Here Goes
Hello. My name is Jenny and I live on the NSW/Vic Border. I have gone to post in here a couple of times but backed out. Denial maybe? On Wednesday I was officially given the diagnosis of BC. I hav...
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Yep @TabooGal - I'm on AC also - and I was also told that the cold cap doesn't work on AC so I didn't bother going there - actually the hospital where I'm doing chemo doesn't offer the cold cap anyway. I'm doing my four x AC treatments two weeks apart - it was going to be three weeks, but my onc said he wanted to try giving it to me fortnightly to get it over and done with sooner - that is, if I tolerate it OK. After the four x AC treatments I'll have 12 x taxol treatments weekly, then radiation and then years of hormone therapy to look forward to, just like you!
Are you going straight from AC to Radiation? Or will you have Taxol after AC?
Just before I started my Chemo I started a discussion thread called Chemo Here I go http://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/discussion/18682/chemo-here-i-go#latest - it really helped me to read everyone's experiences and it might help you also. I totally understand that everyone is different and you can't rely on the fact that you'll have the same side effects as other people, but it just helped me to get a 'bell curve' of a wide range of AC experiences together and definitely gave me the knowledge and information to go confidently forward - made it much much less scary.
So far, it's been OK - for me, it all seems to be effecting my mouth and my head more than anything else. So my mouth feels like a disaster zone with ulcers etc - my tongue feels sore and coated and really dry, and my teeth feel 'fuzzy'. I find it difficult to get enough saliva to swallow easily and drinking water does absolutely nothing. I was a 2 litre a day water guzzler before this and now I can't even drink a whole glass as it tastes really weird. I've had a full on craving for orange-juice which is really not good because of the sugar content so I'm trying rather to drink tea and instead, I'm eating 2-3 whole oranges a day - still a lot of sugar but definitely better than drinking gallons of OJ plus I get the fibre value of the fruit. Other than that I've just felt really light-headed and the best way I can describe it is that it's like 'really bad jet-lag'.
My AC is on a Tuesday and I've been able to go to work the whole rest of the week, laying low on the weekend straight after, and pretty good in the week between.
After my first AC I developed febrile neutropenia which landed me in hospital for a couple of days - turned out just to be a normal cold virus, which is not dangerous but I still had the cold and cough going into my second round of AC and they say that days 7-10 are the most likely to land you in trouble with low white blood cell counts etc - tomorrow is day 7 and I'm just praying and praying that the cough doesn't turn into something more sinister - I SO don't want to land up back in hospital. I'm lucky that I can work from home so I've decided to stay in my home office for the next few days and closet myself away from the cold and rain outside and all the sick people at work ( I work in a school so lots of sick kids!).
My hair started really falling out on Friday last week - about 3 days after my second AC - before that it wasn't really shedding much. I decided to get most of it cut off on Friday but haven't gone for the full shave - I think I'll let the rest of it just fall out. You might find that you don't want to cut it all off until it starts to thin or shed. I'm not really into scarves but really like the beanie look and I've bought one full wig and one half wig that's just the hair at the back and a detachable fringe, which looks great with the beanies. I've also bought a few lovely soft, bamboo beanie-type turban style caps - they're so comfy and great to sleep in.
Are you going straight from AC to Radiation? Or will you have Taxol after AC?
Just before I started my Chemo I started a discussion thread called Chemo Here I go http://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/discussion/18682/chemo-here-i-go#latest - it really helped me to read everyone's experiences and it might help you also. I totally understand that everyone is different and you can't rely on the fact that you'll have the same side effects as other people, but it just helped me to get a 'bell curve' of a wide range of AC experiences together and definitely gave me the knowledge and information to go confidently forward - made it much much less scary.
So far, it's been OK - for me, it all seems to be effecting my mouth and my head more than anything else. So my mouth feels like a disaster zone with ulcers etc - my tongue feels sore and coated and really dry, and my teeth feel 'fuzzy'. I find it difficult to get enough saliva to swallow easily and drinking water does absolutely nothing. I was a 2 litre a day water guzzler before this and now I can't even drink a whole glass as it tastes really weird. I've had a full on craving for orange-juice which is really not good because of the sugar content so I'm trying rather to drink tea and instead, I'm eating 2-3 whole oranges a day - still a lot of sugar but definitely better than drinking gallons of OJ plus I get the fibre value of the fruit. Other than that I've just felt really light-headed and the best way I can describe it is that it's like 'really bad jet-lag'.
My AC is on a Tuesday and I've been able to go to work the whole rest of the week, laying low on the weekend straight after, and pretty good in the week between.
After my first AC I developed febrile neutropenia which landed me in hospital for a couple of days - turned out just to be a normal cold virus, which is not dangerous but I still had the cold and cough going into my second round of AC and they say that days 7-10 are the most likely to land you in trouble with low white blood cell counts etc - tomorrow is day 7 and I'm just praying and praying that the cough doesn't turn into something more sinister - I SO don't want to land up back in hospital. I'm lucky that I can work from home so I've decided to stay in my home office for the next few days and closet myself away from the cold and rain outside and all the sick people at work ( I work in a school so lots of sick kids!).
My hair started really falling out on Friday last week - about 3 days after my second AC - before that it wasn't really shedding much. I decided to get most of it cut off on Friday but haven't gone for the full shave - I think I'll let the rest of it just fall out. You might find that you don't want to cut it all off until it starts to thin or shed. I'm not really into scarves but really like the beanie look and I've bought one full wig and one half wig that's just the hair at the back and a detachable fringe, which looks great with the beanies. I've also bought a few lovely soft, bamboo beanie-type turban style caps - they're so comfy and great to sleep in.