August 2015 Chemo Group
Comments
-
Seeing my surgeon in an hour to have her check the area in my left breast that's worrying me. Im hoping my previous MRI may show that it's dense tissue.
0 -
Carolyn- been thinking about you lots these last few days. I am hoping you get good news from your surgeon
0 -
Re: Hair growth- mine started coming in at about 5 weeks PFC. the sides and back come in first. You will look like you have male pattern baldness. I am at 11 weeks PFC and I am almost at the point of being able to go wigless/hatless. It is very short but has filled in nicely. You will notice a difference every day and it is hard because you want it to hurry up. I now have enough hair that my hair dresser friend said we could dye it. I think I will hold off for a bit yet.
0 -
My surgeon felt the lump and said it feels smooth and not like a cancerous lump, but I need a diagnostic mammogram. Deja vu time.
0 -
Melclarity my last chemo was end of Sept. Don't forget that chemo is a 3-week cycle. so your body is just barely recovered. my MO told me the immune should be back 6 wks after. i think that's when you can expect seeing differences physically.
0 -
DeeRatz - I have noticed some stubble around the back and sides yes but ever so slight and its white!!! Yikes!!! LOL I anticipate it will all be grey as am 47, I noticed one hair on the left side of my head above my ear is about a cm sooo funny and its curled!!
Superius - Thanks!! I think yes just want to see it all now!! My first lot of chemo was every 3 weeks, had 4 lots of that, then my 2nd lot of chemo was Taxol, weekly, I had 8. I guess I thought as I was weekly Id see my hair start to come in quicker, but yes you are right, Id imagine my immune system is still fighting its way to the top. Thanks again!
Carolyn - I hope your mammo comes back aok!!!
Kate - I did put up a post a page ago, but I don't think you saw it. How are you recovering?
0 -
Mel-I ended up shaving the white chemo fluff off. It was so fine and so white. My hair is a mix of grey and dark. I feel like a silver fox. Don't care at this point, just thankful it has come back. I have noticed that my hair seems to be starting to curl in the back.0
-
My hair is coming in with a lot of gray on top, more black in back. I stopped wearing my wig over the holidays. It looks stylish right now, and I think that's because the ends are thinner when it hasn't been cut with scissors. It's fun watching it grow back. I've been taking a picture every week or so and the. Looking at it beside the previous week's
0 -
Carolyn and Deeratz - That sounds so encouraging! I had thought yes, I planned on buzzing it all off once it starts to come through only because its growing at different paces, I am worried, I have actual bald spots on top of my head though! will they too grow back?? My hair dresser said too that to wait then buzz it once then until it starts evening out.
0 -
I'm trying to be patient with the hair, but I'm on the same schedule as Dee and I still have very little hair. (12 weeks pfc tomorrow) I'm sure it will come back but it's tough waiting. I wonder if it's delayed due to radiation but why would it be??? anyway, I'm hoping to be complaining about it by February :-)
Re the white fuzz... I've been thinking of shaving but it's fascinatingly soft and I can't help but rub my head ... maybe that's the issue
edited to add a duck fuzz photo ... I was practicing with my birthday present that I got very early when they delivered the box with a photo of the camera on it ... ruined my poor honey's surprise.
0 -
-
I have about 1/2 an inch of soft hair all over except for the male pattern baldness stubble. It's my son that can't stop rubbing my head. I never buzzed it, so it has been fuzzy for four months. Every day has had a minimum of 10 minutes of him rubbing my head. He's told me "I didn't think I could ever love you more than I did, but then you became bald." He's 8. He has all kinds of names for me. All start with "you cute little bald.." I will actually miss this when it all grows in and will look back on those moments as some of the sweetest we have shared.
0 -
What a sweetheart your boy is, Bluefrog! My 20 yo daughter teases me about my bald head, and it does cheer me up when I'm down. We've always been incredibly close, especially since I was a single mom to her and her brother for several years, but this has made us even more tight knit
0 -
So we all rub our heads. I love it. My hair is coming in silver on the sides, and my natural color (strawberry blonde) on top. It's still far too short to know whether the texture has changed. . .
Melclarity, I must have missed your post on the last page! Thanks for the well wishes. I'm doing very well! Got the drain out on Wednesday, and am really, really happy with the job my surgeon did. Now to muster the confidence to be flat and fabulous all of the time! I think I can do it. I came in to work today (I'm a university prof) without any prostheses, but classes don't meet again until next week. The true test for me will be how I feel in front of a classroom.
In other news, I saw my wonderful MO yesterday, and my counts are returning to normal. My hemoglobin is still a bit low (10.8), but it's rebounding, and everything else is in the normal range (if you can believe it!). My MO and I had a long chat about rads, weighing risks against benefits, and we agree that it's a really hard decision, one that no doctor can make for me: I have to make it myself. My new plan is to have the simulation, see whether we can avoid my heart/big swaths of lung, and make the decision with that information in hand.
She called in the Tamoxifen. . . I'm to pick it up today. We'll see when I actually start taking it. . .
Molliefish, nice camera!!
Carolyn, are you hanging in? When's your dx mammogram? Sending big hugs your way.
0 -
here's what my dome looks like today. Progress!!
0 -
My 11-year-old got a Kitchen Aid from Santa. (Because Santa is freaking awesome.) I'm calling her first project "Mom's bald head bread". Like looking in a mirror.
0 -
Bluefrog, that's hilarious. And what a great Christmas gift! Santa is, indeed, awesome.
0 -
the Head-Rubbing made me LOL!!!! guilty as charge!
I never got the white fuzz.... I just noticed one day I have black "stuff" on my head - Wow! What's that! Right now (end of week 14) it's about 1cm. I am getting a bit more white hair though. i think it darker, MUCH denser, & I think "not as fine" as before (I can feel the stump under-arm, never had that before).
0 -
Bluefrog and Carolyn - Awww can so relate, with kids and there are special moments over the baldness LOL, my son is 16 and teases no end!! hes 6ft 1 looks down on my and hugs me and is fascinated by my head! He said one night over dinner I actually look younger bald hahaha! hilarious! that he doesnt know how he'll get used to me having hair again. My BF too is 6ft plus and he kisses my bald head constantly, he loves it! I too will miss these funny moments, Carolyn my kids and I too have mostly been on our own and are supertight especially as this is a recurrence for me too in 4yrs. Theyve been everything through this experience.
Kate - Glad youre mending and feeling better thats wonderful, so you had a double mx? Was just reading your profile but your dx is different to mine. Whats FISH? Im still weighing up what to do, I see my Oncologist 25th Jan and BS in early Feb, Oncologist suggesting a MX because I had recurrence, but BS said the extensive Lumpectomy I had was equivalent uuugh! Good luck back in the Classroom. You'll do great!! Love the fuzz, certainly well on your way!
0 -
molliefish-sending hair vibes your way. I'm guessing once it starts it will come in quickly.
Bluefrog-Glad to see you are doing good. I'd like a piece of that bread!
Kate- your hair is starting to come. I'm glad you got your drains out and are doing well. You are a trooper.
Melclarity-I'm sad that you are here with us. I'm glad for my kids as my girls have been a great source of support for me.
I have spent lots of time in the last few months rubbing my head. My hubby likes rubbing it too. It feels so good. Now that it is getting longer it is still super soft but I don't rub it nearly as much.
Met with my PS yesterday. She is amazing and has been a great source of support for me. She is 1 year PFC for BC. Talking to her was like a therapy session. She said that post chemo was the hardest time for her emotionally. I have been struggling with a few things the last few weeks. Being able to talk with her and know that I'm not crazy made me feel way better. I am looking forward to getting away next week. A break from reality will be nice
0 -
Deeratz - Glad you have that support and your PS sounds wonderful, exactly what you need. Enjoy your break away, I sooo need that too but no capacity to get away.
0 -
Carolyn, keep hanging in there!
Kate, so glad you are doing well after surgery.
Bluefrog, love the story about your son. How sweet! That bread looks amazing.
I have the white fuzz, too. It started about 4 weeks into Taxol and it's about 1 cm long and filled in pretty well. Add me to the obsessive head rubbing list. I did it when I was bald because it felt so strange and now I do it because it is so soft. I am looking forward to having hair, eyebrows and eyelashes again, but, more than anything, I look forward to my fingernails growing out. They are so gross. I'm embarrassed for people to see them.
Just 10 days PFC and I am feeling so much better already. For those of you still doing chemo, keep on keeping on!
0 -
I've been enjoying these posts! The hair stories are great!
Crossing my fingers for Carolyn.
I have to have a scan for post-menopausal bleeding so theoretically this could be another cancer. But doc says unlikely. Horrible to be back at the "having investigations" stage, and I think there's an element of post traumatic stress disorder there - any test now has very ominous overtones.
0 -
Hi ladies! I haven't been here for a while, so I'm just checking in. I'm on 40 MG of Tamoxifen (OMG, 40mg!), and I can't get an answer as to why so much. I'm not heavy and my cancer was not in my nodes, so it's a mystery. No SE yet, though. I started meds 4 weeks after radiation. I also stressed out about hair when I finished chemo, so I figured some of you might want hair info. There is a great Hair Hair Hair thread on this site. It really helped. People post weekly PFC hair growth. Seeing pictures helped encourage me (and made me not freak out when I thought I should have more hair). I was just telling someone today that I really didn't have as much as a lot of people until 10 weeks PFC, so I'm here to give you encouragement! I read that some of you are getting hair --YAY! I actually got a hair cut -well, they trimmed off some of the long grey ones and cleaned up around my neck. So, I'd say I'm a good 1/2 inch now. I changed my avatar just now so you could see it. My tip is to use baby shampoo. I think it really helped. I started using regular shampoo, then went back to baby shampoo, and my hair seemed to come in thicker. I read somewhere that it helps babies get a full head of hair, so I figured, why not keep using it! I think my other tip would be to trim the grey stragglers off after chemo. Kate and Bluefrog, you mentioned the stragglers... I let them grow so my hair would seem longer when the rest started growing in, but it made me look like I had less hair because they overpowered the new ones coming in. Dee cut those stragglers, and her hair always looked thicker than mine! The the stylist cut them off yesterday, and my hair looks thicker now. I'm actually going to go wigless now.
Bluefrog - That bread looks great! (and what a cute picture of your daughter!) Do you have the book My Bread by Lehey? I LOVE crusty bread!!
Molliefish - I can see a dark tint on your scalp. That's when it starts coming in! And Happy Birthday!
Ms Brompton - The docs have seen a lot of things, so he gave you an expert opinion. That should be some comfort, but I understand the idea of PTSD with all this.
0 -
It's so nice to hear from you, Dee and Sloan! I've totally been creeping on that hair thread, so I know exactly what to expect. I might trim my stragglers today. Just this morning I noticed little stubble patches in places where there was nothing two days ago. It's coming!MsBrompton, PTSD is exactly right, and I'm so sorry you're in for more diagnostic tests. Are you taking Tamoxifen? That can cause irregular bleeding, even in post-menopausal women, and it's almost always benign.
I've been in touch with my radiation oncologist (he replied to a very lengthy email of mine), and we're going to do the simulation soon, prior to me making a hard and fast decision either way. If we can avoid hitting too much heart/lung, that'll be my next phase. As he put it: it's easier to do rads now rather than deal with a recurrence in the chest wall (god forbid). Do I want this to be over and done with? Hell yes. Am I okay with five weeks of rads? Sure, as long as they don't wreck my heart. I'm slowly making peace with this decision. I have no idea why it feels like such a big deal, given what chemo was like. . . . Sigh.
In other news, everything but hemoglobin is back to normal. It's the little things. I damn near cried when my MO said "your blood looks good. Normal, even." She cracks me up; she had me take off the Ace bandage that I'm using to compress my BMX site, looked at it for 30 seconds, and said "it looks good. You can put back now," not seeming to understand that Ace bandages aren't quite that simple. My partner and I just chuckled.
My MO also said, and I quote, "Radiation guy is physicist. I am chemicist." Note the extra syllable. She's got a really great Lithuanian accent. . . And a dry sense of humor. Love my docs. MO wants me to start Tamoxifen now; RO wants me to wait. At this point, I might as well start flipping coins to make decisions.
Molliefish, happy birthday!
Melacrity: FISH is the test for HER2/neu that we use in the U.S. It stands for florescent something-or-other.
And to all: have a great weekend!
0 -
ooh, did I miss a birthday? happy b molliefish!
Not on tamoxifen, was ER negative.
0 -
Kate - 5 weeks on rads will be nothing compared to chemo. Just keep that perspective, and you'll be fine! Occasionally looking in my rearview mirror throughout this process gave me strength.
0 -
Sloan - It seems odd 40mg, Im on 20mg and I know here Ive not heard of taking 40, can you ask your Oncologist as to why? Glad no side effects, I was on it 4yrs and had no side effects.
Kate - Sloan is absolutely right, rads is so much easier than chemo.
0 -
No not my Birthday yet, thank you though. My DH bought me a new camera for my birthday on the boxing day online sales. He had it delivered to the house never thinking that it would have a big photo and description of the camera pasted all over the outside of the box.. et voila! Early birthday for me. It's not really til the first week in February.
0 -
I drew this comic today and wanted to share. I'm rusty in the drawing department, but this is called 'Six Months in Five Frames.'
0
