Starting chemo February 2020
Comments
-
I want to do a family photo this fall too to document - think I'll wear a scarf tho - not sure I'm confident enough in my short-short look. Don't want to match my husband in the photo either - he has the covid cut and now we have same color hair.
Yep yep. Acne. And a couple of short shooting pains right to my lower-right abdomen, which I would get on occasion pre-cancer and which I always wondered if it signaled ovulation. Lots of hot flashes lately too. If I get my period again I guess I'll just take it as my body showing off how resilient it is. But... I hope not.
0 -
So my PS this morning removed three of the five drains I had and the two wound vacs. Next Monday will be my first time filling the Tissue Expanders. Everything is healing good. I can't wait to see how my new breasts look because now they are deflected pancakes lol.
0 -
if there's a mirror or your phone you can actually watch them fill up, like a balloon 😁
0 -
I don't know if I'm ready lol. I feel if I look then it will hurt lol
0 -
Fab4mom- my hair is coming in as well. I love that you’re doing Fall photos! We decided not to do them this year because I feel like every year we end up with crap weather when we try for Fall photos in MN haha. I had school photos today and I debated wearing my mullet wig as a joke, but I ended up just wearing a scarf. I think I might brave wearing my hair in public soon. I’m slowly getting used to it.
Micdpowers- I have acne like crazy. I call it my “maskcne” because it seems like it’s mostly from wearing a mask all day at school teaching now and also likely from hormones trying to figure out what to do...
SE- good luck on your fills! I went direct to implants so I didn’t have the full experience, but I hope it goes well for you!
0 -
ajminn - we end up with crap weather in IL too. It’s been a gorgeous year and of course Friday afternoon is supposed to be freezing. It feels so good to just go without anything on my head, I was so sick of headcovers and wraps. I feel kind of badass now, lol.
SE - I only did one fill, but it didn’t hurt getting the drains out was so amazing to me, those things made me crazy
Micdpowers - I have other pms symptoms like headache and backache which had been missing since chemo and have come back I hate the acne, it’s way worse then I’m used to
Big day for me, I went for my first Kadcyla infusion. My doctor recommended icing my hands and feet, So I did. Iforgot how much I hate doing that. They also gave me zofran as premeds, so it felt very much like back to chemo. I’m feeling ok tonight, tired, and maybe a hint of nausea, but ok. Also snuck down to radiation for treatment in the middle of labs etc. radiation is in the basement under my cancer treatment center. Tomorrow is my last radiation, I’m so glad to be done. I’m pretty pink but no pain, overall it was no big deal.
0 -
crazy how different doctors do things. I don't get any premeds, just Tylenol
0 -
Yes, all different doctors do different things, so weird. Feeling ok today, so that’s a relief. Hopefully Kadcyla will treat me well. Finished radiation, brought the crew Who helped mecookies, relieved to have that done and my time back.
0 -
Is anyone experiencing this? Ever since I had surgery when I get hot, not just the hot flashes, when I'm outside in the heat, I get very itchy. I have to immediately go inside to the AC. This has prevented me from taking my usual daily walks outside. It is very unnerving.
0 -
Fab4mom- congrats one finishing rads! So sweet of you for brining some treats! Getting my time back ending rads was honestly the best part of finishing!
SE- I have terrible skin that seems to always be dry and itchy so it’s hard to tell if it’s anything new for me or the result of surgery/meds! I hope you get some answers and relief!
hope everyone else is doing well!
0 -
I finished my last radiation treatment yesterday. Honestly, it went pretty fast, but I'm grateful it's over. My skin is screaming at me and I'm blistering and red. I'm putting 5 different kinds of ointments on, so I'm hoping I'll heal quickly. Everyone at the facility was super awesome so that helped a lot. I have been working through everything, so I'm hoping that I can get somewhat back to a normal routine. I still have Perjeta and Herceptin every three weeks through February.
I so appreciate all of you sharing your stories. It's nice to know that I'm not alone through this journey.
Question: How's everyone's hair doing? My doctors told me it would be curly and gray. Neither is true. It's dark and pretty straight and seems to be coming back very slowly. I'm trying to figure out how to make it grow faster....but no luck.
I hope everyone has a great weekend.
0 -
My hair is still too short to know if it will be curly or not. It is gray, the only dark part is the hair close to the nape of my neck. My natural hair is way/curly and gray so I might not notice much of a difference.
0 -
SE, I do notice that when I start to get hot/sweaty that the skin on my face gets itchy, which is a weird sensation. I'm not sure what causes it.
0 -
my skin on my chest gets itchy and raspy sometimes, more than my face. My face is awful with acne now. Partially maskcne and a lot along my forehead and hairline too.
I’m four days out from my first Kadcyla and three day’s from my last radiation. I had very mild nausea the first few day’s after Kadcyla. Today wasn’t a great day. I was able to keep up and do everything around the house, take my son to swimming, walk the dog, etc. but I have felt heavy fatigue and a bad headache. It’s 7:30 and I just told my husband that I’m done and crawled into bed. I’m not sure if it’s radiation fatigue, the Kadcyla or a bad nights sleep, but I definitely did not feel my best today.
We did get our family photos done and I saw a teaser. They came out good, but I still kept thinking, look how short my hair is! My hair is growing and getting thick now. It seems straight and dark blonde/light brown. So far I don’t see any sign of chemo curls or gray/white hair.
0 -
Ladies, what type of treatments are all of you getting after the chemo and surgery? Is it pills, injections, IVs?
When my surgery was delayed the MO put me on Tamoxifen but she told me that was not the treatment she wanted for me but she would put me on the right treatment after checking my hormone levels. I'm just trying to get an idea on what to expect when I see her on the 19th.
0 -
Im on Tamoxifen until I finish Kadcyla after that, we reevaluate
0 -
Is Kadcyla a pill?
0 -
Fab4mom- I hope you feel better soon. Bummer to be feeling so blah
. That’s good you got to see a sneak peek of your photos! My hair is also pretty thick now. It’s about 2 inches and is the same color as before and as straight as before. I was kinda hoping for some chemo curls, but I’ll just be happy my hair decided to come back at all!SE- I am on zoladex (monthly ovary suppression shot) and aromasin (daily estrogen blocking pill). I’ve tolerated them well overall so far. The SOFT/TEXT trials showed more benefit for pre-menopausal women using OS/AI vs tamoxifen only. As long as my body is handling it and stupid cancer stays away then I’ll continue this regimen
0 -
ajminn3, shots? UGH. That sucks. Crap.
0 -
Kadcyla is more chemo for Her2 positive patients who had residual cancer at surgery. It’s targeted, so much less intense than radiation chemo and it’s given for 14 treatments every three weeks tyocialky. I’ll be starting tamoxifen in a few weeks too and will be on it possibly for five years, but will monitor if I stay in menopause from chemo. If not, the doctor may change my hormone suppression.
0 -
SE- yeah, they give it to you into the fat layer of your stomach (luckily I’ve got a bit they can work with haha). I was nervous about it because I heard “the needle is huge” and that it bruises/hurts, but honestly it doesn’t hurt at all! They give me an ice pack to put on for a bit before they do it. Eventually I can move to the every 3 month shot version if I want to.
0 -
Fab4mom, thanks for the explanation. Today I see the breast surgeon so hopefully I'll get the full surgery report.
ajminn3, I'll use the part of my stomach that's numb from the tummy tuck lol
0 -
Hair... here's a photo of me, early February, on vacation in Hawaii just a couple of days before my biopsy (but knowing based on ultrasound report that I was likely going home to a cancer diagnosis). Lots and lots of curly brown hair (colored to cover some gray). And a photo of my head now. It's thick but too short to tell about straight vs. curls. And it's a color I refer to as "light grey and dark grey". I'm not sure people I haven't seen since early last year would recognize me without my massive amount of hair. I feel like its growing in slow - but if I go back and look at a photo of my mostly bald head from August 1st, I guess it is much better. Gonna take a long time to get back to what I had. I think I'll look older with the grey but I'm not planning to color it anymore. Cancer will have marked me permanently in this way. Hopefully I won't be too confusing looking with my grey hair but young perky boobs.
0 -
Your hair looks great. Mine is all white lol
0 -
micdpowers - your hair is coming in thick, it looks good, but it does look very different.
I just saw all our family pics. I look bad
It’s not just the short hair, my face and skin look so much older. I put a lot of makeup on but I still think I had dark circles. I blame some of that on Kadcyla, bad timing to get it two days before photo shoot. My kids are adorable at least. Still having fatigue today. My nose is starting to bleed again too. I had daily nosebleeds and scabs into early August thanks to TCHP chemo, and they finally healed. Today it was back mildly. I guess for me, Kadcyla really is like being back on chemo, since it is. It’s not as bad, but it certainly isn’t great.
0 -
Fab4mom, I'm sorry. That sucks.
0 -
@Fab4Mom - I think it's the Taxotere that gives us the dark circles under the eyes. Mine have gotten better but, not 100% back to normal.
I'm sorry you're having a rough time on Kadcyla. I too get nosebleeds but, they're very odd. I got 1 during cycle 1 but, it was awful...lots of blood, nothing on cycle 2, then I got 1 during cycle 3 (veey bad) and nothing for 4. If I get it now that I'm on cycle 5 I'm going to wonder how the Kadcyla is able to identify odd vs even 😁
0 -
mmorigan- that is so weird odd versus even, lol. I get scans and mine are back, just feels dry in my nose and if I use a tissue, there are yucky scabs. It hasn’t done a big bleed. I’m hoping the radiation/Kadcyla is making this round harder, and it’ll get better as I get farther from that. We’ll see. I’m glad you are handling it so well, I feel kind of like a baby. I know it’s so much better than the TCHP.
0 -
@fab4mom- sorry you're still having side effects and you didn't like your pics. I can't stand pics of myself right now with short hair and have only take “hair shots" without my face just to see how my hair is growing in. My franken-boobs I don't care about at all...but my hair, ugh. Here's some pics of my hair progression. 1st pic is my hair the weekend after my second biopsy to try to figure out what type of cancer beyond DCIS I had. God I remember crying so much through all the holidays. Horrible. 2nd pic is end of July (2 months post chemo) and 3rd pic is end of September (4 months post chemo).
Also, my skin is super dry now and my eyelashes keep trying to come in, which is causing styes here and there so wearing make up isn’t happening. Plus I wear a mask all day teaching so I avoid makeup because maskcne is such a real thing!!!
0 -
First pic is last week. Second pic is summer 2019. I feel like I aged 20 years. But I’m alive and with my family, so I’ll take it.
Ajminn - I think the hair looks like it’s growing in great, you should totally rock it out in public.
0
