You’re most welcome. Some people don’t like the knowledge so sorry if I overloaded you but it calms me to feel more in control.
For the same type of cancer, I’ve had;
Full Mastectomy + Node Clearance
3 x cycles of EC (Epirubicin and Cyclophosphamide combined) every 3 weeks.
3 x cycles of Docetaxel (also called Taxotere so your doc may refer to the chemo regimen as ECT) every 3 weeks.
On EC, first week is a write off. Complete write off. 2nd week is recovery. Third week is more human. The third week gets more tiring though as it goes on and while symptoms are familiar and therefore feel like less, the fatigue does get harder to bear. I’m talking generally as some people have a great time but most of our group had a similar experience to me. Nausea and fatigue is the worst with EC but the anti-sickness works and the bounce back is easier than Docetaxel.
Docetaxel is horrible. It’s a brutal and tough drug and can be hard to tolerate for people. It doesn’t make you sick. It destroys your mucosa from mouth to anus so very painful mouth, guts etc and it hits your liver hard so wipes you and is tough to climb back from. Bone pain lasts much longer than EC (mine takes 2 weeks to go!) so it’s just a bit more consuming.
My bloods bounced back easily on EC whereas they’ve only just scraped back on Docetaxel so I’m basing my experience on the evidence as much as my experience. Others seem to be similar as a rule. We have the odd person who is still out running half marathons and then others with neutropenic sepsis so it can vary but I’d say my experience seems pretty normal for most.
If I had to pick a week to go away, it would be a Week 3 of EC, earlier on. I couldn’t go away on Docetaxel if my life depended on it so I wouldn’t risk it. Just getting to the airport and I’d be broken right now. My full time focus is drinking enough water and eating enough (can’t taste a thing) and cleaning my mouth 4 times a day.
We’re going away 4 weeks after my 6 cycles finish on July 4th and that feels nice. We did go away to Paris for a long weekend between surgery and chemo and I’m so pleased we did. I was 3 week post - surgery so had to Eurostar due to DVT risk but it was amazing to have taken that break and been normal because chemo has been ALL about the chemo 24/7 most of the time.
I’d try and get away before ideally and just enjoy yourself. Your situation sounds thoroughly positive (as positive as bloody BC can be!) so go and enjoy yourself with that in your head. I promise you that you’ve got this. You may not feel it now but you’re about to discover just how fast your brain recalibrates and toughens up and how much positivity this reality gives you when you’re plunged into some awful depths. Fun is more fun than ever before now for me. Stress is far less stressful than ever before too (except when I wiped from chemo and the pity party starts!). I don’t even know the person who lived the previous 42 years anymore. I wish I’d had this clarity for those years.
Go be kind to yourself and enjoy some sun on your bones before chemo prevents that happening (you burn easily!) and eat good food and swim (before you possibly have a PICC Line and can’t!). You’ll hold those memories dear and remember your old self more easily, the more you live like your old self. You can lose yourself in chemo when you’re bald and tired so the more you do, the more you can reconnect with yourself. I look back at photos of Paris and think how weak I felt then but am so much weaker physically now after 5 months of losing muscle mass. I’m 100 x stronger mentally though and that’s what matters.
Xxx
do ring the number on here too and speak to a nurse and also maybe look at the someone like me option too 
