Best of luck with the treatments, Ivylass. Next month will be five years since my last chemo treatment!
My experiences probably won’t be a good parallel for yours because I had a four-chemical cocktail (the acronym is CHOP – I forget what it stands for), I was getting monoclonal antibody treatment at the same time, and I had nasty reactions to the intravenous Benadryl. I was hooked up for about 6 hours at a stretch.
Things are clearly different if you went to work the day after a treatment. I could barely haul myself out of bed and go to the bathroom the day after.
I hated the prednizone worse than the chemo itself. Everything tasted bad. Couldn’t stand using metal spoons or forks, or drinking Pepsi from a can.
My hair came back thin and curly. I gave it a few weeks, and shaved it all back off again. The second time, it came in pretty much the way it was before.
I’m really glad the nurse warned me about the red pee thing or I would have freaked out the first time I went! It looked like I was pissing blood.
Incidentally, I joked with my mother in law when she was doing radiation that I was going to make her a superhero costume for the super powers she’d get from the rads. And now, my wife is probably going to undergo this procedure, which involves inserting a mesh into the uterus and running a small current through it. So, I’m going to make her a superhero costume as well.
They’ll be the team of “The Atomic Boob and Electro-Womb”.
Good luck! My sister had cancer twice as a teenager and it sounds like you’re on the same routine she was.
Her hair came back curly afterwards, when it had been straight before.
She did gain a LOT of weight. About 40 pounds. She was very puffy, little chipmunk cheeks! I thought it was cute. She lost all the weight afterwards though.
She was very nauseous. Mom put a band-aid on her bellybutton and it fixed her right up! (Hahaha!)
DId the curls stay? My friend’s stayed. Also, her fingernails started growing “curly”, if you know what I mean. They didn’t grow like a regular, rounded nail. THey had ups and downs in them
I’m hoping it’s a side effect of the Emend and not chemo brain (not this soon!) but I feel like I am in a fog today.
I took the Anzemet last night, and I woke up at 1a and couldn’t get back to sleep until 5a. That might have something to do with my fog too. So I’ll take a Compazine tonight and only take the Anzemet during the day.
No achyness from the Neulasta…yet.
But, I’m not queasy, so hopefully I can eat normally again.
I found it to be cumulative, like some other chemo effects. They made me give the shots to myself at home, and KNOWING it was going to make me feel even more like I’d been rolled down a steep hill made it that much harder to actually stick myself. Back massages felt *insanely *good with all those aches, though.
I was told by the nurse that the Neulasta makes the long bones closest to the injection site ache. If they give it to you in your arm, you’ll get a headache. Since I woke up the morning after both my surgeries with an incredibly splitting headache (seriously, it hurt to move and I couldn’t get to the Tylox fast enough) I had her give it to me in my butt.
No super powers yet, Auto…I don’t start radiation until after chemo is done. Because of my youthful age (40) I don’t qualify for the 5-day only radiation treatment. It will be five days a week for 6 weeks. I’m checking to see if each radiation treatment counts as an office visit…that will be $750 total! Right now my chemo will cost $85 every two weeks (two office visits plus a prescription for Emend.) We should be okay, as long as I know ahead of time and can budget for it.
I’m wondering if we should start an Ask the Cancer Patient thread. Anyone interested? We’ve got the whole gamut from those of just starting to those of us who have been in remission for years.
It does appear that I will not have to pay for daily office visits for the radiation. Since I will not be seeing the doctor, it’s not considered an office visit. There’s something about an out of pocket expense, which doesn’t include co-pays, (I think) that once I reach that threshhold, the insurance will cover 100%.
I do have various hospital bills that I am paying (10% or something of the total cost) so I should reach the threshhold by the time I start radiation. So it doesn’t look like I will have to pay $750 like I thought.
Phew.
Now there’s that whole nasty gene thing hanging over my head. I really don’t want to face that possibility for me or my daughter right now.
I am very surprised to hear the treatment is done in such a positive, soothing recliner experience.
I guess I’ve always figured it would be very sterile and clinical.
Having taken prednisone in the past I will fight tooth and nail to never take the vile stuff again. However, what happens if you don’t take it in accordance with your treatment?
Healing thoughts to you, Ivy!
I did find out it wasn’t Prednisone, but some other steroid…Dexa something.
I am going to take some crackers with me next time to nibble on during. I did have lunch before I went, and I think I’m over the queasy hump right now.
The room isn’t all that fancy, but it does have recliners, a TV, windows, and I grabbed a rolling table to spread out all my knitting stuff. You’re there a minimum of 2 1/2 hours (my Taxol treatments will take four hours) so you might as well be comfy. The nurses’ desk is right there, so if something happens they can be at your side in a flash.
Oh, we did the in vitro thing ages ago, didn’t work, had a whole lot of hassle with the fertility doctor’s office afterward. Even posted a pit thread or two about it. Somehow, the following year she got pregnant naturally, and our little girl is 15 months old today. But, ever since the delivery, her monthly visitor has been like a Wes Craven movie. So, the procedure’s more of an attempt to calm that business down; the procedure is actually something they only recommend if you’re done having kids.
