Starting chemo August 2014
Comments
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NurseShark, Great
news. We are all ready to be honorary aunties
on 11/10 and can’t wait to see your bundle of joy. Love the Name!Gatomel, I am thinking
of you and those babies. Did you see
that Rockstar from the July thread had her bundle of Joy. She has posted a picture
and he is sooo cute.Sandy, wow the
video is something to cherish for a life time! Sounds so amazing to have such a
wonderful support group and glad they rang the bell for you!Eileen, thinking of you as I have the same issues.
Hope youfind something that works
for you. My go to is ensure/boost when all else fails in order to get the calories, etc. but I think you indicated that didn’t work,
correct? I was also told it could take about 4 weeks to course correct after
last chemo. So now I know I will not get to enjoy Thanksgiving or Christmas
dinners. Uggh.CJT, great news!
StrongEnough, I
hope you feel better and the fatigue reduces.Hope, Love your
cape!Cassie, I agree
and glad you had the frank conversation and stood your ground with your
MO. We are the captains of our ships and
our own best advocates. You should expect
and deserve the best. I have had to remind some very gentle of this and it
works. Go get ‘em.Justamy, glad you
are doing better! Thinking about you.Finished with my first Taxol and it went well. The nurse found my vein on the first try and
IV went wonderful. I didn’t have any ill
effects from the Taxol. The steroids and
Benadryl is another story but felt better after about a 3 hour nap or can you
call that a nap. LoL. I have Heartburn
and seems like my middle back or shoulder blade hurts. Anyone have heartburn and pain in the back/shoulder
blade area. It is not a consistent pain
but just nagging every once in a while.
The PA said it may be referred pain from the Heartburn. I will watch it
and see if it last more than a week or so and the call again on it or mention
during my treatment next week.I want each of you to know I pray for each of you by
name. Those that we haven’t heard from
for a while I hope you are still checking the boards but just not posting. Would like to know how you are doing on your
journey and family.Wizard, Oceanbreeze, and
randomchance I miss hearing from you since we started early on this journey
together.Hugs to All,
-Angie
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Hello to All! Love the name for baby Levi! Can't wait to see the pictures.
Did see my onco today and he is totally thrilled with the results of the CT scan. I was afraid to get too excited from the Radiologists report until I saw what my onco had to say. Number of places in my lungs down from 50 to less than 10.!!!!
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Beatmon, what fantastic news! I am very happy for you.
Angie, I too think about those we don't hear from as often and hope all is going well for them too.
Our cats woke us up way too early today, so at 4:30am I gave up and just got up. Now they're all happily sleeping, ha ha.
I hope today is a good day for everyone and that SEs are minimal or at least manageable. I'll be going in at 9am for the fourth infusion. Ready to check that one off the list as DONE! 0 -
beatmon...such fantastic news!
Justamy, sounds like they're getting everything under control, such happy news for you. Glad you are able to eat too!
Nurse shark, love the name you've chosen, such an exciting time!
Cassie, I always bring apiece of paper with my questions, but your MO better get his act together! Can't believe he didn't give you those results, and he should have given you a printout of all the tests run and their results.
Ladyb, I didn't have heartburn but was told some do get achey muscles, especially if they have arthritis. They slowed my drip when I got a backache during the taxol and it stopped it so tell them if that happens.
Hi to all I've missed!
Had my super tired day yesterday but feeling good today do far. Have a great day all!
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Beatmon, such wonderful news!!! I am so happy for you!
NurseShark, very exciting that you will be welcoming baby Levi so soon. Happy news indeed.
Checking in to say that my final Taxol session will be tomorrow, and then I move on to Herceptin only every three weeks. I have been doing all right except the fatigue gets to me sometimes. I am looking forward to regaining my energy. And hair.
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I love the name Levi Emmanuel, biblical names are my favorite. I am glad everyone seems to be doing better. I go to MO today and I am anxious to solve my mouth sore problem. It is getting to the point where it is very difficult to eat and drink. I agree with everyone on the food still not tasting good. My Mom made me pumpkin pie and something with the spices and the blandess, it was not happening. Also chemo brain attack. I was doing laundry and when the wash was done I went to put my clothes in the dryer. When I opened the lid, I had forgotten to put the clothes in. I had a good laugh at myself, and my husnad said, well at least you cleaned the washer. I will be on Tamoxifen and Lupron for 10 years. I have really high Estrogen and Progestren rates ( I think 94% and 78%). Not looking forward to that, the hot flashes are already crazy. Good luck to everyone getting infusions this week.
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Hope50, my eyelids twitched constantly after round 3, and also round 4, but not quite as bad. Seems to be winding down a bit now (day 16).
Radiation is going fine, met with RO yesterday and she said to go get some calendula ointment at the local food coop (also found it on amazon) and start using it on my radiated skin after treatment and before bed. She said not to wait until I start to get dry & burnt or it won't be able to catch up. So it put some on last night; it's pretty thick and greasy but seemed to soak in pretty quickly so not too much of a mess. I can still tell it's on there, but it's not shiny or anything. She said nothing else OTC in that area at all until we are done. I will meet with her weekly on Tues for the duration. I asked her about the tiredness, and she said it's probably just that I'm not used to going & being out every day, which is what I was thinking. I felt better yesterday & today, but sill fell asleep on the couch last night and slept through my alarm this morning. She said it will become part of my routine & I'll get used to it, but the fatigue from the radiation should not start until around week 5.
Also, I want to say that my husband and I have some of the best friends on the planet. We got a card in the mail yesterday from the wife of one of my husband's high school gang of 4. (They also came all the way from NYC to Missouri with their 2 daughters to attend our wedding last April!) Anyway, we opened the card a few minutes ago, and it contained a check for $1000! On the memo line: Boobs. We were both in tears. What kind of thank you note will ever be adequate? Just amazing. I'm blown away. Just had to share w/ someone & didn't want to go as public as FB.
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strong enough: what a sweet friend !
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Amy, so glad you are being taken care,of and feeling better. God is good! Love, Jean
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strongenough+ That is a super great friends. Unbeliveable.
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Strongenough that is so cool! What a blessing!
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Going for my last CT infusion tomorrow. I can't believe I am (hopefully) at the end of this journey. I had a recurrence so I am a bit more nervous about doing everything right this time. Anyway, I am so glad that you ladies were with me through this. I was lucky not have so many SE but my mental SE were really bad.
Hoping you all finish with success! I am praying for you all.
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I'm going to copy and paste a bit from my blog...today held some surprises and I'm really having troubles with my onc.
"We split up my treatments, so I had my two chemo agents today and will have my two targeted therapies on Monday. One very rare but possible side effect of those is heart function decline, so my oncologist wants to do a follow-up echocardiogram and EKG before doing more Herceptin and Perjeta. Personally, I think everything is fine with my heart, and he’s just being overly conservative in trying to address my “complaints”. But I also thought my breast cancer was a cyst that was going to go away on its own, so perhaps I shouldn’t be making all the decisions here. Something I will be continuing to address is the timing of these things. I don’t like changes, and I don’t like them last minute. Yes, I can go back Monday for another two hours in the chair. It isn’t inconvenient, really. But I want to go once and get it all done whenever possible.
His front office staff seemed to think he’d have my results by tomorrow night, so I’m going to request a phone call tomorrow night and ask that he not wait until Monday to tell me what we’ll be doing from here on out.
I’m 99.9% sure that my heart is continuing to function just fine, and I had no concerns or complaints about fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. I think he’s covering all his bases. I have other feelings around all of this and the time he spends (and when he spends it) reviewing my case, but I’m not going to blog about them. Today, tonight, tomorrow, this weekend are all about healing, minimizing stress and anxiety and letting the two chemo agents do their work with as few side effects as possible.
So round #4 is half done, and hopefully Monday afternoon I can come back to post that I got the other two therapies and round 4 is completely in the bag."
I'll come back to reply to other posts. I'm thinking of you all, celebrating the milestones and hoping for relief for SEs.
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Cassiecat=Better to err on the side of precaution. Enjoy your weekend with your family.
Wish everyone a Happy Halloween. I ate a piece of candy tonight and it was not horrible. Still can't eat much due to my taste buds. My boy friend is now the master of scrambled eggs.
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SueBe - final infusion! Awesome! So happy for you. It's definitely a countdown now. I am having #5of 6 tmrw TC. Going to bring ice for mouth and cold press for eyes.
Daughter was in city working for a couple of days so my DH and I went in tonight to have dinner and bring her back home. She is accompanying me tmrw. Going to dress in Halloween costume, why not... Just feeling good last couple of days. Oh well!
Wishing everyone minimal SEs.
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Hi everyone! The dumbest thing upset me tonight and I'm still upset about it. I've been in the hospital 4 days and half on one of my eyebrows is gone! My husband noticed and asked me last night. I don't understand my concern which led to tears...I lost all my hair on my head and never cried or worried about it...now half an eyebrow has me in teas....go figure ...
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aww Amy, just think of it as giving everyone you meet an appraising look! If they don't like it, it is their issue! Mine are comin thinner to, I may be joining the browless club soon, so we are together.
Congrats to all either done with chemo, or like me, doing #5 today! leaving soon for tx, I start early to get it over with. Got my BRAT food ready in case, got candy for the chirruns if they come around. well, off take a xanax and a port poke full o' cancer killah!
Everyone have a SE free Halloween!
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Go get em Bippy!
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Justamy, that would upset me too. I know it seems like a small thing, but those things can really get to us. {{hugs}}
bippy and Catie, good luck with #5 today! You're getting so close to being done with the chemo. Yay!
Eileen I agree about erring on the side of caution. It's the timing of things. If he was paying more attention to my case (another post) he wouldn't have to call at 8:40am as I'm walking to the center for a 9am appointment. I also haven't complained about tiredness, fatigue, shortness of breath or anything else that sounds heart-related. I complain about migraines, steroid crashes and bone pain. But after my pointing out several things that appeared to be errors in the way my case was being handled, I think he's covering his ass now. In any event, I go in today for those tests and when they come back fine, then we'll know I can move forward with the H and P on Monday.
Anyway, this weekend is about trying to feel as good as possible. I slept pretty well and was only up for about an hour due to steroids, to that wasn't too bacd at all. I used Ativan to help me sleep, and I think it did help. I feel pretty good this morning and am planning on driving my daughter to school and walking to my appointments later today. It's the Nuelasta I dread,even though I know I need it.
Happy Halloween everyone! Maybe I'll dig an old blue wig out and wear it today.
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Cassiecat: normal protocol to do the ejection fraction with the herceptin and perjeta! I just had mine right before my fourth treatment.
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JustAmy, I am with you on the eyebrow loss. Mine have thinned out by about half also, and it upsets me, too. I told my onc that it seemed like such a silly thing to be "the last straw" and she said, "oh, no, it's not - it's your FACE." She totally got it.
I feel a little better when I fill mine in with a powder eyebrow pencil.
SueBe, my last infusion is today, too - I will be mentally high-fiving you!
Good luck and Happy Halloween to everyone today!
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Catie57 and Tabbygirl52 giving you both hive-fives back! Good luck with you next to last and last infusions.
God bless all you strong ladies.
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Bippy, love that white board decor!
beatmon, than you for the reassurance. What is bothering me is not requesting the test; it's telling me 20 minutes before scheduled treatment that he's changing my treatment plan for the day. That isn't acceptable to me.
Tabby and SueBe, way to go getting to the LAST treatment! A friend of mine did her 7th and final chemo yesterday. I was crying tears of happiness for her.
I wore my blue wig under a hat and visited at school today. It was great to see my coworkers and students in costume, and to see a few funny pranks a group of them had pulled, too. And I think they were glad to see me stop by with my blue hair. It was a nice check in with normalcy, albeit Halloween is anything but normal!
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Guess who's going home. This girl is! They couldn't believe it but my wbc went from .7 to 3000 to 12000 in 3 days! No ikky D or puking...I feel really good and I have 2 weeks till chemo! I actually want to clean my house...that NEVER happens...I never want to.But as soon as I get it cleaned we are putting up the Christmas Tree. I know its early but we're doing it while I feel good. Plus I love Christmas! Congrats to those of you who finished! Gotta go so I can get checked out...yay!
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Amy...Hallelulia \o/ ..... onward and home sweet home. Love the Christmas tree idea. Enjoy and please don't overdo. Love, Jean
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Beatmon,
great news to hear from your Onc! I am
so happy for you!Tabby,
woot woot! Good luck on your final
infusion today. Let us know when it is
over so we can ring that bell with you. How
many Taxol treatments did you get? How
were the side effects if any?Strongenough,
your friend’s generosity and love brought tears to my eyes. What sweet and loving friends. I just say Wow
and just awesome and such a blessing!SueBe, doing
the happy dance with you! I am honored
to have been able to be with you through this and that you were here to help
and support me through this journey.
Check in with those of us that will be here a while longer as we get
through our regimen and continue to keep us in your prayers.CassieCat,
love the excerpt from your blog. And you
stay on top of your MO! You are the
commander of your ship. Glad you are feeling
good.Catie and Bippy,
good luck today. So glad you are
close to the finish line. Bippy I love
the picture J.JustAmy, Alrighty
glad you are going home! Take it easy
and rest. You sound like me when I have energy I clean my house. LoL. I am right there with you on the eyebrow
loss. I can put a wig on, false eyelashes, but the painted on eyebrows, even
though I am getting good at it just doesn’t look right to me. My DH and DDs say that it looks fine but you
know. Although I have some of my
eyebrows left it just looks weird to me.I am feeling pretty good after my first round of Taxol. I like that I can actually think. The AC gave me very bad fogginess or chemo
brain. I can actually think with Taxol. It
felt weird but almost normal. I have some bone pain and heartburn with back pain. But other than that no nausea, just bad taste
buds. Does that mean I will be able to
eat soon J.
Or does Taxol SEs also hit the 3 or 4 day? I just have to gear myself up for
weekly visits.Wishing everyone
minimal SEs. Those on your up weeks
enjoy. Those that are on to the next treatment please stay with this thread and
let us know how you are doing. I will be here well into next year and hope to
hear from each of you as you progress through your journey.Hugs,
Angie
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WOO HOO Amy!!!! Best news you could get - way to go!
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BTW, Happy Halloween to All.
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Amy and Bippy..... I will too join the eyebrowless club soon. Oh my. It's getting thinner every time I see myself on the mirror. I grief for it more than my bald head. Oh well, chemo blues I guess...
nurseshark looking forward to see the baby Levi....another aunt is waiting for you....
Cassiecat, My Mo is really attentive and nice but I kinda forced him to add Perjeta on my cocktail. I asked him about cleopatra studies, and Perjeta. I almost pushed him to the edge about trying the herbal medicine . Lol. He is a nice person, I could tell. Many people like him.
I enjoy eating every bite of my food now when I could finally taste the good food. Trying to regain my strength for the next round , it's still 11 days more. Woohoo
Happy Halloween everybody.
Stay strong. Hugs to you all
Shirley.
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