Starting Chemo September 2015; join us!
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From Sept 2012 chemo gang, you can do this !
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Yay AnnieB43: One down! Sorry about the stomach issue, and please keep us posted on how it goes the next few days.
Fidget, I added you to the list. Welcome to the group no one wants to join, but we are glad you are here.
As for me, I start tomorrow....so, I feel very unprepared..AND, after reading these posts it seems like my MO takes a relatively minimalist approach. No port (he said I didn't need it with only four infusions. We'll see how that goes. Tessu, looks like you and I are in the same boat on that one.) And no one has said anything about steroids, although I presume there will some in the IV. Will be asking about that at the MO apt before infusion starts....I do have the neupogen and will be doing self administration for five shots after (well, actually, hubby will be giving me the shots. He's a brave guy). By the way, on the neupogen topic and my prior rant: MO's nurse called to say they should be fine if they were still cool to the touch and no worries there..interestingly, she mentioned that, in addition to my message, she had gotten a call from pharmacist. Wow, maybe I did manage to make him feel a little responsibility. Still, nurse recommended shipping to the house from now on...
Good luck to all of us starting tomorrow and Friday! HUGS!!!
Octogirl
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southerncharm my prescription for dexamethasone says 2 pills twice a day for the day before, day of, and day after, then reduce to one pill on the next day.
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all of these posts are so helpful! I have my first chemo treatment tomorrow. I haven't been nervous or freaked out about it yet. I usually handle tough things well so I plan on it with this process too. I may be surprised once it starts however. I will post how it goes tomorrow.
My port was put in just a week ago and although sore it wasnt so bad. SouthernCharm just don't use your port arm too much for the first 3-4 days. Move it but be careful. Luckily my left side MX was 4 weeks before so I wasn't as sore. Keep doing your excercises too, it really helps.
We can do this ladies
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After five days, I finally passed a BM, hallelujah. I have to figure out how to do this better next time (I am doing 6 rounds).
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Good thoughts to all who start tomorrow. For those of you on Herceptin, what will your schedule be for it? My MO says 6 cycles of TCHP followed by 18 weekly Herceptin only, then on to every three weeks of Herceptin until whenever. He really scared me with this. I kept wondering if he thought I was gonna make it or not. He saw the report for my CT scan which said other than a small "something" on the adrenal, nothing else was too remarkable other than fatty liver, but he wanted to see the actual scan for himself before he felt confident about it. Then he poked around and said he found more swollen nodes than ultrasound showed even one near my collar bone on the opposite side. Needless to say, I am once again going nuts. So nice of you who have been through this to share your stories. It's the only thing keeping me from losing my mind.
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fidget, I'm so sorry you and the rest of us are having to go thru this. It's very scary!!! Every time we get another piece of information we stress out all over again. It's hard to try to have any normal time right now. I just want to stick my head in the sand and have someone tell me when it's all over. 😟
I'm getting 6 cycles of TCHP three weeks apart (the doctor said for a total of 18 weeks) followed by herceptin only every three weeks for a year. Sometime after the 6 cycles I will have an additional lumpectomy and radiation. I'm not sure if I get the herceptin during that time.
It is comforting to have this group to share with.
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twiggyOR-- you are so right. That's exactly how I feel. I'm glad I had my daughter with me. All night I've been asking her "what did he say". It felt like an old episode of "Seinfeld". But did he say it like this? Or was it more like this? LOL. It's so hard to stay positive, but I'm trying. I think the MO thought I was nuts when I asked him if it would be safe to still play kissy face with my two dogs! He was like "ewww" if you want too. Just don't let them drink my pee. Umm, okay.
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My husband is trying to figure out if it will be safe for him to kiss me. 😃
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Ha ha twiggy my husband is freaking about a lot of things too. Fidget the Herceptin is going to knock out the cancer out of those limph nodes, that is the beauty of it, just remainfocused on the fact that you have this miracle drug to help out with your fight
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Teacherhikermom if you figure out the constipation stuff and how to handle or avoid it please clue me in. I am suffering so bad. It's the decadron. I've never been in so much gastric pain. I took the colace with the stimulant added 8 hours ago and nothing I'm going to go buy something stronger today. Bodies are gross!
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I took a target brand stool softener for 2 days (1 at nite before bed) and ate dried prunes. Then I made sure to get moving and walking a lot over the weekend. I continued to drink water and even ate salad on Monday. If I have issues again I may add warm prune juice. Ugh! Chemo sucks!
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Good morning Charm and the rest of the lovely ladies,
I think letting them know you had whatever bkfast this am so they can make the best decision is very wise. I will have mine placed tomorrow but with just local not general since I have to work in the pm after the placement. Good luck for today and keep us posted.
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Hi all. It is day 6 and I am finally sort of coming out of the down days...I think. I did feel a bit better yesterday and tried to move around but I overdid it I guess...I collapsed in bed at 8 pm last night. I am feeling better today and thinking of pushing myself to go for a walk. The question is to figure out when to stop....to see if that would make me feel better or worse afterwards. I am dying to figure out how my body reacts to AC so that I know what to expect...this uncertainty is hard to deal with
Drinking lots of fluids does help and eating does help as well...your body needs some energy to that good cells are getting revived! So glad to be in this group. We will do this 
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southerncharm and flower68 good luck with getting the port. A bag of frozen peas will be your friend. I could actually sleep on my left side last night and I had mine put in last Thursday. Today is my first day of chemo. I'm nervous but happy to get the healing started.
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Hi Amberbaum19 I see you had your AC the day after me. I agree with you about feeling better day 5 & 6. I too want to take a walk but am kinda dragging today so far. I cleaned a bit today quickly realized I need to not to overdo it. Oh well. It's all a learning process with chemo.
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Good luck to those starting today and to those dealing with the effects of their first dose. I hope everyone starts feeling better quickly.
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Mom2 thanks for the advice, Amber glad you r doing better
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just got my nuelasta shot. Begged my MO for pain script. He relented and told me not to worry so much. Doing school run now then I am taking a nap. I hope everyone has a good afternoon.
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Hi Shopgal2. I do feel the same way! I am realizing is that the next hard thing is to keep moving while your body is still quite down...after a while, you come out of it and do feel a bit better. But takes such a courage to keep moving, doesn't it? All I want is just to go back to bed...but keep fighting
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annieb43- I took one Claritin and 1000 mg Tylenol for my first shot. And then one more( 500mg) 6 hrs later. I had to come in daily(day 3-7) for the shots and found myself taking less and less Tylenol.
Southerncharm- I asked for pain meds after my port placement and am glad I did.! 1000 mg Tylenol wasn't working but theTylenol 2(codeine) worked wonders. Was sore for just one day,
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Thinking of all you today. SouthernCharm-- Hope your port placement goes well today, and Flower68, I will be thinking of you tomorrow when you go for yours. As for me, my MO's office just called. They are pushing my chemo start date from the 15th to the 22nd. They said the surgeon couldn't get to me for the port until next week. My appointment to speak with the surgeon is Monday. I hate how they tell me how aggressive my beast is, then casually tell me that there will be a delay. I feel like a Duncan yo-yo. Up and down. Back and forth.
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Hi my new friends! it really is great to know I can connect with ladies going through the same thing at the same time!. I am in my recliner at the chemo center and have just finished my pre-meds so the big stuff (AC) comes next. I had numbing cream for my port which was only put in a week ago but dumb me forgot to use it! I hurt a little but not a big deal.
re the constipation problem, which I have not experienced yet, I was told to take Miralax every morning. A friend who just finished her chemo last week said she never had a problem by taking it every day.
take good care friends
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right .there with you Lilac!
Octogirl
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Lila thinking of you so you have a event-free infusion, please try to relax and think how all that medication is going to kick that cancer's ass!!!!!
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I am on day 6 after chemo and having a hard time making myself get up and get around. I have always been super energetic and this exhaustion is like nothing I've felt before. Even sitting up makes me tired beyond words. Please someone tell me it gets better and give me a timeline.
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Thinking of you Octogirl and Lila. Hope your first infussion goes well and that your SE's are minimal. I am nervous for tomorrow, but ready to get back to doing something to tame this beast! A lot of newcomers here since I checked in last... sorry we all have to be here but reading through your tips has helped me to feel somewhat more prepared. I am off to track down the last few things I need pre-chemo. I'll try to check in more often as I'll be home more, we'll see how much energy I have!
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Teacherikermom. They told me it would crash day 3 and the crash might last 4 days. Hang in there. Try and eat and hydrate. It'll pass. Prayers for you. My crash is coming tomorrow or Friday. I feel like crap now and just wish it was over.
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SouthernCharm, glad the port surgery went well, even with the delay...and Teacherhikermom, really hope you are starting to feel better!
I had my first of four rounds today. Hubby is staying home the rest of the day to hover and worry about me :-) but so far, so good: no nausea or other side effects yet, and they loaded me up with prescriptions to take for nausea..plus I will need to do self administered shots for five days of neuprogen. Actually, hubby will shoot me: they had him practice with saline today and it went fine. But just in case, I got a rx of Ativan. I may just give him a dose of that one. :-)
Seriously so far so good and no side effects. We shall see. I do have a slight headache but that could just as easily be from the smoke in the air from the various fires in the Sierra Nevada: the fires aren't very near here but some (ok, well, a LOT) of the smoke is drifting this way and I am sensitive to wood smoke.
Basically boring and anticlimactic (sat around with a drip in my hand (which worked fine without a port, btw, heads up on that to Tessu) and played on the internet and read a bit, for several hours). As I told a friend, right now I LOVE boring. If I still feel this good tomorrow I will head right back to work (I can always come home if I start to feel bad. The advantages of a five minute commute :-)) Taking nothing for granted, however. Fingers crossed and I am wearing my lucky talisman necklace...
Hugs to all and hope to hear positive reports from the other sisters starting today. We can do this!
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Hi ladies!!
I'm glad to see everyone who has gotten their first chemo since last Thursday has survived it.
Annie, I also had the WORST CONSTIPATION OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS. Sounds crazy, but it was arguably the most painful part of it. I was on a stool softener preventively based on my nurse's recommendation, but I needed to move on to an actual laxative. It took until the next day, but it was such a big deal to poop after five days that I actually texted my husband in joy. LOL!
I felt rather wiped out and drained the first day or two, but it really wasn't too bad. The nausea was controlled with the cocktail of meds they gave (including the Zofran and Compazine at home), but that plus the constipation effects of chemo anyway were a deadly combo. I had terrible insomnia Sunday into Monday and then got the "hit by the bus" side effect my nurse warned about. Body pain, literally painful to the touch, over most of my upper body. Monday was rough, but at least now I know that I'm not out of the woods after Day 4 and can be better prepared next round. Thankfully, by yesterday I was MUCH better. The 'sunburn' look I had is also calming down, thankfully.
Not crazy about the Decadron, despite the fact that it sounds like a Transformer name and should be a cool thing. It made me feel a little buzzed but in a disassociated way, not a fun way. My onc has us take it morning and evening on days 2 and 3.
I was in good enough shape yesterday to finally go wig shopping with two of my good friends, and it turned a morose errand into a fun and silly girls' morning. I was so grateful for that. It was a small, hole-in-the-wall shop run by a lady who has helped a gazillion cancer patients. I got two wigs--a good-quality one and a fun one that's much closer to my current hairstyle. I think that one will make things a bit easier on my little ones. Honestly, I don't plan on wearing them often and would rather wear the soft knit hats I've bought, but it's good to know I have something available that looks good and doesn't look like a wig. I will have a few events this fall/winter where I absolutely cannot look like a cancer patient. (That's stressful.)
Rather than going with the short cut, I figured out that if I cut it straight off at the scalp, I have enough to donate. And since my hair is quite thick, it'll be several donations' worth! So I'm going straight to the buzz and choosing to do something positive with this. I want to show my daughters that this is how you face the hard stuff. I'm shaving it before it falls out (on my own time) and doing something productive with it. My stylist is awesome and very gently told me that she wanted to make sure I had a wig on hand before she shaved my head. I think she's had clients who were more traumatized than they expected and needed to have something to put on immediately.
So, a bunch of friends are going to meet me over at the salon (it'll just be us) at lunchtime and we're going to make it a little party.
Take that, cancer! I'm hoping this will make it easier on my kids, the oldest of whom seems to really be upset at the idea of me losing my hair even more so than the younger.Anyone else getting a strange tingly feeling when you touch your scalp? My husband also noted (gently) that the hair itself looks 'flat', kind of frizzled at the roots and is giving signs. Ah, well.
So for those who haven't gone yet: please have both stool softeners AND actual laxatives on hand. Take the stool softener preventively and drink fluids like a fish. As far as pain, it truly wasn't bad except for Day 5. Please keep in mind that these other horror threads that you're reading are people who are having an unusual enough experience that they're coming here seeking answers. We have to remember that we're often reading worst-case scenarios and NOT hearing the stories from the middle of the bell curve, who is slogging on pretty well. Breathe, trust that your body can do this, and come talk to each other. We can do this.
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