ER-, PR-, Her2+ Roll call

Glad you are doing ok @jessybessy! Are you using Pepcid for heartburn? I had it horrible the first 3 treatments. They would even give me an IV dose at every chemo and fluid infusions.

@catarina_fm please let us know what you find out tomorrow! Praying for great results. And funny you mentioned that about the HR positive ones. At radiation the past two days, a lady who looked familiar has been at radiation as I am leaving. Today I spoke to her and told her she looked really familiar. We figured out that we were at the same chemo infusion place. She asked me about my treatment and if I'd had surgery. I explained that I was HER2+ and had chemo first, then surgery and now radiation. I told her that I had a complete response to chemo praise God. She then told me she didn't know what HER2 was but hers was hormone. Then she said hers only shrunk about 25%. I felt so horrible for blurting out about my complete response. We chatted a bit but she had to get into her radiation treatment. I wondered why hers had only shrunk 25%, but your post explained that a bit. I cried all the way home for her and prayed for God to comfort her because I was afraid I had made her really concerned that she still had a tumor at surgery. Ugh!! I'm going to read up on that type and hope to talk with her more.

So far no SE's that I see or feel from radiation. PE is a different story LOL. My boob is sore where she is working on the seroma! But we both agree it is helping and def. keeping it from getting worse. I still am anxious when I am getting the treatment. But today seemed quicker and seemed over in no time.

Hope everyone is doing ok!!!

@grammie2 I have a friend who has a triple positive tumor and had a reduction of only 50% of the tumor, and in the pathology results after chemo (she did AC and TCHP like me) and surgery, there was still 50% of the active tumor. She is currently taking hormone blockers and Kadcyla. The good part is that he tolerates the treatments very well and even went on vacation to Egypt, 2 months after the surgery! She skipped the radiation part. Therefore, we cannot be discouraged, whatever the result. There is always hope.

My MO said that at the moment HER2+ HR- are some of the ones that have the best results in terms of reduction because of the blessed phesgo. If it had been a few years ago it would have been much more difficult. With TCHP, the faster the tumor cells grow, the better the chemo works!
The "good" part about hormonal cancers is that women can continue taking hormone blockers for 5 or 10 years and we can't take Phesgo or Kadcyla for that long.

I was doing some research and realized that HER2+ cancer has an overexpression of this protein, but there are other "healthy" cells in the body that also have this protein but in normal amounts. One of these cells are the heart cells. That's why we need to carry out cardiac monitoring throughout Phesgo intake.
However, my MO said not to expect side effects from Phesgo, because after all, it is designed to only attack cells that overexpress the protein (cancer cells), not the normal ones! Of course it will end up affecting healthy cells too, but much less. She explained to me that generally, only those who have previously had serious heart problems can experience more SE.

Keep telling us how the radiation is going. I'm happy because it seems like you're adapting well! 🌹

Tomorrow I will be back to tell you what they will tell me at my pre-operative appointment 🙏

Take care!

Day 4 after Chemo #3 was so rough on me, too. I stayed in bed ALL day and started running a fever. Day 5 was better and day 6 great…but day 7? Super tired again (maybe from thrush?). So far so good on day 8. You will feel better, I promise! Sending good vibes and prayers your way!

Question for the group - did any of y'all develop a super, dark red rash on your body? I'm a bigger girl with an apron belly, and have a rash all the way under it. I also developed a red, bumpy rash under my boobs. I read online this is from the chemo drugs and is actually a good sign they are working, but man! It looks horrendous. I alternate putting hydrocortisone cream, anti-fungal cream, and a prescription Nystatin cream that my husband had on it. Luckily, it's not itchy anymore. I plan to send pics of it to my onc and see what they say. I've also got red patches on my hands, but figured that might be from the neuropathy? idk. I thought I was going to make it through treatments easily, but this last go round has me questioning that.

@catarina_fm good

Luck with today’s scans. Let us know what you learn! Hoping for the best news.

Looks like I’ve got a complication and will need a corrective surgery in the new year. Oh well. My PS is confident he can go in the the original scar and put a sling in to fix things. He wants to wait another to months to see if it improves on its own. Sigh. I’m alive and well. That’s what counts. I’ll take it.

Isn't crazy how much we are learning not only about our bodies, but medically? I feel a little bad because I never truly knew what people with cancer were going through. While it is not all "bad" times, it is still tough. My sister-in-law passed away in 2017 from brain cancer….Glioblastoma Multiforme, which is the most aggressive type of brain cancer. Her treatments were not anything like ours are. She underwent surgery to remove as much of the tumor as they could, but being it was spiky-shaped, they knew they would never be able to remove it all. She then had radiation therapy…never chemo. While, my daughter's mother-in-law has Stage IV breast cancer, I just never realized what all she was going through. This is definitely a very humbling experience. I didn't come here to say all that (clearly it was on my mind), however, but to share this article on chemo skin rashes I read online yesterday. My doctor did say I could take Benadryl or Zyrtec if needed, but being that it's not itchy anymore I have chosen not to. I am also to mix together the otc hydrocortisone and anti-fungal creams and apply 3x per day. It's already so much better. My hands are puffy and tingly today, but not as red. This could be Hand Foot Syndrome, not to be confused with Hand Foot Mouth disease. Anyway, I've ran on enough for now. Y'all have a good, relaxing, stress-free weekend!

https://www.healthcentral.com/article/dos-and-donts-to-managing-the-skin-reactions-to-topical-chemotherapy

Bless you, how are you feeling about your surgery? Must be so nice to nearly have the chemo part over.

I'm feeling better quicker than I was with #2 actually (#3 seems to have gone a little easier on me), but have just had mid point MRI today so let's see how that goes. I can't feel masses anymore and nipple is no longer inverted so hopefully this is a good sign...

@catarina_fm My rash on my body and face is clearing up nicely, however, my hands are another story. Surprisingly my nails are in better shape now than before my chemo. I use Sally Hansen Vitamin E Nail & Cuticle Oil on my nails (hands & toes) every morning before applying lotion. My hands…my hands! They are so swollen, tingly, sensitive to touch…my palms and my feet are all fine. It's the top of my hands that are red and puffy and in between my fingers. It hurts to even put on lotion. I took a Tylenol last night hoping to bring down the swelling and am applying Aquaphor today. I read online it's from the Taxotere. I'll be okay…it's only temporary!

Thinking of you with the surgery lovely and hoping for the best outcome for you. If you want to WhatsApp each other or anything, feel free to PM me for my number 😀

Hey ladies! @catarina_fm I am getting Phesgo shots every 3 weeks. My MO stopped them for surgery and restarted about 3 weeks after surgery. She said it was safe to get those during radiation. I had two nodes positive and my surgeon removed 4 which she told me ahead of time she most likely would. (only telling you so you don't worry if they take more than the two).

On the nail topic, I did ice my hands and feet during chemo. I've always had thick fingernails but they seemed to become thinner during treatment. I kept them painted all through chemo as well. They are a little lifted at the fingertip on a few nails, I have multiple ridges across them (I can count at least 5 different lines of them) which they said was a sign of trauma from the taxotere. I really thought mine were going to lift and fall off but they never did. I did soak them periodically in equal parts warm water and white vinegar. I think nail problems can occur a few months post chemo too.

Yay on all of you with shrinking tumors!!!! That's awesome!! And I never had a mid chemo scan. I thought I would but MO didn't order one. I wish they had because I still worry it might have spread between the first scan and the time chemo started working.

@grammie2 ok, I had that doubt, I also had the idea that Phesgo had to be stopped at the time of the surgery but I wasn't sure. Thank you for the tip on the nodes, I think they should remove more nodes in my case, because I had 2 positive biopsies, but when they decided to do more biopsies on the lymph nodes, I had already undergone 3 chemotherapies and they were no longer able to detect any more nodes to perform biopsy. But from the MRI, I should have at least 3 affected nodes! So I prefer the surgeon to take a few more, just to be safe.

Well, my fingernails are decent, my toenails not so much. I only put ice on my hands during the infusion, and I also only put nail polish on my hands. Now I regret not having taken the same care with my feet! My nails stopped growing during AC chemo but now grow normally with taxotere. I also no longer have completely bald areas on my head, I have about 2 or 3 mm of very thin hair all over my head, evenly. The only thing I don't have is eyebrows or eyelashes.

I also wanted to tell you something else, which I asked my MO at the beginning of chemotherapy: From the moment you have the first infusion, cancer cells start to die. If the cancer had to spread, it would have been sooner than that. I had the same concern and they explained to me that once the chemo starts circulating in the blood, the cancer no longer spreads. We only feel a decrease in masses later because the body takes a long time to reabsorb dead cells. So don't worry about that! I'm more worried because it took 6 weeks from my PET to the start of chemo and I don't know what happened in that interval. But from the moment I started chemo, I knew that there was no longer that danger.

@beekaycro24 this is because I had 4 infusions of AC first and now I am undergoing only 4 of TCHP. 8 in total because I had a chance of already having cells circulating in my blood before the start of chemo (that's why I didn't escape the horrible AC). I'm sure you'll be called in for a scan soon! How are your hands? Do you notice any improvements?

@snm this sharing of knowledge between us has been great! It's a big help to understand how others deal with things and it's helping me a lot 🙏

Just checking on everyone and hoping no news is good news! My week has been great - I've been able to taste for the last three days…WOOHOO!! I'm enjoying every minute of it because I know after my treatment next Thursday, it will be back to no taste. Fingers crossed it lasts until then.

Hey ladies!! @catarina_fm sorry you are having the gum issues! That's the worst! Mine was bad with the first two treatments, but got a little better. I started only doing soft foods starting the day after chemo for about 5 days. The least bit of crunchy food seemed to scratch my mouth and hurt.

Has anyone heard from @bailey.boo lately? Praying things are going well!

Today was a busy day for me. Had a Phesgo injection, PT and radiation #9 of 16. It rained here all day pretty hard and pretty chilly. Yuck! Starting to look a little pink and maybe a little more tired. Went to bed pretty early last night and probably will again tonight. One thing I read about radiation fatigue was that resting doesn't help much. PT is helping a little with the seroma, but she said today I have fluid in that breast as well. She worked to move it out so hopefully it won't be an issue after a few treatments.

Oh anyone else with a port find out there is a Heparin shortage? Due to hurricane Helene and a manufacturing plant that is in NC and was damaged. Instead of flushing with Heparin, she used saline with a special "technique" that is supposed to work as well as Heparin.

Hey all! Just saw my bloodwork from my Phesgo injection appointment Thursday. My platelets are down. They always dropped during chemo, but I assumed it was the TC of our TCHP treatment. My MO stopped Phesgo from the end of chemo until about 4 weeks after surgery (so around 2 months of no chemo or Phesgo). My platelets were way up, middle of the good range. I'm having trouble finding SE's of just Phesgo. They all seem to include SE's during chemo, so I don't know if they are chemo SE's or Phesgo SE's. Anyone on just Phesgo with ideas? Plan to message my MO and ask about it.

@beekaycro24 thanks! I had looked at the official Phesgo site and it says "common side effects when given with chemotherapy" so I couldn't decide if those were SE's if you are getting Phesgo without chemo. Guessing I'm in for rollercoaster platelets again.

@catarina_fm So happy that you figured out a solution - Ice! Nails look good!