finished chemo finally!

[rinaina]

It's been a while since I posted on here or read other's posts so I have a lot of catching up to do. Chemo has not been kind to me at all. My health and side effects progressively got worse with each treatment, especially after my third and final fourth treatment with adriamycin and cytoxen. I received two injections of Neulasta after my 3rd and 4th treatment to try to help with keeping my white count up to minimize the side effects but it didn't really help and on the contrary, I had horrific bone pain from the Neulasta so if anything, I felt worse from those injections. My major side effects have been high fevers 2 weeks after treatments and as I said much higher after 3rd and 4th tx. I also have had terrible problems with severe dryness of my eyes, but so severe that my corneas became abraded and the surface of the cornea has changed so I have transient blurriness. I am using artificial tears by the carload along with prescription drops, ointments, gels and lacrasirt pellets to try and help this dryness along. No one thing seems to be helping enough. This eye thing has become so annoying that all I want to do is keep them closed as much as possible but even that backfires because then it is difficult to open them. Due to the dryness, if my eyes are closed too much then due to the dryness the lid adheres to the eye ball and makes it difficult to open the lid after the eyes are closed for any prolonged time. I always feel like I have stuff in my eyes irritating them too. I developed a rash on my upper chest, upper back, upper arms and a few elsewhere that has gotten worse with each treatment and am now on steroids to try and get rid of that because nothing else has helped. The dermatologist didn't know what to make of it and has given me topical creams which didn't do much. He even took a picture of it and sent it our to, get this, a dermatologist-oncologist-hematologist and even she didn't know what to make of it. My onc thinks it is definitely a reaction to the chemo. In addition to all these side effects, I have had the typical ones as well....mouth sores, burning tongue, slight nausea after treatment but not too bad actually, extreme extreme fatigue, constipation, taste and smell vastly altered. The worst though has been the fevers and headaches that went along with them and they eye problems. I am wondering if you could all tell me how long your side effects lasted after completing treatments and if any of you had problems like I did with the eyes and fevers? I ended up in the emergency room last weekend because the fever remained high for more than 24 hours, (100.8) and my onc wants a blood panel everytime the fever stays over 100.5 for 24 hours. My white count was low but not dangerously so they didn't keep me overnight. They gave me fluids and took a chest xray and ekg and took plenty of blood to check for infections but all came back fine. I am so anxious to start feeling better and I am so curious as to how long it took all of you to bounce back after you completed treament. I start Herceptin on August 17 if my Muga comes back okay next week and if my blood tests are Aok. Then when I return from a short getaway to vegas on Sept 5 I will start radiation for 6 weeks as well. They didn't want to start radiation until I came back because you can't start and stop when you would miss some days due to going away. You have to go consistently 5 days a week for the 6 weeks. I really hope to be well enough to get away a little on Sept 5 for four nights before I start up with radiation but at this point I can't imagine having the stamina to be able to. Also because of my eyes that are so bothersome. If I don't go away then they will start the radiation sooner. Can you tell me how you all did with radiation and herceptin? I have read that herceptin can cause eye issues too. What kind of eye issues can it cause because I sure don't need any more problems with my eyes. I have heard that both radiation and herceptin don't make you feel as sick as chemo and I am counting on that. I am fatigued enough and my stamina is shot. Thanks for all your feedback that I am counting on. I tried to post this last night but for whatever reason it didn't post.