Dried up prunage for me too, though I wont be sorry to say good by to my periods which have plagued me for years. The lady that does my acupuncture said that she treats patients who are on Tamoxifen to help with the menopausal side effects, so will give it a go when I get to that stage. Seems as though I am an acupuncture convert…might help, so got to be worth a go. The thought of hot flushes and dry and crispy nether regions is so unappealing!
My last dose should be January 4th all things being equal. Was a bit disappointed the chemo wasn’t just for 2009, but see it as a really positive thing that the last one will be done and dusted in the first week of the new year.
I’m loving the idea of a makeover Lynn, might join you on a complete re-image.
Am being swamped with Tax tomoz, so will post again when I have something useful to contribute - SEs allowing.
Keep fighting the good fight peeps, we’re getting there - might be slow and painful, but we are.
Hi Karenap - you and I are in the same boat I think. I also had no nodes and no vascular invasion and was given the choice (oh yes please lol) of whether to have chemo or not - I chose to go with it, but my onc did say that I would have 6xFEC and could see how it goes with the side effects and maybe stop after four treatments - he said any less than 4 is a waste of time but not always necessary to go on to the full six - he brought the subject up at my last meeting with him just before my fourth cycle and said we’d review just before the fifth.
I am most scared of this chemo doing some permanent damage to my body and leaving me in a worse state than I was before, and possibly for no reason - not that I’ll ever know that. the side effects seem to get worse with each cycle and do more damage each time.
I know I’m fortunate to be in the choice position, but it’s very difficult continuing to fight towards something that might not even exist. Just not sure what to do at the moment.
Lynn, my period was due last week and hasn’t turned up - I think the chemo finally thumped the ovaries into submission - wonder if they’ll ever come back. Isn’t it weird how we can get so attached to something that’s plagued us for 30 years or so then not want them to go!
Lol at the prune idea - I look at myself in the mirror every morning and practically see myself ageing - let’s hope a mega makeover in the new year will do us all a load of good - I for one am looking forward to getting some fitness back, I’m sick of being a couch potato.
One good thing - I put some pork in the oven to slow roast and it smells delicious - finally not feeling quite so sick all the time and think I might be getting a (sensible) appetite back! Hooray. Still can’t cope with a cup of tea, though
Good luck with tomorrow’s tax - sounds dreadful, all those aches and pains, even if you don’t feel nauseous all the time.
Hi everyone, feeling a little weird the steroids spaced me out until yesterday,sorry to say I,ve not been sick but am only on one dose of chemo epirubicin 4 cycles so whether it makes a difference I don;t know. I then have 4 cycles of CMF. Thats the boring bits out of the way.On going for my first last Wed my hands were cold so advise warm hands before trying to find a vein got one eventually. not as bad as I thought. Pink wee was unusual didn’t last long though. Thanks for listening wish you all the very best and luck thoses with your 2nd cycles and those still on first and to us newer ones we’ll get there.
love kath
Just a quick one to say sorry Karenap - I’ve got into a bit of a muddle on who is one what and who is starting Tax etc - think the brain is still a bit foggy.
Helen - I ditto your sentiment on chemo doing more damage and leaving us in a worse state. I do often think ‘What the hell is it doing to my body’ - I brought that up with the Onc this time. He threw a few statistics at me which I readily accepted and got on with it. But that’s just it we will never know.
Kayteedid - I found the cycles much the same so things shouldn’t get any worse for you, well done. Do they use heat pads to get a vein? I sit there for around 10mins with a heat pad before they try and get a vein.
Loocie - lots of luck tomorrow, let us know how you got on, fingers crossed.
Lynn x
Hi Lynn,
No worries! What with chemo brains typing rubbish and chemo brains translating everything into rubbish its a wonder anyone here has a sensible conversation!
No, I didnt have a choice as such with the FEC, just a choice as to whether I wanted to take the FEC-T on the end, last 3 sessions. I think the stats she threw at me were not even an extra 3% as no LN involvement. She said i could make a final decision once I had my 3rd EC on 3rd Dec but personally wouldnt suggest going for it.Like most here on FEC its not pleasant but doable so wouldnt go into a complete decline if she recommended it, but will chat with her again at our next meeting a week today. I wonder sometimes how much the survival stats differ for each of us given our different circumstances, ages and general health or whether they churn out approx the same for all of us?
Hope everyone here had as good a weekend as poss - hopefully nearing the end of this sessions worst side effects and looking forward to later in the week when my mouth, throat and tongue can handle a hot curry again!
Another week starting and another week to tick off people!!!
Karen xx
Lol at us all getting confused! Think my brain’s packed up and headed off for the sun - wish I could follow it.
Feeling a bit ill this morning - but nervous because don’t think this is a side effect but possibly another infection on the way - nervously monitoring my temperature - let’s hope it’s not another hickman line invasion. If i disappear for a week you’ll know I ended up in A&E again!
Can’t even type this morning- think I might just go back to bed again - certainly the weather outside isn’t conducive to doing anything positive.
…as for the lacking of brain cells lately…I couldn’t even check my 9yr old sons maths homework after my last chemo session. I knew that I could do it, but my brain just couldn’t fathom it!!! A very frustrating evening that was… luckily my head managed to sort it’s self out after a couple of days!!!
Hi think I spoke to soon yesterday, feeling realy off this morning, but knowing what you’ve all been through feel i can cope. wasn’t offer heated pads for hands will look into it next time. Cheers everyone thanks for messages off for a lie down this is the life A!!
love Kath
Hope everyone is doing ok and those people who have moved drugs are finding them ok! After a week am now able to look and think about the words related to the drugs again without feeling sick! It’s the mental thing doing me in really! Associating everything with hospitals and nastiness!! Think i may go for some hypnotherapy, anyone tried this??? Eating, shopping and gambling seems to take my mind off horrible things but can’t do this forever!
Hope everyone is getting on alright, nearly there!!! xx
hi, i have been having hypnotherapy since starting treatment, to help with anxiety. It certainly helps to make me relax, although as i am coming to the end of treatment i think i am becoming more anxious. I go to a charity run centre that offers a range of therapies, when i am well again i will run a half marathon for them to raise some money. Maybe theres a similar centre in your area?
hope you are doing well
take care
anna
Hi girls,
A week into my third FEC and I think I can say this one was better than the second. Still got a really squiffy head and brain certainly isn’t working too well, some may say whats new???
Kath, when I have my cocktail the onc nurse fills a bowl of hot water for me to put my hand in and plugs the heat pad in so that is ready for when she puts the treatment in. My veins actually feel less uncomfortable after this session than they did before. I was wondering if I would end up with a line but hopefully they are holding out. Just feel more uncomfortable when any needles are put in either for treatment or blood tests. I have also got a second mark on my arm next to the ‘blotch’ that appeared after second FEC, nobody seems to know what it is but just looks like a dirty mark!!
I didn’t have any node involvement either and have to have chemo because after 3 surgeries they found a total of 11cms ductal and lobular. Good job I had big boobs otherwise it may have gone elsewhere. I don’t think they told me any statistics of what good the chemo would do other than it would be a good idea to have it. I know I have been lucky compared to some of you ladies regarding SE’s. Am due to see ONC next week which will be the first time since I started chemo but I don’t expect he will let me off. So onward to TAX and hope it treats me kindly.
Does this mean an end to the nausea and lots more cheese straws??
I for one have gone past the dried up prune stage, I think I was trodden on as well but hayho I look forward to the lovely locks returning, anything would be nice as mine started going grey at 18 and was totally white by 35!! It has cost me a fortune in bottles of colour ever since. I still have eyebrows and lashes so I wonder if I will keep them. Walking around with an eyebrow smudged down to my nose worries me slightly I know I would manage to rub it away.
By the way, I have to ask - has anybody actually licked a lampost yet???
Well, enough of this, hope everyone is doing ok, good luck to everyone having their cocktails this week,
Can’t believe how many typing errors I’ve made so sorry for any I have missed,
Jane xx
Trumpet - I’m with you on the phsycological effects being a nightmare! The word ‘chemo’ makes my stomach churn & gives me the exact same feeling as I get post chemo…anytime anyone asks me about it I have to stop & take a deep breath…very weird. After chemo I can’t touch my treatment arm either (it’s sore all the time now) for a while, as the discomfort I get reminds me of chemo & makes me physically sick. The other thing I really struggle with is I can’t look at the chemo drugs…bleugh!!..especially the epirubicin, possibly because that’s the one that I know makes me sick/bald/fat!! LOL
I think I’m extremely weird, but one of the chemo nurses says that it’s very common. Apparantly an old patient threw up at a chemo nurses feet when she met her in Asda 2 years post treatment! PMSL…how embarassing!! …it’s weird the things that your brain starts to link to the EUGH!!
I’m really glad that I’m finished FEC now… not sure that I could cope with another. I’m jealous of all you ladies who are having a 6 cycle regime!..I still have 4 TAX to go (bloody Lymph nodes!), so you’ll all be finished well before me! :o( …and then I’m onto my 5 weeks of rads, which I’m sure will be a walk in the park after all the crap we’ve been thru!! But I’m sure all you lovely ladies who reach that stage before me will let me know how much fun it is ;o)
Oooh…and your all so brave listening to stats & percentages & stuff!!..I haven’t been told any of those…I think they could sense that I really didn’t want to know! lol…I have seen some pretty scary figures battering about, but I’m just happy for them to throw all they can at me & am even gonna ask for Tamoxifen in the hope she might smile & say yes! My biopsy came back 2/8 then 3/8 for hormones, so I figure that it might do me some good?? Surely if it was 4/8 then it would be 50% hormone receptive?? Seems common sense? That makes me think that I might get some benefit!? I could be completely wrong, but I forgot to ask last time I seen her! DOH! My OH is ready to ask next time while I sit & smile politely! LOL
That really doesn’t surprise me Hayz about that lady in the supermarket. I’ve had the same lovely nurse 3 times but knowing what I feel like after she has put those horrible syringes into me would always remind me I suppose. Hope I don’t meet her anywhere public!!! I don’t think I watched her doing it last time either and that horrible orangey one which I kept saying was blue because I am told blue is healing (I think it has something to do with Reiki - sorry don’t know how to spell that) Yeuch. Will we ever forget???
Don’t worry about us being slightly ahead, you could finish before all of us yet!!
I hope we are all still having a chat this time next Christmas and letting each other know how we all are, how much hair we have, how beautiful we are etc etc and def how well we are!!
Keep smiling, love to you all,
Jane xx
Hi kath,
My veins also shrivel and turn to jelly at the sight of a needle. I bought some of those heated back pain wraps and tie those round my arm about 4 hours before chemo then sit with my arm in a bucket of very hot water once I get to the hospital - seems to be working so far. Only have one is the side of my wrist and one in the side of my forearm that they share between chemo and blood tests so looking after them, massaging them and even talking to them to persuade them to hold out!!!
I had to ask my oncologist for the survival percentages etc. She said right at the beginning that she would give them to me but I had to ask as she didnt assume that everyone would either want to know, or could cope with knowing - worked for me but not for everyone obviously!
Good luck with the next round!
karen xx
Had 3rd FEC last Wed - first two days were great compared to last two - took all the drugs and did not feel so sick but once I ran out of strong stuff - emend and ondastron - the qeasyness has returned - still a lot better than before though. Dr Dish (my onc)confired that the sore scaly feet are a SE - Palmer Plantar - I think and has prescribed vitain B6 an lots of cream, he said it was usually an allergic reaction (on TAX) but I had not had chemo for 4 weeks so I have confused him, I am ‘atypical’ apparently. Lynn you might need the vits. Do you think soe of the aches on TAX might be the bone marrow building up rapidly?
Karen must be horrible to have to choose whether to have TAX I was not given choice as I have node involvement. It’s very worrying to have to choose your regime - and not really knowing the long term damage done to healthy cells and general health…
Helen your needle episode happened to me too - my OH forgot to draw fluid back into syringe and he then bent the sharps needle lol so gave it a miss that night. I had to wait two weeks for a sharps bin to be delivered by Initial Services!!!
Got my charity event tomorrow night - getting excited and nervous.
Hope you are all bearing up at whatever point you are at - it has all been done before and it s all do-able in the end - Come end of January we shall all have turned the corner and waved bye bye to chemo - keep smiling xxxxxxx LynB xxxxxx
Jane, Trumpet and Hazel - I know what you all mean about the psychological effects of chemo. I sort of freak and feel nauseous at the sight of certain things. Also even a sort of word association and I feel nauseous. I was trying to explain this to my OH but he doesn’t quite understand. Ginger was the reverse for me during FEC - I kept saying things like ‘I’m going to remove all those ginger cordial bottles because I can’t look at them with feeling nauseuous’. And when we were cooking a bit of a stir fry last night he stuck a fresh piece of ginger under my nose and said isn’t that just a lovely fresh smell. NO NO NO - don’t do that, I know feel queasy. To try and explain it to him further I showed him Hazel’s post about the woman throwing up in the supermarket 2 years later post chemo. We had a laugh about it but by reading some of your comments he is starting to understand.
Bone aches lasted 4 days - could barely walk but got through it with some help with painkillers. Worse two things for me on TAX is that I still ache all over (like flu) and it has been a week, hoping this would have been better by now. I think Lyn you might be right about the bone marrow building up. The taste in my mouth is vile and my tongue has ulcers all over it and is so so painful to eat.
Can’t use Difflam because it burns - might have to get some advice on this one.
LynB - strangely I had a rash and slight peeling on hands during FEC. The Onc told me it was the 5FU (fluoracil) bit that did that. It is one of the side effects on TAX but I have only got one tiny sore area on my foot. So hopefully this won’t be a problem for me.
Have a great Shaveathon tomorrow night - raise lots of money.
Hope you are doing OK Loocie. Keep strong everyone.
Lynn x
