Starting Chemo March 2021
I couldn't find a thread for Chemo March 2021 and I thought to start one. I will be starting my AC chemo on March 11th. Anyone else starting this month?
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I just wanted to wish you luck. I have my last chemo next Tuesday. It feels overwhelming at first, but actually goes by fairly quickly! Best of luck to you and the other new ladies. The RN's are fantastic- most are so friendly and talkative. Make you laugh. Good distraction. I brought a book or an iPad to watch shows. My appts were usually 3-4 hrs. I also have a short blond wig I am giving away. It is petite-average size. If interested, I can send a pic. I wore it only a handful of times. I bought a brown one on PaulaYoung.com. That website shows how to measure your head for sizing. Her wigs are reasonably priced and look real.
Julie
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Add me to the club. First of 4 TC is tomorrow. Just got the port yesterday. Am prepared with icing for hands and feet, Claritin for neulasta bone pain, nausea meds. I dont know- just read a bunch of stuff on this site. Ordered some beanies for my soon to be hairless head...Super nervous about side effects but glad to start and get it over in a few months. Knew I'd need some rads but the chemo was a surprise. Oncotype 32. This is a second go round after 7 years ago, onco was a 2 and after bilateral mastectomy no rads or chemo, so this new tumor was a whole other ball game.
Good luck to all other starting now!!!
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Hello Aram!
I will be starting TC, 4 cycles, later this week or early next week. My MO was debating between AC-T and TC and we settled on TC, followed by radiation and homone suppression.
It looks like chemo is the first treatment you are getting, probably due to HER2+? I'm sorry that you are finding yourself here, and I'm hoping your treatment will go by fast! We can do this!
Editing to say Hi! Aviva5675! I think we posted at the same time. Wishing you luck. The hospital gave me a free wig, I bought some head wraps, have prescriptions to pick up and waiting for an exact start date
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Jujumartin So great to hear your are at the end of it. I hope the side effects weren't bad. Thank you for the wig, for now I have decided to go with beanies. I am not sure if I will like it but it seemed considering I am home most of the time it should work.
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aviva5675 good luck tomorrow! I will be a week behind you and hopefully we can compare side effects, and how it goes. I need to talk to my MO about Claritin and Nausea meds. I didn't know the icing helps for AC as well, I thought it is only for Taxol. Probably I should order some from Amazon.
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GreenOutdoors, yes, because of HER2+ we are going with chemo before the surgery. My MO has been very sure about starting with AC, I was the one questioning why not TC instead specially because I am HER2 positive and Herceptin can't be given with AC. But for now it is 4 ACs, then TC. Hopefully we can get through this with not lots of side effects.
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ladies,
Chemo is different for everyone. I never had vomiting or nausea. My appetite was fine, no mouth sores. I had 4 cycles of AC and each cycle gave me different side effects. I had sinus stuff, fatigue and diarrhea. But only for 2-5 days each 14 day cycle. I think I only had 3 days where I stayed in bed resting. Otherwise I worked from home 2 days a week. Hair fell out by day 17. Lived pretty normally. Be kind to yourself and take the meds if you need them. I actually take Claritin for seasonal allergies year round, and never had pain with Nuelasta. I have a blog if you'd like to read about my experience. go to: jujuscancerjourney.WordPress.com
Best of luck to you all! Keep positive and drink lots of fluids. Read stories of successful survivors. Pray and look for the silver linings. Pity parties are ok too, just don't stay there long. There's always something to be grateful for, even in cancer treatment.
Julie
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Jujumartin, thank you for sharing your experience. I do hope ours would go smoothly as well. Fingers crossed.
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Hi everyone! I will start 3 months of weekly Taxol tomorrow, I already had my mastectomy and got my port in on Monday, it is very itchy and still sore but they told me they will use it for my first infusion. I am a bit nervous about all of these but I am staying positive, I hope fatigue doesn’t hit me too hard because I have a 5 year-old full of energy that wants to be entertained all day. Good luck to everyone and I hope everything goes well for all of you.
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Hello, yes I am starting TC onMarch 11. , only 4 times once s week three weeks apart. I am very scared to do this , going to try and cold cap and again scared if I can do it. 🤞
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Hi Shani15, good luck with your first treatment. My son turns 5 in April too. We have had a talk with him that I am going to be tired for a while. I hope it goes well for you.
Hi Carols, I get rounds of anxiousness as well but going through chemo threads for previous months have helped me control it a bit.. Good luck.
aviva5675, let us know how it goes today
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hi all! I believe I will be joining this group, though I don’t have a start date yet. I’ll be doing 4 rounds of AC and 12 weekly Taxol. I will cold cap with the DigniCap, my MO is the only one within 100 miles who has the machine in her office so I’m grateful and hope it works!
I have 3 kids aged 12, 8 and 3. The older two are in school 2 mornings a week and do virtual the rest of the week. This makes everything more challenging of course. Trying to arrange a sitter to help me on infusion days and then will rely on my family for the days I’m not feeling well.
I’m getting a port Monday morning. Got a Covid test this morning. Feeling super anxious but know this is for the best to try to make sure this never comes back! Oncotype score was 39... my age. Lol yikes
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Taralynn, we have similar treatment plans. I don't have my port yet though, and I think first one would go without it. I am anxious about the "Red Devil". By the way do they do cold capping for AC as well?
And I totally understand your worries for children, I only have one and he will be 5.
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Aram - I started 4 DD A/C in Jan 2020 and then had 4 DD Taxol - chemo ended toward the end of April. My MO had told me that cold capping wouldn't be very effective with the "Red Devil" so I didn't try it and ended up shaving my head on Day 14 after first dose. I didn't have too much difficulty with the A/C - they have plenty of meds to keep nausea at bay and the Claritin kept the Neulasta bone pain from effecting me. Each treatment cycle definitely kept to a pattern - and after a few day of fatigue I really felt good until the next chemo treatment. Taxol was harder for me because the Claritin wasn't as effective with bone pain and I actually felt depressed on days 5/6. I will say that while I had heard people share that they could feel poorly one day and then wake up next morning feeling great - I didn't really believe/understand this until I experienced it. That really helped me on bad days because I knew I could wake up next day feeling great. I was told to focus on hydration, walking and eating protein and that really seemed to help - I walked almost every day at least 3 miles - sometimes 7. You can do this!
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Hello Corals,
I’m also doing 4 TC cycles and just found out that I start Tuesday 3/9. Were you also given steroids, two anti-nausea medicine, Claritin, Omeprazole? I’m very scared too! But we will be ok!
Aviva5675, I hope your first treatment went without complications and that you are feeling ok.
Everyone else starting this necessary evil soon, I’m hoping that knowing this is temporary will help us make it through.
I had my port put in two weeks ago and ended up with a pneumothorax and fou painful days in the hospital. I debated mentioning this here because I don’t want to worry anyone here unnecessarily (we are all worried enough!). But it does rarely happen, I recovered fine and the port itself doesn’t bother me. It better work properly though! It did delayed the start of my chemo and I have to work through treatment and watching my available days off disappear is stressing me out.
I have a 17 year old daughter who is being so kind and mature, I’m sad for her between covid and my diagnosis she is having a lot less fun than she should at her age.0 -
Hi all. My name is Chrystal. Longtime reader, first time poster. Glad to have found this site, and this group. I had my first round of TC yesterday. It was much less scary than I anticipated, and side effects not bad so far. Weird taste in mouth and pretty tired last night. But anti-nausea meds seem to be working.
I read from other posts that the side effects are the worst on days 3-5, so we shall see.
I wish everyone well and look forward to sharing this “journey” with y’all.
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Hi Chrystlx, thank you for sharing this! I’m glad to read that you are doing well so far. I did read the same thing about day 3-5. I mostly read and not post very much, and others experiences are so helpful.
Aram, I don’t fully understand how doctors decide on which treatment to give us, so please forgive if I write something wrong. It does seem like AC is the standard, stronger chemo, so those HER2 cells can be better targeted. My oncotype score for my right side tumor which spread to my lymph nodes came back a low 6, which triggered the change from AC-T to TC. I do/did have bilateral bc but an oncotype wasn’t ordered for the left side and that side had not spread to the lymph nodes. My MO feels that AI + Lupron will give me the most protection from recurrence because of strong ER+. I hope our doctors are right
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Maddy83f Thank you for sharing your experience. It has been days I am trying to get answer to whether I need to do cold hands/feet or not. What you are saying matches what I had found so far so it is reassuring. I am really happy you didn't have a very hard time on AC. I really hope it is the same for me. I am going to take all precautions like taking Claritin, antinausea meds, and lots of drinking water. I hope they work, as they are the only things in my control.
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GreenOutdoors Honestly I don't understand either. I asked my MO the same question, and he mentioned AC is the gold standard. I don't know my oncotype though. I am only HER2+, and from HER2+ forum it seems most people are getting treatment with TCHP, but maybe because my grade is 3, and I have at least two seperate tumors, he has decided to be more aggressive.
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I am two weeks away from my last/fourth round of chemo (T&C) and I have been pleasantly surprised by how not awful it's been! I'm out of it for about 4 days during the three-week period -- just major fatigue and brain fog. And so far, I'm happy with the cold cap. I've lost about 40% of my hair -- all in the back. But whatever I can hang onto, I'm grateful for.
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Hi, Everyone, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be starting chemo this month as well. I'm meeting with the oncologist on Tuesday. I'm having chemo before my surgery because of the positive HER-2. Today I met with the surgeon for the first time, and she said she thought it would start as soon as possible. I'm scared of this part, but I also know next to nothing about it yet. I'll read the forums to see if I can get a better sense of what to expect. I just got diagnosed on Wednesday and had the biopsy on Tuesday. My MRI is tomorrow. It has been a week.
There is so much to learn! I'll add more as I figure it out with my providers. Good luck to those of you who are starting treatment in the coming week. Please post about your experiences. And take care.
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Hi JamG,
What a week you’ve had! I’m so sorry that you are finding yourself here, kudos to your providers on the fast turnaround for your testing. I was diagnosed a couple of months ago, and this forum/website is where I keep coming back to for real and specific answers from people sharing their experiences and knowledge. Anyways, I just wanted to say hi
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JamG, I am sorry you are here with us. The first days after diagnosis were really hard for me. But seeing other women on this site, I am more hopeful we are going to get through this. I haven't started my treatment yet. My first one is going to be this Thursday.
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hi y’all. Day 3 of cycle 1 (T&C). Still feeling fairly well. Mostly fatigued. I don’t have much of an appetite, but not really nauseated. Meds still doing their jobs.
I’ve been brushing my teeth with biotene toothpaste and using the mouthwash, so far so good with no mouth sores. Wanted to be proactive there b/c that sounded terrible.
Basically, just taking it easy, napping, reading, tv- thankfully feeling pretty good.
Thought I’d keep ya posted since I always liked reading about people’s experiences.
Good luck to you all!!
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JamG- the initial diagnosis week is such a blur! From the appointments to telling people, to trying to learn everything right away. Glad you found this site. It has really been quite helpful!
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hi Chrystlx, I am happy you are not having very bad side effects. I am very prone to canker sores as well. I looked at Biotene products and it was written for Dry Mouth symptoms. Is that the one you got?
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yes! It was also recommended by my dentist when I went in for my pre-chemo cleaning. I know it’s early, but so far so good.
Also got some sugar-free popsicles
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1st TC was Thurs. Slightly nauseous yesterday afternoon, took a pill. The neulasta went off right on schedule and took about 50 minutes to empty, then I removed it no problem. Felt ok this morning then go really tired and foggy in afternoon and napped. I never nap so this will be a new experience. Not much appetite either but know I need to have something. Doing the salt/baking powder rinse every few hours for mouth sores- this worked well for me when I took Ibrance. Am worried about the next few days of symptoms, but hopefully have meds for each thing. Ill keep taking Claritine, well, Walitin, til at least next week, and fingers crossed not much bone pain.
Good news, Florida opened covid shots to those under 65 with Dr letter, and I go Monday for that! Very psyched to have my first shot finally.
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