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Hi everyone:

I’m back!

My vacation to Florida was wonderful - visiting with mom and dad in law, sister and brothers in law, niece, new great nephew and my stepson and his wife. Wonderful, kind people all of them.

We spent a week in Key West. I could not be as active as other trips we have taken there because my stamina isn’t what it used to be. But I am still doing better than the immediate months following the last of the chemo treatments where I received three chemo drugs. The last treatment for all three was May 9th. Now I am only on Herceptin and am doing fine.

I had to take the “pre-meds” consisting of steroids, anti-nausea and allergy medicine during the months I took the three chemo drugs. Now I only get Benedryl before the chemo. (I call the Benedryl “Sleepy-Time-Down-South medicine”, because I fall asleep within five minutes of it entering the port in my chest). I gained 40-50 pounds during the months from Jan. to May, but it is slowly coming off.

They now have me on Femara, an anti-hormone pill for five years. I first took Arimidex, another anti-hormone pill and got a rash from that so they switched my to Femara.
I am doing fine on it.

My reconstructive surgery, phase one, scheduled for Dec. 16th may have to be postponed. My hemocrit (hemoglubin) count is low. I am taking iron supplements now and have to raise my count to “36” before they will consent to surgery. I also read up on iron-rich foods, which include liver (yuck), chicken, fish, berries, nuts and grains and egg yolks.

If I am not able to get a better hemocrit reading I have to wait for next year to have the surgery. Hubby said don’t worry - whenever I am able to start the 6-to-8-month regimen is fine with him. The regimen includes (1) the insertion of the expandor complete with drain tubes(painful they say), then the 5 - 6 injections into the expandor to expand the skin, then when that has been successfully done, they do the insertion of the implant, recovery and then they start on the other breast to balance everything out. Oh joy.

Getting back to the chemo stuff, I was on Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin from January to May of this year, now I only get Herceptin. On these drugs, I really didn’t get nauseous at all, just very tried, some constipation, heartburn, other minor aches and pains. I also got a port installed on January 28 of this year and did just fine with that. The chemo drug or drugs is injected into the port which saves having to have the IV each time.

After each chemo treatment I wasn’t as sick as I thought or was told I would be. You are, of course, very very sleepy but my appetite was fine. I only had to watch what I ate, no spicy foods or rich foods - I kind of ate like a baby (!) puddings, applesauce, lean meats, some veggies - the ones easier to digest and so on. I did find that coffee and some colas added acid to my system so I tried to stick to weak tea (not herbal).

As I was recovering and the digestion was better I added lots and lots of water, tried not to eat after 5:00 p.m. or between meals and eventually lost 20 pounds. It is a continuous battle because during the chemo you are weak and cannot exercise and during radiation the same.

Movie watching is a GREAT way to rest, be entertained (even educated, depending on the movie or series) and to forget about the cancer. Comedies are great but I personally liked love stories and historical movies.

One day I was asked how I could sit and watch movies all day by a rude relative and I replied “IT HELPS ME FORGET ABOUT THE CANCER!” (what a jerk!). Another asked (immediately after I got my mastectomy and was wheeled into recovery) did I think my smoking caused my cancer and then just recently I was asked when did I think I was going back to work, as if I had been loafing all these months.

I tried not to take advantage of anyone during recovery, even during the first few months of cancer treatment. I at least did the best I could to clean my house and do basic housekeeping, even if I wasn’t feeling that great.

I found over and over again during the last year that if you have not been through this you cannot understand what we go through. You find out who is your friend and who is not. Some relatives were horribly insensitive and asked rude questions or just ignored me, yet almost complete strangers (the wife of my husband’s co-worker) called me every other day. It was quite an education.

Anyway, I thank God for my recovery, I thank my new friends here and I pray for all of you. Hang in there and only, repeat only, associate with positive people during your recovery. Tell anyone negative, or rude or hateful to....well....you get the idea!

“General Bunches”, here (rallying the troops!)

Wow, I didn’t even think they did chemo via regular IV any more. Guess 4 rounds or less is the line, maybe.
You’ll get to avoid the hassles that come when the port get ‘clogged’. That happened to me last time. We were already running way late and then that! My immune system is still too robust, I guess and it attacked the port and clogged up the opening of the catheter with “fibrin”-I guess the goo of white blood cells- I dunno. Anyway, they tried all manner of things to get me ‘unclogged’ and it still took over 40 minutes! Heprin flushes, ATP flushes, walking while swinging my arms vigorously, etc, it was crazy. They said I was clogged up more so than the usual patient. Great.

I wonder if it’s gonna be that way all the time!?

This will work both ways, jane, you’re starting the hard stuff right off the bat, I’m still 2 rounds away from that, so you can tell me just how rough(or not) it was on you!
I’m more anxious about that stuff than the whole idea of chemo in the first place. Funny what we work ourselves up over. But, yes, you do have the right attitude that I have to also remind myself of constantly, that He already knows our ‘use by date’ and that it shouldn’t worry us none.
I’m just hoping He ain’t in no big hurry to see me! LOL