and make a decision—at least in the clinical trial setting— about the best course of treatment for that patient based on tumor parameters, such as proliferation and other parameters of response. I think that’s the next step now that we’re beginning to understand these molecular profiles and molecular profiling. We’re not going to just jump from here to next-generation sequencing to full genome sequencing and variant analysis for patients. The goal is to individualize treatment for these patients. And short-course treatment based on initial assessment of the tumor biology, with rebiopsy to assess biologic response, will be the next step in individualized treatment."0 -
Hi all!
Don't post much on here anymore, and just popping in to say that yesterday was my 2 year anniversary of completing chemo. Hair is all they way back, chemo curls all gone, still waiting for eyebrows to come all the way back thought.
Overall health is good, just had a checkup with breast surgeon and all is well. See oncology dr next month for my every 6 month check up.
That's it.
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Hi stlcardsfan!!! Good to hear from you! My right eyebrow is almost back to normal and my left one is coming along.0
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Hi Stlcardsfan. Glad to hear you are well. Still struggling with eyebrows here too but hair looks fine. Still keeping mine super short… but with bangs.0
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lago - my DH and I are going to celebrate our 1st anniversary in your city! I just booked the hotel for May 19th and got tickets to Jersey Boys. I am soooooo ready for a get-away. We are spending one glorious night in Chicago with no kids, no chemo, and no rads! I can hardly wait!
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Well if you have a spare moment maybe I can just stop by and give you a big hug. I don't live too far from the loop or Mag Mile. I'll do my dance for nice weather for you.
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I'd love to meet you! Maybe we could meet on Sunday before we leave? Please do the dance for us, we've had such crappy weather here in Ohio so whatever we get in Chicago will be following us home!
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Hello. I'm very glad that I found you all. I was diagnosed on 3/8, had a double mastectomy on 3/23, my port inserted on 4/18 and my first of 6 chemo treatments on 4/19 with a neulasta shot on Friday 4/20. Been a bit of blur this past month... I get the wonderful cocktail of taxotere, carboplatin and herceptin. Last week was pretty rough. I had quite a bit of nausea, constipation, followed by an entire day of diarrhea, and my mouth went "numb" leaving me unable to taste anything. However, something magical happened over the weekend: The 20 lb weight that seems to plant itself on my chest lifted(Thank you!). My tasting ability seems to have somewhat returned as well. And I am able to eat a little here and there. I'm getting nervous about my hair... My scalp went from being incredibly itchy a couple days ago, to just plain painful this morning.
I am hoping that I am on the up-swing for the next week - I go back for #2 on 5/10. I am trying to work, when my body allows me, but last week was tough. So far, today is a good day.
I am so glad you all are here - I mean, at least if we have to go through this crap, it doesn't have to be alone!
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Hey JR, welcome to the club no one wants to be in, sorry, but welcome. Sounds like it all happened very quickly for you. One bit of advice from someone who gets on the big D train every tx, DRINK, DRINK, DRINK! Stay hydrated. Even if water tastes like crap, drink some anyway. Long story, you are better if you keep hydrated. Ok, that's my unasked for advice. LOL!
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Does anybody know how much of a difference there is between 5 and 6 TCH treatments? My onc originally gave me the choice between 4 and 6 treatments with a 2% overall decrease in recurrence by having 6. I'm coming up to tx5 and wondering what the stats are if I don't do the 6th one.
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Love74: That's great that you have a choice. I think I'm going to mention this to my Onc. I'm coming up on #4 now. Love74, what were the hormonal specifics and size of your tumor?
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MsBelle.....My resting heartrate has been over 100 since I started chemo in November. I finished on March 20 and will do herceptin until the end of the year. My doc sent me to a cardiologist and everything came back fine. He said it was still well within normal limits. It has gotten as high as 136!!!!! Hope it gets better for you.0
