On my second treatment and want to know if it gets worse

Hello all,

I'm new to this message board and hopefully I can get some help from all of you.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 9/18, had lumpectomy and lympnodes removed on 9/24.  The area around the lump was negative and so was the lympnodes.  I'm a stage IIa, IDC, grade III.  I'm on six rounds of chemo every 21 days.  I'm on Taxotere and Cytoxin.  I had my second round two days ago and while I was there the nurse told me I would progressively get worse probably after treatment 4 or 5.  To be honest, I'm quite terrified I will get worse after the second treatment, the first one I thought was bad as I could barley get out of bed on Sat and Sun.  How can it get much worse than that?  I was also weak for the next four days after that.  Can anyone shed some light on how bad these chemo's get after each treatment.  You'll help will be much appreciated.

 Thanks you,  Laurie

 

On 11/14/2008 lyrjunky wrote:

Hello all,

I'm new to this message board and hopefully I can get some help from all of you.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 9/18, had lumpectomy and lympnodes removed on 9/24.  The area around the lump was negative and so was the lympnodes.  I'm a stage IIa, IDC, grade III.  I'm on six rounds of chemo every 21 days.  I'm on Taxotere and Cytoxin.  I had my second round two days ago and while I was there the nurse told me I would progressively get worse probably after treatment 4 or 5.  To be honest, I'm quite terrified I will get worse after the second treatment, the first one I thought was bad as I could barley get out of bed on Sat and Sun.  How can it get much worse than that?  I was also weak for the next four days after that.  Can anyone shed some light on how bad these chemo's get after each treatment.  You'll help will be much appreciated.

 Thanks you,  Laurie

Hi Laurie,

I was on Taxol (which is very mild) and Adriamycin (which can be quite nasty) - not quite what you are on, but maybe I can give you some encouragement. 

I slept a LOT when I was getting chemo.  I tried to continue working as much as possible - but had  a few days where I went to work and had to go home after 2 - 3 hours, and then I went to bed and there I stayed the rest of the day. Thus I learned that I could count on 2 days when I was useless, and the next 2 or 3 weren't great. Fortunately I have a great partner, and she was there for me every step of the way, cooking, cleaning, making sure I had what I needed.

I started on prednisone with my first treatment, but had SEVERE hallucinations, so said no more.  The next round we tried dexamethasone - same result, so I did my last two treatments without any steroids at all.  I just made sure to take some tylenol before treatment, and keep it up afterward - that really helped. 

I had a lot of nausea - found that purple grape juice helps, ginger ale helps, but the best is cola syrup - there are still some old time drug stores and grocery stores that sell that. I realized after the third treatment that the Neupogen was contributing heavily to the nausea, so I stopped taking it - fortunately I only had one more treatment so wasn't that much at risk white cell wise.  Food also tasted really bad, and I didn't have much appetite.  Again, the purple grape juice helped, and I learned to avoid spices, as they just made the food taste worse.

I started losing my hair right after the second treatment.  I had known this would happen, and had a plan.  Soon as the hair started coming out, we had an after hours party at my hair stylists salon - I had her give me mohawk before she totally buzzed my head, and we did goofy things with the mohawk, took pictures, ate some pizza, and then bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - my bald head was just as soft and smooth as a baby's bottom.  Stayed that way for another 4 months!

I only went through 4 months of chemo, but I know that I could have done another 2 months, or even another 6 months, if that was what they thought was needed.  Yes, being sick was hard (and having worked for 16 years as a nurse, sometimes taking care of patients getting chemo - I know that you probably WILL be sicker than I was) - but in my book, the alternative - metastatic cancer, and possible loss of life - is even harder. 

My cancer was a little more involved than yours - I had about half my lymph nodes removed in a 2nd surgery because there were cells in the margins of the lumpectomy. I had whopping big doses of both drugs - the max they could give me, but my oncologist is conservative, and he chose to only give me 4 treatments, followed by radiation.  I completed slightly more than half of the radiation, then quit because I was developing lymphedema and I knew if it got worse it would interfere with my ability to work, and I couldn't afford that. 

I remained "cancer free" for almost the magic 5 years - 2 months shy of 5 years we discovered nodules in my lungs, and it took another 3 months and surgical biopsy of my lung to get a definitive diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer. I have used alternative treatment and am now in remission, but realistically I know that I can now NEVER stop fighting cancer; while I may have the cell growth stopped, and perhaps even reversing, I must always consider the possibility that there are still cells spread thruout my body, just waiting for my internal enviroment to once again become condusive to growth. 

So, I have wondered if it might not have been better to have chemo for longer, and for me to have finished radiation.  I don't dwell on it, as I will never have that answer.  But it does lead me to encourage others to persevere through the difficulties of treatment. It is much more possible to eradicate cancer at stage I, or II, or even III, than it is to treat stage IV.  If a person gets to stage IV, there can be remission, but for the great majority of people, there is no eradication, and there is no going back.

So my advice to you is to persevere. You've started the chemo, so stay with it if you can - to quit early would not be to your advantage unless you are willing to immediately step into an alternative treatment.  (Natural treatments do not have the nasty side effects, but they take longer to be effective, and take the same discipline to continue as do conventional treatments.)  

Try to find a local cancer support group. They  can give you advise on how to cope with being sick, and might even be able to send people to help with stuff when you are sickest. The other thing to do is mark a calendar with a treatment countdown, including not only your last treatment date, but another 3 weeks for recovery.  At the end of each day, or the next morning, mark the past day off - and do a little happy dance to celebrate one more day that you do not ever have to repeat again, but also to celebrate one day closer to being cancer free!!

 If you do decide you can't do this chemo, talk to your dr about the possibility of doing a chemo regimen that won't make you so sick. And if you decide you just can't finish the chemo at all, PLEASE check into alternative therapies.

www.cancertutor.com

www.lefcancer.org

www.alkalizeforhealth.net

THere are herbs and supplements that can help you get through chemo by relieving the side effects.  I am not immediately familiar with what helps with taxotere and cytoxin - I am hoping some others will reply with those answers.  If not, try doing an online search for herbs/naturals that counter side effects of chemo.  Just make sure to check with your oncologist before you start taking anything, as some naturals can counteract or interfere with the chemo.

Be sure to drink plenty of pure fresh water.  Steam distilled or reverse osmosis filtered is best.  You not only need hydration, but you need to be able to detoxify your body from the chemo. Drinking lots of water is absolutley essential for both.

I wish you the very best.

Tre

 

 

On 11/15/2008 trehouse60 wrote:

 

On 11/14/2008 lyrjunky wrote:

Hello all,

I'm new to this message board and hopefully I can get some help from all of you.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 9/18, had lumpectomy and lympnodes removed on 9/24.  The area around the lump was negative and so was the lympnodes.  I'm a stage IIa, IDC, grade III.  I'm on six rounds of chemo every 21 days.  I'm on Taxotere and Cytoxin.  I had my second round two days ago and while I was there the nurse told me I would progressively get worse probably after treatment 4 or 5.  To be honest, I'm quite terrified I will get worse after the second treatment, the first one I thought was bad as I could barley get out of bed on Sat and Sun.  How can it get much worse than that?  I was also weak for the next four days after that.  Can anyone shed some light on how bad these chemo's get after each treatment.  You'll help will be much appreciated.

 Thanks you,  Laurie

Hi Laurie,

I was on Taxol (which is very mild) and Adriamycin (which can be quite nasty) - not quite what you are on, but maybe I can give you some encouragement. 

I slept a LOT when I was getting chemo.  I tried to continue working as much as possible - but had  a few days where I went to work and had to go home after 2 - 3 hours, and then I went to bed and there I stayed the rest of the day. Thus I learned that I could count on 2 days when I was useless, and the next 2 or 3 weren't great. Fortunately I have a great partner, and she was there for me every step of the way, cooking, cleaning, making sure I had what I needed.

I started on prednisone with my first treatment, but had SEVERE hallucinations, so said no more.  The next round we tried dexamethasone - same result, so I did my last two treatments without any steroids at all.  I just made sure to take some tylenol before treatment, and keep it up afterward - that really helped. 

I had a lot of nausea - found that purple grape juice helps, ginger ale helps, but the best is cola syrup - there are still some old time drug stores and grocery stores that sell that. I realized after the third treatment that the Neupogen was contributing heavily to the nausea, so I stopped taking it - fortunately I only had one more treatment so wasn't that much at risk white cell wise.  Food also tasted really bad, and I didn't have much appetite.  Again, the purple grape juice helped, and I learned to avoid spices, as they just made the food taste worse.

I started losing my hair right after the second treatment.  I had known this would happen, and had a plan.  Soon as the hair started coming out, we had an after hours party at my hair stylists salon - I had her give me mohawk before she totally buzzed my head, and we did goofy things with the mohawk, took pictures, ate some pizza, and then bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - my bald head was just as soft and smooth as a baby's bottom.  Stayed that way for another 4 months!

I only went through 4 months of chemo, but I know that I could have done another 2 months, or even another 6 months, if that was what they thought was needed.  Yes, being sick was hard (and having worked for 16 years as a nurse, sometimes taking care of patients getting chemo - I know that you probably WILL be sicker than I was) - but in my book, the alternative - metastatic cancer, and possible loss of life - is even harder. 

My cancer was a little more involved than yours - I had about half my lymph nodes removed in a 2nd surgery because there were cells in the margins of the lumpectomy. I had whopping big doses of both drugs - the max they could give me, but my oncologist is conservative, and he chose to only give me 4 treatments, followed by radiation.  I completed slightly more than half of the radiation, then quit because I was developing lymphedema and I knew if it got worse it would interfere with my ability to work, and I couldn't afford that. 

I remained "cancer free" for almost the magic 5 years - 2 months shy of 5 years we discovered nodules in my lungs, and it took another 3 months and surgical biopsy of my lung to get a definitive diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer. I have used alternative treatment and am now in remission, but realistically I know that I can now NEVER stop fighting cancer; while I may have the cell growth stopped, and perhaps even reversing, I must always consider the possibility that there are still cells spread thruout my body, just waiting for my internal enviroment to once again become condusive to growth. 

So, I have wondered if it might not have been better to have chemo for longer, and for me to have finished radiation.  I don't dwell on it, as I will never have that answer.  But it does lead me to encourage others to persevere through the difficulties of treatment. It is much more possible to eradicate cancer at stage I, or II, or even III, than it is to treat stage IV.  If a person gets to stage IV, there can be remission, but for the great majority of people, there is no eradication, and there is no going back.

So my advice to you is to persevere. You've started the chemo, so stay with it if you can - to quit early would not be to your advantage unless you are willing to immediately step into an alternative treatment.  (Natural treatments do not have the nasty side effects, but they take longer to be effective, and take the same discipline to continue as do conventional treatments.)  

Try to find a local cancer support group. They  can give you advise on how to cope with being sick, and might even be able to send people to help with stuff when you are sickest. The other thing to do is mark a calendar with a treatment countdown, including not only your last treatment date, but another 3 weeks for recovery.  At the end of each day, or the next morning, mark the past day off - and do a little happy dance to celebrate one more day that you do not ever have to repeat again, but also to celebrate one day closer to being cancer free!!

 If you do decide you can't do this chemo, talk to your dr about the possibility of doing a chemo regimen that won't make you so sick. And if you decide you just can't finish the chemo at all, PLEASE check into alternative therapies.

www.cancertutor.com

www.lefcancer.org

www.alkalizeforhealth.net

THere are herbs and supplements that can help you get through chemo by relieving the side effects.  I am not immediately familiar with what helps with taxotere and cytoxin - I am hoping some others will reply with those answers.  If not, try doing an online search for herbs/naturals that counter side effects of chemo.  Just make sure to check with your oncologist before you start taking anything, as some naturals can counteract or interfere with the chemo.

Be sure to drink plenty of pure fresh water.  Steam distilled or reverse osmosis filtered is best.  You not only need hydration, but you need to be able to detoxify your body from the chemo. Drinking lots of water is absolutley essential for both.

I wish you the very best.

Tre

 

Thank you for your reply and all of the information you have provided.  I will definitely do some more reserch on the side effects adn what can help relieve them.  My biggest thiing is how to deal with the fatigue the weekend following treatment.  I can barely get my head off the pillow however today is not that bad.  I am a little weak but not like I was the first time around which I'm so thankful for.    I won't give up treatment, I'm sure it will be hard at times but won't give it up.  Thanks a lot for all your help and good luck with yours to stay in remission.  Laurie

 

Drink lots and lots of water. I drank water during my treatments and after. Praise God I was able to continue working, I missed a few days but worked more than I was off. I too, had a lumpectomy, followed by chemo (A,C,T) and radiation. I started loosing my hair after the second treatment, and had my husband just go ahead and shave it. A great feeling and when it starts coming back it's just like a baby's (SOFT). I kept telling everyone to feel. God was my strength in all of this, I am now taking the chemo pill (xeloda) and am doing pretty well with it, but this is 4 years after original diagnosis. Just try and keep a positive attitude and lots and lots of prayers. GOD will help you through.

 

On 11/14/2008 lyrjunky wrote:

Hello all,

I'm new to this message board and hopefully I can get some help from all of you.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 9/18, had lumpectomy and lympnodes removed on 9/24.  The area around the lump was negative and so was the lympnodes.  I'm a stage IIa, IDC, grade III.  I'm on six rounds of chemo every 21 days.  I'm on Taxotere and Cytoxin.  I had my second round two days ago and while I was there the nurse told me I would progressively get worse probably after treatment 4 or 5.  To be honest, I'm quite terrified I will get worse after the second treatment, the first one I thought was bad as I could barley get out of bed on Sat and Sun.  How can it get much worse than that?  I was also weak for the next four days after that.  Can anyone shed some light on how bad these chemo's get after each treatment.  You'll help will be much appreciated.

 Thanks you,  Laurie

Hi Laurie- I am having my 3rd chemo on Monday.  I am taking Cytoxin and Adriamyacin for 4 dose-dense treatments, then having the Taxol drugs for 4 more.  My second treatment was better than the first actually but I asked for different drugs to take home.  They gave me "Emend" for the first 3 days and I felt great on that.  No nausea or even weakness.  One week after treatment, I "bottomed out" (as my doctor calls it) and was weak and felt pretty bad for 4 days.  Ask your doctor to try some of hundreds of different anti nausea drugs that are out there. I get 3 or 4 during chemo and some at home.  I too am scared of further treatments.  I have to complete 8 in 16 weeks.  I had a bilateral  mastectomy.  I only had cancer on the right side, but it was aggressive, have no family history ,  it was a triple negative tumor, and I am 35 years old. My doctor said each one can be slightly different, but not terribly.  I am hoping he is right because my first chemo was pretty bad for the first nine days.  The 2nd though seemed a lot better, so I hope yours go easier as you go and not more difficult.  Ask for more drugs if need be!!!  Good Luck!

Andi