Who is starting chemo in September 2016?
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If all goes well tomorrow I will finish my final round of chemo. What a crazy and scary ride this has been! I really hope that this round will be mild SE's....this girl needs a break!
After this hell is over the next step is a bilateral mastectomy on Feb. 2...cannot say I am looking forward to that! I was planning on immediate reconstruction but that plan came to a screeching halt bc my internal mammary node needs radiation and the doctors are suggesting I hold off and have tissue expanders instead. I knew that I needed radiation but this has put my plans on hold. I meet with another radiation oncologist next Monday for a second opinion.
The steroids have me up right now and I am having continuous hot flashes...last round, I can do this!
Good luck to everyone -
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Dennyj - Good luck tomorrow! You can do this!
My final TCHP treatment is Wednesday God willing! I too am hoping for less SE. This truly has been some kind of ride. I'm ready for it to end. From what MO tells me this is the worse of it. I dont know i will be honest I'm scared for whats next surgey, rads erc...it's the unknown for me that drives me crazy.
Sending good thoughts your way.
Hahlyn
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Hahlyn,
I feel like I could have wrote your post. I am pretty nervous too about the unknown. Good luck to you this week!
I am praying my blood results are fine today and I can finish chemo!
Happy Tuesday!
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Congrats on reaching the end of Chemo Ladies!!!!
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Happy New Year everyone and congrats to the chemo grads!!!!
GonnaBePos...I finished on Nov 18 also...have done 3 radiation treatmnts.
I thought I would be smoothly sailing but bagsharon yout make a good point..I assumed 30 treatments but now I will have to ask. It's hard wondering if you are reducing your secondary cancer chance but increasing a reoccurrance.
I still have no body hair but some growth on my head which is great!
Hot flashes are terrible!!!! And I haven't even started tne pill yet. I am either too cold or too hot lately!!! Menopause is so fun!
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NotTheBoss, ha, ha. I thought I was the only one enjoying the quick showers. Though I do tend to stand there for a while, enjoying the heat. I have two temperatures: too cold (90% of the time) or too hot (during hot flashes). I guess I should say that I don't miss the chores involved with hair maintenance and/or hair removal while in the shower.
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Congrats Dennyj!!!!
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Dennyj congrats - hope you have light SEs. I'm surprised your surgery is scheduled so soon. While my MO was ok with me having exchange surgery a month PFC, the PS wasn't willing to do it - due to increased risk of complications with incisions and slow healing. I know how eager you are to put this behind you, but I'm so glad I listened to the PS (though I really wanted to have the SX in Dec for insurance and kids vacation). I had my 1mo PFC follow up with MO, and blood work showed my WBC was lower than even before my MX in July. Had I proceeded with exchange surgery, my body might have rejected the implant or the incisions would not heal fast (I'm stingy nursing a bruised knee from 2.5mo ago)... Just something to ask the PS about.
Bagsharon and Lmencen - menopause is not fun - you have described my feelings precisely. I'm on OS - zoladex, going for shot #2 next week. Won't start tamoxifen till after EX surgery.
Good luck to everyone this year
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Happy new year everyone!
Port was removed yesterday so I now consider myself DONE with chemo! I guess they could always give me more but that would be a fight for sure. Still need the SE to wear off and the hair to start growing but it is a good feeling.
All seems well for the port removal. Where I'm at it's an outpatient surgery, so full preop and anesthesia but haven't had any pain to speak of. Got a big bandage so can't see what the new scar looks like yet.
My RO did mention an extremely low chance of a secondary cancer down the road due to radiation. It is a pretty low percentage and I think he only mentioned it because of my age. Isn't it so nice to have more info because of your youth? I'm just going to worry about the current journey now and deal with the next when I get there.
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Congrats Dennys on #6!!! I have my last next thurs can't wait to be done. My lumpectomy and ovary removal is scheduled for Feb 9th. Cant wait to get past all.of this. I'm really stressing about the long term effects of removing the ovaries. Is anyone else going this route. I'm 90% estrogen positive so I have to do something. Any input from you girls would be great.
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Lynnc - I am doing ovarian suppression - I am 95% estrogen positive
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CC2016--Congratulations! Chemo is done!! I'm done on Jan 20 and can't wait! This has been a very long, long road!!
How long did the procedure take to remove your port? Mine is coming out on Feb 4 but I may see if I can schedule it sooner. It is to be done in the surgeon's office. Now that you said yours was done as an outpatient with anesthesia, I'm getting nervous. Surgeon told me it's "no big deal" but now I'm wondering. I hope there isn't as much pain involved in getting it out as there was putting it in. That was totally something I didn't expect and was not told about either.
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Thank you everyone for the well wishes! I am glad to be done with round 6!!! Feel good today but worried about tomorrow and Friday. I have a full calendar of soccer / basketball for Saturday so I need to feel well!!!!
Smilethrupa - I did ask about the time with the doctors and they felt very comfortable with the amount of healing time. I am having my surgery at MGH and the doctors had no concerns. Trust me, I did ask b/c I had concerns. Thank you for thinking of me.
So now on the schedule....many hydration visits, herceptin infusion on 1/24, some fun in the sun on 1/25, and then back for surgery. A friend gave me a gift card for a massage so I am going to work that in at some point.
Best wishes to everyone that is finishing chemo and now moving onto the next step of this long journey! We can do it!!!
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Hi Ladies,
Dennyj - congrats on being done with this phase. WOO HOO!
Currently at my last TCHP been up since 330 this morning ...finally waiting to get to this point but had a melt down. My mom brought me this morning (well I drove) lol...and i had another melt down but pulied it together.
Nurses advised me today my first start for every 3 week herceptin will start on Jan 25 my appt with my breast surgeon is on Jan 23 im guessing that's when I will get my surgery date. MO seems to think my surgery will be beginning of Feb. I had a MUGA Scan for my heart and it came back good. Thank the Good Lord!
Praying for minimal SE. Congrats to all of us who are finally finishing up with this part!
Hahlyn
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Dennyj enjoy the massage - once you have the surgery it would be tough to get one for a while - even then, the massage therapist would need to be aware of how to deal with possible lymphatic issues - my lymphatic massage therapist who worked on the cording on the MX side said not to indulge in massage on the operated side from the fear of affecting the drainage or causing swelling ... I miss lying on my stomach ....
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Seq- I heard of many that had it done in office. I think it's just who your doctor is and where you are. It was outpatient and anesthesia to put it in for me as well. I don't think that was the case for everyone on here.Over 24 hours since it came out and I'm feeling fine from it. Anything bugging me is the chemo SE still. One day those will go away too.
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CC2016--Thanks! My port was put in at the same time as my surgery. I would love to get the date moved up for my port removal but I don't think the surgeon will do it. He said he wanted to see me 6 months after surgery and would take it out then.I'm already going in 3 weeks before the 6 month mark but I want it out and healed up before I start radiation 10 days later. When I saw him last time there was a woman leaving his office that had just had hers out. She had a huge smile on her face so I'm hoping that is a good sign! I am so glad this is coming to an end for all of us.
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Two months post chemo:
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Congratulations to everyone advancing in their treatment. Just went in for my post-TCHP 3 week check-in with MO, and first cycle of Herceptin only. Dr visit ok but some iffy labs, still running severe anemia to which I added a low potassium reading this week. Could be either/both explaining why I'm continually feeling weak and no energy, short of breath, heart pounding etc. anytime I walk more than a few feet...I read low potassium can also contribute to nausea, D etc, which might be a bonus explanation for why I had a yucky mix of those issues all through New Year's weekend after I thought the treatment #6 SEs had started to taper off.
It's stupid but I'd like to get over the anemia and all that so I have enough energy and mobility to clean my house lol. Once those things get under control, both MO and nurse staff in the chemo clinic are optimistic on low or no SEs from Herceptin by itself.
I'm pretty sure I see a little bit of hair trying to come back, not much color and nothing worth looking at but I'm glad to see it trying. Particularly happy to see that there's some little sprouts on the top of my head which had the most complete hair loss.
Surgeon consult next week, and ultrasound to see what the measurements look like after the neoadjuvant TCHP regimen.
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Miss Lil, I had those same symptoms beginning after my 3rd AC treatment and I'm anemic, but not severely so. It's been a few weeks now since I finished the AC and my heart rate is still elevated and endurance very limited, but not horrible like it was. I hope you feel better soon and get good test results.
Lyn
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thanks VLH. I think the MO is fairly motivated to deal with it this time as he's concerned the readings are too bad for me to schedule surgery.
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It's great to see folks moving on to other treatment after chemo. I had my appt with my oncologist and confirmed that I was done with chemo (had a change in treatment plan mid-stream so that confused things). We had a great in-depth discussion on follow-up care. He's leaving it up to me whether to keep the port for now or have it removed. I'm at a higher risk of recurrence so I'm planning to keep it for a while. He was going to do tumor markers every time I saw him (every 3 months) but since I'll be in every 6 weeks for the port flush, he asked if it was ok to run the tumor markers every 6 weeks. He doesn't routinely do scans to look for recurrence but instead relies on a careful reporting of any new symptoms as well as the TMs. He assured me he would order scans if it was ever indicated. We also talked about continuing on tamoxifen versus removing/suppressing the ovaries and going on an AI; we are re-visiting this issue once I'm done with rads. We reviewed my current meds and supplements and I got his OK to stop certain ones and start others.
Have my first consultation with the RO next week and hope to start radiation soon afterwards.
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bagSharon, that is a full head of hair - I still have bold spots even though I am only a week behind you! In the front it's like male pattern boldness, but because that front patch is the only dark patch on my head - it looks super odd
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Leydi, I'm not familiar with monitoring of tumor markers. Is that common, or for a particular type of tumor case? That's good if there is something concrete they can check beyond physical exams or annual scans.
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I know you must be impatient to put the surgery behind you, MussLil. Keep us posted.
Leydi, congratulations on finishing your chemo. That's huge!
Lyn
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mislil - Tracking tumor markers is a bit controversial (not at all concrete) and not generally recommended for folks with early stage breast cancer. It is known to produce false negatives (remaining low while there is cancer) and false positives (increasing due to benign causes). It is used more often in the cases of metastatic cancer to determine whether the current treatment is effective. Many very reputable oncologists don't use them.
My MO likes data and uses the tumor markers for patients like me who are at an increased risk of recurrence. He doesn't rely on them solely and no one value means anything in isolation. He'll be looking for trends - holding steady being a good sign and either large increases or steady increases over multiple tests meaning that it is time to start looking hard for a recurrence. When the tumor markers are indicative of a recurrence, they can show the increase several months before the patient has symptoms to report.
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bagsharon and milethrupain - I'd be thrilled with either head of hair at this point. Eagerly awaiting growth.
Just noticed yesterday that each of the biggest toenails has a distinct horizontal ridge. Considering the distance it has grown up the nailbed, I believe the timing coincides with the single dose-dense Taxol treatment I had. Other nails all look fine. Anyone else?
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I was so excited to be done with Chemo (and I still am)....but the SE's final round has been tough. I think I got ahead of myself.
On another note, I have total hair envy....wow!!!
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