Starting chemo February 2018
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Hi everyone,
Rockcity, I laughed when you say that you are the only person on the planet not liking ice cream or Popsicle because I am the same. I hate everything cold on my teeth. I have to ask my water without ice. Water is my main drink and I hope I won't be disgusted by it because I wouldn't know what to drink. I don't do milk, soda, beer, coffee or tea...Guess I just have to open that bottle of wine
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Great news Colleen!
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Colleen that is the most wonderful news for you and your family! Now you can concentrate on your healing and know when you are done with what you have to deal with now you are done! Now you know you are going to be there for your little ones and your grand children. You so need to have some type of celebration you just got an early valentine's day gift and it is just what you wanted! You will be back in that class room soon. I will find mine out tomorrow when I go in for my first chemo session.
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Thanks girls and AMBurt I am praying for you!! Anxiously awaiting your news!!!
Welcome to the new ladies! And thanks for the advice from ladies who have been there! So thankful for our little group of ladies.
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congrats Colleen that's great news fantastic
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prayers for good results for you ambert
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hi cupcake glad to hear you are on the same regiment as I am and a little ahead of me maybe you can give me some insight on what to expect Welcome to our group
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Hi Deb, I know how you feel and I'm so sorry. I started Dec 28, Taxotere, Carboplatin, Herceptin and Perjeta every 3 weeks. I felt so awful ended up in the hospital on the oncology floor 5 days, ( on a side note, it is so beautiful on that floor, not like the rest of the hospital, and it's a very nice place overall). IV fluids with something to help neutrophils and shots to help WBC. My neulasta on pro device leaked and malfunctioned.
Long story to tell you, there are options if your tumor is responding to treatment if it's neoadjuvant. My Oncologist tweaked my treatments to weekly Taxol and then every third week, Taxol, Herceptin, & Perjeta. I had my 4th weekly treatment today and it is going so much better. The tumor is still shrinking dramatically. I hope your Oncologist is open and if needed you could discuss options. Hang in there, try to eat as healthy as possible to keep up your strength. Take all the meds they suggest they really help with SE. You are in my prayers. It's tough but we are strong, I'm a little ahead of your schedule and finally feel very hopeful, you'll get there too.
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Today I quickly went to get my photo taken as I need to renew my passport so I thought I'd better grab a picture before I start looking/feeling sick.
Tomorrow I'm going to the chemo 101 class & for an echocardiogram. It's suddenly all feeling real. I dropped off my prescriptions for the whole anti -nausea protocol at my local pharmacy and my pharmacist knew right away what it was all for & was very sweet about it. I hope the meds all do their job!
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hi all,
Hope u r doing all fine
I woke up with a insect bite on the mastectomy done arm and now it is my biggest worry .. i hope it doesnt turn into an infection i cant handle them both at a time. I.e. SE and infection
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PET good news everything clear except for what was already found and biopsied. Having to wait for x-rays pet scan said my port was not in the right position. If it is I will have to delay chemo. So a long day is going to be even longer. I need to concentrate on the good news of a clean PET and not worry about the port until the decide with the x-rays.
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Aanoliver how is your bite?
AMBurt how annoying, I’m so sorry but like you said so so glad yournscans looked good!! Hope the port is ok.
This is day six after first chemo and I’m doing ok. Only big issues are sleepiness (I’m taking constant naps) and an upset stomach. I think that part is nerves....my tummy has not felt settled since I had my first mammogram over all this over a month ago!!
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Well, the day is here. Lots of nerves this morning - my appointment at the cancer centre isn't until 3:15, so still a few hours to be nervous and terrified first, I guess. My stomach is in knots, ugh. Happy Valentine's Day, right??
I think I'm about as ready as I'm ever going to be for it. I got all of my long hair cut off on Monday (and I miss it terribly, I've never had short hair before and I don't like it at all), I have all of my anti-nausea meds, I've started the Zoladex injections, and I've taken the rest of the week off work. Now I just have to keep it all together, mentally, and hope that the side effects from the chemo aren't too awful for me.
(Truthfully, though, I wish I could crawl under a rock and hide away from all of this forever. If only it were that easy...)
I'm so glad all of you ladies are here, I feel so much better knowing I'm not alone.
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I'm praying for you Anxiety girl. I felt the same way. Fear of the unknown I guess. Just trust you can do this and look toward the finish line and having this behind you and this awful disease gone! I'm in the middle nearly now of my chemo. I took all my meds for side effects tried to eat nutritional foods and avoid junk especially sugary foods (it feeds cancer). You will get through, it's tough, it's the last thing anyone wants to do but it's worth the results.
It's hard to explain unless you've gone through it or are going through it but we all havea common bond. We are all here to offer comfort or suggestions that worked for us. We are all different but we are all in your corner.
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colleen, i called in my assistant doctor immediately she said until it doesnt spread and be red it wouldnt be a concern so m keeping an eye over it wishing it disappeared like normal bite asap.
Even i am on my 6th day , lil bit fatigue which makes me also like sleepy and the bitter taste in mouth is the worst of all... but still i close my eyes and eat stuff so i stay healthy for my next appointment on 19th for blood test..
Anxiety girl,really the side effects are same like taking antibiotics I personally feel .. but since its chemotherapy and its like vast laying there for a lot of time its like daunting.. like once u r over with the SE of session no.1 ur heart will be poundering like,”hey babe come over for session no.2 “:P
Dont worry everything is gonna be fine.. there are millions of people like us but it takes so much strength to agree that we r dealing with this .. like in my friends or family nobody even spoke about cancer and when i was diagnosed i was thinking its end of the world for me .. I thought im dying tomorrow but its not like that.. its become so common like any other disease and its curable just that we r not aware and nobody is ready to speak up to educate us like its just so normal .. my prayers for all of u and
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So this day became the first day of me having a complete melt down and crying spell. Arrived at the infusion center at 8am and met with the nurse practioner good news first PET scan is clear. Get set up for them to flush my port for the very first time and the nurse says I am very swollen over the port site the worst she has ever seen. It hurts so bad when she pushes on things trying to find where to access the port. Now ladies I had five babies all natural I feel like I am a tough old bird I thought I was going to pass out this hurt so bad. They think that they finally have access but it turns out the did not so they try again with a longer needle still nothing. They talk to someone who reads pet scans and have them really look at that area to them it looks the end of the line for the port is bent just a bit little bit it just looks funny to them. So they decide possibly that part that looks funny may be a blood clot in the very end so the put a drug in that will disslove a clot and hopefully we can proceed with chemo. So we wait 30 minutes and they try to get blood again nothing. So we go off to xray which meant the took the needle out. Do several xrays and the show what appears to be a kink in the line so they decide to send me for a dye test to see if the medicine will go through the kink and we just will not be able to do blood draws. I am even more swollen and again they have to push on the area to find where to access this damn port that is supposed to make chemo easier. The first needle is not long enough the second needle is not long enough finally with the third needle they have access inject the die and find out what looks like a kink is actually that the port has infiltrated the vein it was supposed to be in turned or kinked and is now in a much smaller vein. As we all know AC is hell on veins which why the port. After a meeting of all my care providers it is decided they do not want to risk using the smaller vein my chemo was cancelled for today. I will be getting what they are calling a revision of my port on Friday morning have to be at the surgery center at 6:30 am I will leave there and go to the infusion center to have my first chemo on Friday. Yepper had a melt down it hurt so bad every time they accessed this bad port then to end the day with knowing I will have to have basically a new port and chemo on the same day lead to a complete melt down. They said no one knows why but one out of about every 10,000 of this type of power port this happens. They have never seen it look like mine did like a kink before. lucky me huh. I am back on pain meds simply because to even move my shoulder right now hurts so bad the nurse told me that is because the end of the port is though the vein it supposed to be in and keeps poking the vein it is in then coming out a little the poking back in. It is also why I am so swollen. The put my arm in a sling in hopes the less I use the arm and move the shoulder that the swelling will go down that and ice packs. I am off to bed I am physically and emotionally drained.
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amburt- I am so sorry. What a horrible day for you. I hope they get your port fixed and you feeling better. Chemo is tough enough to deal with. You don’t need the additional pain and setback. I pray for a better tomorrow for you. Happy about your Petscan!
Anxiety girl- hope your chemo day goes well. Let us know
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Amburt, I came here today to express my fear of the procedure I will have tomorrow to put a Groshong catheter into my vein but it is pale compare to your misfortune. I really feel your pain and my heart is sadden. I would have melt down the same way you have today. Let's hope that the pain will have receded tomorrow.
Aanoliver, let's hope that your bite does not become infected!
Anxiety girl, how do you feel after your infusion? we can only wish for mild SE.
Moth, thank you for reminding me to have my pictures taken before chemo starts. I also have to renew my passport. Picture would not look good with bald head or a crazy wig...
Also, I thought that I would be immune to the fear of the cancer spreading to other organs but last night I woke up from a nightmare. My whole body was invaded by cancer. I have my CT scan and bone scan on the 20th. I guess this is one more thing I have to worry about! I am so glad that none of us who had their PET or CT scan done are in stage 4. May it still stay the same!
Take care everyone!
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So sorry Amburt, I too had a bad experience with my port. I'm praying yours is resolved on Friday. Some seem to sail through this but I've had my share of meltdown moments. Prayers for you. Sleep well
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Well, that's round #1 (AC) in the books. It's been a couple of hours now, and all is still well. The treatment itself went fine, smooth sailing, no issues (and more compliments on my ginormous veins - I have skinny, vein-y arms, nurses love them), and the nurse was lovely, too, far nicer and more helpful than anyone I've dealt with so far. Didn't take long, either, just over an hour, start to finish.
Now, to wait for the side effects, I guess. I have all my meds on hand, and nice clear instructions on how to take them, so I guess I'm as ready as I can be, it's just the anxiety that's killing me right now, especially since I still feel completely normal and I'm anticipating all of the bad things that I was told about. I'm dreading the coming days and what they might bring. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's not too awful.
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Yay you, Anxiety Girl! Congratulations on Number 1 being done! I'm glad everything went well.
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Ambert what a nightmare I feel so bad for you. My husband is a dialysis patient he has a fistula in his arm to receive his treatments and has been infiltrated several times so I completely understand what you mean by infiltrated. I am so sorry you're going through this right now but it has to get better. Cupcake thank you for telling me about your revised treatment plan I have had very little Improvement today and the way I feel and came very near admitting myself to the hospital which may still happen if I don't see Improvement by tomorrow. I know we were all different but this treatment has really thrown me for a loop I've never been so weak and sick before my life.
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Amburt- I am so sorry for your bad experience! I too would have completely broken down. You are already dealing with enough. I pray that all goes well when they put a new one in.
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Debsmisto, Yes, if you continue to feel that bad you should get checked. I had no idea how abnormal it was to feel that bad. I'm doing much better with Taxol and my Oncologist said it's milder but having the same results for me. (Tumor is really disappearing!) I think I'm having normal side effects now and it's very manageable in comparison. If your counts are really low they have remedies. WBC, RBC & platelets. Be sure to let someone know and don't suffer too long. The hospital stay did help me and the dr to be able to come up with the new plan. When you do the smaller doses weekly, your counts do not drop so drastically and you don't need the neulasta. Prayers for improvement soon!
Anxiety girl! Yay!!! Glad you got through it. I had reactions for several weeks until my body adapted. Sounds like you are doing great! They have to spread my weekly Taxol over 2 hours so I don't get reactions. Glad we finally got it down now. Don't fret too much about the SE. My only advice is be careful with anti diarrhea meds too quickly. Try the banana, rice, toast diet because you don't want to get constipated. I made that mistake my first week. Now I usually expect one episode but I eat banana every morning with toast and avoid foods that can cause diarrhea. It usually passes on its own. I've had 4 weeks of Taxol and the SE are manageable for me but we are all different. You are in my prayers for continued success
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Hormone Neg and Her2+. I start 6 rounds TCHP on Friday every 3 weeks and H&P every 3 wks for 52 wks. Im anxious about chemo. There arent a lot of options. Heres hoping we all get through this together with few SEs.
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Getting close to bedtime now, and I'm dreading it, it's been six hours and I still feel completely normal, nothing out of the ordinary at all, so I'm afraid it'll all hit when I wake up in the morning. Nobody seems to have a good handle on when the bad stuff kicks in, so I don't know how normal any of this is. Not even a bruise from the IV, can barely see where it was.
Drinking lots of water (and peeing lots, of course), ate a normal supper (with lots of veggies), no issues thus far (aside from the usual anxiety, that is). Taking the meds as instructed, too. Bit tired, but it's been a very stressful day (/week), so that's not odd for me.
All of the unknowns with this whole mess are maddening.
The nurse recommended a bland diet, too, I'll have to make sure I pick up some bananas over the next few days.
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AMBurt-My heart goes out to you. I hate you endured so much. Wishing you much pain relief and comfort. Anyone would have a meltdown with all of that taking place.
AnxietyGirl85- You made it through round one. It's good you're eating and taking your meds. Remember to rest.
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Good morning Anxiety girl, since I've had 4 weeks of Taxol I find I feel best the day of and the next day after treatment. They pump me (and I assume everyone) with benedryl, steroids and anti nausea medicines that keep me in a bubble at first. I had a treatment Tuesday. I've felt pretty good. I'm starting to have some foot and hand tenderness (I think that is cumulative as it goes along) but otherwise I just drink 85-100oz of water and try to eat sensibly. (I've made the mistake of feeling good on the first day or to and ate something borderline and regretted it on day 3 or 4.) I do take Pepcid every 12 hours and my tummy definitely misses it if I don't. I've never had heartburn before but I take Mylanta at times as well even though I've eliminated all acidly foods, sugar and alcohol.
Mostly now I start to feel tired today through the weekend but I try to resist over doing it or eating normally. I did start drinking my 1 cup of coffee this week. My stomach may be adapting but I try to Journal what I eat to see what upset my tummy if it happens. I hope that helps. Also, do you take anything for stress? I've never taken anything previously and other than pain pills when I had a chest tube (they punctured my lung when I got my port, ugh!) But now I take .25 (I score a .50) Xanax in the evening and it really helps me relax, sleep and handle this better. This diagnosis changes our lives in every way, I'd suggest asking your Dr about something to help take the edge off!!! I'm hoping your week goes smoothly
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PS, If You haven't already, get the Biotene GENTLE Mint toothpaste ( Regular mint toothpaste started to burn a couple weeks after treatment) and a extra soft bristled toothbrush. I brush after every time I eat. My dentist said that's really important. He gave me some mouthwash too but the baking soda 1/2 tsp and salt 1/8 tsp with 1 cup water rinse several times a day. I've read nightmare blogs online about loosing teeth and terrible mouth sores. My mouth and throatdoes get sensitive or irritated as this goes along but it's important to do the rinse I think. When I was in the hospital after first treatment I didn't have the rinse and I noticed a difference. ( My husband brought baking soda and salt to make the rinse after I realized I needed it).
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PS, If You haven't already, get the Biotene GENTLE Mint toothpaste ( Regular mint toothpaste started to burn a couple weeks after treatment) and a extra soft bristled toothbrush. I brush after every time I eat. My dentist said that's really important. He gave me some mouthwash too but the baking soda 1/2 tsp and salt 1/8 tsp with 1 cup water rinse several times a day. I've read nightmare blogs online about loosing teeth and terrible mouth sores. My mouth and throatdoes get sensitive or irritated as this goes along but it's important to do the rinse I think. When I was in the hospital after first treatment I didn't have the rinse and I noticed a difference. ( My husband brought baking soda and salt to make the rinse after I realized I needed it).
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