Weekly Taxol group
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thanks Dawn and ingerp- for the hair encouragement. I have barely there hair and what is there is sticking straight up. I am using a bar shampoo by Ethique called Oaty Delicious which is really helping with the itching and scalp pain. Haven’t worn the wig again. Wasted $.
Still have eyebrows and eyelashes.
I have 5-6 more taxol treatments. Then Herceptin for a few months
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Had my 5th Taxol on Friday, and my tongue and tastebuds are awful. Plain yogurt with blueberries seems to be just about the only thing that tastes good to me. Just wondering if anyone else has this problem, or if you have found something that helps.
I keep drinking water, but my mouth stays dry. It's particularly uncomfortable when trying to sleep at night. Biotene spray helps for a minute or so, but I have to keep reusing it. Any other good advice out there?
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Hang in there BAMR. I found that some infusions my taste was more affected than others for some reason. Also, the dryness. Some nights I would wake up feeling like I had a mouth full of cotton, other nights it was not so bad. I never did figure out what was different. My dentist gave me some sort of moisturizing stuff as I happened to go just before starting chemo (I don't think it was biotene but not sure), and several times I was tempted to use it but then it would subside before I was able to search for it in the cabinet....If you like oatmeal, that was usually something that stayed appealing for me.
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Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing okay with SE. I feel better each day. Neuropathy is still present, but it seems to come and go. I don't notice it when I am at work. I feel more motivated to work out, and have been doing mini work outs on the aerodyne. It is still really hard to get out of bed in the morning, but once I am up, I am okay. I am 11 PFC. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
jrominger-hope today went well for your wife.
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Hi everyone! Taxol #2 was done on Friday. SE I have this time are a little neuropathy in my fingers and toes, bloody noses, weepy eyes, and hot flashes from hell, especially late at night. It interferes with my sleeping. Still very manageable, though. I tend to get really tired trying to get ready for work. Today is day 2 I’m staying home. I don’t want to push myself too hard.
Jrom- hope Nat had an easy infusion and minimal SE!
I hope everyone else is hanging in there and taking care of themselves! Forgive me for not going by name, but I’m having one of those chemo brain/tired spells. Know you are all being lifted in prayer
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last taxol today! I am more nervous than excited :
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ucfknights, You're almost done. Ring the bell and celebrate!!
🤗🤗
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Congrats ucfknights!! You might experience a range of emotions, but great to get to the other side!
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Palmetto. Thank you for asking about Nat. She did real well. Dizzy from quick benedryl push. They will slow that down next week. This am she has a little weepy eyes and she did have the steroid energy. Her oncologist could not find her lump so that was marvelous! She is anemic so hopefully the blood will hang tough. All in all good news by God’s Grace!!
Ucfknights. FANTASTIC!! I spoke to 2 friends in the past week both were TNBC, one is 5 yrs out. The other 9 yrs out. This will be you, my Nat and all of you amazing women!! God bless!!
Notdefined keep up the great progress and please keep us posted. U r an inspiration !
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Taxol # 3 is bagged today! The infusion itself was uneventful; as always, antihistamine made me drowsy. If not for frozen gloves and socks, I would have slept.
Unfortunately my blood counts went down and I am back to anemia, albeit mild, with Hgb level of 10.3. MO will check iron levels and if found low, I will get an IV iron next week.
My eyeliner and eyelashes are thinning even though I am fairly early in the process. As HappyAnyway said, rite of passage.
Ucfknights: CONGRATULATIONS on the last Taxol and end of treatment!
Palmetto: sorry to hear about SEs, hot flashes could be a real b*tch! And don't get me started on runny nose
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uknights- glad you are at finish line. Congrats for this milestone.My last taxol is this Friday and like you I am more nervous than exited. I have still ahead a surgery, called Goldilocks, and pathology report which is the wait of our lifetime. Then I will have radiotherapy and herceptin.
I hope everyone is having minimal to no se
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margun last taxol soon!!!! Fantastic. You wait and see it’s going to turn out fabulously!!
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BAMR- my dentist's father is going through chemo and she gave me some Colgate Hydris. I have not had to use it but she said that it helped her dad with dry mouth. Yay on #5!
Palmetto- I also have the bloody nose but my eyes are really dry. I am using artificial tears like crazy. I'm not sure if it's related to my eyelashes falling out. Yay on #2!
ufcknights- Congratulations on the end of the Taxol!!
jrominger - I'm glad Nat is doing well. Hope that continues.
LaCombattante- I hope the blood counts come back up. Yay on #3!
Yay to Margun on the upcoming last Taxol!
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ucfknights- Yay and congratulations!!!
I hope everyone is doing good and keeping up the fight to kick cancer's ass!!! 🥊🥊🥊
~Katie💗
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DogMom Runner- oh the eyes!! I feel like my old geriatric bulldog. His eyes get goopy because they can't produce tears anymore on their own. I have to give him an eye gel twice a day for the rest of his life. I wonder if his gel would work for me... :P That's what my eyes feel like. The weepiness is sticky. My mom uses a special OTC drop that she gave me a vial of to try, but I haven't yet. UfcKnights- congrats on the end of Taxol!!! That is awesome! Margun- you're in my thoughts for Friday! I have a feeling I will feel the same way you do when I reach the end. I'm preparing myself to cry like a baby when it's all said and done! Keep slaying, warriors!
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Congrats to Uofknights and Margun for being done/almost done! Woohoo.
Glad the first one went pretty well for nat. One week at a time and you'll make it through.
I had follow up with MO yesterday and was told she is leaving the group (Uggh). See the RO on 8/5 to hopefully get the RT arranged and then after that will have to see different MO. Also, she said I can get my port removed!! Very happy about that, waiting to schedule it.
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loiswb. I bet getting that port removed is exciting. A friend who had BC said “it is your little friend that you hate”😂. Congrats on that!!
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loiswb- yay about the port removal!! I had mine removed when i had exchange surgery and it's weird i still find myself reaching up to my cutest where it was. Guess I used to rub on it kinda like people play with their hair.
I hope everyone is doing good with treatments and fighting through the unpleasant side effects in the fight to kick cancer's ass!!🥊🥊
~Katie💗
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Hi everyone. I just started chemo last week and have taxol #2 tomorrow.
I wanted to thank Wheatscapes for mentioning the cramping SEs...I had that too and ended up taking ibuprofen as a few others recommend. So glad I found all of your posts.
Has anyone iced their hands/feet and still had issues with nails or neuropathy? Just curious because I had thick socks on last time and have a bit of tingling in my toes. I might not wear socks and bring some extra ice packs tomorrow.
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ucfknights-Congrats to your mom!! Yay for reaching the finish line
loiswb- Yay for port removal! I really want mine gone, but I think they are going to remove it during my surgery. I'm thinking I will get a small tattoo to cover that scar someday. I've never gotten a tattoo before, so it would be my first.
Divergent-I iced the whole time, and did end up with a little neuropathy. Thankfully it is manageable, and it didn't stop me from getting all twelve doses. Hope number 2 went smoothly.
Hope everyone else is managing their SE well!
Katie-I love seeing your posts! Hope you are healing well!
Take care everyone!
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Palmetto- old goopy bulldog eyes
having worked as a vet tech in the past I know those eyes very well. I hope you get some relief from that. I fear mine will go the same way.Yay loiswb on the port removal! I still feel like mine is some kind of alien in my chest.
Welcome Divergent! I ice my hands and feet but still have some tingling in my big toes. I'm still icing though because I'm hoping that's all the neuropathy I'll have.
notdefined - that's a cool idea of a tattoo over the port scar. I have 6 tattoos already and they were nothing compared to all of this. I was actually thinking of getting my bar code that they use at my infusion place tattooed on my wrist. It's just a little square but I feel attached to it somehow.
Going for Taxol #7 today. Still don't know if I have to make up my snow day Taxol. If not then I have 4 more to go
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Hello to everyone! Had Taxol #9 this past Tuesday. Definitely feeling the fatigue more each week. I know all too well about the runny nose, bloody nose, etc! Ugh! And of course the inching towards anemia, but bloodwork this week was slightly better. Trying to eat more red meat and spinach.
Congratulations to those who are done! I am looking forward to my last Taxol, but I will be continuing the Herceptin every 3 weeks for a year. I will be meeting with my BS soon to decide if I want to go with a complete double MX or do radiation...would love any input from you fine people. I did lumpectomy in May so I could make it to my daughter's graduation, but would have done the double MX if time would have permitted. Lots of decisions to make soon. My sweet baby girl worked so hard to get into her dream school and she was accepted into Harvard! We are planning to fly up to Boston from New Orleans on August 24 to move her in. That is 11 days after my last Taxol. My MO said we will recheck bloodwork a couple of days before we leave to make sure all is good, but said he could not think of any reason for me not to go and move her into dorm. What do y'all think?
Also welcome to the group Divergent. Hope you learn as much as I have from these fine members. I do icing on hand and feet. I use the chiropractic gel freezer packs. I start 15 minutes before Taxol infusion starts...15 minutes on then 15 minutes off. So far so good. The first icing is the hardest. Really hurts toes and fingers, but the second and third application is less painful. This the system a friend has been using that her MO makes all her patients do, and finds it produces good results at staving off the neuropathy.
Hope everyone continues to do well with minimal SE's! I am enjoying a nice visit from my oldest daughter who lives out of state. Love having my girls home!
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Thank you all for such good information. Like byumom2, we have been told by our cancer treatment center to ice 15 min prior, during Taxol and then 15 min after. We have only had our 1st Taxol but so far so good on neuropathy
Nat is having some weird pains in the intestinal area. Started like a side ache then kinda moved around. Any ideas? Normally Nat would not be concerned except we had that bizarre diverticulitis during AC that made us be in the hospital for 4 days then off chemo for 11 days. It does seem different than the diverticulitis symptoms. We just walked 2.3 miles and she felt good. Thanks for all the advice and God Bless everyone!!
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byumom2-first, congratulations for your dauogetting to Harvard. I must be so proud.
I had also some difficulty and still have in choosing lumpectomy vs mastectomy . My surgeon was suggesting lumpectomy given that the outcome in both cases were the same. For me mastectomy sounded too drastic and a reconstruction with implants sounded a long process and I do not like to have implant in my body either. Then after a discussion with my Bs and Ps they proposed Goldilocks which is more suitable for larg brested people who do not mind have small breasts after the surgery. The surgery and the reconstruction will be in the same surgery and I liked the idea.I do not care how big my breasts will be I just want to eliminate cancer and prevent recurrence. This Is onother option you can gather info and ask your doctors then you can a decision that i best for you.
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Iron- I had strong sweird pains in the intestinal area After 1st and some after2 Nd infusion then it disappeared. First time was so strong that I consulted my mo. He said that happens during first infusions because your body is adapting to taxol. He said if after the 3 rd persisted then they will see what is causing. Fortunately, mine stoped or was so mild that was nothing compared to lower leg bone pain that I have until now. I hop Nat will not have bone pain which is another se if taxol. Wishing minimal to no se to al
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Margun. THANK YOU. We appreciate the info. Her intestinal issues started on the evening of day 2 and then today, day 3. Was yours during infusion or in the days after. Again many thanks.
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ByUmom2 - congratulations toy our daughter. I wish her luck
jrominger- I had the odd cramping but it disappeared after the 2nd taxol treatment. I hope it goes away soon for Nat. My MO also thought it was my body getting used to taxol.
Margun - I actually wanted a mx but BS said I would have no better outcome with it. I didn't want reconstruction so I don't know if I would do the Goldilocks procedure. But you gotta do what feels right for you. Good luck on your decision.
My WBC was back to 900. I have to get 5 neupogen shots starting tomorrow. I really bummed about this because the last (3rd) shit really caused severe bone pain. Blah. Why can't my body make white cells!!
And my MO won’t commit one way or the other about the missed taxol. So I may be getting 5 more instead of the 4
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dogmomrunner THANK YOU also!! Good to know. Hopefully this is related to getting use to taxol and not related to the weird diverticulitis
I’m sorry to hear about your wbc!! We certainly had that issue on AC! We’ll be praying for those to come back up!!! Hoping for just 4 more Taxols for u!
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jrom-no pain during infusion but it started at the evening of the next day and continued the day after then it decreased a lot and it is not in my mind anymore. Then lower leg bone pain and some redish stains on my cheeks were my worries. I hope this intestinal pain will disappear soonlike it was in my case.
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dogmomrunner- Goldilocks is not traditional reconstruction. My understanding is they keep the skin flaps left after surgery and reconstruct smaller than initial breast but without any implant ie without taking anything from other place if the body. Si healing process is shorter. It is an option that I am weighing with lumpectomy. My Bs also told me that mx will give nothing more than these first 2 options
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