Starting Chemo in July 2017
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Yay!!! Leatherette!!! Love your style and kick ass attitude! Pray minimal SE for you girl!!
Tomorrow is my turn of last chemo, I know I’m going to cry! I’m going for my lab work today hope I pass.
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Heather-You go girl! Yahoo!!
Paulette- good luck with your bloods. Mine were all better yesterday. Perhaps doing my kitchen provided a good distraction to make me better.0 -
Leatherette...Woot Woot!! Yay and I agree celebrate today! Love that you wore some fierce boots!
Last week at my last chemo I wore a Wonder Woman tank top, Wonder Woman beanie and awesome Wonder Woman socks with the cape! My best buddy from high school and his wife gave me the ensemble when they were my chemo buddies back in Oct! I felt pretty awesome wearing it and will be a good memory of that day!
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Lojo...love the happy shoes as well! It's good to have something that can bring a smile to our faces thru all of this! I just think it is so important to celebrate the little things each day. A friend's mom went thru this a few years back. After every chemo she would go home and do her Happy Dance! I loved her idea so after each chemo session I did something little to celebrate another down too. Dinner out with my family, a trip to the DQ, coffee with a friend, etc. And after my last chemo I did the Happy Dance!
Paulette..hope the Imodium does its magic and you feel better soon!
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And LoJo,
Congrats on your last radiation! I don't know how I missed that. Great news!
And Paulette, so glad tomorrow you will be sitting where I am sitting and finishing up! I think I'll take a selfie with my empty carboplatin bag when it's done. There are no ballons or confetti here. Don't know if I'll get teary today....we'll see!
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Last empty chemo bag, ladies
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Congratulations leatherette. Goodluck Paulette!
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Leatherette, Woohoo! You are officially PFC! Hope your SEs are minimal over the next week!
LoJo, Congrats on your final rads treatment! I can't wait to be in your shoes!
I think during my last thread on here, I mentioned my DH had planned a trip to celebrate the end of chemo and our belated anniversary. We ended up going to Seattle! The week leading up to the trip was pretty crappy: I had a sore throat and cough all week, then got hives a few days before. Luckily the hives were only on my left thigh and didn't spread. On the day of the trip, we started with a 4 hour flight delay on Friday, and ended up with a cancelled flight on Sunday - all weather-related. Apparently, it's rare that snow hits Seattle, and it happened to be last weekend. Despite the miserable weather, we did manage to have some fun around downtown and the waterfront, and eat some good seafood. I also loved seeing the trees with the beautiful fall colors, since it's rare here in the SF Bay Area. We decided not to rent a car, so we walked and uber'd everywhere. We did a lot of walking, so I hope that made up for all the walking I missed out on during chemo. LOL
I also started rads this week. I did the simulation last week, and was supposed to start treatment on Tuesday, But when I arrived I was told they would be taking photos and taking measurements. So they added an additional treatment day to my schedule. Boo! The actual treatment took longer than the 5 minutes they said it would be because they still had to reposition me and make more markings before the actual treatment. I hope it goes quicker the next time. Since they are treating my left side and avoiding the heart, I have to take deep breaths to expand my chest when they tell me to and hold for a few seconds. When you're lying down it's hard to breathe from the chest since you automatically breathe through your diaphragm. I have a really hard time with this and they have to keep reminding me to raise my chest. So I end up taking a huge amount of breath in because somehow I still breathe through my stomach, and it feels awkward. I think I need to practice this before sleeping.
Since my clinic only has one rads machine, the scheduling is pretty tight. My rads schedule coincides with the LiveStrong fitness program so I had to discontinue it (LiveStrong, not rads LOL). At least I get to keep the temporary YMCA membership until the program officially ends, so now I just have to motivate myself to go...
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Yay!! Leatherette!! Finished one milestone!
Love the Wonderwoman story and you fit into it well runnermum!
Love all your spirits.....
Sunnyjay - great that you had a wonderful short trip, I can’t believe Seattle got snow in early a November.
My big D is under control ny Imodium and lab test turned out good so I can have my chemo tomorrow. I have no wonderwoman outfit, I would be so happy to finish this milestone. Next week I planned to meet with friends and family to have lunch and dinner plans. I’ve been so isolated for months would love to go out and don’t worry about getting sick. I know my energy level will be low for the first few weeks, but I still want to go out to have some fun before radiation starts.
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Oh my goodness, today was a big day for our group! Woopie!!
LoJo, you're done!!! I can't believe it and it's wonderful for one of us to have reached that milestone. The first one done, yay!!!
Runnermum, I loved that you wore your wonder woman stuff, I think we should see the happy dance ;-)
Leatherette, last chemo and no taxotere, you will breeze through this round and that's so big. It was just a tad anticlimatic to have the last one but then go home and deal with the stinky SE. I'm sure you have them from carboplatin, but your neuropathy will only improve, yay!!! Love that you went in there today with attitude.
Paulette, of all of us I think you may be the most grateful for the end, and here it comes, just a few hours away! Woot woot!!
Sunny, the weather and the flights were not ideal, but you got away and left cancer land behind and I know it felt wonderful. We left today and are visiting my daughter, it's cool and dreary but I'm having a blast being somewhere that has NO link to cancer.
Those of you working towards your last infusion, hang in, it's gonna be here soon. Travel I'm glad your neuropathy has leveled off and Jen, you had a dose reduction thank goodness.
Proud, your regemine is working it's magic for you and your neuropathy is stable, that's amazing as the rest of us have had such a time with this drug, you're fairly tough I think.
Pink, I walked a bit further today and am definitely noticing less SOB for the first time. It was so good to see a real difference finally. I'm so encouraged I plan to push to 2 miles tomorrow.
Ping pong, how's the SOB going, any better? How about neuropathy now that you're what, 3 1/2 weeks PFC.
Tpralph, how's PFC going? Are you doing rads?
Dmjmom, you must be moving right through rads, you're going to be done in no time. Boy I hope it goes as quickly for me.
Have a good evening, hugs and prayers,
Theresa
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Thanks everyone!
It is fun seeing each one of us starting to cross major milestones! Leatherette, I love your picture of the empty chemo bag!! It brought back good memories (seriously, it was such a good day when that last drop went out of the bag!).
Paulette, you are almost there! I will be thinking of you and your last infusion!! Glad your numbers came back in a range that allows you get your treatment!
You're all amazing! On to the next phase for each of us. I'll be starting Tamoxifen after Thanksgiving. Will keep you all posted on that! Is anyone else doing Tamoxifen?
Happy Thursday. May everyone have minimal SE's!
-LoJo
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Paulette, D gone, good labs, here is to your day going well, super well!
Congratulations Leatherette, and to LoJo as well. Big days. Time passes, they come. I wait.0 -
Congrats LOJO! Somehow I missed it was your last rads as well! I hope you did the Happy Dance!!
I will be starting with Tamoxifen but will move on to an AI at some point. I will turn 47 in Dec and have been perimenopause for about 2 years. I have an appt on Nov 28th with my MO to discuss all of this and check my labs. I can't remember if he said I would get my RX that day or not. Paulette...Big day!! Hope your labs are good! Thinking of you!
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tesse, thanks for the complement
Guess i am pretty tough but i think i really do not have a choice, ain't gonna quit
Ok, so off to dentist today, he would not work on my mouth during chemo so since this is my off week, lovely! Contractor here to work on bathroom, going well.
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Hi ladies I’m so nervous again for my infusion, since I had reaction from infusion every time I get nervous and I have to take Ativan to calm down.
See you all in few hours. Prayers needed! 🙏🙏🙏
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Paulette, I wish we could all be there to give you a hug and courage. I had a reaction only the once, but every time it was on my mind, so I can only guess how you must feel. However the thing that helped was the nurse told me that these reactions happen enough that the nurses feel comfortable handling them. They did seem calm and efficient, so know you are in excellent hands.
Jen, how has the dose reduction worked for you? My worst SE hit day three, when will yours hit?
It's a beautiful day and hubby and I are heading to The Waterside, a riverside complex/marina for lunch and browsing the shops. Have a good day. Hugs and prayers.
Theresa
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hi Teese... usually my SEs start being noticeable Friday, getting bad Saturday, and continue through to Tuesday (lighter). Today is pretty typical ... sporadic tingling, numbness, etc. i don't think it's as bad as last week though.I walked this morning on the treadmill with no issues. Hoping the dose reduction at worse keeps things the same as last week. Ideally, I'll feel less bad tomorrow than last week.
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Happy Friday, Ladies!
Paulette, was thinking of you today. Hope everything went well, and that the post-infusion side effects will be minimal so you could enjoy the time with your friends and family next week! Prayers...
Teese, Enjoy your time away from home (and cancer stuff) with your family!
I know this is our chemo thread, but I hope you don't mind me sharing bits about rads... I will have my 3rd rads today and a little scared. Yesterday, I had some mapping done with the bolus and was lying on the rads table for 20 min or so while they took the images. Then treatment started, where 3 areas are radiated, and the whole thing lasts less than 10 minutes. About halfway through, I got vertigo. I had closed my eyes to avoid the lights and I started to feel spinning. I get vertigo every now and then, and it's been about a year since I had an episode. I almost panicked and wanted to yell out for them to stop so I could sit up. But instead I opened my eyes and fixated my eyes on one of the tree branches on the ceiling. (There's a neat photo of a tree on the ceiling that's illuminated, so you have something to stare at when you're flat on your back) I stared at that branch and prayed for the spinning to go away, and after a few seconds, it did. I didn't have any other episodes for the rest of the day. But I had another episode this morning. I went to the bathroom after I woke up, and as soon as I sat on the toilet, the spinning started. Again, it lasted a few seconds but I freaked out because I was thinking it might happen again at rads. So on my way to work, I picked up dramamine. I'm praying that this helps and that I don't have an episode this afternoon.
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Oh, I forgot to also mention... my hair is starting to grow back, so my hair is kinda spikey right now. I also noticed a little growth down in the nether region... LOL Hope the eyebrows follow soon!
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Sunnyjay, I developed vertigo after my 14th rad treatment. Like you, I also had had vertigo a year ago. It lasted four days last time, lasted about a week this time. My RO assured me that it wasn't caused by radiation treatments. He insisted that I see my primary doc that same day because he was worried that the vertigo would interfere with my treatments. It is hard to stay still on that table when the room is spinning. My primary gave me some exercises to do, but they just made me vomit, so I gave up on those pretty quickly.
I'm six weeks PFC and still losing eyebrow hairs. I've got hair growing back here and there...mostly in places I'd rather not have it come back.
Thinking about you Paulette!!
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I'm so happy just finished my last chemo!! Now I don't have to go more chemo can focus to get well. I know it will take weeks , months but I'm patience meanwhile I just enjoy my naps.
Sunny - love to hear your rad story so I can get read.
I don't have vertigo but my husband had it before. Doctor taught him once you feel vertigo is coming lay down on your stomach then turn your head one ear down for 1/2 minuets then turn you it head to the other side for 1/2 minuets. It this doesn't work then you take your meds.
Hope that help.
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paulettek-- Woot Woot!! You did it, crossed that finish line!! Chemo is done!!!
Hope your SEs fade quickly.
Enjoy your break between now and rads
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Congratulations, Paulette!! So happy for you. Have a good weekend, and hope your SE's are minimal as you start to recover from chemo!!
-LoJo
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Jen, good news then, at least not worse so far. If it weren't for neuropathy, then Taxol would be a walk in the park. I wish they'd come up with a solution.
Sunny, this thread will be our thread for whatever we're up too. I've read several women now who've mentioned vertigo, so it appears to be a thing. Ugh, hope the Dramamine works.
Hair re growth, disappointing, sigh!
Paulette, you did your final chemo up right.
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Thank you all the ladies, I still remember the first day I login to this thread and ask question, all of you were so warm and welcome me. Help me through so many bad time, thank you!!
I will stick around to help some of the new comers and keep in touch with everyone. I think God put us together to support and share our journey together. This could be part of his plans.
We have a Facebook private group and we share our life’s together and I will like be a real friends with you.
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Congrats Paulette. Boy you have some wild nurses at your infusion center. I've never seen anything like that at mine. Keep taking that glutamine for a couple more weeks. I am convinced that it is helping with my symptoms.0
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Travel, I love all the nurse there they are truly angels. I planned to continue to take my B6, 12 and glutamine also, until my Neuropathy SE goes away.
I’m dying for my taste buds get back to normal hope it will come back in couple weeks.
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Congrats Paulette!! Praying your side effects are minimal this weekend.
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Yay, Paulette! So nice that they had a little celebration there. Nothing happened when I finished up at my place. However, I came home to a big bunch of ballons that my sister had delivered. We have to mark these moments
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I have a peaceful steak night, meeting with some of my buddies next Friday and I’m thinking hard to stop by office next week, but I might wait because I may not have that much energy next week. My SE might kick my butts next week. Beside my wbc is kinda low.
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