Starting Chemo in Nov. 2011...anyone else?
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Hi ladies,
An update on my blood work. My neutophils and white counts are high now. The shots worked. But now my platelets took a dive. They were low last week, but still high enough to have a treatment. But they continued to go down, so now my 2nd tx has been postponed from Friday to Tuesday, because of low blood platelets. So I have to increase my iron and B12 intake to see if it will help my platelets.
I'm feeling good, so I'm going to take advantage of the break and exercise, and eat healthy.
I hope everyone has a good evening.
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Bc50- good luck at oncologist....make a list of questions and don't be afraid to ask anything! I saw my oncologist before my surgery..and start chemo on Friday....glad we all have each other to help-sending prayers your way!
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Bullwinkl4-thank you for your support!!!
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My husband has been telling me that my hair may not fall out. I proved it to him yesterday after cleaning the shower drain and my hair brush. I have my wig on hand. I bought it before losing my hair. My sister said I should videotape the shaving of my head. She saw a video that someone did and put it to music. I will probably do it this weekend. I will be wearing the wig today for the first time. I am also taking a soft cap I found at Dollar Tree. It is so soft and I don't think I want to sleep in a wig! I have heard the head loses a lot of heat so I will be wearing a night cap!
I have been doing a picture diary of myself before each fill in my expanders. I want a picture diary because I still have not looked at my surgical scars. I am just not ready to face that yet. Even though they are being pushed out with each fill so I can look down and see some of the scars. My lumpectomies the first time weren't so bad. I did take pictures of myself after surgery. My PS has the complete set so I can get a copy from their office.
Today I have a very red face. I took an Antivan to sleep at 10 last night and slept until 3. We are going to my MIL's for Thanksgiving so my children won't feel obligated to go both places and we will only help with one dinner. She has an extra bedroom that I have claimed for myself to nap in.
I have a lot of nausea this time and insomnia this time around. My face is red too. Side effects but 2 down and 6 to go! The Neulasta injection wasn't so bad either.
I have only had 2 treatments. For those of you who have had more treatments, do the SEs get worse? I just want to be prepared because in my mind they should be easier. I am on Adriamycin and Cytoxan for 4 treatments. The last 4 treatments is Taxol. I know those of you who are ahead of me in treatment have helped me so much!
Thanks, Beth
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Kim137: I went back to work 3 weeks after my BMX Sept 16th. I walked into my job 3 days after surgery to drop of paper work and my co workers thought I was nuts. I could have returned 2 weeks later but one of my drains wasn't cooperating. I took that as a sign that God didn't want me to go back yet.
I have been working full time since October 10th. I started chemo November 4th and missed one day of work because of port surgery. I go tomorrow for my 2nd treatment and have not scheduled any days off. I am trying to work through all of this. Keeps my mind off of it. I have always had good health. I am 54 and overweight!
I work in a High School but am not on my feet all day so that helps. The students have all been great and no one questioned my hats this week.
We are all individuals and have to do what works for us. I work with women that took three months off and others that were back two days after surgery.
Your body will let you know.
Good Luck
Denise
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Sushane I hope your treatment went well yesterday and you had no issues at the infusion site. I too feel truly blessed and have so much to give thanks for
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Good morning ladies! I'm enjoying the most wonderful time in Mammoth! It's beautiful up here and I'm relaxing and being taken care of by our dear friends. I'm starting to feel well again. I had not expected to feel so sick after the second round and ended up taking antibiotics. The NP also told me to take Prilosec OTC for the stomach acid and nausea
Anyway I want to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all the ladies here, I'm thankful for all of you. Thanks especially to grandmaV and Linda for reminding me that it does get better and we just need to hang in there til it passes. xoxo0 -
Wanted to wish everyone a Gentle Thanksgiving. My tongue taste like metal, but I will eat any way, and my hair has begun to fall out but I will enjoy the comapny of my family.
Grateful to have found this board the women here and great health care providers. No Black Friday shopping for me off to chemo #4 Friday AM.
Be well]
Nel
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Tipnas ~ Glad you are having a great time in Mammoth and that you are being so well taken care of! It's gloomy here in San Diego so you aren't missing any nice weather for sure.
I think my hair is starting to feel differently today. Can't quite put a verb to how it feels, but I think it's only a matter of time now. Can anyone give me their insight into how long after the hair weirdness started that they actually started losing significant amounts and decided to shave their head? I did pick up my wig and "hair halo" for hats yesterday, so I guess I am most thankful today that I won't be bald over the weekend no matter what happens. LOL!
Still have the weird tongue and mouth, and am hoping the stuffing doesn't taste too metallic since it's my favorite of the whole meal. Oh well, there's always next year if if doesn't taste great and for this year I am truly thankful for my family, friends, co-workers, all of you on this web site and especially my husband for all of the support and caring I have so warmly received.. Wishing you ALL a wonderful, peaceful and hopefully, a Thanksgiving Day that something..anything.. actually tastes good!
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linnyhopp, my hair started falling out on day 16 after 1st tx and I shaved it the same day. I wasn't going to, but the hair falling was making such a big mess and was itchy and annoying. The last straw was when I fixed soup for lunch and couldn't eat it, because there was hair in it, I said, if you're going to do that it's time to go and buzzed it off. It was a relief.
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Tipnas,
Thank you for thinking about me. Chemo went well- no problems. I can't believe how good I feel today. Not one s/e. After my first treatment, I had really bad heartburn. I started Prevacid 4 days ago and what a difference I think it is making. I too have so much to be thankful for.
I hope you have a great thanksgiving.
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GrandmaV-thanks for your words of encouragement. You seem like a really nice lady with lots for everyone. We are fortunate to have you here on this website with us.
bonseye-Good luck tomorrow!
I hope that all of you had a good Thanksgiving holiday and that your children/spouses, etc.helped with the preparations and clean up today. My husband helped me put in the turkey before he went to bed (he worked last night til 7 this AM), and my daughter came over early to help me as well. I felt fine except for my chest/shoulder area is sensitive from the port placement. I didn't feel it at all the first couple of days, but now it is sore around the port area. It also hurts to lie down and get up, but not to sit down or walk around. I am keeping up with the pain pills because when I wake up at night and have missed a pill, it does hurt quite a bit to get up to take another one. I also took today 2 steroid pills this morning and am getting ready to take 2 more now before my first treatment tomorrow. I was a litte dizzy for a while today, maybe because of these pills.
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I had my second chemo treatment November 22. So far so good. I haven't really experienced any nausea or anything else with the chemo. However the dexamethasone I take before and after chemo does seem to make me edgy at times. Like one of the nurses said at my treament center I could probably stay up all night cleaning when taking these pills.
Sueshane I look like my brother too with my hair buzzed off. I found this great wig that everyone says I look like I did when I was much, much younger. LOL. I had a friend ask whether I straightened my hair, since her daughter who is a hair stylist does it. I said no and told her it was my wig I got since I lost my hair from the chemo.
TexasRose thank you about my Emily Dickinson quote. I love her poetry. Here's a link to a blog Roger Ebert did about her.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/poetry/emily-dickinson.html
Happy Thanksgiving Evening everyone.
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bahamamom, you're sweet to say that. I hope all goes well for you and bonseye tomorrow. I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised at how smooth it goes. I hope your SEs are minimal.
Knebel22, and bullwinkl, I think I remember reading that you're have your 2nd tx's tomorrow. I hope everything goes well and that you too will have minimal SE's
Nel, tx #4? You are moving right along. I hope you have few and minimal SE's
Anyone else I missed I hope all goes well.
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Linnyhop, I know what you mean by weird feeling.. kinda tender, kinda tight.. I keep touching my head because it feels so weird. When did you have your treatment?? my first was the 15th..
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Lori ~ I had my first chemo on the 14th so I guess we are going to be experiencing our hair loss around the same time. Not looking forward to that part, but it's inevitable.
Just wondering if anyone else experienced the weird chemo taste with all the Thanksgiving food? My mouth is gross and therre were only a couple of things that I ate that I could actually say tasted good and normal. My MIL who doesn't know about my BC sat next to me and made comments about how little I was eating. I had to fib and tell her I had overdone the appetizers. Wish that had been true. Well, there's always next year!
GrandmaV ~ I was chuckling about the hair in the soup. That must have been some unappetizing looking meal. I think I will buzz my head when it gets to that point as well. Actually, the chemo has made my hair dry and more old ladyish than I already am so what the heck. But I do know it will be a very hard day when it happens.
Take care and have a good night's rest to all. Linda
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linda, i didn't enjoy the thanksgiving food as much either because of the chemo taste. i couldn't get the mashed potatoes down and could only eat dark turkey meat. the dressing was gross and so was the cherry pie. actually, i couldn't find anything to drink that tasted good either. even water is still gross to me and i'm 11 days PFC! i'll be so happy to get rid of this particular se ... oh, and the big D has hit again, too. ugh.0
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GrandmaV- thanks for the good vibes. Tomorrow is my 2nd treatment. My best friend is taking me and giving my husband a beak. Nice to have someone to talk to other than him.
YaYa5-nice to know i'm not the only one that thinks water tastes strange.
I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.
No cooking for me. I relaxed all day and we went out to eat.
Hope everyone has a great Friday.
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Linnyhop, I was like Grandma V. I didn't want to be surprised by my hair falling out in clumps and wanted to take control. Mine started clumping yesterday morning-Thanksgiving Day. I will be shaving it today. I modeled my wig for the family and then wore a hat the rest of the day. It has been 16 days since my first treatment.
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For ten days after my first treatment, I felt like my mouth was layered in oil. This time, I am experiencing nausea and so much tiredness.
I have heard that if you have a metallic taste in your mouth to use plastic utensils to eat with. Has anyone tried this? I did eat dinner and dessert yesterday and really paid for it last night. I didn't overdo it but wanted to.
For all of you getting a treatment today, I hope you find one thing to laugh about today. I hope I do too. My husband will be putting up the tree for me today. He really doesn't know how funny he is. I need some bright lights since there is no sunshine in Indiana today!
bahamamom--Is your port placed on the side like mine is? My oncologist told me mine would be sore because of where it was placed. The pain is getting less on that side unless I lift or stretch too much. I had my surgery on 11/7. It was tender after treatment on Tuesday but it feels better today. I also have to be careful because of the expanders.
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LynMichel-
Your wig must look so real if someone thought you straightened your hair. There are some really great wigs out there. I wear a wig to work but around the house a hat or bare- I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.
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YaYa, I feel for ya. The Big D is so miserable and especially so if eating and drinking is such a chore. I hope you start feeling better real soon. I was suppose to have my 2nd tx today, but have to wait until Tuesday now because of low platelets. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad to have a few more days of feeling good, but also a little sad that this just prolongs my treatment plan. I'd like to get all done.
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Yaya ~ Oh my, except for the dark meat comment, you could have written my exact meal experience yesterday. GROSS! I couldn't find any drink that I could tolerate yesterday either. I had some milk this morning and it actually was not too bad. Maybe a bit of progress? Did you have this extreme metallic issue with each of your treatments? I am so hoping I have a few days each cycle when it feels good to taste some decent food. Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday I ate a few regular potato chips and they did taste good. Not a good choice, but I can't promise I won't eat more if they taste good.
Beth ~ Experienced that same oily mouth when I ate a tiny bit of ice cream. It was weird, but I figured maybe it was just because of the higher fat content in the ice cream? Let us kinow how it goes with shaving your head today. My heart is with you. As I have said, I did pick up my wig and since my hair is so mousy from not coloring, cutting every 5 weeks and on top of it having th chemo, both my best friend and the gal who styled the wig said I looked better in the wig than my own hair at this point! However, I don't think I will wear it until I have to. The top of my head is feeling a bit more tingly even today, so we will see what happens. It's 12 days since my last chemo.
GrandmaV ~ I can certainly understand your mixed feelings about delaying your chemo. I keep saying I hope nothing happens to get me off schedule. As nice as it would be to have a few extra days of feeling good, I feel like you...the sooner we can get it done and over the better. But, we have to do what is best for our systems, so I guess we will learn to have more patience on this journey we are taking.
To all of you...not to be gross, but has anyone experienced bloody noses with chemo? I have had the issue for the past few days and the nurse said it could just be the dryness of the air, but I have NEVER experiened this type of thing before. Just wondering.
Good luck to all having chemo today. May your SE's be minimal! To everyone else, hope you are having a good day Black Friday shopping or whatever fun thing you can find to do today.
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Hello Ladies, I have discovered a great treatment for the ick mouth..you know the sores and furryness, the dryness etc.. I cook with virgin, organic coconut oil. I had used it to cure yeast overgrowth in my tummy and had heard it helped with thrush etc in the mouth. So over the past 4 days I have taken like an 1/8 of a tsp and swished in my mouth then swallowed.. tada.. my mouth is clear, with a beautiful pink tounge..and no soreness..
Just thought I would throw that out there. I hate taking so many meds, so this to me is a great natural alternative.0 -
Lory ~ Thanks for the tip...just wondering if this helps with the "metal taste" I can't seem to get rid of?
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linnyhopp, i think the metallic taste was worse for the first treatment and this last one. it does go away, but it's so annoying when it's there. it's been almost two weeks since my last tx, and i still can't find anything that tastes really good. i'm dying for an excellent meal, maybe fish or steak or even italian or mexican, with something yummy to drink, followed by a good, hot cup of coffee!
i've also had bloody noses along with the runny, drippy nose. i have no nose hairs and i think that has a lot to do with the drying out that leads to the bloody nose. these are the side effects that i consider 'doable,' and basically annoying. try to explain them to someone who doesn't have cancer, though. my family seems to think that chemo's over and now i'm cured and back to normal. i'm so grateful for everyone here who understands even the slightest side effect.
hang in there, linnyhopp. i KNOW it gets better!
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linnyhopp, I haven't had a bloody nose, but I did have sores in my nose and a little blood, when I blew my nose. I turned on the humidifier and have been so much better. I also put a little aquaphor on a q-tip and swab the inside of my nose. It helps the sores immensely.
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Lory, I'm going to try the coconut oil my next round. Thank you.
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I just wanted to let everyone know that I survived my first TC treatment today. The port was great; they did a complete oncological test of blood and gave me all the medicines through accessing the port. I just didn't look at it, held my breath when the needle went in, and although I continued to shake a little for a few minutes out of past experiences and fear of the unknown, it really didn't hurt anymore.
Bonseye-I hope you had as good a day as I did. I don't know what this evening and the next few days will hold, but at least for now I feel fine.
bethu77-Yes, mine is on the right side of my chest but is pretty much in the middle of my right breast. At first, the soreness was only in my arm and shoulder, but after about a day and a half, the actual site of the port has been sore and the shoulder and arm are better. I will say that today the soreness has not been too bad, so I am thinking it is on the mend all over. I had not touched it at all. I was afraid of it, but the nurse had to feel all around it to access it, and it did not hurt really bad like I thought it would. I could definitely feel it, but if the treatment had been yesterday, I know it would have been much worse. I was up most of last night. I couldn't sleep, and I wanted to go Black Friday shopping anyway at 3:00, so I took my pain pills from the surgeon for the port placement every 4 hours last night and even took one just before I left this morning for my treatment. I know that helped too, but I haven't taken another one since, and that was 8 hours ago.
I am not having any side effects yet. I feel funny, though, not knowing which side effects and when I will feel them. I am also afraid to turn my head quickly or rise from sitting quickly or anything that may give me vertigo or make me dizzy. I have my arsenal ready. I am rereading the advice from all of you and the booklet the doctor gave me to tell me what to do for which side effects so that I can be ready for them. I am hoping for a restful night since I only slept one hour last night. I did rest at the treatment place today. The benadryl made me sleepy, but I only closed my eyes; I never was able to actually fall asleep. I felt sorry for my husband who had to sit there with me all day in a pretty uncomfortable chair. He had not slept either because he works nights and had just gotten home from work when we had to leave for the appointment. I am feeling very lucky to have my family and my discussion buds to help me. Thanks, Ladies!
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I thought I would post my feeling of accomplishment today!! It has been 7 days since chemo #2 and here I am at work. Putting in a full day, accomplishing lots. Barely tired today! But looking forward to going home and relaxing.
I am going to return to organic coconut oil for all our cooking to see if it helps with the sores and thrush I have developed. I have a mouthwash developed by our cancer centre that works well, but honestly doesnt taste very good. I will try swishing with the oil too to see if it helps. Thanks so much for that suggestion!
I hope that all of you are having more good days than bad. This round for me can be measured that way so far. The gabapentin is certainly helping the joint pain and the neupegen seems to be keeping my immune system up! 5 more shots of that. I never thought I could inject myself but here I am doing it every night, lol. Who knew!
Thank you everyone for all your posts, this is a great place to come and read when I need to be lifted up! WE CAN DO THIS!!!!!
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