Good luck with the Tax on Thursday. I have my last Tax on Wednesday, I cant believe how quickly it has gone! One thing I have picked up is the number of women who end up with very low blood counts whilst on Tax so… big advice for the day is to take your temperature regularly… and make sure your thermometer works, mine was faulty and was reading 0.8 degrees lower! This allowed me to get quite ill with very low blood count and temp of 38.7 by the time I got to the hospital!
Dawn, sure you’ll post again before 19th but good luck for then anyway!
Hi Anne and Pauline
I’m on no. 1 of FEC. So far its OK. Horrible taste in the mouth as I said, feel a bit sore and tired. as someone else said on here recently, its a bit like being a teenager again…I’m trying the cold cap but not putting too much faith in it. Anyway, very glad the Tax is getting good reviews here, at least in terms of its zapping power. Have any of you been taking vitamin supplements by the way? Is that recommended? I’ve been meaning to as the BC nurse but keep forgetting.
Hope you all have a good Sunday.
Jo
Thanks Jo,
Hope you have a good day too! I have a childrens party with my 7 year old at 2 and its pouring with rain… and they have a bouncy castle! Should be fun!
My onc reckons vitamin supplements wont do you any harm but may not do any good either! (unless youre not eating). I had a couple of people buy me expensive things like aloe vera juice and spirulina, and she said take it but not in the 48 hours before or after chemo when I should be careful about taking any supplements (some things can react with chemo). She said if someone else buys the supplements then great but dont waste your own money!
Pauline
Thanks for that. I’ve actually made an appointment with a nutritionist so I’ll share an any additional tips…
Hope your party goes well and that it stops bloody raining. I’ve got a 7 year old too. Its such a great age isn’t it?
Best
Jo
Thanks for the tip. I already landed in hospital with a raging temperature and very low blood count after the second FEC! I am determined not to do that again though being isolated does give you quality reading time! I shall be glued to my thermometer. I wish you all the best for Wednesday, and thanks again.
By the way where are you and Jo? The sun is out here in London!
Not far at all. I used to live in Waltham Abbey too. Stratford prob only about 30 mins max I think. I am right next door to Lakeside, walking distance if you like to walk for 20 mins. Live in Chafford Hundred.
Anyone else around these areas … would be good to maybe meet one day …
Have just started my Taxotere journey after 4 FEC. Had first Tax last Thursday. Three more to go. Since yesterday I am feeling really really awful. Sore throat and glands, awful pains in joints/muscles, particularly legs and feet.I can barely walk or swallow. My tongue is coated and feels huge and I can’t taste a thing. Temp is normal.
TBH I’m not sure I can go on any further with this treatment. Have already had total mastectomy and axillary clearance (1 node positive out of 17). This seems an awful lot to go through for only one positive node and a clear set of scans. Even the two IDC’s were not visible on mammo or ultrasound and on mastectomy were found to measure only 3mm each. I also have to have rads, Herceptin and Arimidex.
I’m so sorry … but I feel completely downhearted. I can hardly bear to look at myself in a mirror. An Alien is reflected back instead of ME! And I don’t think I will ever get ME back again.
This treatment is so barbaric … it takes everything womanly away.
Hi Dilys and Dawn, I’m in North London, near Muswell Hill…Meeting up sounds like fun.
Many many sympathies JustMe. Hang in there. I think this experience may be like childbirth in one respect and that is that when you look back you won’t regret going through it because of the suffering…You will know you did all you could to give yourself the best chance of beating this horrible disease. In amongst all the drugs its so hard to keep a sense of yourself but you will get your body back and because of all this the chances will be better that it will be healthy and ready for life again.
All the best
Jo
x
We are not far away at all. I was born in Muswell Hill Jo. And Dawn, my grandma lived in Waltham Abbey! Oh wow! Bet we are all now at different hospitals. Anyway thanks for being there and lets hold hands (virtually) through this journey.
Just me - I am so sorry. As Jo says just hang on in there. It can’t get worse and things do get better. I have had some down times as we all do. Stay with us and we will hold tight to each other.
Sorry you’re feeling awful. Ive just typed a big response to you and lost it… typical.
Basically, I just wanted to say, you’ll get through it because I think we all get the strength from somewhere. Also, and Im telling the truth here, my 2nd Tax was a lot better than my first. Keep taking your temp though as I felt like you with the first and ended up in hospital with a temp and neutropenia.
On a positive note, despite also looking like an alien, I went to a Looking Good Feeling Better workshop at my hospital today. If you can cope with very wellmeaning but slightly patronising beauty consultants then you too can come away with a bag full of goodies (products by Chanel, Dior, Calvin Klein - really!) and also the ability to make it look as if you have eyebrows and eyelashes - a skill I really need! I must say I felt a lot better afterwards and am going to make an effort to “do my make-up”!!
Hope you feel better soon -Pauline x
Dilys, Dawn, Jo,
Im very jealous you’ve all found each other… Im in Liverpool, miles away! However, I know Stratford quite well as my OH was born there and his mum lived there until she died a couple of years ago: we seemed to spend our lives driving up and down the motorway to Stratford!
Wow, the connections are weird aren’t they? Where abouts was your OH in Stratford then? I have been here 26 odd years now and love it. Odd with the Muswell Hill and Essex connection too. Mind you I have been once to Liverpool and thought it was great.
Take good care, and wish my hospital did those workshops! My eyebrows are leaving me rapidly now, and I fear for my eyelashes…
My mother in law lived on Crownfield Road which is exactly halfway between Stratford and Leyton I believe. She was born just over the road from there, was married from Crownfield Road and gave birth to 6 of her 7 children in the front bedroom!
You should find out about the Looking Good days as I think they’re available throughout the country. One of the women at my one today was from Christies In Manchester as their workshops were fully booked till March! Unfortunately, my eyebrows and eyelashes are departing one by one, slowly, every day! I have about 10 on one eye and about 4 on the other! The eyebrows are a disaster, just a few very long straggly hairs!
Yes I know Crownfield Road. The links are amazing. I am just off the Romford Road. I am so sorry about your eyebrows and lashes but think I am following you closely there. Let’s try to dream of this time next year with hair everywhere you want it (and in my case probably where I don’t want it). Chemo has a very wicked sense of humour, I am finding.
I’m just one treatment behind you Justme, not looking forward to starting Taxotere (from what I’ve seen), same as you - 4 to get, had 4 FEC, plus rads, herceptin and hormone to come. Thought a change would be good, maybe not… Is the risk of infection really much worse on this, my bloods and everything been good so far, now I’m worried?? Need to buy a themometer I think.
Look Good Feel Good is great and really loved the quality goodies they give you, so I’m lucky I got that from Maggies.
Think halfway through chemo is a tough time, you know whats coming and its not good… but nearly there and everyone whose a bit ahead gives us the strength to keep us going… thanks. Bad days come and go, all too often I think. I get really down sometimes too. I’ve hooked up with the peer counselling support from BCC too and find having someone like you guys on the end of the phone to ask lotz of questions of does help. But this is good too when you have a wobble.
Havent found anyone local to me yet… is there anyone from Glasgow ???
Oh these connections are wonderful! Almost poetic - these geographies and patterns which link us all. All this makes this journey much more bearable…Hope you are all feeling well today. I think I must be in the ‘good’ phase of this cycle now - I’m feeling much livelier today.
Take care all
xx
Jo
Hiya Everybody
These chats are really brilliant, I know I would feel soooo alone without everyone on here to chat to and share the pleasures of tax! Hang in there Justme, not too many more to go and I also found the first one the hardest painwise.
I’m on day 5 so now acting 90yrs old again, but taking it easy and trying to enjoy any sunshire here in Essex. Yes, I’m another pure bred Essex lass, living just outside Chelmsford. No white shoe jokes please!!
Enjoyed our anniversary yesterday, sucking ice lollies, curled up on the couch, but what the heck, will have a big party when all’s done and dusted.
Yes, these forums are a godsend. I realised how good yesterday when I met and had a lovely conversation (if that doesnt sound ironic given the circumstances) with another women with breast cancer. Without all the stories here I would feel very alone I think, only people who are going through this treatment really know what it’s like.
Anne, glad you had a good anniversary, my last Tax is tomorrow so day 5 for me will be Monday and i know by then I too will be curled up on the couch, but hopefully for the last time! You have done 7 now and only have one left… its a lovely feeling isnt it? You will appreciate it though when you start feeling better and realise that there is only one more final push.
Take care everyone, cant believe all the London/Essex girls on this thread! Mind you there is one Glaswegian too - hi there!