Thanks for the info.Had marker put in on Tues,not too bad,and the good thing about having the local is you can’t feel the mammogram afterwards…squash away I thought!
Picked up my free prescription form this morning,anyone know how long it takes to process? Don’t need anything at the moment but I like to be prepared…
Wishing everyone a lovely bank holiday weekend,
Lots of love,
Helen x
ps Snoogle,it’s a good job my husband doesn’t read these posts,I’m sooo not interested!! Hope you got the result you wanted.
All my hair decided to evacuate yesterday… in rather dramatic fashion, so I had a fight with the clippers last night and the clippers won!! I know most of you girls have lost it already with the FEC, but I have found today the day I finally feel I have cancer. I don’t think I have faced up to it till today! Been dealing with the first chemo symptoms like it was some bug, but now I feel better, I’m back to my normal self. I know it’s till the next time but today well looking in the mirror has been painful and I don’t know why? I’m not even a vain person… sorry for Rabbiting on. just been a freaky day…
Hi Fiona, I know exactly how you feel. When my hair started to go, I found it soooo distressing. once it was all gone, I quickly adjusted and feel quite okay with it now (I finished 3xTax a month ago). When it was coming out in clumps it just brought it home to me that I had cancer - before then, even tho I’d had surgery and was having chemo, I looked the same on the outside, but this made me LOOK like I had cancer. And of course how we look is part of who we are, and how other people see us, I think it’s a huge thing but getting the clippers to it was a wise decision, as I say once it’s all gone, you will feel better about it. And mine started to grow back not long after I started Tax. Eyelashes and most of eyebrows are still missing but it’ll all come back eventually I’m sure. Have as many freaky days as you like, it’s par for the course! Take care, Pat x
PS Hope everyone else is doing okay. x
Pat I agree with everything you just said , you have such a good way of saying things. I felt better when I had got my hair off, but it is very distressing. I have also got used to it now but have not gone out without my wig My hair has started to grow back a bit so I m fine around the house. Hope your radiotherapy went ok today nearly the end for you now brilliant!!.My taste has now come back till the next time 12 may No 4 Tax. May have some wine & chill out now.Missin Hells Kitchen did nt mind who won but Linda was lovely.
Couldn’t agree more with what’s already been said.It took me by surprise just how much losing my hair affected me,but now it’s all but gone,bar one persistant tuft,I’m kind of use to it.The inbetween bit is definitely the hardest(and the messiest).
My wig is growing on me(I wish!)and I wear scarves,hats etc.After years of having long straight hair I’m looking forward to trying out some new trendy hairstyles as it grows back,
Hi All, Ange, glad your taste is back, it’s lovely when it does return, altho it just encouraged me to eat even more! You have some wine and enjoy, it’ll soon be over. And I too am missing HK, Marco is a bit of a hunk, but I thought Bruce G was lovely, leaving coz his wife needed him, what a man! Helen your once straight hair may come back curly and a diff colour so you may have pleny of opportunity to experiment. It’s been so long without hair that it’s gonna be a real novelty when it returns, I’m a bit impatient but for now the wigs are fine for when I’m out - don’t bother indoors but don’t want to advertise my situation to all and sundry when I leave the house. It’s certainly been an experience… Love and hugs to all, Pat x
PS Rads are fine, boob now a nice shade of pink and warm to the touch! x
just ben released from hospital after having spent a week in solitary confinement. So glad to be out!!!
Won’t bother you all with the details but in short ended up being nutrapenic and picking up some form of bug. On top of that I was swabbed on admission and they found I had MRSA. This is nowhere near as scary as it sounds as it is treatable with a body wash but they get very jumpy re any possible transmission and obviously whilst you are nurapenic, anything is a risk.
I learnt a great deal from my stay in hospital which I really wished someone had told me earlier but if I can pass on a few things they are
if in doubt ring up the doctor…dont think, like I did that the sore throat will go away or will give it a couple of days and see how it goes.
Temperature seems to be the biggest indicator of illness. I had a temp of over 38 but felt v cold so don’t rely on feeling hot. I will now be taking my own temp every day to keep an eye on it
the doc couldn’t say at which point the aching/flu like symptoms that we are all getting with TAX could actually be real flu or an infection…his advice, keep taking your temp and as per the book, if it gets to 38 or two readings of over 37.5, ring them ASAP
to get through chemo without a stay in hosp is almost unheard of so dont worry if you end up there. Expect about a week’s stay during which they will pump you through with anti biotics and anti virals and get you through. In the meantime you may go stir crazy but at least someone does all your cooking!!
eat well when you can. I have been on my usual low fat diet but this is perhaps one of the worst things you can do during treatment. Look at the food they serve you in hospital…puddings, butter, full fat milk, advice to stock your fridge with chocolate…all because we need to eat well when we can. So don’t feel guilty about the chocolate…its good for you!
should you end up in hosptial and get a positive swab for MRSA…do not be afraid. Around 30% of the popuation have MRSA and live with this with no ill effects at all and it is nowhere near as scary as the media would have us believe.
I will be getting an injection after my next chemo (I gather this will be neulasta) and will stay on anti virals until my treatment is over, so hopefully we can prevent this happening again.
sorry to go on and I hope I haven’t woried anyone…just wanted to pass on the message that if in doubt, contact the doc or hospital. That really is what they are there for.
Looking forward to a nice relaxing bank holiday weekend. Hope the sun shines for us all…off for some factor 50 and black nail varnish.
(oh and chocolate whilst I canb still taste it)
I had similar experience to you after my last FEC. However, Unlike you, temperature was only evidence of infection and they sent me home after two days. I think i had a cold but because of low neutrophils it made my temp go up. I was pumped full of antibiotics as a precaution. I agree with everything you say and the night i called helpline i was taking my temp every half hour as i knew it was going up.
Hospital i was in was West Suffolk (I was on holiday at center parcs when i became ill). What a gorgeous hospital that was and the food was wonderful. When my BC was taken before taxotere it had recovered well above previous highs.
Now on taxotere and was given GCSF which is similar to neulasta to make sure my blood count recovers.
Hi all, Just a note to remind everyone about dental stuff when on chemo. I broke my tooth Friday night whilst eating a cracker style snack. I made an appointment with the emergency dental service for 9.20 saturday morning. It was only when I read through the paperwork whilst completing the very long winded medical form at the dental surgery that I realised that I needed to contact oncology department prior to any emergency dental treatment (and that the paperwork I have says that any dental work should be avoided). Ended up with the hospital having to call on one of the on-call oncology nurses who had to ring me and give advice on how to proceed. Will apologise on Tuesday when I have my next chemo session for disturbing his Saturday morning. Now I have to liaise with the oncologist and my dentist on when is the best time to have a cap/crown fitted. I have a temporary cover on the tooth, but had to have a topical anaesthetic before the broken piece of tooth could be pulled out. Fortunately there was minimal bleeding. Just wanted everyone to be aware that before getting dental work done, routine or emergency, you need to liaise with your oncology department. Not looking forward to Tuesday, having another drug in the mix, carboplatin. Expect the side effects to worsen, then if they don’t i’ll be relieved. Love to all. Snoogle x
That’s awful about your tooth!! I hope you get it fixed soon. I hve dodgy teeth at the best of times and I had an inlay fitted just before my surgery, I have been dreading anything going wrong with my teeth as I know how complicated being on chemo makes things.
I’ve got 2nd Tax tomorrow and I’m feeling nervous! The steroids really upset my stomach and obviously they don’t want to stop them. So it’s fingers crossed the losec works and I’m not in agony!!
Hope everybody is doing fine. Who’s next for chemo after me?
Hi Fiona, Thanks. As I had only had my six monthly dental check the month before diagnosis I thought that I would be safe. Life is so not that easy. I will find out what the onc wants me to do about my tooth today. I am not in much pain with it, all other side effects considered, and would be quite happy to go through this course of chemo using mouthwash each time I have eaten and then get it sorted after that, but probably need to follow medical advise. Good luck today. It’s my 3rd tax today. Haven’t found the steroids affect my stomach (other than over doubling my appetite), but last time the neulasta made my bones hurt so much I cried. Will mention it today and see if they can prescribe anything for it. I also have been following a dairy free diet, but noticed all my pill form drugs have lactose in them so need to ask for alternatives for those too! Hope onc is happy with that! Will think of you whilst I am connected up! Snoogle x Who is next?
Don’t get me started on teeth,had a crown fitted just before starting chemo,I used to grind my teeth (probably still do) so they’re full of stress fractures,I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t have any more problems for a long time.
Having my last EC this morning,my first of 4xPaclitaxel starts in 3 wks.Get today out of the way then I’m half way through my chemo,and I can start counting down,Yippee!
Good Luck today,hope you don’t feel too ropey afterwards,
All the best,
Helen x
Good luck Today!! wish I was half way through… Just had porridge with my Dex… trying desparately not to have a repeat of last time… (God talk about clutching at straws)!!..
I have Two crowns at the front next to my front teeth. I have noticed that the gums have shrunk back a bit revealing a black line at the top of each crown… doesn’t look too bad but just knowing it’s there makes me really conscious… but I suppose along with everything else, “conscious” is the new me!!
Snoogle, can I just ask about the dairy free diet? has that been advised? I haven’t been told anything about that. I had really bad sore bones and flu like symptoms last time for about 3 days started 4 days post… is dairy free supposed to help?
Nice to see someone else with the black bit round the crown thing. I noticed this on one of my back teeth and like you panicked thinking it was about to fall out and I would be face with all the problems Snoogle’s had. Comforting in a way to know I am not the only one and this seems quite ‘normal’.
Next Tax tomoorow followed by first neulasta jab. Not lokking forward to that having read the SE’s that others have had, but it can’t be worse than becoming neutrapenic and spending a week in hospital (she says hopefully)
Good luck to everyone having Tax over the next few days.
Hope you ladies having your second tax are doing OK?
I’m on day 16 after my first one and have started to lose my hair. I’m really struggling with shaving it off now the time has come. I’ve had it cropped really short so it wouldn’t be such a shock for me and my kids but I can’t face the thoughts of having nothing there! I’ve been out today with my wig on, testing it for wind and rain durability which I felt fine with and although there’s hair tufts everywhere, my scalp is really quite sore and I’m sure it would actually be a relief to get rid of it I’m finding it so hard.
Maybe when my eldest has gone to bed I’ll just grab the clippers by the handle and get it done. I thought I’d prepared myself for this day but heck, that probs isn’t possible.
Hope I don’t sound too much of a moan, especially as there are other such awful SE’s, just helps to get it off your chest so to speak! Thanks :o))
Best wishes to all
Kirsten
xx
Hope you don’t mind if I join this strand. I am five days post second tax (already had 3 FEC). And I am finding the tax much harder to deal with - aches and pains - and had a terrible headache last night. Just wondered though if anyone has experienced hot flushes on the tax. I didn’t have these on the FEC - but noticed that the last couple of days I am getting waves of heat - coming off me at night? And finding it really hard to cool down.
After the tax I move on to rads and then final reconstructive surgery sometime in the Autumn. Cannot wait for this all to be over - and to get some sort of normal life back.
Hi All, Fiona, the dairy free diet is a personal choice and not particulary supported by my oncologist. He rejected my request for lactose free drugs and was very strong in his opinion. I have also given up red meat, but as I didn’t like it much anyway (except for slow cooked lamb) that has been quite easy. There are a number of books/articles about being dairy free. The oncologist did prescribe some more drugs to help me cope with bone pain sustained release stuff. Also more antisickness drugs as my kidney check was fine and they did add the carboplatin this time. How did you get on yesterday?
Kirstin, I eventually gave up and had what was left of my shoulder length hair cut - very short! Putting on and wearing the wig has been much easier since then although I do look a bit like I should be in the army when I go au-natural! Still find the wig makes my head itch and when talking to some other ladies at the clinic yesterday discovered that the wigs comes off before the shoes these days!
Love to all. Snoogle x
Chemo went fine on Tuesday… Had most of yesterday in bed. Tuesday was a very long day as I had to see the ONC before chemo and getting Herceptin before my TAX pushes the treatment time up to nearly 4 hours… Steroids are upsetting my stomach a bit today due to build up but I’m trying to do everything right to prevent reflux which is sooooo sore!!
Snoogle - I’m with you on the wig thing…when heading home I’m dying to get in the door to get the blinking thing of!!! necessary evil, I call it!!! I’m glad all went well with the caboplatin, are you having side effects with that…
Hi Bright - yeh the side effects with TAX can be very annoying… I’m like a walking boiler!! the heat coming off me is unbelievable!! I’ve been having sweats and flushes for about 10 days solid now and my macmillan nurse said on monday that this can be such a common side effect… because of hormone interference. My period is due this weekend. i’ll be so happy if that is gone. I had such trouble with them before the cancer and I’m still convinced it was all a precursor. Nurse said they can go away completely, get lighter or get heavier!!! oh what joy!!
Hi Kirsten - I had all your trouble with the hair last wed… decided to shave it off, well I went no 4. I found it very distressing, I was relieved it was all gone but then I suddenly felt like a cancer patient!! was like hitting a brick wall!! 7 days on and I’m nearly bald, lots of no 4 clipper stubble flying about me but I’ve been washing hair over the bath every day(with a hair trap in hole of course!)and the hair is just washing off!! hope you got on ok with it? and it wasn’t too hard on you. a week from now you will feel better…
Hi Julie - how did you get on with your TAX? hope all went well. The Neulasta jab was mentiond to me but they are going to monitor me this time as temp went up to 37.8 but never went any higher. The chemo suite doc gave me some tips for boosting white cell count so I’ll give it a try…the thought of being neutrapenic does worry me a bit mind you…
Hi Helen - hope all went well with your last EC… have you been ok with side effects?