Australian Sisters
Comments
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Kylie, definately try to access some assistance from PATS and if there is a cancer facility for country people you may be able to stay there...in Perth we have Crawford Lodge, I was so fortunate to be able to stay there for the six weeks and they have family units so my family could come for part of it too.
I hope you are able to find a solution as I think you'll get very tired travelling everyday. Maybe the kids could go into school in Cambelltown for the time, it'd be like an adventure for them.
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Sorry for my silence. Tired after yesterday and busy busy at work today and then an info evening for one of my kids. Round 3 of FEC tomorrow :-( Will catch up with you all after that.
Jenn0 -
Just popping in.
Big hugs to all, Sharon, Sheila, Jenn and everyone else. Hope your day goes well. Jenn I had very similat treatment as you so know how you feel.
Alyson
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Sending hugs to you all.
Jenn - hope tomorrow goes well - last FEC YAY!
Sheila - hope you are going well too - I understand what you mean about anaesthetics. It seems the longer the anaesthetic the longer it takes your brain to recover.
Chrissy - hope you got a good night's sleep last night, and re-set your body clock lol
Kate - yes - you will have days like that, I learned to just go with the flow. Have fun helping with the Camp Quality do today if you are up to it.
I have another long day at work - we are so busy I don't seem to get time to scratch myself - but at least the day goes so quickly.
Trishxoxo
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Quick message from work...
Not looking forward to today of course :-( Won't know until I pop out to my onc appt at 9.30am if it's even going ahead since my LFTs were so high last week and I've actually had an on/off pain in that area all week so am thinking that the levels probably aren't improving. And, of course hoping that you can't develop liver mets so quickly after a scan and while on FEC...
My port incision continues to be a problem. The internal, supposedly dissolving, stitches have been working their way out of the incision line over the past few weeks (now all wondering if the guy actually used string out of his top drawer can I say...) and the other day the middle one actually split the incision open. Went to the GP who was reluctant to stitch it but cleaned out the "hole" and snipped away any other visible signs of the stitches. While up at the hospital yesterday getting my bloods done I chatted with the breast care nurse who said they'll take a good look at it today.
Told my hubby last night that this thing is more trouble than it's worth and has caused me physical pain everyday since it was put in. My girlfriend who is a nurse thinks they probably need to have someone do a revision ie: open it back up and take a good look, remove the stitches that are causing the problem etc. Am thinking that if this doesn't resolve I will ask to have it removed after the chemo is done and do the herceptin via my veins for the rest of the time. They still take my bloods from my vein every three weeks anyway and I have a good vein that heals really quickly each time...
The LGFB session was great. Met some lovely women and had a fun morning. Was brave enough to take off my wig and wear a turban (and modelled a red wig - definitely not my colour!).
Anyway, should get on with some work... luv from Jenn
PS: I'm part of the Jan 2012 chemo group but am finding they are very clicky. Although I respond quite a bit and am interested in what's happening to the others I find that most people just ignore my own posts... I love how supportive you guys are in comparison :-)
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Jenn, I hope today goes well with the chemo and port, and especially getting reassurance about your liver. I will be thinking of you and hoping to hear a positive report.
How could people ignore you in a group? You sound like a lovely lady.0 -
Jenn - sorry - blame my "chemo brain" lol - it's today - not tomorrow! Good luck
Trish
xoxo
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Jenn - commisserations on your port problem. Heck, just what you don't need. I'm glad you enjoyed the LGFB course. I had a good time too at mine and I went bald. There were 6 of us baldies and about 10 others with hair. Interestingly I was the 2nd youngest there. Most were in their mid 60's but the youngest was only 26. She was very quiet and didn't really participate. I felt so bad for her.
I agree to about the boards. This is the place to belong for us Aussies (and Kiwis). We are such a nice group of ladies and I love that we are all diverse but are always here for each other.
I'm fighting a temperature, it is hovering around 37.8. therefore I am not leaving the house today and don't want to deliberately be around crowds while I am like this, so I won't be helping out at the CQ golf day. But, I am feeling better than yesterday so that's good.
Hope everyone else is doing OK. Has anyone heard from Lyndal? I hope she's OK.
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Jenn it's well after 9.30 so you have probably have your treatment already and I hope the liver probs didn't prevent it from happening. Hope it all went well and you are feeling okay. Sure hope they get your port sorted as once healed you shouldn't even be aware that it is there. If they want to do a revision, go with it as I think you'll find that after the initial soreness it will be a lot better.
Trish nah, didn't get too much sleep after all.................I went to bed early with a pill but for some reason I didn't go off to sleep...............so after tossing and turning for two hours I got my phone and lay in bed playing patience until I got a little sleepy..........guess what time?..........crazy I know but it was 6am and I was awake and up again at 10.30. I do remember hearing the roofers two doors down start work at 6.30 with their hammering but I still went to sleep even if only for a couple of hours. I'll give it another try tonight................sigh.......I guess I'm going to have to start back on taking my melatonin regularly.
Hope those of you having treatment have a good day and for those at work I hope the day goes quickly.
Ooops Kate I bumped into you....lol.......sure hope that temp doesn't go up any more..........if it does, get you to the doc asap. I do hate to hear of the very young women who have BC, it is so sad and unfortunately it seems that the younger you are the more agressive it seems to be............I do wish they would come up with better treatments if not a cure.
Love n hugs all! Chrissy
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Kate, please be careful of the fever as it can be very serious. I think you should call your onc.
It's surprising that you have a fever after having had the Neulasta.0 -
Onc appt was 9.30am and then I go back for chemo at 2.30pm (It's just around the corner from work). The update is that my LFTs are still too high and so today I'm getting FE instead of FEC. The cyclophosphamide is the one that can cause liver toxicity so my onc is not willing to risk giving it to me again. It turns out that even at baseline my LFTs were a bit raised so she's also going to test for Hep to make sure that isn't the problem - better safe than sorry but I certainly am pretty worried about the potential for this to be a preexisting problem.
I'm to take antibiotics for my port and they'll keep an eye on it and the nurses are going to have a good look this afternoon and give their opinion on what should happen with it. I told my onc that if it's still a problem after the Taxol I want it out and I'll do the 3 weekly Herceptin via vein. She was OK with this. Do you guys on Herceptin think that would be a problem?
regards and see you on the other side,
Jenn
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Jenn - sorry you are having such a horrible time.
With regrards to Herceptin without a port. I guess it depends on how good your veins are. Can they use both arms? I only had one arm that could be used and now the vein in my right arm is very scarred - that is just from having blood taken and the three monthly heart scans. It's still ok to use - but it's getting more difficult for them to access the vein because of the scarring. I can understand how you want to get rid of the port though. By now you should not even know it's there most of the time.
If you have good veins, and the Herceptin can be given through a number of different sites then you may not have a problem.
Hope the FE :-) goes well this afternoon.
Kate - take care - and if your temp goes higher, you'll need to go into ER and have it checked. don't wait - once it gets to 38 you go in!
Trishxoxo
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Jenn, I'm so sorry you are having all this upset. I hope you took your anti-anxiety med this morning!
Hoping for reasonably good news on your liver.0 -
Jenn, I had chemo x 8 rounds then herceptin every 3 weeks for 12 months and did not have a port...if I needed to have the MUGA scans they'd take my bloods at the same time and leave the best looking vein for my chemo/herceptin...as I could only use one arm too...so just ask before you get any tests if they can do it all in one go...pretty scarred little veins now but it was doable ... all the best with your treatment this arvo x
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This is my first post here on Aussie Sisters. I am 61 and live by myself on a small farm in Nth East Victoria. I had a SNB & lumpectomy at Albury on 6/1 and have had my fifth radiation treatment at Wodonga.
I haven't been given a Stage although I could probably work it out from the Early Breast Cancer Book I got. I am still slightly concerned as my tumour was 2 cm and Grade 2 but the surgeon and radiation oncologist seem to agree that I don't need chemo. I just hope I'm not in that small group who have neg nodes but there has still been spread. On the other hand I am glad that I don't have to have chemo. I wish all of you who are having it the best. Are there nasty SEs for Herceptin?
Anyway. I hope to get to know you all
Gerri
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Hi Gerri and welcome! I'm 60 and live in rural SA and you can see by my Dx line at the bottom of this post that I have been walking the BC path for quite a while. How's your skin holding up with the rads? Please be sure to moisturise, moisturise, moisturise..............it's really important. How many treatments are you having? As usual I'm throwing the questions out there.....lol.........I should just let you get your breath for a sec........lol.......anyway, welcome to a great group of girls in varing stages of treatment or finished.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Hi Gerri - welcome. You won't get herceptin unless you are HER2+ve - from your signature, you say you aren't. If you were, they would have recommended you do chemo before radiation - so you're lucky
Sue
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What a disaster. I ended up stabbed 5 times this afternoon! Port wouldn't work so the tried a second time. Then port wouldn't pull under gravity very well and because we would have been there at midnight at the pace it was going the decision was made to move to a hand catheter. That one worked for 3.5 syringes of the epirubicin before going on strike. So a second Cath in my wrist to finally be able to finish.
Thank goodness we didn't have any cyclo today as well...
They have made me an appt for Tuesday to go back to where
my port was put in to work out what the problem is. May need it out and replaced :-(
So tired... Jenn0 -
Welcome Gerri :-)
Jenn0 -
Awe Jenn so sorry to hear of all the troubles with your treatment today. Hopefully you can get the port sorted quickly so this does not happen again! ((((((hugs))))))
Love n more hugs. Chrissy
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Jenn that's not good you poor love, hopefully they sort something out when you have your appointment and the next chemo is a whole lot easier. x
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Jenn - sorry about your port, but I must say try to keep it if you can - it does make it a lot easier in the long run
((((((HUGS))))))
Sue
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Hi Gerri and welcome to our board. I'm Kate and I live in WA. Your diagnosis is similar to mine, but I am HER2+ so that means chemo, rads and then Herceptin. My tumour was a little bit smaller than yours but Grade 3. Otherwise I would have just had the surgery followed by radiation.
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Now for something really gross, and not at all BC related... don't read this if you are eating dinner
I was on the phone today and was just vacantly staring at the ceiling, and I noticed what I am pretty sure are a few maggots slithering along. I looked on my kitchen benches, window sills, floor everywhere and there aren't any there, so I have to assume that something dead is up in the roof and they are coming out of the light fittings or out of our skylights. I am so so grossed out, not to mention that this is over the kitchen table where we have our laptop - and I have a bald head! Bad enough having flies and mosquitos using my dome as a landing pad let alone baby flies falling down onto me. I am beyond disgusted. Hubby will have to go up there on the weekend to see if there is a dead rodent or something and remove it. I actually want the whole place fumigated. This has done nothing to alleviate those queasy feelings I have been having the last few days.
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Eeeerk Kate, I can't imagine anything worse.............unless it's standing in the shower, under a non working exhaust fan, only to see a huge redback swinging down right in front of your eyes between you and the door.
I mean, where do you go? The shower isn't on yet so can't wash it away, you don't want to touch it's web cause it might climb back to you, you can't blow it away because it will probably swing right back atcha............just as well we had a long-handled-back-scrubber. Weilded with a little finesse and a fair bit of fear the redback ended up in the drain hole with a hot water chaser.
Sheila.
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Oh Lord Sheila - ROTFLMAO at that one.
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Aww Jenn, huge hugs. What a horrible time. Can only hope they find out whats wrong with the port and get it fixed as they are supposed to make life easier, not harder. Truly they are worth having. Other than a niggly nerve pinch now and then in the neck I never had a problem with mine and hope once yours is fixed, you find the same.
All those aborted needle jab area, keep an eye on them, massage them gently so they dont form a hard bruised knot. Also if you feel a huge pain in the arm they jabbed take your emergency card up to the closest hospital and tell them to ultrasound for blood clots. Not remotely wanting to be alarmist, but it can happen when they make a heap of booboos. Hope this lot of chemo is clear sailing for you mate.
Kate and Sheila ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww my least favorite things on the planet and you had to go there yuck. Kate hope your temperature settles down soon for you and happy to hear that you are feeling a bit better today.
Gerri welcome to our wonderful aussie and kiwi support group. Top bunch of chicks if I do say so myself lol. If you ignore stories of spiders, snakes and maggots that is haha.
Chrissy sure hope your feeling better mate. Trish, Suzie and anyone else who ive accidentally left off due to short attention span, big Hi's.
Swollen cheek and jaw has finally settled down and I actually was able to go to work today and will now be flat out working to make up for not being able to work the last week grrrr. damn root canal nearly killed me lol.
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Grrr - just typed a long post and the computer played up and I lost it!
Here goes again!!!
Gerri welcome - I'm 54 and from Canberra - I actually work in Canberra and live on 8.5 acres just south of Canberra in NSW. Don't worry too much about not getting chemo. Until my final pathology came in and we knew about the HER2+ and the node involvement, I would not have had chemo either. The oncologists in Canberra meet regualarly to discuss cases and my case was presented by my breast surgeon. With a 2cm lump (as well as having a second different cancer - ILC in the same breast) grade 3 and only ER &PR+ I wouldn't have done chemo. But the HER2+ and a micromet in one node made the chemo a must. Don't worry about the cancer having gotten into your blood stream - it does us no good to worry over something that we can't do anything about. Your cancer may be the sort that wouldn't respond well to chemo anyway. We have to have a little faith in our oncs.
Jenn - you poor darling. I'm so sorry you had such a bad time. It sounds like something from a nightmare. Sending you lots of gentle ((((hugs)))) xoxo Sounds like your veins aren't great and a port might be the way to go - see what they say on Monday. Honestly - I never had a problem with mine - most of the time I didn't know it was there. It didn't have blood come back when accessed twice - but that happens occasionally - the port was still working. I hope it gets sorted out for you.
Kate - hope you find the culprit in the ceiling - or at least your DH does. Yuk!! On a side note though - one thing I noticed while I was on chemo - was that mossies didn't come anywhere near me. They usually love me (and they do again now) but on chemo they stayed away. One positive thing about chemo lol
Sheila - can just imagine the spider killing. And was laughing too while reading your post lol
Well I suppose we know we're Aussies when we have maggot infested ceilings and red backs in the bathroom (they are supposed to be under the dunny seat!!!). We have brown snakes at home - and I hate them. I've lost a very much loved dog to one, so if there's one in my house paddock it's dead meat - sorry I know they are protected - but not near my house they aren't! I'm a great snake killer too lol
Love to all - hoping we all have a good day and no side effects for the girls doing chemo now.
Trish
xoxo
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Definitely an Aussie - brown snakes in the pool, redbacks hanging off the garage door when you open it, funnel-webs in the garden... And we live in suburban Sydney (on the edge of the Great Northern Walkway I must admit...).
Fighting the nausea this morning. Taken the Emend and the Kytril. This time also have Dex which I'm going to take with breakfast. Actually it will be my second breakfast - had to get up at 3.30am and had a mouthful of yoghurt, a bite of chicken and a ginger chew to put something in my stomach....
Jenn0 -
Jenn - I forgot about the funnel webs! I lived in Wollongong for 28 years, and we had to make sure we checke our shoes before putting them on. No funnel webs down here - too cold for them lol
Hope your nausea gets better. You are having it rougher than me - I really only had queasiness from time to time, and that was more from the diahorrea. But I also seemed to have more meds to take than you too. Do you have Ondansetron too? I'm sure I had the Emend, Ondansetron and Dex. Plus some vials of either Maxalon or Stematil for injection if needed.
Trish
xoxo
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Morning ladies.
Jenn, good to see you are up. Take it easy today.
I think I may have worked out how to post photos so watch out.
Is it true there are no snakes in NZ?0
