Taxotere and Carboplatin Side effects

[Jean]

Janet,
It is true we do forget.....I am a big salad lover and during TCH the vinger
was just dreadful....soon as treatment was complete and taste was back
to normal boy did I hit it strong and hard with my Basalmic Vingar and Olive Oil.

Jean

[Erin]

Hello,

You have exactly my same routine...welcome :-) (LOL). You can see from my bio below that I am node negative and with a small tumor, but my onc felt that chemo was warranted due to the HER2 status. Also, he told me being HER2 positive, ER/PR highly positive, AND with a small tumor was very unusual....so he was concerned. I also felt I wanted to be agressive since I am ONLY 50 and I'm willing to suffer some now to give me a better shot at living until I'm 95

I started my chemo on 2/13 and it was not a picnic :-(But, nausea was completely controlled by meds. Felt really bad day 2-8, but I kept up with most of my daily routine - had to push myself though. Found that keeping fairly active really helped...at least it kept my mind off it. Had some serious chemo-brain issues. That has improved.

I feel almost normal now (day 13)...tired with exertion (planting some flowers yesterday felt like working out at the gym!), but at rest things are pretty OK. Lots of hair sheding but no big patches yet..onc says day 16 will be it...we'll see.

Best of luck with your treatment - keep us posted.

[Hopeful]

Erin,

Being strongly ER+/PR+ with a small tumor and node negative are all positive prognostic factors. What was it about your pathology (other than Her2+) that had your onc concerned?

Hopeful

[Erin]

Hopeful,

That was it. I have since met several women (at the chemo clinic) with the same dx and the same chemo protocol. We all have onc's from the same group, so perhaps they are of the same mind when it comes to chemo. I have also heard (on this site?) that being ER/PR strongly positive and HER2 positive corralates with a high Oncotype DX score for recurrance (though I did not have the Oncotype testing done myself).

Also, my second opinion was with Ravi Patel, who is one of top onc's in Bakersfield - working out of UCLA. He agreed with the suggestions of my onc regarding chemo.

As I said I wanted to be as agressive as was reasonable in my situation. I do get the feeling that if I had said I absolutely didn't want chemo, my onc would have not tried to talk me into it....but it was his recommendation.

[Hopeful]

Erin,

Thanks, I was just curious, as I am also highly ER+/PR+ Her2+ with stage 1 IDC. I can attest to the high Oncotype score (mine was 42 = 30% recurrance odds), however, I take it with a grain of salt since the Oncotype test results specify that the results are only comparable to someone with the same genetic score who was ER+ and took Tamoxifen alone. Since it has been shown that unopposed Tamoxifen (the treatment for the validation set for this test) has the potential to promote rather than inhibit Her2+ ER+ bc, I think it artificially inflates the score somewhat for those of us in that group. Since I was dx post-menopause, Tamoxifen was never a consideration, and I now take Arimidex.

I wish you the best of luck with your treatment plan, and hope that your remaining chemo treatments go smoothly for you.

Hopeful

[Melinda]

HI Ladies,
Well I went to Atlantic City for the weekend just to have a break before Chemo. While I was there I listened to a MoTown group that sang oldies form the 60, 70,80's. At some point and I dont exactly know why, one of the singers congratulated all of the bald men in the audience. Right after that he congratualted the bald women as a joke but I politely went up and said thank you in advance... I'll be bald in about a month. He shook my hand and smiled. MAybe it was lost on him what I was saying, but you know it felt good being able to admit it.
So tomorrow I am getting my already short hair even shorter. I will probably be the only 54 yr old that looks "punk". Right now people say I resemble Jamie Lee Curtis... lets see what they say after tomorrow!
Thank all of you for posting to my question. I will keep posting and let you know how I am doing.
LEt me know how day 16 goes for you Erin, and all the other days as well. I am about 2 weeks behind you.
Melinda