Calling all TNs
Comments
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And it's not just BC that is so scary. On Dec 16th my 66 y/o best friend of 52 years died. She was dx'd with lung cancer the first of October. First Chemo was on Halloween...she had 4 tx's. The PT scan showed that not only had the tumor not shrunk but the FC had spread to her brain and stomach. That was on Friday, she died on Monday. I hate this disease.....it is evil and must be stopped. There is no cure so we must find the cause and soon.
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Oh..jen..my heart breaks for you girl.....I feel your pain.....can you feel my hug to you? I can't tell you to not go there..because we all do....just know that for right now...this minute you are OK....take this to your heart.....and I guess live for NOW...we don't know what will happen in the future..so I guess we can't freak out about it...though its not easy....hang in there.
It's very hard for us as cancer patients to hear of friends of friends or whatever dying of breast cancer or any kind of cancer....we wonder why them..and not us...you just have to kind of run with it..and do what you can to help people out......bad things happen to good people...and it sucks.
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Guygirl- WOO HOO!!!
Wrenwood- so sorry to hear about your friend. I hate FC!
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anybody's chemo got postponed or anybody's chemo dosage got reduced??
i have completed 3 dose dense ac's and the 4 th ac is getting postponed and its dosage getting reduced by 10 percent too.
After the 3 rd ac, i got my neulasta shot after 24 hours but my wbc didnot pick up..it was 1400. I developed a parasitic infection in the tummy too and had 2 more rounds of wbc booster shots post which it went up well..uptil 5600. Although i feel pretty ok from 18th and my wbc is well within limits too and rbc is 9.5, my onco says taking it on 26th after christmas is ok and asks me to just take a break this week. On 26th, my 4th and last ac will happen with 10 percent reduced dosage.
i wonder if all this will trigger a recurrence or make the cancer cells circulating around develop resistance..
a little worried..
anybody having any idea regarding this..
thanks
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ban- My last dose of AC was reduced due to my wbc tanking and I had no problems. I was o evidence of disease at the end of chemo, no cancer cells found in breast tissue or lymph nodes. I also reacted badly to taxol so they switched me to taxotere. I worried about it being as affective like you are but it was.
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thanks sweetpickle...
did they give you the neulasta shot 24 hours after chemo.? also it looks like you completed all 8 chemos and then surgery. how did the surgery go... hope it killed the tumor completely
anybody else, whose chemo schedule or dosage had to get changed in between...
hugs!
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Netti-I am 3 percent er positive, my doc wanted me on something. My body couldn't handle it. It would take me half the day to be able to get moving.
Ban-since the affects of chemo are cumulative, I would think that a slight reduction would not make that much of a difference in doing its job. Better to not let your immune system get too low.
Wrenwood-so sorry to hear about your friend.
Jen-not selfish at all, very normal to relate, titan says it best!
Guygirl-WooooHooo! What a relief!
Now waiting for stupidboob to get the same news!
So I went to the back doc and yep, have to get an mri on the 26th. I was really trying to avoid a scan:( He would not give me any pain meds. I have not had pain meds since my hysterectomy a year ago and I feel like they don't want to give them to me. I didn't take them very long, I just don't want to be in pain anymore. I'd rather have the meds than the scan, but I guess I need to know what is going on even if it is fc. Then I have to wait until the following week for results, as he will be on vacation. I miss my retired MO.
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can anyone tell me what symptoms mets to spine has? I've been having pain in one location and the mo doesn't seem concerned.
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Nettie, I cannot advise as to what mets to spine feels like but what I can tell you is that if something is bothering you, give it 2 weeks. If symptoms have not resolved, get it checked out. If MO is blowing you off, get into see one of the partners in the group. If that doesn't work, try your PCP. If that doesn't work, go to the emergency room. I am by no means trying to frighten you, but when we have symptoms, our fears need to be addressed promptly. Be the squeeky wheel. Don't take NO for an answer. Very likely that it will turn out to be nothing...arthritis comes to mind. But keep after your team and get it checked and you will feel better.Waving hello to everyone. It's been a bit since i posted but come here daily to read and follow.
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BanR- My 4th AC was rescheduled from 24th to 27th as I wanted to have a good Christmas with my family. My MO says it is OK. I am not aware of the medicine being reduced though.
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Ban- Yes, I had the neulasta shot after the first four AC treatments. I did have bone pain for a day or two from that but the vicodin helped with that. I did one round of taxol and then three rounds of taxotere with no neulasta shots and did ok. My surgery was about a month after I finished chemo and there was no sign of cancer at that time. I didnt have to do radiation because my pathology came back clean for both breast tissue and nodes.
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Hl All,
Just checking in. I'm sleeping a lot from the secound round of AC and a UTI I picked up. I know this is temporary.
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Waving hi to you Navy mom!
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BanR I had my last treatment of Taxol reduced due to severe neuropathy in my hands and feet.
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From Lori1020 ~ "I was also informed that the surgeon who did the mastectomy "cut below the fold" which means I will have to have a ryans suture for semetry. I was wondering if you are anyone with expanders can relate to any of this?"
Lori, I sent you a message about my expanders but wanted to know what is a "ryans suture"? My radiated breast that the implant was taken out of looks terrible. I think PS left what he could of extra skin so he could work with it in the future surgery. Going to get second opinion because when I lift my right arm up it creates a BIG divot in the muscle, it becomes uncomfortable and I am afraid of what more surgery will do to it. Ugh...and everybody, except my husband, thinks since chemo is over and my hair is back then all is well and over with. I don't want to bother my famiy and friends because the last 2 years I've been enough with all the attention and just want to be normal. I never ever have given this much attention and tenderness/pain to my breasts. I took them for granted. Pooh!
Thanks for listening to my rant. I am glad to be here!
xoxo, gwen
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jcolford:: even your last dose was reduced.. lets hope all this doesnt negatively effect recurrence etc. the cancer cells are smart and quick to develop resistence.
Jianchi: you and me are almost in the same schedule with the same diagnosis!
sweetpicke: what a relief to hear that all your tumor cells got killed and the report came all clear!
get it checked somehow Nettie.. breast cancer has this tendency to metastise to bones first. once my chemo and all is done..i will insist my onco to get the bone scan done. somehow scared, specially about bones, lungs, brain, ovaries, fallopian tubes etc... got a disease unfortunately where our own cells are our enemies.
my cancer got diagnosed only after me insisting.. i showed my lump and post the mammogram and the ultrasound, they sent me home saying it is benign fibroedenoma. i was almost after his life insisting for an fnac and post fnac and core biopsy... lo behold...the benign fibroedenoma turns out to be an aggressive triple negative cancer!!
a big hello to Navymom and everybody here too....
love!
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Hello everyone, I got my PET scan back and all was clear. Finally some good news. My HER2 was borderline, so I am not a true triple neg. He is kind of dancing around it right now. I have my porta cath and am starting chemo in January.
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BanR - I know! Only I was diagnosed 1 month later than you! (1.9cm tumor, 0/3 nodes, TN, lumpectomy, DD AC+T).
Girls, this is kinda embarrassing but I have to talk to you all. 3 days ago I start to have some pain when I poop, and then there was some blood when wiping. I thought it was hemorrhoids which I had before. My husband was very alarmed when I told him yesterday and insist that I should let my doctor know. I am now very worried. :-(. I will call the doctor's office tomorrow and see what they say. Hope it is nothing serious.
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jianchi:piles and hemorrhoids ...could be! heard a lot of co patients go through this.
have laxatives throughout chemo without fail...wounds dont heal easily while chemo is on.
tekwriter: good news ..good news, that ur scans are all clear
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Thank you BanR. I called the doctor's office, and they took my info saying an on-call doctor would be back to me shortly. I heard nothing after an hour and called back. The lady answered my call said that she couldn't find the record of my previous call. I was very upset and emotional and couldn't help to cry as I told the first lady it was urgent as I have blood in my stool. The second lady was not sympathetic and told me she didn't know who took my call. If I can't calm down, she will hang up on me. Why are those people who answers patient calls on a Sunday so irresponsible? We reply on them to help us, but why is my call lost? Why couldn't the second lady just be a little nicer and comfort me a little? Is it so hard for them to be a little more patient with people struggling from cancer?
Good thing is that I got to talk to the doctor. He was very nice and comforting. He told me from what I explained, it seems to be the reaction of the medicine, but not related to my breast cancer or other cancer (colon cancer was what I worry about). He suggests me to continue taking stool softner.
Thank you all to hear my complain. I am sorry.
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Tekwriter, congratulations on the clean test results.
I'm still feeling weak from my second round of AC, but starting to come back to life. I'm thinking that by Christmas, I'll be feeling up to getting together with my family.
Happy Sunday, All.
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Jianchi..obviously they don't want to be there ..but they are...dang it...this ticks me off..report her...don't want to be mean but you deserve better than that...
and your onc is right....not to be gross but chemo can cause diarrhea...nasty diarrhea...and that could cause your bleeding.....with me it was diarrhea or constipation.....and I think the constipation was worse..........but still...they need to be there for you....no matter what day or time it is.
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Jianchi hang in there! Sending healing thoughts and prayers to everyone tonight - hugs all around! Hoping this Christmas we all have faith, family and friends and the new year brings us all good health! Lana
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tekwriter.................woo hoo...........CONGRATS!!! I am so hoping for the same thing. I had mine done Friday.
Do any of you still eat sugar? Titan I know you said you thought it was a myth but do you eat sugar?
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stupid noob - I still eat sugar - in the main I try to stay away from it, but I don't deny myself either - in fact I just ate 6 very sweet chocolates from a gift box - I could tell they were loaded with sugar, but I am a firm believer in all things in moderation. Tomorrow will be a better day - life is short!
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Stupidboob- I have reduced my refined sugar consumption to nearly 0 and feel better for it.... but don't give myself grief if I indulge! I enjoy lots of fruit, and use honey for a sweetener when needed.
Simpleforlife- yes we used condoms too, I think it is a good idea.
Jianchi Titan is right- from diarrhea to constipation- we don't talk about it much, but it can be so extreme- wishing you all the best!
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I eat sugar. I do have a sweet tooth and I am a diabetic. I try to stay away from it. I got to the point though that I try to stay away from all the chemicals and refuse to drink diet soda's or lo cal sweeteners. Woo hoo now I am going to get get pumped in my veins twice a month. But it beats the alternative. Life is strange.
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Titan: thank you so very much! I was really really worried. I feel very vulnerable these days. The doctor also suggest that I take some anti-anxiety medicine. Sigh, I feel like I am going crazy.
Thank you LanaM and JJ62.
Wish everybody a Merry Christmas!
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Jianchi- I had the extreme diarrhea as well. I had to cancel my first appt. with the genetic doctor because I was afraid to leave the house! So sorry you are having a rough time. Keep repeating to yourself... it will get better!
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I eat sugar...granted not in the quantity I did before my diagnosis. I do try to fit in more fruits and veggies too. Since May I have lost about 25 lbs and am feeling super
Maggie
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