Sorry you are all suffering. I’m full of steroids ready for second TAX tomorrow.
Sophie I found days 4 - 7 the hardest, then things started to gradually ease - except the mouth which goes on for ages it seems. I think you just want something in your mouth to try to hide the lard feeling.
Deryn, I didn’t have the foot peeling thing, but I know others have. Tell your onc about it. I put my feet on frozen peas and hands between two bags of them - didn’t have any foot or hand problems, but I may just have been lucky. Still have two more to go, so may not be so lucky then. Hope your feet improve soon.
Barneypaws, I lost about 10 pounds too, but managed to put about 7 back on. Digestion system went into overdrive.
Hope all those SES improve everyone and enget out and about on your good days.
This morning was spent in my bathroom and this afternoon in bed asleep - my, how my days just speed by! Managed soup again today and two bags of Quavers (cuts through the lard). Pains are less today (discounting tummy gripes) so think worst is over.
Just booked week at Center Parcs, Longleat on 28th March - soooo looking forward to it. I have last tax 9th March so hopefully will be over se’s by then. Haven’t got my dates through yet for rads but that’s because I’ve got to have cortizone injection on frozen shoulder (bad arm) as unable to lift high enough for rads. I think there would be a 4-6 week gap anyway after last chemo (?) so this break is coming at the right time. Heard Longleat is hilly though and I just get so breathless walking so…I’ve hired a mobility scooter! OH says I should customize it and have a sat nav fitted as I always get lost! Downside is, massages, saunas & steamrooms are out (cos of lymphodema risk I think) but I’m hoping I can go swimming - providing my Groshong line can be taken out before I go. Can’t wait!
Hope all legs are behaving themselves tonight - keep dosed up with Ibuprofen which I found helped a lot
love
Debbie xx
Hi taxers,
I have had enough of this docetaxol mullarky!
Deryn, my feet have been peeling since tax 1 and look pretty awful- on the plus side they are unusually cheesey in normal circumstances and tax has seen an improvement in that regard. I keep piling on heel balm ( quite expensive but does the job)and socks. They feel quite hot and burned though.
My long bones ache as does my head and everything tastes of lard but this should abate soon. At least I had a reduced dose last time so it should get easier sooner.
What gets me at the moment is the difficulty I have in reading anything more than a page or two. All the magazines I read are full of beauty or clothes ads and articles are all about knitting, gardening and looking fab. I don’t think I have ever looked so c***.
Well, at least there’s only one way to go from complete dog’s dinner. I’ve already done the look good feel better thing. Any suggestions?
Thank you for your response about my peeling feet. I will mention it to the onc, but think I need to be more diligent in lavishing them with moisturiser. My nails are interesting shades of yellow with streaks of red and ridges, nice. I tried deep purple nail varnish for a week, but haven’t reapplied it yet!
Debbie, Longleat Centre Parks is in a wonderful location, my mum leaves about 3 miles from there. You are right Longleat itself is quite hilly, but down near the house and lakes is flatter so hopefully you’ll be able to get around quite well with the mobility scooter. Enjoy your stay there! We all need things to look forward to. I’m planning a quick visit to Madrid at the end of March before I start rads!
Right, now to bed as I have to wake up early to start my steroids, oh how much do I hate taking them…
Good night everyone, I hope people rest well and that tomorrow is a better day.
Debbie, you’ll have a fab time at Longleat… not been to the centre parcs there, but have done the safari park and house loads of times. We only live about half an hour away… mind you, we’d go more often if it wasn’t so expensive!!! Think the mobility scooter is an ace idea, if you don’t need it, you don’t have to use it, but at least you know you’re sorted!!!
I may be a bit slow but what are the jabs for that you are all talking about? I didn’t get offered any with my TAX and by the sounds of them I don’t think I want to.
I’ve been given a 10 day course of antibiotics to take.
I’ll keep this short cos my fingers hurt too much at the moment.
Had a pretty good day till this evening, and I finally ventured out the house for first time in 8 days.
Hi Louise
The jabs are white cell boosters. They stimulate the bone marrow to make more cells. Not everyone gets offered or needs them on tax- in my case my white counts were low on fec so by the time I started tax the Oncologist prescribed one jab for me. Some have single jabs, others have them over several days. If you get a low white count it is worth asking for them.
Sue
Hi everyone,
Yippee, I think the tax truck may well be leaving this house, although unfortunately it’ll probably be on its way to clobber some other poor soul.
Deryn, I’ve just remembered, some years ago a dermatologist told me that the best way to get moisturiser absorbed into feet is to apply the cream at night and then tie plastic bags around your feet - seriously! Conjures up a wonderful image of us with nightcaps and feet in bags -what glamour.
My feet are often cracked but I use Boots intensive foot cream,except for first week post Tax when I can’t stand the perfume. If heels are very bad I use vaseline (petroleum jelly)which heals them quickly.
Goodnight, sleep well, hope those on steroids don’t have too bad a night.
loula
Debbie - after reading your post have spent all night thinking about Quavers, haven’t had a pack for years, so first thing off I go to get a bag and scoffed the whole lot on the drive home. No wonder the weight’s going up!
Think I might take the nail varnish off today and see just what state the nails are in. They are giving me a bit of jip - like electric shocks through the ends. Feel like I’ve got a lot more energy today but mouth still drys up every time I do anything.
Glad you are feeling bette Reeb - am about to “top up my dark nail polish” since it flakes off so quickly even with strengthener under it. But I could not get it to stay on pre Tax so that’s no wonder!
Ok - dose 3 tomorrow - peas at the ready and hoping this dose isn’t too bad. Onc says my thrush coming on day 4/5 is classic side effect so I’m to start on the Fluconazole on day 4 rather than wait for it to emerge this time. Always seems the chemo journey is one of learning how to cope with SEs - got the hang of managing FEC by about dose 3 so it’s taken me just as long this time - should be ok now for doses 3-6 I hope…
Good luck to those having treatments this week
Fran
Just wanted to say i have my 3rd tax next Wednesday and havent been on here and posted much as this week has been just fab, feeling great other than sore fingers. How good is that. Not looking forward to Wednesday but only one more tax after that and chemo is finished just herceptin, surgery and rads to go. yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Glad things are going well Hatty - just need to report that my left hand fingers are going a bit numb but right hand is fine - guess which has had the frozen pea treatment since I could not cope with peas and canula in the same hand??
Just keep up with your peas girls is my advice.
OK, so it’s plastic bags on the feet now! this will add to the nighttime hat, the daily ‘old lady shoes’ (bad feet), the black nails, the ‘comfy’ everything else - and a shopping trolley. I’ve spent the whole day in bed; my trip to Tesco was SO depressing. I got there and had to find the loo, then slowly dragged my trolley home via the local estate, sitting on walls to rest - when an attractive young Polish girl came up to me and said ‘lady…where is number 433 in this hideous English War Zone?’. She might have well have added ‘and why are you so hideous too?’. I looked around me and it was grey and rainy and I noticed the car with no wheels - and decided bed was the best place.
Glad it comes to an end Hatty and Little Angel. AvenueSue, I agree - I don’t want to do this anymore; last night I really really felt like driving the car into town and feeling the freedom of jumping off the nearest bridge.
Longleat sounds lovely - and Sophie, are you still wrapped up in the same place? I think I’m at the same stage as you, so if I know you’re feeling better, I know I should too.
Knowing what I know now, losing the hair was the least of the worries.
Annie - you are so courageous in even trying to get to Tesco - I’ve just about given up on supermarket shopping and do it all on the Internet with OH stocking up on a few items every now and again (he loves shopping…) I think shopping is the most exhausting thing - somehow that slow stop start around the aisles and lifting in and out of the trolley are so energy sapping. I had chronic fatigue before cancer and learnt to avoid supermarkets if at all possible - I think I save money too as I only buy what I need. Anyway I survived a trip to my physio today to help with shoulder since arm op for bone mets - had to arrange trip to make sure I came back on the bus that stops at the top of our hill - loved the sunshine outdoors (have you all got this spring like weather too today?) but really only have the energy to want to sit in it and relax and it’s not quite warm enough for that yet - roll on summer and the end of Tax! Have realised that 2 Tax doses have really lowered my energy levels already - oh well, will need to indulge in the new cheap videos I’ve bought to cheer myself up.
take care all
Fran
Annie - I’m still completely weak and feeble I ‘think’ that things don’t hurt quite so badly today, but because I’m more and more tired, I don’t actually feel any better for it, if that makes sense? Rang chemo ward today because my arm came up in a rash last night straight after evening jab - onc. doesn’t reckon it’s related?! But to go ahead with jab tonight and phone ambulance if throat starts to swell…oh good. Now I feel soooo much better! Anyhow, when talking to chemo nurse, she asked how I was doing… fatal mistake, cue blubbing and snivelling from me, and she was lovely, and told me off for not phoning to wail earlier - in her words ‘TAX is an utter bitch of a drug, you do not need to pretend everything is ok’. So, came off phone red eyed and snotty, but feeling a little better for having ‘confessed’ to feeling so bad.
I am def. at the stage where I just do not want to play anymore. It’s all very well people saying ‘4 down, only 2 to go’… all I can think of is that I don’t think I can cope with one more day like today… and I’ve got to do the whole thing twice more!!! I know it will seem more do-able in a day or two… but indulge me right now!!!
I had my last Tax 2 weeks ago and I perfectly understand what you’re going through, but if it can cheer you up the last 2 were a lot better than the first 2… Like yourself I wanted to give up on the treatment after the first one, the pain was unbearable and the indigestion that came with it was making me miserable! The second Tax was a lot better although I still felt very tired and my legs weighed a ton. But the third Tax was a breeze! I don’t know whether my body had got used to the drug, but I didn’t even had to take any pain killers! And same for the 4th and last one I had 2 weeks ago. The only side effect I have this time is my eyes, they are very weepy, but Onc said this is normal.
So all you ladies hang on there, Tax is a bitch, but the pain does improve as you go along… hope this will cheer you up
p.s. I literally skipped out of the hospital after my last Tax, I was so happy I didn’t care that people were staring at me
Sophie - people think they are being helpful to say things like half way through etc. They don’t realise how c**p you feel and the thought of any more is just too much. You will improve after this one though and gather enough strength for another - but it’s not easy. hope the rash has gone by tomorrow. There’s always one more thing to worry about, isn’t there?.
I actually think it helped me mentally to have the long break between 3 and 4 (not sure about effects on those little b****r cells though!). It was sort of like starting afresh.
Sophie, just howl…I cried all day before my last tax…it dosent feel any better that it was the last one but with the dose reduction it was better…still crap but better…
keep ur chin up and keep thinking of the somerset can do trip to cornwall…!
xxx
I ‘think’ that things don’t hurt quite so badly today, but because I’m more and more tired, I don’t actually feel any better for it, if that makes sense? Rang chemo ward today because my arm came up in a rash last night straight after evening jab - onc. doesn’t reckon it’s related?! But to go ahead with jab tonight and phone ambulance if throat starts to swell…oh good. Now I feel soooo much better! Anyhow, when talking to chemo nurse, she asked how I was doing… fatal mistake, cue blubbing and snivelling from me, and she was lovely, and told me off for not phoning to wail earlier - in her words ‘TAX is an utter bitch of a drug, you do not need to pretend everything is ok’. So, came off phone red eyed and snotty, but feeling a little better for having ‘confessed’ to feeling so bad.