Waiting to feel well again....

........good luck with your next dose.  I hope you have some good news and manage to get through it all without any severe reactions.

I was really happy to hear about the weight training being good for the osteo.  As I have always done weight bearing exercise, this gives me some hope that I can get back some of my previous good health, so thank you very much for that, it was great to hear.

I will be interested to hear how you are going so please keep in touch if you feel like it. Age may have something to do with it my body's reaction.  I am much older than you by the looks of your photo ( I am 55).  My mother had breast cancer at 76 with a radical mastectomy at that age.  I dont think I fully appreciated what she went through until my life took a turn down the breast cancer road as well.  She died in May 2011 and I was diagnosed in Nov 2011 so luckily she never knew about my illness. 

I send you good thoughts and hope you travel well along this bumpy road.  Cheers for now, xoxo Louisa

Hi Louisa,

Thank you for the reply, I hope we both feel better really soon.

I will be heading to my next treatment tuesday 16th oct, and will hope my oncologist has some good news for me about my dose and some of the side effects I have.

Also i am not sure this infomation helps either of us yet when it comes to the osteoporosis (my mum already has it and it was always a side effect i was worried about) but I spoke to someone today who trained a lady with it. He said that with weight training they got her back to good bone health in a year. i know right now that training is the last thing i am thinking about with my shaky/dizzy body but it helped to hear that, well it helped a little bit anyway.

thank you for telling me your story.

keep in touch.

L

Hi Little Red, I am never sure whether to tell it how it is or to sugar coat it.  I was dizzy/shaky as well as other symptoms.  I ended up in hospital for a week and 10 days respectively for the first two doxetaxel (even though they reduced the dose to 80% on the second one), they reduced it to 70% for the third and I didnt end up in hospital but I was still really sick.  I have been really badly affected by the chemo and even though I had my last dose at the end of June, I am still unwell.  I have had a bone scan which shows that I now have osteoporosis (I never did before).  Some days I still have difficulty walking and I have have been unable to return to work yet.  My last appointment the oncologist told me that I am one of the worst cases of reaction to the docetaxel that he has ever seen (ditto the breast care nurses).  Has told me that a blood test has shown positive to an auto-immune disease and I am now getting a referral to a Rheumatologist.  After research on the internet it seems that this is a severe reaction to the chemotherapy which can bring on an auto-immune disease.  I am still shaky now after all this time.    I really understand how sick you are feeling.   I was told by the Oncologist that I will probably make a full recovery so I am just going to try to not push it anymore.  I had the idea that when I finished the chemo I would be better.  Not true for me.  My hair is starting to grow back and I now have eyebrows and eyelashes again, and pubic hair is starting to regrow.   Everyone keeps telling me I look so well.  Well all that new skin that chemo gives you certainly makes you look well and because I am sick of being sick I always tell people I am fine when they ask.  To let you know how far I have come, before my first operation in January (I had two in one month) I was running 5 ks every day and I have never had a day of illness in my life.  I am not a malingerer or hypochondriac.  Dont think this will help you but I can say that I honestly know how sick you feel.   I guess we all just get through it. For me it is like the cure is worse than the actual breast cancer and that cant be right can it?  I am thinking of you.

 

I'm am 12 days out of my second Docetaxel (taxotere) after 3 FECs. My ONC said i can take caltrate now as I was worried about osteoporosis.as a side effect as my mum alrealy has it. After the FEC I would feel ok in the last week before another treatment but the Docetaxel is really knocking me around, last night i was in tears telling my mum i dont want anymore treatment. I still feel dizzy/shaky all the time and still get some chest pain which i am worried about, I am off to the GP today to get it check out. I don't know how you got yourself back for the second and third rounds of Docetaxel? I wish I was feeling more brave!

Did anyone else feel dizzy/shaky the entire time?

Thanks Tony, I will look out for it.  Sounds like she is amazing.

 

Cheers, Louisa :)

It is hard to imagine not being able to do something as simple as walk but there it is, sometimes it is just not possible.  Still I am determined to get back to running which I love.  So here I go, one foot after the other when I can manage it,

 

You are an inspiration,  Thanks.  Louise:)

Hey Louisa

Wanted to let you know my 80 minutes can be split up in to 4 x 20 minute walks but at least I am getting out there now where as a few weeks ago if anyone had have said I would be doing that I would have laughed at them.

I have always struggled with this whole exercise or not to exercise through my journey so I am happy I am able to do anything plus be enjoying it to boot!!! lol

Mich xoxo

What a lovely surprise to hear such comforting comments.  Your story sounds amazingly similar to mine but I am not having the radiotherapy.

I really appreciate hearing your story and it is good to know there is someone else who understands what I mean.  I dont really want to define my life by cancer and all the stuff that goes with it so I am hoping it will all just drop away soon.

Great to know that you have the energy for 80 min walks, you are amazing.  All the best for good health for the future and thanks again for replying to my whinge.

Cheers, Louisa

 

 

 

 

Hi Louisa

I know how you feel that your treatment is over and really want to start feeling on top of it all again.

I also am now 7 weeks post chemo and in middle of radiotherapy and I can say I only just starting to feel okay.  I am walking to & fro from radiotherapy appts etc. so on some days I can walk 80 mins which is split up.  It has made a difference to how I am feeling BUT!!! if I not up to it I won't do it.  I trying to listen to my body (yes that body that let me down) and do what I can when I can.  It is so hard and unfortunately patience is needed.

Osteo is not nice but again managable once you know how.  I think it is weight bearing exercises that is good for osteo??.  My sister has R.A. & O.A. diagnosed when she was 35 and she is now 64 but it has never held her back from the majority of things she wants to do.  I think the combination of her age and abusing her body over the years is finally starting to take its toll but she has been amazing. 

My hair started to sprout (lol) before I finished my last cycle of the horrid Docetaxel - the chemo that really knocked me about.  It is very wispy with a mix of white and dark hair coming through.  I am getting mine shaved again though (not giving mine a chance to fall out again hee hee) so it can grow through minus the chemo that may still be lurking in my system.  If my hair grows back how it was it needs all the help it can get. I can notice it growing week by week.

I do understand what you mean about the longer you are on this journey the more things go wrong, one of my things being lymphodeama plus quite a few others.  You do ask youself when it is all going to end, I agree.

Good luck, hope you get on to a good specialist for your osteo and you get beautiful hair sprouting soon.

Mich xoxo