Starting Chemo May 2019
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hello everyone..
For sure Jrom wins the prize for being our most ardent cheerleader! Appreciate his positivity and encouragement always.
Happyanyway- I will be thinking of you this coming Friday!! Congrats to you, will be so nice to have hubby, sister, and daughters to see you ring that bell. It will be a wonderful feeling for you, words cannot describe. So excited for you.
Jrom- Glad to hear Nat is doing well and that your daughter can accompany you to BS meeting. Good luck with treatment and appointments on Tuesday as well.
Britt-Prayers that your pain has subsided for you.
Palmetto-glad your counts were good and you have a set surgery date.
Mightlybird01- love your picture. Glad that the sonic Boka is making your teeth feel less sensitive. Oral health is so important to our overall health. I worked in the dental field for almost 30 years.
Lacombattant- One more to go! So sorry you are experiencing neuropathy and fatigue. I am praying for you.
BAMR- hope the compression socks help to reduce the swelling. Good to hear your counts are holding up well and congrats on finishing chemo.
April-I am sure the extra weight will come off once you are off of the steroids. Glad to hear that your college age daughter will be there with you at your final txt. A reason to celebrate for sure.
Mountainmia- How are you doing post rads? I have completed 8 of 16 txts. I am so worried about going into a deep depression once I am finished with rads. As you can see by my diagnosis, I have been going through this journey since February. Once rads are complete, I won't have a followup until April when I have a mammogram, MRI and meet with SO. I don't see MO until next Sept. Just hoping that the thought of recurrence does not take over my thoughts. How are you coping?
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UpstateNYer, Good to hear you're half done with the rads. I'll admit it's kind of weird being done. For me, since there isn't any other therapy, it feels kind of like I've been cut loose all of a sudden. But I have my MO follow-up on 10/4, RO follow-up on 10/21, and BS follow-up on 11/11. Then basic dentist appt later in November! So I'll still have enough appointments to keep me busy.
Transition is hard. Remember how hard transitioning into this process was. Then we settle into it a bit, like it or not. When you're done, all of a sudden you're on your own. You don't have daily or weekly appointments. You're supposed to wrap your mind around your health instead your illness. But that's hard! if only because you probably still don't feel great. Your skin is raw. You have fatigue that will ease but not necessarily end for weeks, maybe months. For those who've gone through chemo, your hair still doesn't look like it did pre-diagnosis. It's a netherworld, not either healthy or ill. People will say, "you LOOK good!" and they mean it, but they don't realize how you feel and there's no good way to explain.
I'm not saying all this from my own experience as I'm barely in the post-treatment phase. But I do know from other times that transition is uncomfortable. If you truly wonder if you'll have depression, it would be good to get help now. If you already work with a therapist, make sure to touch base with them. If not, see if you can get an appointment set up. Even if you decide to cancel it, it gives you a starting point for taking care of that part of your health, too.
If you'd like to visit more about this and less publicly, more personally, feel free to private message me. xoxo
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UpstateNY, MountainMia has a good point about working with a therapist, but also, I think you can happily sit back and just be thankful that you caught this cancer so early when cure is the most likely outcome. Always remind yourself of this and maybe you can avert depression.
Jrominger, I am totally with Natalie, not liking to draw any attention. So I'll be happy not to ring a bell, unless the nurse team insists, in which case I will not disappoint them. Last week, I observed a woman finishing, and the nurses started clapping when she left, but she just wanted to leave and not be bothered. She seemed rather unhappy. I wondered if she knew she would be back?
Please share the naturopath recommendations with us. I have been looking to find someone in my area, but so far have not had any luck.
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I found my naturopathic Physician by googling "High Dose Vitamin C" and the name of my town. 2 places came up and one seemed more like a day spa and the other was a medical office with great Yelp reviews... So I picked them.
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Mountainmia and Mightlybird01- thanks for the kind words of support. My depressive feelings come and go. I do know it was caught early, and for that I am grateful. It just really irks me that most of us do everything the medical professionals say, go through the long process, yet there is always that possibility of local, regional or distant mets. But, the love and support from others on this board is so very helpful and comforting to me. Only those who have been through it really understand.
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thank you santabarbara, I tried it and it did not produce results. I guess I would need to widen my search radius. I am sure if I was willing to drive for 1h I would find one. I have just been spoiled with having everything close by.. I guess from you writings (Thank you!), and me reading some books, I have a pretty good idea for now. And I don't really want to deal with a new doc now anyway. But I am always interested in what others learn.
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Jrom, good luck to Nat today!
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Hi everyone! Just back from my last Taxol, chemo part of the treatment is officially over!
I will meet my RO on Wednesday; thé rads itself supposed to start 3 weeks after the last chemo. I will also start Aromasin. Oh, and insurance approved my Zometa, will get the first infusion next Friday
This week, April, Palmetto and HappyAnyway will cross the finish line too - thinking and praying for you, ladies
Jrominger, Nat is in my thoughts, best of luck today, she is getting very close to the finish line.
UpStateNYer: fear of recurrence and depressive thoughts are perfectly normal! We went through a LOT and no wonder that most of us develop some degree of PTSD. I echo MountainMia and Mightlybird, getting help from a therapist, if needed, is a good idea.
Someone on these boards shared their approach to coping, which I find helpful and use quite often. When thoughts of recurrence hit (and they do hit), I do acknowledge them but after a short while ask myself: am I dying NOW? Nope. Not now, not today. Then I might as well LIVE'
Sending prayers and loving thoughts from across the pond.
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Theres a college of naturopathy in Portland, maybe if you call there they have a network of alumni?
The Integrative MO I consulted, Dr Keith Block, is in Skokie Illinois and he will do a 4-part consult for $1800. He is incredibly informed about both oncology AND nutrition and supplements alongside cancer treatment.
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Hallelujah, LaCombattante!
Love to each and every one of you.
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FANTASTIC Lacombattante!!! Congratulations. Moving on to the next step towards cPR!!
We are doing our blood draw now. Great/hopeful report and meeting with our BS yesterday. DMX surgery scheduled for 11/5! We meet our MO naturopath and nutritionist then Taxol #10.
Blessings to everyone this week!! A big week for a lot of you!!
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Congrats LaCombattan! You did it! Amazing!!
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Yay LaCombattante! Congrats on the milestone of your journey in beating cancer! I couldn't be happier for you!!0
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Congrats LaCombattante!!
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Hooray hooray, LaCombattante! So happy for you!
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Lacombattant- You are awesome!👍 Congrats on finishing the chemo regimen. Also, glad that your Zometa got approved by ins. How many rads txts. will you need? I just got through my 10th of 16. Only 6 more to go for me. Anxious to get to that finish line. Pat🙏
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Bravo la Combattante!!! Felicitations!
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Congrats LaComb!
And I"m done too! Woo Hoo
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Alright April0315!!!
You all are getting me super stoked!
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Alright April!! Congrats! I’m with HappyAnyway... I’m getting excited for Thursday
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YAY April!! Yay HappyAnyway with #12 on Friday! Everyone is graduating!
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Congratulations LaCombattante and April! It's so nice to be finished. Palmetto and Happy, you'll both be there soon!
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Congrats April, did you ring the bell?
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i am so excited, what will I do with my Tuesday’s now?? ANYTHING I want to, that’s what. It sure won’t be sitting in that infusion center. Although they were nice, I’d rather run into them at Costco
I brought a card and dozen specialty donuts, my appointment was at 930. Saw the MO. Lots of information, that I wasn’t quite ready for. But I paid attention. My hormone levels have been drawn a few times thru chemo. They drew another one today to confirm I’m post menopause, the results of that will drive the drug I take, but he’s quite certain I’ll be on Femara (letrozole) for a while. I forgot to asked how long, but it’s usually 5-10 yrs right? He’s ordering a bone density scan and I’ll start Vit C and D.
I need to set up BS and PS appointments and then get my surgery scheduled for the DMX with reconstruction. He also wrote an order to have my port removed during that surgery. I see him again in 4 months. The NP will call me tomorrow to review all that and answer any new questions I come up with.
No bell, but I got balloons, confetti, clapping and a card. And a few hugs. Went out for juice with friends and my husband and daughters to celebrate. Came home and took that 2 hour Benadryl nap.
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Congratulations April! You look and must be feeling amazing! Your picture gave me so much hope for my day in the chair today! Hope for a fast recovery.
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Lovely picture, April. That's a big group!
Just wanted to give everyone some hope and say that suddenly yesterday, I realized I wasn't reaching for tissues to wipe my watery eyes. That has been a terrible side effect for me because I deal with the public and everyone wanted to know if I was "ok". Was pretty irritating to have to continue to say I have no eyelashes to everyone who asked. I still have no eyelashes, but the tears have stopped. I'm 19 days out although I know things happen at different times for all of us. Counting down until I can get my taste back.
Looking forward to everyone joining me on this side of chemo!
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Congrats April!! Lovely pic.
Thanks for the hope BAMR. I have been dealing with watery eyes too and have been using artificial tear drops. Cant wait to taste the food as well. I still dont get the right words when speaking. I wonder how long it takes to get over the chemo brain.
Good day everyone!
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i have had a runny nose this entire time due to the no nose hair. I have to be so careful to blow my nose and wash my hands (obviously) before any patient care. I’ve had a few times leaning over to start an IV and can feel it starting. I’ve gotten really skilled at turning my head so the patient can’t see it, yikes. I’ll be happy to have my energy and my brain power back. I’m sure it will come as this last chemo starts to wear off. I do have to remind myself that even though it was my last, I still need to take it easy this week.
I thought perhaps I had eyelashes again. I tried mascara. I was wrong! There’s a few there but not enough yet!
So happy for everyone else to finish up as well!!
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April. What a wonderful picture. Thank you for sharing. Again congratulations. We drove to Goodyear through that huge storm and tornado on Monday. Crazy scary. Our RN daughter went with us to meet our BS. surgery is scheduled for 11/5. Nat’s WBC’s were once again low. They had to recount ANC to make sure she could do #10. ANC was 1.5. WBC’s was 2.6. Palmetto, Mightilybird our water fast may not have worked this time!!! Grateful to get #10 out of the way. BS could not find the tumor! Praise God! Surgery plan is exactly what we had been advised to have. So we are hopeful. We won’t know about rads until pathology. If no nodes then no rads but there could be one node. They don’t think so but pathology will tell. We are just praying that the WBC’s are good enough for the last 2 chemos
Congratulations to everyone finishing this week. So freaking exciting!!
Prayers for everyone daily!!
J
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Loving these finish line messages!! Rooting for all you guys!!
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