Starting Chemo in December 2016
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Good morning ladies. I had first Taxotere on Wed and so far I have been tired and managing the aches and pains with Advil and Tylenol. My mouth has a gross fuzzy feeling which is most annoying so hope that goes away soon. This is going to be an emotionally tough week for me. My husband, son and family plus friends are heading to Mexico for vacation. There will be 15 people and I can't go. We booked it before I was diagnosed. I have a wonderful girlfriend coming to stay with me for the week but I still feel like I will be feeling depressed and ripped off! Ugh. I just want Feb to be over and soon.
Jezikah sorry you are feeling crummier for longer but yay for Vegas! That will be a nice break before #6 - your final treatment? My last is #6 on March 29. Bring it.
Summer - green mucus could be an infection. Best to get it checked out! You might not be feeling the other typical symptoms with other drugs you are on.
Midwest Laura do you think the pain is neuropathy or something else?
The weather is very spring like and I have been getting out for walks and fresh air. Hope you ladies are able to do the same.
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sunrise- hope your last treatment was good.
Staymom - sorry you have to miss your family vacation. Just think if he vacations you can take once you're done. We went to a n overnight with the kids here in NY area. Plan something for once you're done!!!
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summer - I have have some minor sinus issues. My nose is constantly dry and bloody. I sometime feel sinus pain and headache. The ac infusion caused my sinus issues at the time of infusion but then felt better afterward.
I have a friend who had some major Sinus issues. It is possibly related to the chemo. Maybe ask doctor. Chemo seems to affect everything
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Staymom-----Oh no, that is terribly hard to miss vacation with your family! I hope you and your friend are able to come up with some great 'girl' movies during that time to make you feel better! As for my sinus, I believe you are correct....will be checking in with my oncology nurse in the morning.
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Thanks friends. I'm trying not to feel too sorry for myself. In th grand scheme of everythihg it is only one week and I agree Scaredashell, I will definitely plan a getaway in the late summer or fall!
I have also had a very dry nose with some mucus and blood. It hasn't been too bad but I find a shower helps and I try to put Vaseline intensive care up my nose. Nice
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StayMom - just happened to see your post. I had ALOT of dry nose and bloody noses during chemo. Who knew nose hair was so important. Saline nose spray really helps - I bought the kind for children as it was very mild.
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Jezikah, yay for Vegas before #6. I just got back from Vegas Friday. Went for 2nights. Figured a quick get away before chemo #6 for me.
Summer, sorry about your nasal problems. I don't have bloody but I get a lot of nasal drip and it comes out if no where.
What I do have is lots of joint pain. Anyone else feel that. And not only on my chemo day even after I recover it's everyday. I feel so soar everyday especially in the morning.
Hope everyone has a good Sunday.
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StayMom:
I think my issue is "Hand-Foot Syndrome" (HFS). At least, those are the matching symptoms according to the main BCO site. What's odd is that neuropathy is usually associated with the Taxol that I'm receiving now, whereas HFS is associated with Adriamycin that I completed. Who knows. I'll talk it through with my MO at my next appointment. While the pain is really annoying, its not debilitating. Besides, there's not much that they can do once either condition sets in. They can only try to prevent it from getting worse or becoming permanent. For now, I'm cuddled up with my jar of Aquaphor that seems to be helping.
Regarding your missed vacation, you should spend this time planning your own get-away. Maybe it's some time alone or maybe just with a few select family members. Don't just dream about it, make those reservations, buy some new clothes, and load up on the sunscreen BEFORE everyone gets home. When they get home, they can share pictures of their vacation, and you can share the online pictures of where you will be going soon.
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Midwest Laura I like the way you think! I'll just plan it!!! At least it will give me something real to look forward to.
Anyone else starting to think about or plan anything special for the end of treatments? I'll need to go through rads after chemo but looking to plan a special trip in the early fall most likely. I want beach, good food and cocktails
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Staymom, good for you for planing a trip. It's well deserved since you had to miss out on this. I had to cancel my trip to New York in November because I had to start chemo . I'm definitely going to plan going somewhere after. I want to do Hawaii it's so beautiful out there then for sure New York since I had to cancel.
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staymom-I too want a trip somewhere on a beach. Thinking Bermuda cruise. We have two little ones. I want to relax and watch my kids play on the beach.
Not sure if this is the right place to ask Is anyone taking sugar out of their diet? Nice read sugar feeds cancer dells.I have and I'm losing weight. Which is not what I want to do.
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Scaredashell--I've been watching a series called "The Truth about Cancer" and several doctors that they interview talk about the environment of the body that gets cancer. They have all said sugar feeds cancer. It gives the body the acidic environment it needs whereas whole food, real food diets are alkaline. I've been doing a lot of reading the past couple weeks on it ad it's a huge theme. I did notice the sugar intake around Valentine's day worsened my lymphedema too.It's just not good for you. I think it's smart to cut down on it. I plan to do different changes each week to clean my body and environment. I still haven't switched out my facial lotions and house cleaning products but I've stopped drinking from plastic bottles and got a wonderful paraben/phylate free lotion from a company called Alba at Target. Baby steps!!
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Pamela- thanks!!! That's good information. t can all be so exhausting. I switched my deodorants, Shampoos and lotions already. Organic food as much as o can and whole grains and no added sugars and as little sugar as possible.It's addicting and an inflammatory. So bad for us. But I love me some chocolate.
All the information is so overwhelming. I am looking into a nutritionist or integrated doctor who can help narrow down what I can do to keep this cancer away.
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I've been out of touch for a while and just caught up with everyone's posts. I feel so bad for those of you who've had to cancel vacations or miss out on ones that were planned. I just got back from two nights away with my husband (parents watched the kids). Just a change of scenery is nice.
There is so much conflicting information that it drives me crazy. I'm pretty much an "everything in moderation" person. I don't see myself making a bunch of radical changes in my life to perhaps decrease my chances of recurrence. My MO has never even discussed diet or environmental stuff with me. As a matter of fact - he's not a proponent of vitamins (I still take a multivitamin and a B complex daily) or the usefulness of Claritin for Neulasta SE's (I take that, too).
It's also weird how each location or practice does things differently. You'd think that they'd all be using the same guidelines. No icing of hands or feet where I am. No mention of nail polish. No cold capping. The only thing in that regard was a recommendation of sucking on ice chips and drinking cold beverages during the chemo infusions (Carboplatin and Taxotere) to decrease mouth and stomach problems.
GI - I'm on Omeprazole 40 mg daily for the stomach problems. I was told to limit dairy due to some people having a problem with lactose during treatment. I think the diarrhea improved with adding Culturelle (for good bacteria) and Citrucel (for added fiber/bulk).
I've only had a true bloody nose (couple times) after the 2nd round. I always get some blood-tinged mucous for a week or so after. And the drippy nose for no reason.
I'm meeting with my MO today to discuss further treatment. I'm scheduled for #4 tomorrow and going to discuss merit of 4 vs 6 rounds. Also possibly switching to Neupogen since last Neulasta had my WBC's 3 times the upper limit of normal a week later!
Are all of you in "chemopause" now? I had a fairly normal period in January and one day of spotting this month! I'm wondering if that's it? And the hot flashes are definitely increasing, especially at night. I wake up sweating to death and 5 minutes later I'm freezing.
Congrats to those who are done with this crazy chemo mess! And good wishes for the days ahead for those of us who aren't!
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NotVeryBrave--My doctor has told me 0 on lifestyle/diet changes. I am a registered dietitian. I eat healthy, exercise 5times/week, rarely drink, don't smoke, take all the healthy vitamins (fish oil/probiotic/multivitamin/iron), blah,blah,blah. How did I get BC over my sister who is 60lbs heavier than me, drinks a few times/week and socially smokes? I decided to research myself to see what cancer is, what physically causes it--the environment it needs to thrive, etc. Someone sent me two videos a couple weeks ago. One was a series called the Truth about Cancer. I only saw the first 2 series but the 2nd one touched on breast cancer and was eye opening. The other was a guy who used extreme nutritional regimens to cure his Stage 3 colon cancer. He is called Chris Beat Cancer. He just started a class online and I watched the first one last night and it's really eye opening too as to how much we can be our own health advocates to improving our body's environment so it's hard for cancer to survive. It's so many factors, but boils down to your immune system which couldn't turn off our BC when it was first forming.
If you can see this, press on the video, watch starting at 4:07 for a couple minutes. It tells us in basic terms what cancer is. It makes you realize we need to fix something in our body, specifically your immune system to heal ourselves which starts with proper nutrition and getting rid of the toxins that we put in/on/or breath into our bodies. http://squareone.chrisbeatcancer.com/module-1
It's overwhelming, but I NEVER want to go through this again and will look into any little change that can assure that doesn't happen.
Off to my first radiation! Have a great Tuesday everyone!!
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NotVeryBrave - I've also just been catching up with everyone today.
My MO also hasn't discussed any environmental or diet changes with me, either (but I do know I need to cut down on sugar! And I have been trying - I admit I'm an addict). He seems to think that has very little effect on the cancer - not sure if it's because I have a genetic mutation or just in general? Also there is no icing of hands or sucking on ice chips here. I did ice my fingers last time just because I've been getting the neuropathy, but it didn't seem to help at all - my hands ended up getting worse this time anyway. I did just start taking a Vitamin B complex daily, so hopefully that will help?
RE: Chemopause - I had 2-3 days of spotting in January and hadn't had a period before that since November (and I usually have very heavy periods). But my period has been out of whack for over a year and not sure if it was because of the cancer or what. I did have an U/S of my reproductive organs to make sure I didn't have anything suspicious causing the issues, but for the previous 19 years, I could set a clock to my monthly cycle - I always knew the day and time it would start, even when I wasn't on bc pills, so it was definitely out of the ordinary.
So bummed about people that missed out on trips! I was going to see my brother in NY over thanksgiving and had to cancel that since I went to Salt Lake City for egg retrieval instead, and then we were going to go to Hawaii in March to visit my parents who are on an extended vacation there. Had to cancel that because of lack of time off due to treatment and lack of money due to bills
We are going to the outer banks in NC with my husband's family in August, but otherwise, I'm fresh out of vacation time to go anywhere else. We can get donated sick time at work, but not donated vacation time, and we have to use our vacation time up before using donated sick time, so I can't start building up vacation time again until after treatment is over at the end of March. But, my husband and I are tentatively planning a trip to Peru for April 2018 and I want to do the 3-day hike to Machu Picchu. And then we'd like to do Disney World with our daughter in Fall 2018. Also, I'm planning to do a half marathon this September with some girlfriends, so I need to start training for that as soon as treatment is over.
My nose runs all the time and I always have blood/bloody chunks in my snot, but the snot itself is mostly clear. I'm constantly blowing my nose and in the morning, my throat is sore from the nasal drip.
I have treatment #5 a week from tomorrow, then I'll be going to Vegas in 4 weeks (even though it's for work and I'll be in classes all day, it should be a fun time. I went last year and it was a lot of fun) and then 6th and final treatment the last week of March - can't wait!!
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Just started my last cycle with Perjeta, Taxol, and Herceptin. Have 3 more short treatments before I start AC. Have 4 AC treatments.
I have divided my recovery into 3 parts...1st chemo, 2nd chemo, and mastectomy/reconstruction. I can just deal with it a little easier this way.
Had minimal side effects with first chemo. Very worried about the AC! In doing my research, I'd rather be prepared than surprised
Scans scheduled before AC, fingers crossed. Thank you ladies for your great support and info. BLESSINGS to you all!
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I'm done , no more chemo. Yay. Had my 6th and last infusion today. For the ladies who are almost done you will get there and once you do you will feel a huge weight lifted off your chest. Have a great day ladies.
Hugs.
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Huge Congrats to you, Hopfull2 on completing chemo!!! Very happy for you!
Continuing to wish all of us well
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For those wondering about sugar in the diet and the effects of BC, I've been doing a lot of research on nutrition and BC. I keep coming across testimonials from doctors saying sugar feeds cancer. When I looked into why, it seems it's more the increased insulin production that the sugar causes. Breast cancer cells have 6 times more insulin receptors on them than normal breast cells. Meaning, you eat sugar, it increases the insulin in your blood and the cancer cells take them in to help them grow. This was a quote from one of the studies: "These studies indicate, therefore, that the insulin receptor content is increased in breast cancers and raise the possibility that the insulin receptor may have a role in the biology of these tumors." Seems like it only effects existing tumors, can;t create new ones. Google BC and sugar. Believe me, it's my vice and I feel like tho disease strips any joy out of my life lately! But it's something I can't ignore and need to figure out some changes ones everything slows down.
Hopfull--I'm SO HAPPY for you!! Cold capping definitely made chemo day a lot more stress induced. I'm sure you were ecstatic taking that last cap off! I hope you sail through the next couple weeks of SE's. It's easier knowing it's your last time, but still sucks. I'm 5 weeks out and still have a few lingering side effects.
Jezikah--how's your hand?
NotVeryBrave--about chemopause--I had my last period in Sept and had surgery 2 weeks later. It never came back. The hot flashes got worse with each treatment. 5 weeks PFC, I still get some hot flashes but not as bad and this is TMI, but I got some vaginal discharge this week which made me so happy. Like my body is coming back to me. I'm 47 and they say 80% of women over 45 go into permanent menopause after chemo. I hope I'm not one of them. I'd rather ease into it naturally.
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Pamela23-----I agree with the sugar and feeding cancer. Interesting to know that I looked at my blood panels and see my blood glucose was in normal range prior to chemo. Each chemo my number climbed and at the end it is through the ceiling. Very scary. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced the rise in blood glucose during chemo.
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I too am noticing that with each lab draw my glucose is climbing. My normal range is low to mid 80's, but with my last blood draw for infusion #4 it is was 129....(it was 103 with infusion #3). My MO doesn't seem to concerned with it, but I wonder if it will continue to increase for infusions #5 and #6. I sure hope it returns to normal as sugar/glucose is not something I've ever had problems with.
With regards to the whole sugar feeding cancer thing. I've never been big on sugar, but I take in more than my fair share and I'm sure I could find ways to cut down. My problems are carbs which pretty much are nothing but sugar once your body digests them. I have a HUGE carb addiction, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc.....and I'm not a vegetarian. Hmmm...definitely something to think about. "Luckily" chemo has made the taste and texture of bread all but disgusting to me so I've had almost no bread since starting. Still need to eat less of the other carbs.
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Summer--I'm a registered dietitian and have had years of experience reading patients labs. Trauma to the body (in this case chemo killing so many cells at once) can increase your glucose numbers so I would take your labs with a grain of salt. They'll come back to a normal range. My liver enzymes soared for a couple treatments but again, went back down. Your body is going through a lot!!
dcdrogers--just switch to whole grain versions of bread/pasta, use brown rice and sweet potatoes which all digest slower than their white counterparts so they don't spike your blood sugars.
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Good to know Pamela23 about blood panels returning to normal after treatment. I was worried! Thanks for the information
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Hopeful. Glad you're done. Hooray!!
Nice to hear about vacation planning
And thanks to the ladies for the sugar information.I have cut most sugar sugar out. Interesting that the sugar issue is related to existing tumors. So Ithe study suggests sugar cannot create another Tumor by attaching to cells but can feed the tumor already there
I have switched to brown rice and brown and quinoa pasts. It's so disheartening to realixe all the added sugar in most items.
I have completed my 6 round and have two more to go. Feeling pretty good for today but tomorrow is neulasta so I expect to be sore and unhappy for the next three days. Ugh. Looking towards the end. Making my rads appointment next visit.
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Hopfull, Congrats! Wish you NED for the rest of your life
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gmmiph- how have you been? Have been thinking about you.
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I haven't posted yet but have a question. I started chemo on January TCH. After first chemo I ended up in the hospital with low white cell count. It was bad because bacteria got in my blood and I guess I was actually sepsis. So they started giving me the neulasta shot after my second chemo. It did its job and I was lucky and didn't get the severe bone pain etc. But one week out from the shot I had a day well I felt loopy and light headed and dizzy. I thought maybe I had a reaction to the Claritin. Next day I was better and I didn't take any Claritin. Now I have had chemo 3 and the neulasta shot. I'm a week out again from the shot when its supposed to kick in and this am I had a racing heart for several hours. it finally stopped but of course I was freaked out and checked with the dr. If it comes back and doesn't go away then its another trip to the er or possibly to the cardiologist next week if this is frequent. My heart has stopped racing but im sort or getting that dizzy loopy feeling again. I've taken no Claritin or other drugs and beginning to feel that this is a neulasta reaction a week out? Anyone experience anything like this? Onc on call wasn't very helpful.
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@pamela23 - thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to pick up a few things from the grocery store to give them a try. My tastes buds are shot, but I don't think that'll matter much.
@bigcgoaway - I experience the same issues 1 week after chemo/neulasta. I've always attributed the dizzy and lightheadedness to chemo, but I guess it could be coming from the Neulasta shot. I've been getting the kit (self injector) since my first infusion of chemo. I too experience rapid heartbeat starting 6 or 7 days out from the shot. I'm usually clocking in around 116/119 bpm, but it has gotten as high as 131/133 bpm. My MO doesn't seem too concern as it does come back in the normal range sometime between days 10 and 12. I stopped taking Clariton after infusion #2 (I'm on #4 now) and experienced the same side effects on AND off Clariton. BTW....I found out that Clariton is what was giving me the extreme extended/bloated belly after each round of chemo. Also, I've found that for me the bone pain is lessened after each Neulasta shot.
Hope this helps.
~Dee
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Hi Bigcgoaway. I have experienced dizziness. Actually have it in the chair at time of premeds then at home after chemo. I thought mine was due to steroids....but who knows. I have had different side effects on various days that seem to rotate. I'm sorry you are having lightheaded and dizziness as I know for me it made me a bit nervous to drive. Perhaps others on here will be a better help. Hope you find an answer!
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