Hi traceybev, sounds like we’re both feeling surprisingly okay nausea-wise following yesterday’s treatment (touch wood). In my case, Id usually be curled up trying not to be sick right now! Think we’ve finally found the right anti sickness cocktail for me, just in time for the last FEC ? That said, I still feel achy, tired, and weak - but I can cope with that for now, as long as I don’t have the nausea/sickness!
Hi Kateday, I’m booked in for the 4th Jan for the first T. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes. My chemo nurses have said that often, if someone reacts badly to one drug (which it sounds like you and I both have, overall, with the FEC/EC), then you’ll often cope better with the T. My oncologist also said the main thing with the T is aching joints and bones, rather than nausea. We’ll see I suppose!
Tbird, I have a PICC also. I was terrified going in to have it fitted, and it really wasn’t bad at all. They numb the area on your arm where it goes in, and you can’t feel the tube going into your veins or anything like that.
It was a little tender for a week or so after, but I hardly notice it now. Do make sure you keep it dry! Honestly I’m glad I have it, it makes chemo day that much quicker, and no painful veins - one less side effect to worry about. Xx
Hi lovely November ladies ? Finished cycle 3 on Tues and starting cycle 4 next Tues (I’m doing a trial so having weekly chemo for the 1st 12 weeks then 3 EC every 3 weeks)) I’m not doing too bad at the moment. Just struggling with the fatigue. I had to miss a Christmas lunch yesterday that I have been going to for years as my body was just not willing at all altho my head was, very frustrating
? I saw my oncologist yesterday and the good news is that neither myself or her can feel the ‘tw@t’ anymore, I’m chuffed to bits.
Hey Liloc - I had a marker fitted before my chemo and it’s not bad at all just a bit of pressure but no pain as you have an anesthesic injection beforehand as you do with the biopsies.
My husband shaved my hair down to a number 1 last week as it was becoming very sparce. Is anyone else experiencing sore spots on your head? I get heat lumps and some are like acne spots ? I think it’s down to irration from my wig when I get warm so having a break from it where I feel comfortable
Hi ladies
I’m glad to read the story’s about pic line as I’m done tobhave one before my next chemo on NYE
All though not had appointment yet may ring on Monday
I’m starting to feel better after number three but now have a cold
I really hope your right about the side effects as I couldn’t possibly hack this another five times
I personally shaved to number three and then ended up with some bold patches , I decided I didn’t care and now I have coverage on all my head , not a lot and so blonde it’s laughable , didn’t shed any more after number two and even had to shave my bloody legs
I’m hoping what I have continues to grow now ?
Am having my first proper wobble. Day 9 post chemo 2 and my head hair has decided that today is the day it makes a break for it. I know I should feel lucky that until today I’ve really not lost any (I’ve cold capped both times), I just wasn’t expecting it to start and for it to come out as much as it has today. What’s really confusing is that it has stopped coming out else where which has left me with some interesting topiary in places lower down!
I had my hair cut short for me (from mid back) to a longish pixie before I started the chemo in the hope it would help. Maybe it’ll stop shedding maybe not. Maybe I’ll need to get the razors out. Might have to get the wig purchased before Christmas.
Ok, rant over. Hope you lovelies are doing ok. Deep breaths.
Morning all, juzcooper thanks for the note about the marker, that’s what I thought. Think other people have mentioned a sore head and spots, so part of the course with sensitive skin which isn’t used to being exposed probably. Maybe try not wearing the wig when you feel comfortable not to, which would allow your scalp some breathing time? I’ve only used mine out of the house (and haven’t been out hardly at all in the last 10 days!) as I wear soft pull-on headscarves at home. At least we have wigs for the winter season, hopefully by July when it’s hot and sweaty we won’t need them any more.
Clarabella, sorry your hair is starting to go now but as you cold capped it may reduce the amount and most of it might stay. ? Mine got to the point that I was filling up toilet bowls just by running my fingers through my hair and started looking a right state so looked much better when I took it all off. I wasn’t even emotional about it by that stage, it had got too annoying. Appreciate most people treasure their hair but mine is frizz-prone and needs dying every few weeks so with my current energy levels I’m actually quite glad I don’t have to faff around with blow drying it straight every two days to look decent.
My 79 yr old mum’s come down with a bug in the night, vomiting and diarrhoea, poor thing. One of the winter stomach bugs going round. My husband was doing some errands for her and saw her twice yesterday but don’t know if you’re contagious before the symptoms start. ? My poor sister (who also endured a 5-hour A&E trip with me recently) has gone round to look after her but if she and her family of five catch it, Christmas could be cancelled ?. Won’t be able to see my mum this week probably to avoid contagion which sucks. Feel guilty I can’t do anything for her as she’s been round here making me breakfast and lunch on my bad days, but can’t risk it ?
sorry to be a moaning ninny but the last two days I can’t stop crying I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I will be have my 3rd chemo Tuesday, I had my blood test yesterday and as they were taking my blood I burst into tears for no reason and can’t seem to stop ??
Don’t worry, sweetie, think with trying to cope with all the physical side effects all the time, we put the emotional and mental strain of it all on a back burner but it’s bound to be too much sometimes. I sat under the Xmas tree in floods of tears yesterday having really morbid thoughts wondering if my husband and son would still do a tree without me. Usually I manage to squash such things back, guess it was just combined with getting nostalgic over old decorations. I immediately stopped as soon as they came in the room and of course didn’t say why I was crying. Just have to focus on that the fact that we’re being cured and this is all going to be firmly in the past by next Christmas xx
I was very weepy before my second and I think I will as number 3 approaches (new year’s eve for me - rock’n’roll). I was talking to my sister about it and she can be like the voice of reason at times. She described it as being a bit like the time she went to Alton Towers and on one of the rides where you get plunged from a great height into a hole - she’s scarred of heights. The first time you don’t know what to expect so you just go with it, you don’t enjoy but you get on with it. When she went on the ride a second time at her friends instance she knew what to expect and she absolutely hated it.
For us, each time a chemo date approaches I think we get reminded of how rubbish we felt after each of the previous ones and not enough time has passed for us to have forgotten. It’s understandable that really we rather not feel rubbish thank you very much and to deliberately make ourselves feel rubbish - well who would sign up for that if they didn’t have to.
Sending hugs your way Tbird, Liloc and Clarabella, think the ranting and crying will continue to come at us in waves as we continue our way through this journey but we are all in this together xxx
I’m about 10 days post 2nd round and very achy in my chemo arm, and in certain places all over, wound site and chest in general. Not sure why and obviously paranoid about what is going on :smileyfrustrated:
Taken a bit longer to get my stomach and bowels (apologies if TMI) back on track after round 2, but I really don’t want more medication to sort the side effects out, not sure what to do. Keep having massive drop outs in energy this time too, think I really was on adrenaline first time around!
Lower leg hair hanging on, what is that all about, do the decent thing and drop out like the rest of it!!
I’m back on an upward curve again after chemo 2. Apart from a really nasty reaction to the 1st and 2nd injections again (awful stomach cramps and bone pain in lower legs and pelvis) I found the other 5 ok but I changed to doing them in the morning from the evening. My oncologist / nurse / pharmacist can’t explain why the first ones were so bad but this happened last time and I wonder whether it’s just my body’s reaction to having them again, who knows …
I’m pleased with having gone for the PICC line, but it jangled the nerves in my hand a bit and after a week of tingling sensation in my fingers of my right hand this has now eased. The nurse was lovely who redressed and flushed it out Friday and very reassuring to keep my arm moving as normal. So if you do have one fitted and it feels a bit weird the first week, please don’t worry it will ease. I got a cover and a waterproof tube thing for washing. Apart from not sleeping as well because I don’t want to lie on that side, it should really help with the chemo. It just felt like a bit of an ordeal at first and there were tears.
I have the same issue with leg hair, it’s just not going … even bought a LadyShave with some money I was given for Christmas, which will now be hilarious if it all drops out tomorrow!
My husband shaved my head (he thinks he should now be a barber!) I’m now quite pleased with apart from being called ‘Egghead’ by the kids. I only wear the wig out, or my bamboo headscarf with a bobble hat over it, but then a variety of headscarves around the house.
Hope you’re all coping ok? You’re all doing amazing, we can do this ladies! xxx
Hi all, sorry to hear about the wobbles that some are having - it’s only to be expected, I haven’t been too bad but have definitely for the first time had a few ‘what if this doesn’t work’ thoughts, I haven’t voiced them to OH or any friends etc but I think it could be the Christmas season making us more emotional, and sentimental. @Lou43 - had to wax my legs I mean really!!! @liloc my mum has also got a cold so having to abandon her too I feel so mean and rude when I tell people I can’t see them because they have a cold @holeinone i’m suffering with a tight chest too, I wear a fit bit which tracks my pulse and I can see my heart rate shoots up for3-4 days after chemo, I really feel like it’s my chest that suffers more than anything. @tbird, me too for #3 on Tuesday each time it seems a bit harder to actually motivate myself to do it but this will be halfway and my stats showed that the chemo + the herceptin and hormone thaerapy take my prognosis to 95% v’s 75 if I had just left it at surgery so I guess that’s the only reminder I need to keep going #novembergirlsv’scancer ?
Good luck to everyone who is facing chemo this week ?
Hi all, I have been wobbling a bit too. I have felt so positive because I know I am doing the very best thing I can to improve my chances of survival. I have made sure that I look as normal as possible for my husband and daughter to be around. Amazingly it’s them who are having a go at me! Expecting me to do what I normally do. Neither of them want to see me without a wig. I am so upset as I am trying so hard. Maybe too hard. This is my second breast cancer and its now a triple negative. I am always a positive person and love my family, but this is hard to cope with. Sorry for the wobble. Just can’t stop crying at the moment. Xxx
So sorry to hear you’re struggling. Keep strong, you’re doing great! It’s so hard dealing with others and how they want us to feel / look. My husband is very supportive but I feel like I’m trying to manage his and other’s expectations constantly. I too am usually positive but can imagine coping for as long as you have and ‘keeping up appearances’ is exhausting. We all need to be allowed time to let our emotions out. Sending hugs. xx
Sals, I cry at slushy films all the time anyway, and remember soon after diagnosis I took the kids to see the Incredibles 2 and was weeping at that - I must have been the only one! Think I told the kids I’d got something in my eye. Polar Express set me off yesterday evening, that lovely song in the middle of it had me weeping again. x
I don’t really like wearing my wig as much and my daughter actually prefers my bald head right now which is clearly not practical in this cold weather. I still can’t quite believe it will stay on my head in windy weather either, so Satruday’s wild weather was testing.
Take care all, let’s try not to too tough on ourselves at this time of year when it’s stressful enough anyway. xx
Oh Tigerlilli, so sorry you are having a wobble. It’s understandable, not just with our diagnosis but also all these drugs we have going through us.
I’m still so grateful for your power words earlier in the month and found these sparkly tough pants languishing on another thread (I’ve only borrowed them, honest!), they get handed out on the forum when ladies are down and need a bit of a lift. Not sure if they pull tummies in but they have deep pockets for us all to hang around in there with you and keep you company.
Feel free to try on in the comfort of your own home and thrust one fist skywards xxx
Thank you Lou43 and holeinone for your support… It really means a lot. The sparkly pants are on again and there big S on my chest is back in place. I’m thinking that the odd wobble is just b part of the whole package. I’m still finding things to laugh at, so that’s a good sign… Like my wig sliding about because I’m so bald now my head’s gone slippery! Wig grippers ordered : )
Massively hairy legs though, I’m going for the shire horse look ; )
With you on the shire horse look, I’m quite annoyed that over the years they haven’t thought that ladies having to go through hair loss would really appreciate not having to shave those stubborn calf hairs, they should put something in the mix, so thoughtless :smileywink::smileylol:
Oh, I had wig slippage the other day, I bought a couple of those wig caps from ebay, think they were just over £1 delivered, but as I now have wisps I thought I would be OK without and just the wig. Wrong! Kept tugging at it and adjusting it all afternoon while we were out walking. Really thought at one point it was going to ping off my head and into the nearby river, where I would be left standing balder than Rab C Nesbitt on the bank, screaming!
And if any of you are Billy Connolly fans and missed the documentary on him last week, it’s well worth a watch if only for those hilarious clips of him dancing naked all over the world even in the Arctic! I’ve stored these up to have a giggle to myself when things start to get me down again. I mentioned to the nurse the other day that it was taking my mind off the pain of changing the PICC line dressing. Her “Do you want me to talk you through what I’m doing?” Me, “No it’s fine thanks, I’ll look the other way and think about Billy Connolly dancing naked!”:smileylol:
