Anyone on just Taxotere and Cytoxan?
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You go, girl!!!!! Just keep a visual going of all those little chemo pack men eating up the cancer cells!!!!! Glad the port thingy went well. I remember how scared I was as I had never had any surgical procedure done in my life. Glad I had it as my veins aren't the best. Keep us updated as to how everything goes, won't you?
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Nadine: My neulasta was about $6000, the taxotere $10,000
Sukiann: I drank tons of water and still had the GI SE's you're talking about. Took about 4 months for my GI tract to return to normal after the last round. Nelia is right either people think you're going through nothing, or your whining. I just avoided talking to anyone not going through it, and my DH ran interference and made anyone that would ask me to do something like that feel bad for their insensitivity.
Firni, you're so right, it isn't Baywatch and they don't get it. Trying on clothes one day with one of those sales ladies who is putting their head in the door before you can even get the first outfit on. Told DH a few more seconds and she would have gotten quite an education in reconstruction
Good luck afighter
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Firni: So glad you was able to get financial assistance. We applied to the hospital which is also MISTI where I had my chemo and have my doc. After waiting for ever and a day we received a letter that they turned us down for any kind of help or even a reduced rate. Our insurance is better than none but yet its crap. We pay more for the insurance than we do our house payment and the deductible is real high just to get the rate we got. When you compare what you have to the mounds of bills we are just plain screwed. And as we know everyone wants the money now. Well I have yet to find the money tree and even with a green thumb I sure would grow a money tree if I found one. We went so I could order my prosthesis...damn insurance turned it down. I told hubby pretty damn good, get chemo...loose the hair, mess my pants, pee on myself get sick as a dog, loose a boob....damn how much more do they want. The lady who did the measuring and so forth for my bra and prosthesis told me that she sees ladies come in with toilet paper stuffed in their bras, socks and the list went on. My days of stuffing my bra ended a long time ago when I had no boobs and wanted them. So since everyone wants their money I guess I will just be lopsided and have to wait for a bra and fake boob. What a deal we go through. And I am with everyone, no one has any idea what we go through from the day we are told we have cancer on through our journey to where we are today.
Nadine
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Nadine, I'm so sorry that you have such crappy insurance. I do get very frustrated with mine, because everything is a battle to get them to pay. But in the end they've been good. I'm on COBRA now and my premiums are thru the roof. I'm sure not as much as if I had private insurance. I have heard that if ins. pays for a prosthesis they don't have to pay for recon, and visa vera. But I thought they had to pay for one of them!!!! It's just so wrong that you should have to wait and pay out of your own pocket. And the he## with everyone needing their money right now. I pay $50 per month to everyone I owe money to as a result of this damned disease. My insurance is pretty much 80/20. And if they don't like it too bad. I don't have a job. At least they get something.
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$4000 for each Neulasta and about $4500 for each T/C in Atlanta.
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Wow, what a difference in cost for our chemo and shots. Don't you think they're all coming from the same manufacturer? Big business this disease is.
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Hi All
Just to let you know that Neulasta shot here costs 1,534 euros which is about 2,000USD(maybe a bit more )I think -mine has rthe price on so someone somewhere is making big bucks
Go for my 2nd taxotere tomorrow -had bad se's with the first so hope this is better
Hope you all have a good day
Nadine glad you are doing ok keep it up .
Anna
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Anna - very good luck for tomorrow.
Best wishes to all you other ladies too!
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Fimi,
Dealing with financial stuff is too stressful during this time, I've been on the phone all morning, surprisingly Sears (citibank) was the most helpful and very kind. They reduced my payment to $46 a month and reduced the interest to 0% and it will stay that way until it is paid off. My student loans were another story, they finally put everything into forebearance until October, then I have to do it again. It took 2 months to get them to get off their rumps and get it done, if they did it when I called the first time then I wouldn't have ever been past due. Good luck to all, so glad to be able to come here for support, Paula
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Paula, that is surprising that a credit card company was the most willing to help. You just never know. All of those little things help us get thru this financially. Sometimes I feel like I'll be paying for my "free boob job" the rest of my life. I am so ready to get back to work now and start chipping away at these bills a little more, but finding a job is a whole other story.
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Well, first treatment under my belt! All went smooth-just some sinus pressure with the cytoxan. They went real slow on the Taxotere. I am very pleased!
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Laurie, I had forgotten about the cytoxan sinus thing. I'm glad the first one went off without a hitch.
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Congrats Laurie. I am day 6 and so far so good. A little bit of a funny stomach for the weekend, but no real nausea. I mostly felt like I'd had the stomach flu the day before, you know? Felt fine Sunday & yesterday, so I am off to South Beach until Sunday. Check in then. Keep it up!
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Nadine,
I'm so sorry to hear that the last one was bad. Are you feeling better? Did you get to go to Boise? I finished my last one on 6/5 and wasn't sure what hit me. I didn't feel like I was back in the land of the living until last Friday. This last time I was vomiting and having diarrhea along with all the bone pain and fatigue. If I wasn't holding onto the toilet, I was sitting on it or in bed. I slept a lot and felt like a crack-addict mom--my kids were running around fending for themselves. I had to send them to my in-laws for a few days because I couldn't take care of them. I'm so thankful that they were able to take care of my kids when I was out of commission.
Paula,
Keep us posted. It won't be fun, but I know you can do it.
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Florbo,
Grats on finishing your last round. I had my last round on 06/09 and I wasn't sure what hit me either! I had never vomited with the previous rounds and this time, I couldn't keep anything down. My mouth and throat also would up feeling raw so I didn't really want to eat either because everything just burned. I was also totally exhausted but for some reason I couldn't sleep well so I was wandering around like a zombie. I tried to work but I usually just wound up sitting around because my attention span was nil.
Things are finally starting to get back to normal now. I can't believe the chemo part is actually over.
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Florbo: Congrats on finishing your last round. Yup we did go to Boise and had a great time. Thank goodness for places I could sit down while hubby was doing his shopping. I hate shopping...never knew a man could take so long looking at man stuff. We went out to eat and I ate like a horse and of course had diarrhea for two days afterwords. I fell asleep a few times on the two hour drive home.
With all of the drugs I am so glad my children are raised. They all live a long way from me and I am glad they never saw me whacked out on drugs and so sick at times. Funny how phone calls you try to hide what is really going on...must have raised some smart girls. My problem is sleeping..can't sleep without two sleeping pills and 1-2 anxiety pills. Not liking the fact I think I am hooked...got to find a way to sleep without pills. I think at 55 I am to old to be hooked on anything.
Chunkies: Congrats on finishing your last round. Is your attention span still nil? Mine has been poor all through chemo and hasn't improved yet. I walk around like I am lost because I forget what I am doing. Somehow I manage to remember to watch cooking food and turning the water off in the sink...other than that I am here but someplace else...hope the zombie syndrome leaves soon.
Oh yes...thank goodness for spell check since my spelling has also left me
)Nadine
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Day three: slept thru the night pretty well. Did get up to drink & pee. Am up now since 4am-wanted to spend time with hubby before he left for work, then I will go into work for a few hours, then home. The nurses say tomorrow will be crash day as no decadron-so i will be planning an at home day. No bone pain at all so far from Neulasta- I did take Claritin and 1 aleve 45 mins prior. Not pain at all-severe heartburn at yesterday nap time-never had worse-2 swigs of maalox took care of that. I even had a few bites of chicken & some fresh green beans for dinner last nite. I so hope I continue to feel this well! I hope everyone's treatment goeas as well as I am so far.
Best of today to you all! Gentle hugs & Love to those suffering today-I pray you have relief.
Laurie
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Laurie, I'm glad to hear you're still doing pretty well.
The rest of you who got hit so hard with the last one, it does get better. About the time you think it will never go away and you are so fed up, you'll start noticing that things are getting better and pretty darn close to normal. I gradually saw improvement in strength, energy and restored mental ability. Now 3 months past, I feel pretty much like I did before chemo. Except for the swollen foot.
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Laurie - When I had my TC treatments I had to take Zantac every four hours (or what is recommended on the box). I had the worst heart burn. The onc. told me it was from the Decadron. I had to take it for about a week (first week) during treatments. Day 5-7 were my hardest days. I was wiped out. Listen to your body and drink lots of fluids!
I too found that after the 3 weeks went by and I didn't have a treatment I noticed my energy level coming back gradually. You are tough ladies but take care of yourselves! You don't have to be super heroes!
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Nadine - My attention span still isn't that great and my short term memory seems to be spotty at times. I'll think of something I need to do and then totally forget. Like, I'll go to my kitchen to get a drink and then I'll forget why I'm standing by the fridge. It's kinda of bizarre but I hope it goes away.
I agree with Firni that there are little improvements with this last chemo. I think I was just so sick of being sick, I wanted to be back to normal asap! I'm glad that my body can finally start recovering for this chemical onslaught.
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Day 2.....and not too bad. No problems with the infusion....just developed a headache with the Cytoxan and went to bed really early. Surprisingly I did sleep although woke up with terrible migraine like headache for which I took some medication. This morning I just feel light headed, but other than fairly good. My onco recommended the Neulasta in about ten days. After reading about some of your side effects and the COST, I asked to wait and see how I do without it this first round. Do most of you receive that to boost your white blood cells? Hope I didn't make a mistake. One day at time.......Patti
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I'm day six after first TC treatment, haven't been writing lately, just reading. Treatment went okay, mild reaction to taxotere but not too bad. Had weird thing from the aloxi nausea premed, seemed like everything I drank that day, which was a alot, like half gallon + of water, gatorade, tea, diet coke, was still in my stomach at 10 pm. I thought I was just going to get sick from the mass amount of fluid there. Like an idiot I kept drinking, because I was thristy, until I finally realized it really wasn't going anywhere. Anyone else have something like that? It finally seemed to get started in the right direction about 3 am, and it's okay now, but it was strange. I've had severe epigastric pain, but have had trouble with that before and the steroids always make it worse, so changing my med and hopefully that will help. Not much in the way of real nausea, have had an increased gag reflex, and the queasy feeling, and tired, but that's about it. I go tomorrow to get my blood checked, so we will see how that's doing then.
I've been reading about the financial comments on here, and agree it's a real pain, when you are going thru so much physically and emotionally. I'm a nurse, and used to work for an insurance company, so I have some insight in the way they work. When you see people paying diffirent amounts in different areas,there are regional differences, but it's really a matter of what their specific insurance company has contracted with the pharmacy for the drug, that's why my insurance wants me to use the mail order pharmacy, they have a better contract, but they don't give me any incentive, like discounted cost, to use it.. They whole system is meant to confuse people I think, very rarely does an insurance company actually pay what the doctor or pharmacist charges, they pay the contracted amount. Usually the larger the insurance compamy, the better the contract, the less they pay. Then you take Medicare, I have medicare because I'm disabled, I also have a private insurance from my prior job that I pay for because my medication for multiple sclerosis is so expensive and mediare would leave me having to pay a lot. My hosptial bill for my outpatient surgery, the "billed charges" were about $19,0000, medicare allowed about $2400. It's the same with all insurance companies, but medicare usually has the biggest discount, well not always but frequently. It's the same with prescription drugs, it's depends on the contract with the pharmacy or drug company, some are better than others. Most of the time if you end up owing the hospital something, they will discount it, but they want you to pay it right then if they do, and I'm sure many of you are like me and 30% of some huge amount is still more than I can afford to fork out at one time.
I hope this makes some sense, my brain seems a little foggier than usual, and I'm not sure my brain and my fingers are on the same page. I tried proof reading this, but there are so many mistakes I gave up, so hopefully you can figure it out lol
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Memory is a hard one for me. I can remember things I forgot years ago...like things even in my childhood. But it takes me days to get some more soap for the bathroom and all I have to do is walk to the pantry and get it out. Can't tell you how many times our showers are with slivers of soap. Got the soap in the bathroom today. My fear is running out of toilet paper because I also seem to forget to add extra rolls. At times a drink will sit on the counter top for hours before I remember I had it out. I have had a problem with drinking so when I remember I have to chug a lug to catch up.
Nadine
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Nadine, not funny, but I had to laugh about the slivers of soap. I HATE THAT and do it all the time. The only thing worse is forgetting to change out my razor and hacking myself shaving. Well, actually the toilet paper thing is worse.
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I am too having the memory thing-UGH, makes me crazy.
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lol Nadine. Thanks for reminding me that I need both soap and toilet paper in my bathroom. I wonder how many tries it'll take before I remember to grab them.
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Nadine - my insurance was charged just short of $7000 and paid just over $3200
Brahna
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all the talk about toilet paper on here and I decided to go to Target and get some after getting my blood test. I got so nauseated, and started sweating in there, wasn't sure I'd make it out. It could be because it was crowded and the heat index here today is about 105, and it's just June. My hair and face were soaked with sweat by the time I got out of there, please tell me my head won't sweat this bad when I don't have hair? I'm going to have to walk around with a towel wrapped around my head all the time if it does, won't that be pretty lol
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Tamara1201: Hate to tell you but I feel sweat far worse without hair. I have stubbies growing in but they are so short and hard to see (can feel them with my hand) my head gets hot fast. I wear a cap outdoors. In the house I love a ceiling fan blowing on my head even when sleeping. Plus helps calm those darn hot flashes also. When I put the posting on about toilet paper and soap, I got the soap in and darn it forgot the toilet paper.
Hope everyone is doing good.
Nadine
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Havn't been on here for awhile now.Finished chemo in Feb this year,and still have some memory problems like the rest of you.My biggest problem these days is staying focused.I seem to bounce from project to project and never really finishing anything like i used to.
My first post chemo meds knocked me flat on my a**,with back,neck,shoulder,arm,legs and feet pain .The feet were the worst,felt like i had walked thru fire then broken glass,and i couldn't get them warm unless i wrapped them in a heating pad.My feet were freezing while the rest of my body including my head was dripping in sweat,go figure!!
After almost 2 mos on that med(Aromasin) i called the oncologist and told him i couldn't do it,that that wasn't really living.He took me off for 3 weeks weeks,and then changed it to Femera.Oh forgot to say that both of them raised my cholesterole level so i had to go on lipitor.Last wednesday the cardiologist told me to also take fish oil capsules,one in the morning and one at night,and B complex vitaminsone day and night also..
A lot of my pain is now gone,still have some with the feet,not as bad as before though.So here's hoping this Femera will work as i have to take it 5 years.
My hair is coming in pretty good now,have about 1/2 an inch,and when i run my hands thru it,it's like rubbing a cat.LOL.
Hope all of you that are still doing chemo sail thru with few problems,or non at all(not likely i know)
Take care,i'll check in again soon
Kathi
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