I feel like Ive won the lottery!!
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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I too didn't have much problems with nausea. Of course I felt queasy on some days after AC (similar to FEC) but I found anything ginger helped a lot with that. Ginger infused tea, ginger ale, even ginger cookies. You'll find that the meds they give you are really excellent nowadays and your oncologist can adjust meds if you need a boost. I wasn't nauseas at all on Docetaxel (similar to Taxol). Hydration is really important too, as said, drink loads of water. I didn't have any problems with mouth sores either. I ate an ice-pol during my infusions which I think helped with that. But do use a mouth wash (alcohol free) or make your own from salt or bicarb, I used it at least twice a day. Biotine gum I found was good too.
As mentioned here before, not knowing is the worst so after your first one, you'll be fine.
Love Janey xxx0 -
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I too didn't have much problems with nausea. Of course I felt queasy on some days after AC (similar to FEC) but I found anything ginger helped a lot with that. Ginger infused tea, ginger ale, even ginger cookies. You'll find that the meds they give you are really excellent nowadays and your oncologist can adjust meds if you need a boost. I wasn't nauseas at all on Docetaxel (similar to Taxol). Hydration is really important too, as said, drink loads of water. I didn't have any problems with mouth sores either. I ate an ice-pol during my infusions which I think helped with that. But do use a mouth wash (alcohol free) or make your own from salt or bicarb, I used it at least twice a day. Biotine gum I found was good too.
As mentioned here before, not knowing is the worst so after your first one, you'll be fine.
Love Janey xxx0 -
This is what I'm wanting to hear Peggy Sue. Thank you. I can do tired, I can do pain but I hate the tedium of nausea. I'll take whatever they suggest for anti nausea. I used to wake up from anaesthetics and vomit for hours. Now I tell them before anaesthesia and they give me something for it. I wake up and just feel thirsty. Hopefully you won't feel sick Jodie. I'm quite able to tell my body what to do (except for not producing cancer) so I'm teaching it now to not feel sick after chemo.
Cas0 -
I don't even know what they are going to give me and I'm not going to worry about it until it happens. First things first. My treatment so far is all back to front. One surgeon wanted to do chemo first, CT scan, bone scan, then surgery. The surgeon that I chose said no way I'm playing with a tumour of that size, I'm cutting the breast off now and we will look at other problems after that. Hence why I am just going for scans this week coming.
Jodie, I read the positive ones because they give me hope and encouragement. Stay positive. I'm going to phone the Cancer Council on Monday and find out about wigs. I'll let you know what I learn. My breast care nurse advised me to get a wig made before my hair falls out.
Cas0 -
Oh cas :-( I'm crying with you. God I wish I could give you a gentle hug.
It's just all so unfair. I wish we didn't live so far apart because I could be there for you and try to help :-(
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I wish you could come to the mater on Wednesdays cas. Then we could be there together. Xxx0
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What scares me senseless about going to chemo is sitting in a room with a bunch of other people all hooked up to horrible drugs. I just cannot find it in me to find comfort in numbers in that situation. I don't want to be in a room with a group of elderly dying people. I don't want my mother to be there because she will tell me to get over myself. I need someone who knows what I'm going through and has a bit of sympathy without making out as if I'm going to die. (I'm not btw) I'm still in tears this morning. That stupid receptionist. It isn't the doctors so much, my surgeon is pleasant and will answer questions, my very understanding GP is just wonderful, it is the administration staff who haven't got the first clue how to relate to people who are very ill. I mean, we don't have the flu, we have cancer, a life threatening illness. This is my second cancer. I had colon cancer when I was 22. I didn't undergo any chemo or radiation for that. I have told one radiologist off. I was sitting in the main waiting room with my mother having a conversation and he came and called me, took me down a hall and said sit in this waiting room I'll be with you in a minute. Turned into 15 and I took myself back to the main waiting room. 10 minutes later he came out and asked why I was there. Did I let him have it (specially after the hospital fiasco and this was only days later).
Seriously, I am not worried about hair or about not having two breasts. I've never been vain enough to worry about what I look like one bit. I'm not overly concerned with chemo drugs either. What I AM worried about is not finishing my degree that I've busted my arse to complete while working full time at the same time. I'd been invited by the university to do honours next year. That is the biggest compliment I've ever had and I'm very serious about that. Now it seems to be going south bit by bit by bit. I don't know if I can do rounds and rounds of chemo and still have my wits about me to go to uni and study and attain first class honours (80%) Stupid medical people do not understand that the disease and the drugs are so far down my list of importance as to be ridiculous. Sensitivity to me, my life, my capabilities is far, far more important than getting the cancer out and stuffing me full of drugs in the hope that it won't come back.
Thanks for sympathising with me Christine. Thank god there are women like you out there. I don't want to go to Cancer Forums really, sorry they aren't my thing unless I'm there in a journalistic capacity. I am studying journalism. I will have a lot to say in the future about breast cancer and treatment of women undergoing surgery and post operative treatment. I can't now of course because I would be seen to be being biased and irrational. I am however storing it all in my vast memory for future reference.0 -
I will do that Jodie if this oncologist down here says that I don't need much. My surgeon will refer me to whomever I want (because it's not worth his effort to argue with me, he won't win) :P
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Hi Cas
I've just read your post and I'm totally horrified that you have had to go through such trauma. It's totally unfair and unacceptable but, unfortunately, it's very common.
I had the plastic surgeon's receptionist speaking to me like I was an idiot when I asked if the reason I hadn't received a receipt for my very expensive nipple recon surgery was because she had submitted it to Medicare for me. She spoke to me as if I was a two year old and had the temerity to tell me that of course I MUST have received her receipt because they DONT submit to medicare on their patients' behalf and then started to instruct me on how to go into Medicare and get my refund... She also asserted that I wouldn't actually get much back because it was plastic surgery (of course, not bothering to remember that I was a cancer patient so it is covered partly by Medicare and my Heath fund). I was, at this stage, in tears standing at the desk. She printed me another receipt and when I took it into Medicare and they processed it they told me that the surgeon had claimed my refund ($2000.00) and that they had had my money for three weeks already!!!!! I had already paid $4000.00 up-front to the surgeon two weeks before my surgery because those are his "rules". I was absolutely furious and completely crushed. The lady at Medicare called the surgeons office and, of course, they couldn't work out how THAT could have happened.... I had an apology but it left a very bad taste in my mouth. I was treated like an idiot and they must have thought I was one since they had stolen my refund.
It's such a pity that its not a requirement for doctors who treat cancer to have admin staff who are cancer survivors themselves. It would make the whole process a lot easier to endure for the poor person going through the trauma of a diagnosis and consequent treatment.
Please go and have your treatments so that you can live and long and healthy life and be able to give comfort to the next poor victim of this hateful disease. You are allowed to spit the dummy - who could blame you?
Thinking of you and sending you soothing hugs,
Xxx Jeanine0 -
Hi Jeanine,
I agree, doctors who treat cancer patients SHOULD have cancer survivors for their admin staff. The women who I have found to be rude and unsympathic seem to be of an age and makeup of one particular type of person. A burnt out ex nurse. They have no empathy, no patience and no thought for the person in front of them. I will be on the phone on Monday and I will sort this situation out even if I have to be the instigator of rolling heads. I have never had a lot of patience for people who don't or won't use their brains and think before speaking.
I will definitely be coming back to help a few more along this path.Cas
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hahahahaha! I like your husband, you chose well. I burst out laughing at that post
How hilarious! Good on you for having a go at that moron. (still giggling) Yes I found one of the radiologists to be awful, the doctor there had the personality of Doc Martin (none) and one of the receptionists needed a good (you put the word in). Snarly faced cow. Humph! Mind you, one of the receptionists there said "I know you". I looked at the ground and thought oh crap, what does she remember me for, I hope it isn't bad lol (guilty conscience). She lived around the corner from me when my son and her daughter were about 7 ish. I knew exactly who she was then. She studied the same degree as I am but she didn't finish (I will). That was nice to catch up with her (in about 3 minutes).
Yes there have been humourous bits, people have said some really ridiculous things to me and I've just giggled because I knew to expect them. Thanks so much for being here and making it a little easier to cope with the bad bits. Now, if I don't take this bra off, the senoma that feels like a bilge tank slopping back and forth is going to explode and it won't be pretty (yuk!)
Cas0 -
Hi Cas
You sound a little better now after reading everyone else's ridiculous stories)) - the stupid insensitivity of staff, some nurses and some doctors seems to be contagious... We all just have to ride the wave. Who knows, maybe one day the awful woman who made me cry will, herself, be on the receiving end of the same treatment. You have to try to put it in perspective and focus on getting well.
Sending more hugs,
Xxx Jeanine0 -
Love ya work Jeanine ((((mwah!))) and squeezing you till you squeek!
I'm feeling much better today. Griffith University and staff are just being so caring and telling me that nothing is going to stop me getting where I want to go. They've given me fairly unlimited extensions on everything (within reason of their time allowances) and told me that I have to do my honours year next year. I've been told this morning by a relative, a retired doctor of microbiology that the university is pushing me so that they can grab me as a tutor in 2015. OK, that makes me smile, I think I would like that. It is all conjecture at the moment but the idea sits well with me. I like intelligent people hence why I participate here and I don't mind helping people to learn either.
Yep, karma usually bites those whose attitudes can do with some adjustment when they least expect it and secondly I have a long memory. :PCas X
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Christine !!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahaha, OMG girl you make me laugh and I'm only halfway through your post, just at the stage of ramming a gunhandle sideways down the radiologists throat hehehehe...... PLEASE become a writer of some description. Your talents are bursting to get out.
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Christine !!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahaha, OMG girl you make me laugh and I'm only halfway through your post, just at the stage of ramming a gunhandle sideways down the radiologists throat hehehehe...... PLEASE become a writer of some description. Your talents are bursting to get out.
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