Starting Chemo May 2019
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Neeli, I chose BMX because I am 44 with extremely dense, fibrocystic breasts. I am trusting my instincts and pray that I am making a sound decision.
Palmetto, I'm pleased that your lump is undetectable and no nodes are involved! My PS said mine will likely be skin sparing because of the location of the lump. He said to verify with the BS that the nipple can't be saved. If one has to go, I want both to go. I'll probably get nipples tattooed. My PS is running a trial for donor nerve transplant to restore sensation. I want to participate in that.
BAMR, hopefully your SE will subside soon and your MO will fight for the MRI and it's approved.
April0315, sounds like you had a great time in Santa Cruz. Good for your husband. You are a lovely couple!
Hey jrominger! Sounds like Nat continues to be well. Our paths are similar. My MO wants me to have rads even if I achieve a pCR. Oh well, I'll suck it up. Hopefully Nat won't need them. By the way, she looks fantastic, as always.
Ooh LaCombattante, number 10! How are you feeling? Sorry I haven't sent you a pm yet. I asked my daughter to poll her fellow travelers for questions regarding their France trip. I'm in the recliner now receiving number 10. FYI, my girls think it's awesome that I have a friend overseas.
Mightlybird01, I love your beautiful mind. Thanks for sharing. And look at your steps!
Santabarbarian, there is a proton facility in my town. My nurse navigator said I likely won't get it approved, especially since it's my right breast. If I remember correctly, Aetna considers it experimental. I may be wrong and will pursue it further. Thank you. Congratulations on getting one year under your belt!
UpstateNYer and MountainMia, thinking of you both and hope radiation is going well.
Alicesneed, how are you? You have been on my mind.
I would love to hear from everyone that hasn't posted in a while. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Positive thoughts to all.
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Happyanyway so good to hear from you. I saw you on the Taxol thread and figured your family is keeping you busy!!!! #10!! Almost there!! I knew you were back in the chair today and have been praying for you. Nat would be thrilled not to do rads but I on the other hand Iwant to do everything possible being TNBC. But if they really believe it is unnecessary then I guess that’s what we’ll do. We have a ways to go before we know that. I’m kinda bumming today feeling for my best friend and wife. But just to myself. Her attitude is always so positive. She did have some tummy issues all night which she hasn’t had in a few weeks. Probably the accumulative effect. I hate any SEs for her
I’m praying daily for everyone on this thread. Hang tough and keep up the good fight!!
J
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Hi All and greetings from the Swiss Alps, where we are on a much needed short break. Few photos from today
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And it appears that the entire message got lost... At least photos went through.
I am praying and thinking of all of you daily.
HappyAnyway, hope No 10 is easy on you !
Jrominger, sorry to hear that Nat had GI troubles, pray that she gets better soon.
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Jrominger, you are a great advocate for your wife. I'm sorry that Nat is having a difficult time. I wish my husband was more attentive. His father died two years ago this month. I think he's stuck his head in the sand regarding my bc. I deal with a positive attitude. I don't bitch and moan. I think perhaps my outlook negates the serious nature of tnbc.
LaCombattante, thank you for the beautiful photos. Just when I needed to see them.
Prayers, peace and love to you all.
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Lacombattante. Wow what fabulous photos. Thank you for sharing. We would sure love to explore the Alps!!! How are you feeling?? It’s always good to hear from you!!
Happyanyway I think your outlook and positivity shines through!! That goes a LONG way!! I do try and focus on all the positive TNBC stories that I know about. I know of 3 women personally who are 3 and 5 years+ survivors and doing really well. That will be you and Natalie. That is a constant and daily prayer I do!! Hope you are doing ok after #10. Keep us posted.
Have a great weekend everyone.
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Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I've been working. Finding #10 to just be really exaggerating my ongoing fatigue. Still having mild tingling in my foot. I'll mention this on Tues when I go in for 11. They said they'd lower the dose for the last 2 if it didn't start to resolve. Loved the Swiss Alps pics!
Prayers going out to everyone. We are all getting so close to being done with this phase. Hooray!
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You May people make me proud!
You are at the point in the marathon when the finish line is only a few more miles.... You are tired but it is nearly done!! Consider me someone holding out a cup of gatorade by the side of the road!
I will never forget the time of my last two chemos.... I was soooo anemic, I got winded walking from my driveway to my house! Anyway, I got two kittens then (BTW a great idea -- raises the laughter and joy quotient IMMEDIATELY...) Anyway when I went to the pet store to buy food & litter for them, I remember I had to put my head down on the counter while they rung me up. I think it might have been my lowest low point for exhaustion.
You have hung in there through all these poisonings! It's flipping hard and you are doing a fabulous job! Cheering for everyone to finish strong and rest well.
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’My mother have 71 yeras old she have breath cancer mestases in bone and 2 spot in liver so Can i have a chimo for my mom without effect ?? it will be little expensive but without effect ?? thanks i m scarry for my mom please help me
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ZZZAAA this might not be the right thread for your question. This discussion is about people being treated cancer, most of whom are early stage. There are threads in stage 4 forum for bone and liver mets that might have more info. I am sorry you and your Mom are going through this!
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Hello May friends! Hope you all are doing well. LaCombattante, those pics are fabulous! They brightened my day. Jrominger, hope Natalie's tummy issues have settled. I very much admire your support of her. Santabarbarian, thank you for popping in and cheerleading us to the finish line. I have two more infusions and this has to be the shortest and longest two weeks of my life! HappyAnyway, your name certainly does define you. And your strength and outlook inspires me. Hope #10 went well for you.
I had my #10 on Friday. My counts bounced up like crazy! My ANC went from 1.82 to 3.24. My Hgb went from 9.3 to 10.8. But, I lost 3 lbs in a week... I guess I'm not eating as much as I think I am. Oh well, I got my poison and am waiting not so patiently for the final two!!
My hair is growing in oddly. I have some long soft white hairs, my regular hair seems to be growing in slowly as well, and it's pretty sparse. I'm so impatient over that and my eyebrows. I do feel my eyelashes coming in, which is awesome! Maybe they'll be long enough to keep the sand and salt out of my eyes when I go on my cruise in a few weeks.
Sending you all hugs and healing thoughts.
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Palmetto, so good to hear from you! Wow you are nearing the end!! We are hopefully just a week and a half behind you!. Natalie's tummy issues did subside and she is doing really well. A tad more tired on day 3 and 4 this go around. Pepcid sure seems to help with her SE's. We go in tomorrow for #9. Then next Monday we meet with her BS and schedule DMX. We also meet with MO and other team members. It will be an interesting 2 days. OK, Palmetto what is the secret to bumping up those ANC #'s
We would love to do that. Ours is usually between 1.6 and 1.9. We would love to be over 2.0 for the last 4!! Taking care of Natalie is easy. We've been taking care of each other since we were teenagers so we don't know any different. Natalie's hair is doing the same as yours. Quite a lot of growth on the back lower half and sprouting up all over. She even had to shave her legs. Eye lashes are at about 50% but the eyebrows are MIA One granddaughter says she looks like a baby duck and another granddaughter said "Grandma why would you do that?" when she saw her bald head!! Too dang funny. She is 7 and her hair touches her waist! Sure hope you are feeling good this week. If all goes well Natalie's last chemo is 10/8 which seems just around the corner!(Kind of)Praying for everyone on this thread!! Best wishes this week and for getting closer to that dang chemo finish line.
Jay
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Jrominger, I wish I knew the secret, because I would definitely duplicate and spread that info far and wide! I added a B12 and folate combo pill to my regimen 2 weeks ago. I’ve also upped my red meat and apricot consumption. Finally, I fasted the 24 hours and didn’t drink for 3 hours prior to my lab work based on mightlybird01’s hypothesis. Who knows... whatever it was, I’m grateful! Good wishes for Natalie tomorrow
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wow, palmetto, if this difference would be due to hydration, that would certainly be a dramatic effect! Too bad your experiment violated rule #1 of experimental design: never change more than one variable at a time :-)! Just kidding!!! I am so happy for you your regime did produce good results!
I had terrible 3 days, entirely due to a stupid but oh so painful mouth sore. Other than that I still have no major side effects. Eating, drinking and talking hurts! This is the second time it happened during chemo, the last one I had during AC#2. The problem is that I lost a molar tooth on my dominant biting site just 1 week before chemo started. Because of this gap, my tongue has to push all food that requires thorough chewing to the left side. Last week I ate 3 times cooked chicken, which was requiring a lot of chewing. And boom, the mouth sore is back on my tongue right at the same place near that missing tooth. There must be 1 Mio nerves concentrated in the tongue in that place, otherwise it is hard to believe something so small can be so painful. These two mouth sore incidents have been really the worst thing for me during the entire chemo, and they are at least partially mechanical in origin, from awkward chewing. Oh well, I hope it will be better tomorrow. Thank god for liquidizers.
Jrominger, good luck to Nat tomorrow and report back on those ANCs...
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Mightlybird and Palmetto. Well since we produce Angus beef we do eat high quality beef. We do eat apricots in our smoothie. The B12 and folate is new so we may try that!!! We are also going to not drink for 3 hrs prior to lab draw tomorrow so that will be the only thing we try for tomorrow’s draw. Oh and we will do the “raise ANC dance” prior to the lab work!🤪 We will keep you posted. Mightlybird i’m so sorry to hear about your mouth sores!! Sounds extremely painful and annoying!! I will add that to my prayers!! Hope it clears up quickly for you. Man are we on the same schedule!!
Hang tough everyone!!
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Mightybird can you/did you ice you mouth during chemo? Suck on ice chips or sip on a thick frozen smoothie?
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Lol Mightlybird! That's exactly how I felt... but I only have two weeks left, so my experimental design is "throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks!"
I'm sorry you're experiencing mouth sores. That has to be both agonizing and frustrating! The only sores I've experienced are some tender brown spots under my nails. It's getting difficult to type without wincing in pain a little. But if that's the worst of it, I'm happy.Jrom- hope everything goes smoothly today. I'll be praying for y'all that the water break and ANC dance does it's magic!
I'm getting excited for my PS consult tomorrow, followed by #11 on Thursday... the end is nigh! Prayers and hugs all around.
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palmetto I think given the circumstances, doing the spaghetti experimental design approach opproach is perfect :-)!
My this weeks experiment will likely also be confounded due to this mouth sore, which could have activated my immune system. At least the lymph node next to my jaw hurts. But I will also do the 3h water restriction prior to blood draw. If the 3 of us get a jump in our ANCs, it still could mean something. I thought about it some more and I am 100% sure that when I went to my pre-chemo blood test, I was fasting since 8pm the night before, and I did not even have my tea the next morning. I may have drunk a sip of water to two, but I bet I was quite dehydrated when my blood got drawn that morning.
Santabarbara, yes, I should try chewing ice. I have not done that so far. But what may be even more important stop eating hard to chew food on my incomplete teeth, do my salt water rinses more regularly and consider giving up flossing.
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Well, number 11 Taxol is completed! Blood work was fine, had a light lunch and a benadryl nap. Can't believe there's only one more to do! Woo Hoo!!
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Yay April!! So close to the finish!
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That's awesome April! Cheering you on!!
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April that is awesome!! ONE MORE TO GO!
Palmetto you are right behind her! Woot woot
Mightlybird/Palmetto praise God, Natalie’s blood work was improved. We did try the mightlybird technique 😜. Nat just had one drink of water in the 3 hrs prior to draw. We also asked our awesome nurse to do just a slight flush and get rid of the first small drawback. Her WBC’s were 3.3, RBC’s 3.07, hemoglobin 11.2 and ANC 2.0!!! It could have been the dance as well 😜. 3 more Taxols to go!!
I literally pray multiple times a day for everyone on this thread! Hang tough!!
J
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Jrom, very interesting!! And wonderful.
It's on you now, mightlybird! 
I've started my fast now that I downed my Luna bar for lunch. And then I might get a sip of something around 6AM tomorrow, but then I'll cut myself off ahead of my 10AM infusion. I'm looking at you, #11!!
Getting ready to head to my PS consult this afternoon. Excited and bewildered. I have no idea what questions I should be asking, even though I've done a lot of research.
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Jrominger and Palmetto, thank you for your kind words.
Santabarbarian, thank you for sticking around to support us.
Mightlybird01, how's your mouth?
April0315, just one more!
Hi MountainMia! How are you doing today?
Jrominger, I'm happy that Nat's counts have improved! Mightlybird01, you may be on to something.
Palmetto, I'm so excited for you to visit the PS! They will likely address everything before you even have a chance to ask. I, too, researched and really wasn't surprised by anything that mine had discussed. Thank goodness for BCO.
Hey UpstateNYer and everyone else!
I've been busy with life! Nothing new here on the bc front.
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Happyanyway, ALWAYS good to hear from you. We think about you everyday! Are you doing #11 this Friday? You also are so very close. Have you ever asked your MO about Metformin? I will talk to our MO on Tuesday about it. Just curious. Looks interesting and Santabarbarian and InspiredbyDolce are using it. Both are out of treatment and doing well. InspiredbyDolce is way out and doing well. She is super kind in sharing all her info. Quite inspiring!!!
Jay
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google "metformin tnbc" and you'll find a ton of info. My MO gave it to me during chemo. Strong evidence of benefit.
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Jrominger, yes, no. 11! My MO said that the risks of Metformin outweigh the benefits for me. He said that I can ask my PCP about it once I have finished chemo. I sure will. I'm grateful for the information that others provide to help us out.
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My MO said the same. He told me that if my glucose is otherwise good, it isn't something he recommends. But of course my PCP is the one who monitors my glucose, and it's a discussion I'll have with her at my next appt.
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OMG, my ANC almost doubled and was in the normal range: 2.74, before chemo was 2.9! WBC was also much better (4.6 instead of 3.5). Here is my table. Just came home from infusion, having a nap will write more later.
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Happyanyway mtnmia santabarbarian. Thanks for all the info!! I read a lot that sounds good for Metformin but the data wasn’t conclusive for non diabetic women and even said it could worsen the problem. The data otherwise looks intriguing. I’ll be curious as to what our MO says. She didn’t want Natalie to do the carboplatin so we went with that. With the TNBC I guess we are all shopping around looking for the best outcome. Good we can all share multiple prospectives!!
Mightlybird. What the heck!! That’s fabulous on your bloodwork. Very exciting. We were so grateful for Natalie’s uptick in her blood work yesterday!! Hope all goes well for you this week.Natalie went hiking with our daughter today and felt great. It’s usually tomorrow and Friday when her hiking pace slows down.
Nat’s hair is growing a lot. She is my baby duckling! Still a lot of skin showing but more every day.
God Bless to everyone!!
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