Who is starting chemo in September 2016?
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I haven't had a chance to start tamoxifen yet- fighting an infection, but my MO also said no Benadryl (of all things lol), so definitely check anything you're taking!
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Just had to share with everyone on this board since we've all been together for awhile now. I had a very long and in detail appointment with my oncologist today. She has declared me cancer free!! No evidence of disease!! I am just numb right now. I never thought I'd hear those words. I guess I can't even begin to comprehend this yet. It has been such a very long hard road. I have 12 radiation treatments left and I will be starting Arimidex on March 25. Not thrilled about that but at least the end is in sight. Now to figure out a way to get my hair back. MO told me today to just go without the wig that it looked fine. NO WAY!!! Half of the top and part of the back is still mostly bald.
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OMG Seq Yay!!!!!!!!!
I am with you with the feeling numb part...so happy for you Seq!!!!
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Thanks Nayda! We can celebrate together! Weird thing is that I don't even feel happy at the moment. I guess reality hasn't set in. Maybe when radiation is done. Husband was there when we got the news. He had no reaction. Maybe I'm not feeling too excited because he wasn't.
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congrats, seq24!!!!!
Maybe you need time for it to sink in. Hopefully it will soon and you can do a happy dance. Great news!
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What exciting news, Seq!!!
I'm sure it will take time for you to absorb the good news just as we were in shock when initially diagnosed. The fact that you're still undergoing active treatment undoubtedly makes it seem even more surreal.
On a related note, I finished chemo yesterday. Instead of feeling a triumphant sense of accomplishment, I find myself riddled with doubt that the chemo has destroyed my quality of life. I really expected the racing heart and shortness of breath to dissipate once I switched to Taxol, but that didn't happen. I'm clinging to the hope that the condition will improve as the poison leaves my body or I will have made myself a semi-invalid for a relatively modest increase in survival odds.
Lyn
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Lyn I felt the same doubt when I finished my 3 months of TCHP. I'm still on Herceptin every 3 weeks until September, but I can tell you that in a few weeks you will be shocked at how good you begin to feel. The fog begins to lift and you get the spring back in your step. It was well worth it for me, as I was also declared cancer free after my Bilateral Mastectomy on January 6. Surgery was a mere 3 weeks after my last chemo, and that made the procedure a bit tougher in a way but also I already felt so crappy that loading all that mastectomy crap on my plate wasn't so bad after all.
What I'm trying to say is that you will bounce back and the chemo was well worth it. Give yourself time, drink lots of water to flush the toxins out and most of all be good to yourself! Keep us posted on how you feel!
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Thanks everyone! Yes it is a surreal feeling. The comparison to shock when diagnosed is a great way to look at it. The happy dance is coming. My MO even told me yesterday to have a glass of wine. I have not had one drop since being diagnosed in July
Lyn, I just wanted to share something my MO told me at the end of chemo. She said that it takes on average about 6 weeks for the poison to leave our bodies. I expected to feel super great after the last infusion but I didn't. I couldnt even be excited about being done because I just didn't feel well. Not even for a couple weeks after. But little by little my energy improved, I had much less fatigue and even slept better at night and actually felt like doing things. This past couple of weeks or so I have felt wonderful. My 20 yr old daughter and I went on an 8 hour shopping marathon on Saturday. She was getting tired and I told her I wasn't. She said "mom, what is WRONG with you. You're always tired". I knew then that the chemo was finally gone. My RO confirmed this week that it takes 6 weeks to really start feeling like ourselves. You will be surprised how well you start feeling before too long. Hang in there!0 -
I just need some feedback from all of you who are growing your hair back. I know I read on one of these boards somewhere that hair grows back white/grey then changes to the normal color. I am 7 weeks PFC and my hair is coming back. Still pretty thin and patchy and very grey. Not happy about that at all. I saw the MO yesterday. I mentioned what I read on here about hair returning to the normal color if it is grey or white at first. She said that is not true but that I could color it whenever I want. I saw my hair dresser today and she determined that my hair was 75% grey. I am heartbroken over that. I maybe had less than 1% grey before. What are your thoughts on the grey being permanent or reverting back to the normal color? It started out as white fuzz in the beginning. Now it's the awful grey. I'm not old enough to even have a tenth that.
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seq24. I'm no help with the hair color since I was pretty grey to start with. BC I had been coloring my hair brown, but decided to go natural and got grey highlights 3 days after the diagnosis. I plan on keeping it grey, except for one thing. I am going to dye it lavender! I can't wait. Maybe in a couple of weeks, if it would ever start growing faster. Gonna rock a lavender crew cut for a month or two, and then will go back to grey. Got to have some fun here!
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Ha! I had wanted to dye mine funky before it fell out but never did. I was starting to go grey before but definitely have lots now. I just say I'm sparkly because it's silver shimmery. I finished rads last Monday and started a new job the next day in my wig. I'm almost ready to drop it but not quite sure how to do it. The wig looks nothing like what's underneath! I haven't told them much about me and don't know if they'd make the connection anyway but it will be awkward . I'm going to wait a few more weeks though and get a trim to even my hair up. The hair is pretty scraggly-seems to be growing at different speeds- and I don't want to cut to the size of the shortest bits yet. On the topic of dying- anyone know of a more "natural" kind? Not excited for more chemicals, especially on my new hair! DYI, OTC box stuff would be awesome. Don't know if I'm willing to spend the cash for a salon- I'm so cheap I'd probably stay sparkly...and then a possible awkward conversation...ugh. Never ends, does it?
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Seq24- I believe the color that comes out is what you are stuck with. My hair looks to be the normal color with a few grey strands here and there. If I was very grey, I would definitely color it!
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Thanks for the encouragement, ladies!
I'm completely bald so no personal experience to share, but I think I recall some saying their hair was translucent / colorless when it first started growing in, then the pigment appeared as it got a bit longer. If your hair is grey, I don't know if it will change. :-(
Lyn
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Thanks everyone. I was so excited to finally see hair growing and because it had a darker tint I thought my natural color was coming back. But not so lucky. It's a dark grey rather than dark brown. Weird thing is that my brows, lashes, and other areas not to be mentioned here are all back to my normal color.
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http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/health/mediterranean...
For those with estrogen negative cancers
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The hair that is growing back looks all gray to me, but I was blonde BC, with gray that I would color. Hard to tell if any of it is blonde...cause all I see is gray! Would like to die it with something safe when it gets longer...but what??
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I am just about getting to the point of having faith that my hair is growing in and may look like something in a month or so. If I stand back, I can at least see some shadow on my head in the right areas, and it's filling in a little especially on the sides.
There's more dark color coming in than I'd expected but it's still too short & thinly spread out to have much confidence what color it will be when it really fills in. The color coming in feels darker than I've ever had it before. My original color was a medium brown.
I'll be three months from my last TCHP treatment next week. (yay)
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Congratulations to all those declared cancer free! I see the BS in a couple of weeks (was supposed to be last month but she rescheduled) and then the chemo doc at the beginning of next month. Hoping to get similar news.
seq24 - My hair started off with white and colorless sprouts and gray mixed in, making for a weird "blurry" color. There was definitely way more gray than I was comfortable with! Slowly more brown and redish blonde started peeking through. As of now, still have gray at the temples and anywhere else that is sparse, but the top (which still has a large section with Chia pet action) is growing with actual color. Brows are still sparse. Area not to be mentioned is coming in jet black, which is way darker than normal. Good luck!
smilethrupain - Thanks for the article link. I'm trip neg.
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Hypatia--how long have you been done with chemo? Your hair sounds just like mine. I have the blurry color too. How long did it take for the actual color to start to show? I'm 7 weeks PFC and am losing hope really quick of ever having normal hair. I have more color in the back at the neckline and some on the sides. Definitely not the top. I have one mostly bare spot on the top while the rest on top is pretty thin and it sticks straight up. Everything is pretty much grey. So awful looking . If I wasn't so embarrassed I'd post photos on here. My brows started coming back a couple weeks ago and seemed to grow in over night. They are much darker than they were before and they were very wide. I was starting to look like a cave man. I took the tweezers to them this morning. Other areas you mentioned are exactly the same as yours.
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seq24 -- I'm about 14 1/2 wks out. First noticed a bit of color about 3 1/2 wks ago. It's slow going, but it is progress. Hang in there!
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Hypatia-- Thank you for the encouragement. I think what is bothering me more than anything is that I have very little of my real color in my hair. My doctor told me I could color it whenever I want as long as it is professionally done. That is happening next Wednesday. When I saw her last week for something else she told me I needed a haircut so I could have a cute short hairdo. I want to know--with what hair? And there's no way I'm going out in public without a wig until it is much MUCH longer!
Have you seen the other board on this site that is totally related to hair? There are lots of brave ladies on there who are posting photos of their hair. and discussing their hair stories. It's called Hair, hair, hair --Another question.
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- Sorry for the cross post, but just wanted to show off my hair! Got it done on Wednesday, and yesterday was the first day I went without a scarf. It's really cold, but I'm happy to have hair even if it is this short and not grown in enough in the front. The benefits of grey hair is that it took the purple really well! I also had my eyebrows dyed dark brown, but you can't tell because i don't have enough hair . Oh, well, it was worth a try...
0 - Sorry for the cross post, but just wanted to show off my hair! Got it done on Wednesday, and yesterday was the first day I went without a scarf. It's really cold, but I'm happy to have hair even if it is this short and not grown in enough in the front. The benefits of grey hair is that it took the purple really well! I also had my eyebrows dyed dark brown, but you can't tell because i don't have enough hair . Oh, well, it was worth a try...
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NotTheBoss, that's such a cool look for you!
I hope to be where you are in the hair dept in a month or so, nowhere close yet but ever so slowly making progress.
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NotTheBoss love the purple lady:) my fave color.
I plan coloring my hair also to a dark burgundy..hope I am brave enough like you to post it:)
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Thank you, thank you! I worried that i dyed it too soon and it might be get damaged, but I decided it was worth the risk. Nayda: I figure I'll take it down after a month or so, so it doesn't hang out on this thread forever. It really has boosted my self esteem, though, so it was definitely worth doing.
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I've been venturing out with my new short silver 'do for about 3 weeks now. It was tough at first, but mostly I've gotten a lot of compliments, not just from people I know but from complete strangers. Today I took my daughter to a young, hip hair salon to get her hair done and the stylists could not say enough nice things about my "haircut". They say that they have young girls come in every day asking for them to dye their hair silver and that it's the biggest trend right now. I love my hair like this actually, so I'm sure when those of you in my same boat as far hairstyle is concerned venture out you will be pleasantly surprised. We are lucky that we have lost and regrown our hair when gray is hip and sought-after!
Embrace your hipness Ladies!
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Love the purple 'do, NotTheBoss!
Lyn
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I want to be hip! Too bad I've found out how low my self image is the past few months..
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LIke that CC!
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