Chezz good to have you back, put your feet up and have lots of cuddles with your boys!
How was lunch, Tamsin?
Senga & Nette, glad to hear things are not too bad for you.
Hope all other JJs. Are doing well.
Been for consultation today and pre chemo checks. Luckily the biopsy of LNs from last week came back clear, Hooray… such a relief. They are stopping the EC and starting Taxol straightaway. First T will be tomorrow morning. I am concern entering an unknown territory and not knowing how I will react to it. Keeping my fingers crossed for a relatively manageable side effects. I will have another ultrasound sound in 4 weeks to determine if T is working, if not then straight to surgery.
I may be absent for couple of days but will post as soon as I get myself together.
Hi Mahsa, excellent news on lymph nodes. Congratulations. Good luck on T tomorrow. I was fine for the first few days till the bloods dropped. Take care and expect tiredness. Feeling much better today Day 8 I have even done a bit in the garden.
Tamsin dont apologise you arent pathetic or moaning. This thing takes each and every one of us in a mangle chews us up and spits us out the other end as hardly recognisable to ourselves anymore. It just seems a barrage of appointments, side effects, being stabbed and feeling crap and then the knowledge you have to keep doing it again and again. We are becoming Pavolvian dogs when we hear the word chemo our bodies go into meltdown!
Cos this is your second time I have wondered how you have found the strength to battle it a second time. I would be screaming to God yet you have nt felt sorry for yourself you have just got on with it. Dont put yourself down girl or I will come across the Pennines and kick your arse ( lardy or not!!!) ha ha you said it before remember Im not being rude!!!
Hi Benedictus, hunt the vein is just plan horrid. For the wig have you tried a wig liner a sort of stocking thing that you can get in packs of two and cost very little under a £5 but I think a lot less. They helped with me.
Chezzap and tasmin which sides of the pennines are you. I am in north yorks.
Piggsy glad to read your post my love. ive hade zopiclone before for when feeling anxious and unable to sleep. What i find is they help get you to sleep but they arent that good at keeping you asleep but then again Im a naturally light sleeper think i sleepliuke a dog, no not in the floor in a basket ha ha but with one ear flapped open at all times!!!
Hi piggsy, first the steroids don’t seem to affect me. I don’t think they keep me awake. I agree with chazz zopiclone helps to get you off but not so good if you wake up at 3 in the morning. I am not a brilliant sleeper but find that if hubby will sleep with his deaf ear up I can have the radio on, an audio book or music playing and I drift in and out of sleep. I have given up on 8 hours solid sleep and have made an agreement with myself that if I am not tired in the morning I have slept enough. With regards the steroids and the White blood cell boost injection I got 24 hours after T, that gives you aching bones as it works on your bone marrow, I am taking anti histamines, paracetamol and ibruprofen and omeprazole all the time so they may help with the steroids and certainly helped with the bone ache. I get them all from my GP. Hope this helps. Sleep tight tomorrow is another day soon over. I am feeling so much better today shame the forecast is rain tomorrow.
The LGFB wksp’s are run at major centres here it is Hull York Leeds. I gave my leaflet to the lady sitting next to me at my last chemo session but I expect one of the other jj will still have the info. You could ask at your local boots. I heard about them in boots when I went to ask about a brow pencil then I asked my breast nurse. I think people just fall through the gaps sometimes. Best thing about LGFB was I took my wig to it. I was wearing scarves or going au natural before now I have the wig on the stair post and pop it on and off like a hat.
Julie, EC hasn’t been easy, but also hasn’t done what they were aiming to do. Shrinking the lump!
Piggsy, I haven’t been given any steroids in advance. I guess i will get it as one of the pre meds tomorrow and to carry on for 3 days. is worrying every hospital does things differently!
Tamsin you haven’t done anything wrong to apologise I have been wearing one of Wellness Turban from Christine headwear made of bamboo materials. Is very light and doesn’t irritate the scalp, also doesn’t slide. Just a thought…
OK girls, I am now signing off. Early start tomorrow.
Hi ladies, thought I should report in just to let you know how the first T went. As predicted shorter poorly time, first 3 days did feel grand and actually got to do normal stuff. On day 4 though it did hit me and boy did it hit me hard I had shocking all over bone ache and me being the usual panicky self (constant infections) didn’t want to take anything that would alter my temperature and hide any infections (I did get one which resulted in an overnight hospital stay). I am on day 10 now and have just been tierd the last couple of days. The bone pain seem to last over the 5 days of my injections which of course would of added to it.
My advice to anyone starting it is to not be a prat like me and take painkillers just check your temp first and invest in hot water bottles which were a life saver. I stayed in bed for the 5 days and didn’t push myself. I did slack in the water department as it tasted so yacky but noticed the more I forced down my neck the better I felt. I found brushing my teeth before I downed a bottle did me the world of good too. Also as I said in another post thick choccy milkshake, sweet coffee and mint tea all were bearable as I found my taste buds were worse on T.
Positves about T though, the administration is so much easier and nicer on our poor veins, less time feeling like crap and no nausea
Sorry I haven’t been on for a while. Had problems logging in for days now.
Hope everyone is doing ok and great to hear Sengas OH is home and doing ok. I see a few more names looking though the thread, so welcome all.
I still have constipation issues which the out of hours doc gave me Ducolax for, and that forced a fairly violent bowel motion that gave me an external hemarroid which has not been pleasant, so high doses of lactulose to the rescue.
Going for my first dose of Tax later today which I am quite nervous about. Been warned by ONC to watch out from day 4 onwards for the run over by bus feeling. I’ve also been given sleeping tabs this time around as I have so much trouble from the steroids. They said I didn’t need the Emend for this session as it doesn’t have the same sickness effect, so here’s hoping
Oh well, best get on with some work as I guees I will be off for a while after this afternoon. I will try to check in a bit more regularly in future ladies.
T session went relatively OK yesterday, just took forever. I felt anxious even before starting the treatment, so didn’t felt very good throughout. Good news is no nausea today, my legs were hurting after I left the hospital, but that may had to do with seating on the chair for 6 hrs. We should be given a bed, rather than reclining chairs where you can’t get too comfy. They told me I don’t need to take any steroids just had one injection as pre med. Considering my next cycle is in 2 weeks , I haven’t been given the white cell boost jab either. Perhaps they think I am strong enough…!
Anyway, hope everyone OK. Thanks so much for your support.
Is grey and miserable in London, hope sun shining where you zre.
Hi All, well if whiskers and I am the trail blazers hear is the Good news.
Day 11, woke to sunshine, got up at normal time. Feel good agree to go for a walk on the beach with hubby, me in winter lined trouser, fleece, softshell jacket and woolie hat. Hubby in sandals and T shirt, in the end he slipped on a softshell jacket.
Park car near beach, do just over a mile have break for a redberry tea, chat and watch the waves sitting out in the sun. Great. September is a wonderful month if the sun is shining. Back to the car, total walk about 2 miles. Very happy. Still enough energy to agree to do Sainburys, that took an hour and I ended up sitting on the chairs at the end of the checkout with the old men.
By this time I will admit to being very tired but have now had lunch and although planning a nap feel fine. Next dose scheduled on 1st Oct so happy days ahead. Hope this helps all of you following. Good luck to all the Monday babes. Xx. Oh yes am still obsessing about thrush so myay stsrt a new post so it is easier to find for those following. But after nap.xx
Kat take some comfort in the fact that if you have sprouted a hair on your chin at least that must mean it will come back everywhere else quickly!! fingers crossed
Tamsin someone was telling me re Educating Yorkshire this morning think I should have tuned in. Im a secondary school teacher in Salford and previous to that taught in Mosside for 14 years ( much prefer Mosside to Salford)
Mahsa fingers crossed for a good weekend for you
Nette it sounds lovely where you live whereabouts are you???
Hi Chazz,
Sunny Scarborough with the beautiful rainbow painted beach chalets.
Orangecat, thanks for that I will get some and try. I have forgotten what food tastes like. I am eating of a tea plate as it is about all I can force down. Through FEC I used foodmto build up my blood count very successfully I am going to have to rely on the white cell boosting injection during T I think.
Hi y’all. Just wanted to touch base. Sorry I’m not very active on here. I have been feeling really rough after my 3rd and last FEC AND JUST WANTED TO TELL EVERYONE. Won’t be doing CC again as the thought of it makes me want to hurl. Relented and got a wig but its tightness makes me think of the cc and so I now associate that with feeling sick FFS. FFFFFFF. As soon as I think I’m over the nausea something sets me off. Usually just an associated thought. It’s mental or I am.
Hi Boxofrogs, well done you are nearly half way there. I don’t follow all the abbrev. but would just say T does not seem to cause the nausea that FEC did. With regard to nausea I was give the normal swap bag at the end of my first session of FEC with clear instructions on how to take each tablet over the following 3 days. I was also give over the 1st cycle 4 anti-nausea tablets to be ‘taken when needed’ whatever that meant. One was donperidone take 3 times a day. As I was waking during the night I took every 8 hours. Then my GP told me it worked by emptying the stomach. MiMS says to take before meals. I take about an hour after meals. They work well for 6 hours. What I am saying is try to find out how your tablets work and them even if you are not given full instructions maybe you can work It out. There are still 2 lots of tabs that I haven’t taken cos I really don’t know how.
Hope this helps with nausea.
For the wig . Have a stocking cap to wear underneath mine which helps. If the sun is shining with you the best lift is fresh air and the only advice I got from my oncologist was exercise has been proven to increase the effectiveness of chemo.
Hi Bof F, well done no more FEC and 1/2 way. I never CC 'd but you move on if it makes you feel cr*p. It is such a joy not to plan your life around anti nausea tabs that dont work, ginger nuts and wrist bands. I did feel only slightly nauseous with the Herceptin . So bring on the T.
Feel better soon Kat xx
I have been wearing one of Wellness Turban from Christine headwear made of bamboo materials. Is very light and doesn’t irritate the scalp, also doesn’t slide. Just a thought…
I had shocking all over bone ache and me being the usual panicky self (constant infections) didn’t want to take anything that would alter my temperature and hide any infections (I did get one which resulted in an overnight hospital stay). I am on day 10 now and have just been tierd the last couple of days. The bone pain seem to last over the 5 days of my injections which of course would of added to it. 