Rinaina,
I tried sending a post to you last night and for some reason my link dropped. I hate when links, blood counts, hair, drop. My sister lives in your area (Glenview); you might welcome less hair in those hot summers!
Sorry to hear your first round gave you so much trouble. It is all so overwhelming - especially the not knowing what to expect. This will get better - you will get a sense of what to expect and can plan accordingly. Keep communication up with your onc and especially the oncology nurses about your side effects. There are many things they can recommend that will help.
This might sound a little strange, but you might try acupuncture/acupressure for relief of some symptoms. There is quite a bit of data that these complementary measures help with fatigue, nausea, and possibly blood counts. I didn't get A/C (only taxol/carboplatin/herceptin - which I guess seems like enough to hit the blood counts!). During treatment I did frequent acupressure and quigong (enery flow exercises) and my counts stayed pretty good through 6 cycles. Everyone is different, but I do believe in trying ANYTHING that might help and won't hurt!
One final word about hair...mine came back very crazy - straight on top, curly in the back, and lots of colors I didn't know I had. It was very fun going through the "spiky" period and although I swore I would NEVER cut it again, last weekend (a year later!) I finally did. Had the same vow about shaving my legs, but that only lasted about a week
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Good luck on TX2. Hang in there - you can totally do this!
Take care
Chris