Hi
I started my Herceptin 2 weeks ago and have become very down and weepy. Also short tempered - just like being hormonal but not sure if any hormones come into it when on this dryg. Is this is because of the Herceptin or just me. Still very painful joints and of course the obligatory runny nose.
Liz xx
Hi Liz
I am sorry to read that you are feeling so low, there are a couple of Breast Cancer Care’s support services that might be of interest to you as they can offer help and support via the telephone in addition to the support you have here.
The first is Breast Cancer Care’s telephone support group. It’s a chance to get together once a week to talk with people who’ve been there. Linked together by phone in comfortable surroundings, you can express your feelings and discuss the practical and emotional impact of living with breast cancer. The groups will be particularly useful for you if you feel isolated. The groups are completely free (we pay for the phone calls) and as long as you have access to a phone and have a quiet private place from which to call, you can join us from anywhere in the UK.
There is also Breast Cancer Care’s peer support service. The telephone service aims to quickly put you in touch with one of our trained peer supporters, who has had a personal experience of breast cancer. Our peer supporters are from diverse backgrounds and ages and have experienced different types of breast cancer and treatments. They are ready to listen, offer skilled emotional support and share their experiences and understanding.
For more information about these and our other support services available to you, please telephone our helpline on 0808 800 6000 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm and Sat 9am-2pm) or email:
Best wishes
Lucy
Hi liz
I had my herceptin 5 days ago, i feel like i have a bad cold and really ache, also i feel niggled and short tempered at the slightest thing is this the herceptin do you think? my periods havnt returned i finished chemo beginning of november,
love galen x
Hi galen and liz,
I think the reaction some get on their first herceptin is a one off. The achey, flu like symptoms are experienced by quite a few. I know we are all different in how we react to drugs but I have been on herceptin over 4 years now and don’t really notice any side effects. Galen you don’t say if this is your first - but I hope things settle down for you both.It’s a whole lot better than being on chemo !
dawnhc
Hi Galen and Dawn
Thank you for replying. I was prepared for the achey and flu like symptoms and runny nose but not the way I feel down. I could scream actually and feel like I did when I used to be due on - very hormonal. My last period was 19 months so could it be hormonal - not sure if we still have those hormones flying around when gone through the menopause. I didn’t really suffer with that - just a few hot flushes.
Dawn - 4 years is a long time
xx
Hi lizzie
I’m also on herceptin - am due my fifth this Wednesday, but apart from a consistently runny nose, I don’t feel too bad at all.
I would certainly ask for your hormone level to be tested - I haven’t had a period since last June and had a feeling I was menopausal, only to be tested last month, and told I am !
Oh, its great being a woman isn’t it ? (not !)
Hope you get it sorted out though. Let us know.
Love Julie xx
I had my first Herceptin two weeks ago and apart from my blood pressure dropping very low, and a three-day headache following the infusion, I haven’t noticed any other symptoms. The nurse did tell me that I might experience flu-like symptoms, so it must be a well-known side effect of Herceptin.
Sorry you are feeling so down, and hope you soon feel better.
xxxx
Hi Liz
Thank you for posting, I feel very much like you. I have had 6 Herceptins and like the others I have had the running nose side effects but at the moment I have been feeling more down than at anytime during all the treatment I have had, surgery chemo, radiotherapy and recurrences.
I was treated for depression about 10 years ago and I wouldn’t say I feel depressed just really fed up. I am due to go back to work tomorrow after a 2 week break from work. All I feel like doing is going in to had my notice in. The only thing that is stopping me is the grim thought of, well if I stick this out and die of BC my family will receive £69,000 in service death benefit. What a way to think aye, but I do know this mood will pass and I will feel a lot fitter and brighter come the good weather so lets hang in there together Liz.
Take care
Carol
Thanks all for your comments.
It could be things piling up on me but not felt like this through all the chemo and rads and just thought it could be the Herceptin. Maybe not - maybe the kids, the OH and having to do everything just getting to me.
I went for a walk this afternoon and kept a good brisk pace and want to do this as thinking it could help.
I know how you feel Carol about the money. I am due to go back to work beginning of June. I don’t want to but have to because we need the money. Have one daughter still at uni and I have credit card debts the OH doesn’t know about, mainly because of the kids. I am thinking of taking out a life assurance that if I die at least they won’t be left with my debts As you say, what a way to think. I try not to think about it as I would just worry and can’t sleep as it is.
So maybe it’s not the herceptin - just life at the mo eh ? I was on antidepressants quite a few years ago and felt fine on them and gradually brought myself off them.
Sorry to hear that you have recurrences. I know thats another thing that worries me and although I say to people that it doesn’t - well it does and how I would cope, but you have to don’t you and carry on for everybody else’s sake.
I feel like having a good cry - I will do when I am on my own if I can keep it in that long. Over Easter I wanted to cry but couldn’t let myself because my OH would blame my eldest daughter and she would blame him and then there would have been an almighty row. Can’t win
Sorry to go on
Liz xx
Hi Liz
I hope you are having a better day today
Carol
I had herceptin no 7 yesterday. Was fine as I went in to the hospital but as soon as I walked out I felt like I could cry. This feeling also attacks me every day as I walk into work. As others have said, I was fine all through chemo etc. Yes I had my down days, but not this all pervasive feeling that I could break down in tears at any time.
My hot flushes have also got a lot worse - so could it be hormonal?
Hi Roadrunner
That’s how I feel - so close to tears all the time and I haven’t been like this at all from diagnosis until this last couple of weeks. Not like me at all. My last period was about 19 months ago so I am thinking it’s not hormones but I have been getting hot “flushes” which aren’t really like menopausal ones - just my whole body getting really hot.
I have decided that when I come back from France (I am going to visit a friend who lives there) I am going to ask the girls not to come home for a couple of weekends in May as I am hoping to start a phased return to work at the beginning of June and I so want that peace. To be honest would love OH to clear off for a while. Think I have to start telling people what I want for a change and not doing what they expect of me.
Thanks Carol - I am a bit better but just want them to acknowledge that I am not okay. My daughter was home today and all she could do was moan how much a bruise she had on her hand hurt !!! I am on about my “rug” on the top of my head (had dead straight hair all my life) and she says you know I have had to cope now - she has wavy hair !!! not chemo hair !!!
Love to you all
Liz xx
Liz,
I love the idea of a rug on my head! That’s exactly what I have. And like you, having had dead straight (and very floppy) hair till now, I don’t know what to do with it!