I know what you mean with waiting to start chemo. I was the same. My tumour was 9cm and involved 80% of my lymph nodes including some in the neck. I started off with chemo first to try and reduce the size of the tumour, this was TAC. A very strong dose of chemo which I was meant to have every third week for 6 sessions. However after the fourth dose, the dr's realised that it had affected my lungs and my heart was a bit strange (tuns out the irregular heartbeat was a murmur and I'd probably had it since birth). Anyway, was put on steroids for the lungs and they changed chemo to AC. In my experience much kinder to me than the first lot! I was very lucky in that I didn't really feel nauseous, maybe occasionally but I didn't take any of the pills they gave me. I was fatigued and with TAC lost taste after about 3 days, and it took about 10 days to come back. With AC it wasn't as bad and I could taste some things , fatigue was still an issue though. I rinsed out my mouth after every meal with bi-carb soda in warm water. It seemed to do the trick and I didn't get mouth ulcers. I unfortunately ended up in hospital 5 times with neutropenia, no matter how careful I was, washing hands avoiding people!
so 8 months down the track after chemo, mastectomy and radiation I have finished treatment. However, still have complications, chemo gave me osteoporosis of the spine, so now on medication for that. God, I don't want to sound all doom and gloom because basically I got through all of that and hopefully starting back at work soon.
Just deal with one day at a time, if you come up against an obstacle just treat it just as that. You can overcome them. It's amazing what our bodies put up with!
best of luck with your treatment and you know you can come on here at anytime to vent or ask questions.
Linda xx
