First Chemo treatment done

Heart Sutra · 01-05-2007, 06:41 PM

Do you know how amazing you all are?

We are so fortunate for finding this site. This would be terrifying without the insight, humor, and compassion so freely given here.

Thank you for being here.

Jean · 01-05-2007, 06:54 PM

Hi Kevin and Sue,

Nothing to add to the chemo portion - just wanted to send my well wishes
to Sue and advise her when she really feels fed up with the chemo and she
will - we all did....somehow inside of us there is a huge amount of courage,
it is amazing....what we can do and I know she will come through this.

I found that back rubs from my husband helped a great deal...so Kevin
get the lotion.

Hugs,
jean

Bev · 01-05-2007, 11:22 PM

If your WBC's are merely low(1.3) and not in the cellar, see if your onc will let you skip the neulastas. N gave me lot's of muscle pain about 6 days after treatment. I only did it once. Onc said even if WBCs are low, they will go up on their own.

Any food you are eating now, you will hate in the future. Baked potatoes, applesauce and cranberry juice were tolerable back then.

Sleep lots for the first 3 days following treatment. Your reaction to future treatments will be similiar, meaning that it should not get any worse next time. It's the fatigue that accumulates. 1 down, 3 to go. You can do it. BB

LAURIE · 01-06-2007, 08:59 AM

Having just finished my last A/C just a little bit ago, the memory of what you all are going through is very fresh in my mind. You can get through this. Cherish ths time you have before treatments, when you feel well. You also have to rememeber you are going through an awful lot with having surgery, reconstruction, port and everything else on top of starting A/C. That is a lot to handle in 1 month. I did not have a great time on A/C, no one does. I threw up every time, but after the first time I knew what to expect a little bit. I got so anxious about treatment the doctor prescribed me Ativan to help my nerves and nausea too. That seemed to help. As far as your hair. I could not shave mine before hand. It had to fall out for me to believe it was going to happen. When it got real messy, I put it into 8 little pony tails, cut them out and then shaved my head. I would not of lost all of my hair, but I would of had lots of bald spots. Those pony tails I kept have been put to good use, I have sewed them to make my own bangs. This makes me feel real. People will say your bangs look so natural, and I can respond "of course they do, they are my real hair."