Hello, I am so grateful to have found this BC support outlet. Tomorrow I began phase 2 of my chemo sessions; I must say I have been very challenged this week to see past some of the negative information and side effects of the Taxol medication. NOW I am NOT
. I spent the day with a great friend, did a Rieki session followed by a yoga class and I found this organization through speaking with a wonderful resourceful women at WellSpring Niagara. She referred me to call the 1-888 line which I did and was instantly connected with another HER2 survivour who made a definite positive impact. I then found the stories excellent and began to smile and not be anxious about my session tomorrow. So thank you, thank you, thank you everyone.
I found my lump May 8 2011 on my own, my family doctor is hard to get into so I went to a walk-in clinic and proceeded to chart my course from there. I tried to make an appointment for a mam and ultrasound within my community May 9 but the wait was 1-month, so not happening. I called another breast screening clinic 40-mins away and they had me booked the next day May 10. As a result of the mam and ultrasound they booked I guided biopsy May 25. June 3 I went back to the Walk-in Clinic to get my results as my fam doc was on holidays, and he was not happy that I went to a walk-in, that was some conversation about me being my own advocate and that he needs to work more that 14 hours a week. All said and done the page has been turned and I have a new family doc. So June 3 I find out I do indeed have breast cancer-it was like a white fluffy cloud transported me into warrior 3, I called the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton (simply because I recalled the nurse saying they were directly connected to the centre and had a fabulous female oncologist. So that is all I had, I looked on line called the new patients line, introduced myself was given an appointment with the oncologist consult June 10, left that appointment feeling very confident with our choices and had the lumpectomy on my right breast with a sentinel node removal on June 30. After the recovery period of 3.5 weeks I had my meeting to with the onc. surgeon to discuss the path report, we were to meet with the onc medical Chief of the Juravinski in about two weeks so that is what we thought, however as we were leaving the onc. surgeon ran down the hall calling my name and shouted that the Chief would see me now! Wow we did an about face and proceeded to meet with him, that now means we are so ahead of schedule had I waited in my own home town, again grateful I was listening to the nurse and advocating for my own health. So we met, chatted-looked at stats, chatted more thought and began my first chemo of AC on August. 2nd.
Looking back I can say I kept waiting for the train to hit me, I had some fatigue that compounded, nothing unbearable. My 3-session was the most exhausting but I think that had to do with my hair falling out and having the PORT put in. For my 4th and final AC I did Reiki twice, spoke with a life coach had my mom come and stay with me, had a girls movie night and the fatigue was not as hard on me as the third round.
I believe the support of my family/friends and positive energy made the first 4 much more tolerable.
And now the next 4-sessions of Taxol mixed with Herceptin combined for two of the Taxol treatments I as back in Warrior mode and so very thankful that this support forum for HER2 is available, so thankful for all of your shared experiences.
If there are any other tips that worked for you during this phase I am looking forward to reading more. One book I read was Just Get Me Through This - I highly recommend it!
Question? has any one done acupuncture for the neoropathy? My onc team said to go ahead with it. Any thoughts?
Namaste
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