After Chemo side effects

Many thanks Layla for your reply. Yes have the hardener on all fingers and polish, so thinking maybe just one will be lost. I know I have polish on my toenails all of the time and they seem to be okay....lesson there.

Glad to hear your weight is coming off........are you also on Tamoxifen?

Susan

Hi, thanks for the reply.....and yes I have found BCNA posts, any many subjects, to be very enlightening.

Congrats on finishing chemo...........it is so weird to want to be pleased but still feeling awful and you just cant, I understand. 

Now being one month since last chemo I do feel better in regards to the side affects, but am now on 20 radiation fractions, 3 down. I think this will be a breeze so fingers crossed.

I am so with you on the baby fuzz........but I do apear to have a 5 oclock shadow now and the other day found leg stubble which was actually exciting....weird I know. 

I am trying to walk each day, even just 20 mins max and counting my calories. I put on around 7 kgs and it is enough to push me out of size 12 to 14, and just feel uncomfortable.

Anyway, hope you feel better soon. Take care Susan

Thanks Stephanie, oh thats not good about the Tamoxifen..........not happy with that news. I know I should be just happy that any potential cells have been 'mopped up' as they call it and I'm still here, but some days.........no hair, scars, heavier than ever, losing fingernails..........just makes me feel very awful. BUT I gretaly appreciate your reply and yes am looking forward to going to the hairdressers again with new hair colour :-)

Well this is all really interesting to me as I finished chemo (yay!) on December 23 and am still suffering the effects.  I stacked on about 10 kilos due to the steriods and am now doing Lite & Easy to try to lose it.  I find that I just can't exercise at the moment as my muscles are non-existent and I get a bad back after walking for a short distance, probably from the weight.  Once I lose a couple of kilos I'll start gentle exercise to try and shift more.  My nails suffered a bit but not too much.  I didn't lose my eyebrows but they did fade away to almost nothing and thinned right out.  I got them tinted last week and noticed they didn't charge me the full amount - probably felt sorry for me!!  I now have a baby bird fuzz covering my head - all gray worse luck.  Can't wait for it to grow more so I can dye it!  Thank goodness for scarves! 

Well this is all really interesting to me as I finished chemo (yay!) on December 23 and am still suffering the effects.  I stacked on about 10 kilos due to the steriods and am now doing Lite & Easy to try to lose it.  I find that I just can't exercise at the moment as my muscles are non-existent and I get a bad back after walking for a short distance, probably from the weight.  Once I lose a couple of kilos I'll start gentle exercise to try and shift more.  My nails suffered a bit but not too much.  I didn't lose my eyebrows but they did fade away to almost nothing and thinned right out.  I got them tinted last week and noticed they didn't charge me the full amount - probably felt sorry for me!!  I now have a baby bird fuzz covering my head - all gray worse luck.  Can't wait for it to grow more so I can dye it!  Thank goodness for scarves! 

Hi Susan

Looking at your posts with interest - yes definitely the steroids will have caused you to gain weight.  I look at my Christmas 2013 pictures and I can see the round face caused by the steriods.  Like you, I didn't not have the energy to exercise during chemo (despite my oncologist wanting me to do some exercise).  I'm on tamoxifen and have struggled to lose any weight since completing chemo.  My onc always says that hormone effects are probably influencing my ability to lose weight rather than the tamoxifen, but everyone on tamoxifen talks about gaining weight and difficulty losing weight.

My hair also came back grey and has stayed grey, but fortunately that's enabled me to try a variety of hair colours.

All the best

Stephanie

Thank you again Jessica, this is great info. Yes I have my husband on can opening duty and alot of the everyday tasks that you dont realise knock the nails around.

Am looking forward to having any hair.........so thanks again for thoughts.

X

Many thanks Jessica, appreciate your advice. My saving grace I think is that I am tall, so have gone from 70kg to the 75kg, but that is the heaviest I have ever been. I just didnt feel like walking during the chemo so think that has gone against me and true I comfort ate too. When my mouth was at the worse I had a couple of days or just yoghurt and ice cream. am hoping that now I have dropped back to less calories and exercise each day, it will move.

Thanks again.

Hi Susan, Weight gain was a problem for me too during chemo. I started at 68kg in Feb, and went up to nearly 78kg by the end of my 12 wks of TCH in July. Some cycles I weighed myself before chemo, and then the day after found I had shot up about 6kg. It would then slowly drop a couple of kilos through the cycle, but when I had my next treatment it would still be higher than the start of that cycle.  I tried to be careful during chemo, and think I would have put on a lot more without my daily walks.But I also didn't want to suffer any more than I was already suffering, and depriving myself to lose weight did not seem possible. I tried to eat reasonably healthily.  Also, a lot of people talk about putting on about 20kg or more, so 10kg is not to bad.

At the end of the chemo I discussed it with my Oncologist. She said that at that point part of my weightgain (about a kilo) was fluid retention and the rest was fat. I think it was caused by the food I ate when going through chemo. Sometimes, I really wanted comfort food, and when I had diarhoea I ate a lot of white bread and cheese to slow my digestive system down, and when I had constipation I snacked a lot on dried fruit.

So now I am trying to get down to 62kg which is my ideal BMI and my oncologist recommended this as healthy for me. I am now down to 65-66kg. I lost the weight by walking for about an hour each day and dropping to 600calories a day for 4 days in the middle of each Herceptin treatment cycle. Dropping to 68 kg was quick: a kilo each "fast" but then dropping down below my setpoint is harder, slower, and I tend to jump up a kilo if I eat a tiny slice of Christmas cake or eat one chocolate when I am not fasting.

I am determined to get there, and it is much easier once chemo is over.

good luck and best wishes

Thanks Rosanna for the reply, appreciate the advice. Yes my hair has been a major concern too.......starting to get some stubble but coming back grey, but better than nothing. S