Forum Discussion

Emeraldgreen's avatar
Emeraldgreen
Member
11 months ago

chemo or no chemo

Hi everyone, I am new to this list. I am 60 and was diagnosed with breast cancer (ER+, PR-, HER2-, Grade 3, Stage 2) and had a mastectomy a couple of months ago. My oncologist recommends chemoth...
Selkie's avatar
Selkie
Member
10 months ago
Hi @Emeraldgreen . I had the chemo combination you had. Like you, I was also quite frightened of chemo having watched a family member go through it. What made me decide to follow through with it is the fact I didn't want to have any regrets- I needed to know I went with recommendations should things go pear shaped down the track.

In terms of how I found docetaxel + cyclophosphoramide chemo. They give you massive amounts of steroids to take in the first couple of days which mitigate most of the risk of vomiting. This worked for me but I did find they made me quite constipated (with the opposite effect once they wore off). They also made me a bit "high" and it was a bit hard to sleep. I was up at 2-3am through most of the four months of chemo tbh.
They also give you an injection the day after treatment day which stimulates your immune system to hopefully prevent infection. I found that one gave me quite a lot of pain for a day or two but I was ok after that time. I also wore an n95 mask to all hospital appointments including during radiotherapy afterwards- I didn't care what people thought, I wasn't taking any risks.

One thing about TC chemo- it does hate hair and nails but they do eventually grow back. My nails were curly like a corrogated iron roof but they've finally grown in straight now I'm 12+ months post treatment. My hair started growing back in around 4 weeks post the final cycle- at first downy bum fluff that was curly but now it's gone back to straight. Eyebrows took a litle longer and they are admittedly thinner than they were.
In terms of long term side effects I have a tiny numb/tingly patch on the outer side of my big toe (peripheral neuropathy) but it's not really anything to write home about.

Just to give you hope. I was a swimmer before I got sick and now I'm back to swimming 2km/5 days a week. I have full use of my shoulder- I was very conscientious with doing all the exercises the physio gave me. It hurt at the time but now I see the pay off. At first going back to swimming was hard- my endurance was shot but you take it one week at a time and it does get better.

Good luck. These aren't easy decisions and the treatments affect everyone differently.