Hi Jayney. i remember thinking i can never do that, and now so close!
good luck with that last one
take care
anna
Thanks Anna - you aren’t far behind
x
Hi girls, just wanted to say a big Good Luck to everyone nearing the end of chemo ( and to you Dae for tomorrow. Hope your feeling a bit stronger and, you’re nearly there too!). I’ve got my 6th and final one tomorrow, cannot believe it! When I started this journey it felt like an impossible task but I’m here, still fighting and so thankful to being treated. If you are reading this and just starting out then YOU CAN DO IT! it’s not easy and everyone of us reacts differently but it is do-able. Find out about radiotherapy tomorrow too so will have a look at that thread too as this forum has helped me so much. Even if you don’t participate it’s amazing how much support just reading it gives.thankyou and let’s all kick ass!!! Deborah xxxx
hi, good luck Deborah, i found my 6th cycle the easiest, so fingers crossed that you will, im hoping my next 2 are the same, well easier if thats ok lol. So many times i have thought, no more, but then you feel better and its bring it on.
We have all done so well, and im sure we will be stronger for it.
take care
anna
Just back from hospital, exhaustion will probably set in shortly so my last post for a few days i expect! thats no. 5 over -JUST ONE TO GO, WOW, NEVER THOUGHT I’D GET THERE!!! I know there are others around same stage as me, Anna for one, and Deborah i think - can we have an online party to celebrate whrn we’re all finished?? For those of you still with a few to go, hang on in there, there will be times when you feel you can’t carry one, I had plenty of those, but you can do it, each one is one less and the end is nearer in sight. It’s only a few months of our, hopefully long, lives, thanks to the treatment. Right off to the settee now!
dae x
Dae - well done you, keep crossing them off. Hope this one is easier for you. I have my last one on Monday and it can’t come soon enough - that will be No 8 for me and like you, I never thought I could do it. I have to have Herceptin for a year so will be a frequent visitor at the hospital :(, but in the big scheme of things, I will do whatever to get over this …
I’m enjoying a few “normal” days before next hit, but on the whole feel good, but very tired. It just comes over me and I have to sleep!
Rest up now and keep warm, chilly down here today.
Love to all
xxxx
Hi everyone, Dae an online party sounds good! i will certainly be glad when i have my last one as i am asking them to take the picc line out too, double celebration me thinks. Time to put your feet up, mine isnt due till next wednesday.
take care everyone
anna
Hi Girls, sorry to hear that so many of you have been having a bad time of it. Well done to all who are on the final strait, I’m very jealous!! Your words do give great comfort that there IS an end to it all, sometime!
I escaped for a week in Ireland for a family wedding then had second treatment when I got back. I expected it to be like the first…BIG mistake! I had 2nd TAC a week last Tue then didn’t leave the house until about midnight the following Friday when OH took me for a lovely moonlit walk (lasting about 3 min!!) along the country lane we live on - I was in agony with the leg pains and HAD to do something! What is it with those injections? I only have one big one (as opposed to one a day for several days), and the inj its self isn’t too bad, OH gave it to me this time, and do you know what my delightful Irish farmer said to me?
“Nothing to it, it’s just like dosing cattle”
Charming!!
This time around I was completely knocked off my feet - I think no matter how much I read/heard the descriptions of the tiredness/exhaustion, I didn’t quite comprehend it until last week. I couldn’t have imagined that after a nights sleep, the simple task of getting dressed and walking downstairs would have me collapsed on the settee for two hours to recover!
I did find that gentle exercise helped my leg pain, but how do you exercise (even gently) when you’re that tired? Not to be defeated I came up with a cunning plan…I lay on my back on the settee whilst OH took hold of my feet and gently pedalled them as if on a bike. I found it amazingly soothing and the good laugh we got out of it certainly helped as well 
My hair came out pretty much on schedule - Onc told me 10-14 days after first treatment, and was pretty well spot on. What surprised me was how painful it actually was - did anyone else get that with the hair loss? I had a general soreness of my scalp and the sensation like lots of pin pricks going into my head, on touch, for about 4 days. Did anyone else get this or am I just a bit weird? I’ve not read/heard about it before, maybe its just insignificant compared to the rest?!
Also, not all of my head hair actually came out - I’m rather perplexed!! (how much info is too much? The rest of my body hair all came out if you know what I mean, with the exception of eyebrows and lashes so far) So I’m left with a fine and very thin, but rather even, covering of short hair - OH gave me a number 4 all over before it REALLY started to come out. I have been described as many things, the most recent likening me to a baby chimpanzee with the hair - I think I should be offended with all the animal analogies!!!
OK, I do rather ramble on don’t I? I think I’m just grateful to be able to use a computer again after a week of not being able to face it!
Good luck to all those in the crappy bit right now - Keep the Faith, it’ll be over soon
Hugs to all
Sarah
xxxxx
Hello everyone!!
I finished my 6 cycles of taxotere end Aug this year and went through exactly the same as all of you ( I didn’t go off chocolate though…lol ).
I’ve just sat and cried after reading all your blogs, am soooo overwhelmed at how fantastic we all are, going through this sh*t time.
I had a bi-lateral mastectomy in March after recurrence in the right breast ( I had lumpectomy, FEC and radio 6 years ago ). I have an appointment with a plastic surgeon about a recon, which will hopefully be in March ( I have it all worked out )…
I am going to be Fabulous at 40! :O)
I wish I’d have came on this site whilst on tax, I sat in the house, on facebook, watching loads of dvds people had bought for me, feeling sorry for myself all the way through, as swine flu had become rife in my hometown a day after my 1st cycle ( completely neurotic ).
I got myself “fitted up” with a double mastectomy swimsuit recently and am now swimming 3 times a week, and also helping set up a support group, have just passed my English GSCE ( innit ) and am currently doing my Maths and am loving life again.
I still get down days, but there are more good than bad.
Anyways, am waffling now.
Just wanted to say hello to everyone, and good luck to everyone whatever stage they’re at in life. Stay strong, positive and keep smiling and laughing.
Love to you all!
Lis :O)
x
“We deny our vulnerability in pretence of strength, instead of discovering our strength in the acceptance of our vulnerability”
Hi everyone
I’m new to the world of forums (!!) and just wanted to firstly say thank you to everyone for all the advice, tips, help and experiences you have shared – they have boosted me no end - I only wish I had gotten involved in this great support mechanism alot earlier.
I have actually just posted asking for comments on the side effects of docetaxel but then I found this thread and am now working my way through all your comments!
I have my 6th and final chemo treatment next week - yippee - and with all your help I know I will get through it with a more positive frame of mind to cope with the side effects that laid me out last week!!
Thanks again.
Mary xx
Hi all
Just dropping in to say had my final TAX on Monday - yay. All 8 done, thank goodness. Just waiting for Bus to stop and drop off SEs - usually tomorrow. Hope you are all doing ok and keep going girls, the end of chemo is in sight.
xxx
hi Jayney, i had my 7th chemo today! yay, last one in 3 weeks. My oncologist said they wont know if chemo has work till they operate as he doesnt think it has shrunk. But he did say it could be dead cancer and just hasnt shrunk. He also said today that they wont be doing a immediate recon as they need to find out whats going on with tumour, and then decide what further treatment. I really dont think i could handle more chemo so soon, fingers crossed it will be rads. He then dictated his notes and i couldnt help here him say end stage3, that scared me too. I guess in the grand scheme of things its all nothing i dont know, it just sometimes catches up with you. I mentioned too the palpatations, he said to get in touch for an ecg if happens again, like saturday, but when nurse checked my picc line, it was 1cm too far in, i have been telling the district nurses that for weeks, so that may be the reason for palpatations? i hope thats the end of them. How depressing do i sound? sorry all, on a brighter note i did tell my OH that i can throw my fake boob at him when im mad at him.
take care
anna
Well done Anna, hope No 7 is kind to you. Yes, I know what you mean it all catches up with you. I wanted something to cling on to from my ONC on Monday, but didn’t get it! After getting to the end of 8 chemos I was on a high, but “it’s part of the treatment plan”. He is very black and white and that is what I like about him, but it’s now onto the surgery. No rest eh!
Put those feet up and hope you don’t suffer too much this time.
xx
Yes Jayney, you are right, that totally puts perspective onto how i feel. It wasnt really anything new i guess, i was hoping for immediate recon but i know his reasons make sense. I also know that we wont know if chemo has worked till surgery. Maybe it was just the high from nearly finishing chemo that makes me feel todays appt didnt go well. It really is a rollercoaster isnt it?
I think it has only just dawned on me that there is a possibility of more chemo after surgery, so its just fingers crossed that they operate and find the cancer is all dead. And thats got to be as much a possibility too!
hope the chemo bus doesnt hit us too hard
take care
anna
Hi all
Just been reading the latest posts, there are some brave ladies out there, to know you still have to have surgery after chemo ( I had sugery then chemo) and maybe even more chemo yet you remain stoical and cheerful. Makes me feel a pathetic wimp, feeling sorry for myself this morning (whats new), I’m on day 9 after 5th TAC, getting over the worst of the usual side effects (usual for me, not as bad as some of you get) and feel very low. I keep telling myself to make more effort to be positive and cheerful and stop being pathetic and miserable but I don’t listen to myself. For the first few days after chemo I don’t let friends visit, I just don’t want them to see me like that and feel too bad to talk. I only see my husband who just cannot cope with me being like this, my mum and 3 sisters are 500 miles away, how I would love them to be able to pop in. I honestly feel that my marriage will break up after this, I know my husband thinks I’m pathetic and should make more effort. we’ve said such cruel things to each other, always during the first few days after chemo when I feel so bad. I’ve tried to get counselling through the Mustard Tree/MacMillan but the appointments have had to be cancelled, latest one because I was in hospital for 12 days with an infection and neutropenic. Is the way I am feeling “normal” or should I be doing more to help myself? I am usually a pretty strong person emotionally and USED to have a very busy life before this and just can’t see me getting back to that. I know I’ve had it pretty easy compared to some of you, I’m 58 so no young children, I’ve had the surgery, nearly finished chemo, rads to come, can’t have herceptin or any other hormone treatment as triple negative, so I should be out the other end of this early next year. But I feel it has changed me and I have a different perspective on life and things, different priorities. I suppose thats inevitable. How do you all cope with it all?
dae x
Hi Dae, so sorry you are feeling so down, i think a huge difference for me is that my OH is so supportive. Dont get me wrong, i often have a go at him on day 3, maybe its withdrawal from the steroids, but he just says back oye, dont speak to me like that, hes great. You must feel quite alone and i think you sound like chemo isnt being very kind to you, but take a day at a time and you will get there. My day was wobbly yesterday but Jayney put that hugely into perspective for me, i was on a high cos going for 2nd to last chemo, and was brought down to earth at appt. It wasnt anything i really didnt expect, but shocked me still a bit. But thanks to this site i feel better about it.
I find it difficult being so helpless, you sound like you have always been independant, that will come back, you wont always feel so frustrated and you will get your life back, maybe a little different but maybe for the better,
take care
anna
Hi girls, just had my last FEC but this one was the worst I have had! I couldn’t get out of bed for a week! I’m having my first taxotere in 23rd dec and really worried because I don’t know what to expect! is it really as bad as they say and how long should I expect to stay in bed for? My white cells are 2.5 so i’m open to infection! If anybody could give me some tips to get through it that would be great! any one on any humorous tips on what NOT TO SAY to a person having chemo!
Hi Pennyapple, I go for my second tax on Tuesday if it’s anything like the first one I’ll be delighted. Didn’t have much in the way of SE’s, tiredness and numb tongue, bit of bone pain but nothing bad enough to take pain killers for. No sickness, just an afternoon nap for the first week. So it’s maybe not as bad as your fearing. Who knows though, maybe I’ll get hit bad this time! Best of luck anyway, I’ll let you know if it gets any worse.
Take Care
Andreax
Hi Pennyapple
My 1st tax was the worst, but I think for me it was a new drug for my body. I just dosed up on paracetemol and managed to see Coldplay in Concert so couldn’t have been that bad!!! I find that day 5 is my worst day, have a bit of crash post steroids, but these have been reduced each chemo so that has been a lot better. Tend to have 4/5 days of feeling ropey and then come round again. Everyone is different. For me the TAX SEs don’t kick in straight away, I get 2 good days post chemo then wallop. I’m not sure if TAX is worse than FEC. For me I felt constantly nauseaus on FEC, but perhaps if I had TAX first I would think FEC was worse. I have just had my 8th chemo and think for me 7 and 8 were the worst, the tiredness just hit me like a steam train! It is an accumulation afterall. Listen to your body and don’t pre-empt things based on other people’s experiences! best of luck
xxx
Dae
Sorry you are down. I think you need to think about each day as it comes and don’t think too far ahead and beat yourself up about it. Like Anna, my OH is very supportive so am lukcy. You have to think about yourself and deal with this in a way that suits you - not anyone else. It is not about anyone else, it is about you and you have to do it your way! Cruel things can be said but there are a lot of chemicals and drugs rushing around your system. Can you be honest with eachother about you feel??? Hard I know. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Not sure how I cope, I am just very focused on beating this disease and living life to the full.
best of luck
xxx