Bald and bewildered

Hi there

been awhile since I've been on line, well after 6 months of being bald from the chemo, and then 7 weeks of radiation (finished 20/5/2011) my hair has returned, now about 2cm long all over and the colour.....the silver fox look, not quite the platinum blonde look - after being relatively dark haired all my life, although the past few years  I have been supporting the hair dresser's wages bill with on going "root treatment and foils", the colour of my new hair has not surprised me!  must admit I gave up wearing "head wear mid May - so over scarves etc that my husband encouraged me not to cover up as the "short hair styles" actually suited me fortunately and have had compliments from complete strangers about my new "hair do"!  Feeling pretty good now that treatment is all over with, now just the regular checks, my first one tomorrow - been 6 weeks since finished radiation.

as for radiation - my skin coped very well, and didn't blister and has healed well

Beth

 

Hi Tonya,

Found this thread of yours about hair loss & can so relate to it all. I had 3 rounds of FEC followed by 3 rounds of Taxotere. Reading of your experience I can now understand why my hair is taking sooooo long to return. It is coming back (finished last chemo on 9th Feb this year) but it is still only about 2cm cover, mousy brown baby hair & looks straight at the moment. I was originally a blonde too with straight, past shoulder length hair - wonder what I'll end up with when it comes in properly. I lost all my hair including eyebrows & eyelashes but they too are coming back in.

I have a hired wig from the RAH in Adelaide that I wear on special occasions only, as I too find them hot & itchy & feel self concious in it but everyone who has seen me in it that knows me says it looks very natural & if people didn't know otherwise, would not guess. Last time I wore it was on the 30th Apr this year for my daughter's wedding.

Just glad to now know that my hair situation is not unusual & it WILL come back properly in its own good time....LOL

Cheryl

Hi Tonya,

Found this thread of yours about hair loss & can so relate to it all. I had 3 rounds of FEC followed by 3 rounds of Taxotere. Reading of your experience I can now understand why my hair is taking sooooo long to return. It is coming back (finished last chemo on 9th Feb this year) but it is still only about 2cm cover, mousy brown baby hair & looks straight at the moment. I was originally a blonde too with straight, past shoulder length hair - wonder what I'll end up with when it comes in properly. I lost all my hair including eyebrows & eyelashes but they too are coming back in.

I have a hired wig from the RAH in Adelaide that I wear on special occasions only, as I too find them hot & itchy & feel self concious in it but everyone who has seen me in it that knows me says it looks very natural & if people didn't know otherwise, would not guess. Last time I wore it was on the 30th Apr this year for my daughter's wedding.

Just glad to now know that my hair situation is not unusual & it WILL come back properly in its own good time....LOL

Cheryl

Hi Louise,

Tamoxifen will probably be a walk in the park for you after that dreadful chemo! I tried it 7years ago when I was peri meno(47yrs)and it so didn't agree with me -had bad hot flushes every 15mins.,bad headaches,irritable and crying++.But I hadn't had chemo beforehand.I stopped after a few months.Anyway,this time around it seems to be agreeing with me(sort of).This might be because I'm post menopause(I have heard that helps).I get hot flushes -worse on hot days,night sweats and sleep disturbances,and a bit  irritable sometimes.A few months ago I got very down and was crying alot.I think it was partly the Tamoxifen kicking in and being so bald with no sign of any hair.My oncologist prescribed me Endep(10mg)which is a very mild antidepressant that sometimes helps with hot flushes,sleep and mood.It certainly helped with sleep and mood.But my hair started to come through by the 3rd month post chemo so maybe that cheered me up-who knows!My onc.thought I looked brighter and said to keep going status quo. When my hair grows abit more I'll come off Endep I think.

What I would say to you when you start Tamoxifen is to get Genox brand.My husband came back from the chemist a few weeks ago with a different brand(tamoxifen sanoz I think)and I had a reaction to it ie.facial rash and bad headache for 3 days.It had different"non active"ingredients in it.Exactly the same thing happened to a friend of mine.My surgoen said she had heard that genox was more tolerated. By the way,my friend(who is older) had no side effects from tamoxifen whatsoever! So you never know.

                                            Tonya

Hi Celeste,

Tamoxifen is given to both pre and post menopause women with eostrogen receptive cancers.It's probably not tolerated as well when you are pre meno.from what I am told.It is supposed to block eostrogen from breast tissue.The other drugs you mentioned(aromatase inhibitors)can only be used by post meno. women.When your ovaries stop making eostrogen your adrenal gland takes over after meno.to produce some eostrogen.These inhibitor drugs(Arimidex etc.)stop the adrenal gland from doing that.Adrenal gland sits just above the kidney. That's my very simple take on it!! My doctor has prescribed me a  very small dose of an antidepressant called Endep.(10mg).It sometimes helps with hot flushes ,sleepless nights,aches and pains and feeling down.I think it has helped  a little.It certainly helps with sleep and mood anyway.It's sometimes hard to get moving in the morning though and then I need a coffee -what a chain reaction!

I've tried the other drugs 7 years ago when the Tamoxefin didn't agree with me and they were just as bad.So I am committed to making the Tamoxifen work this time and so far so good.(well sort of).

                                              Tonya

Hi Tonya

How did you go with the oncologist?  Did they ask you whether you were enjoying the Tamoxifen?!  Out of interest, how has the Tamoxifen affected you?  I will go onto that after my chemo so I'm looking for some heads-up info :)

Louise

Hello Tonya, lovely to hear from you! It was good to hear that someone else has felt the same as I've been feeling...each day I feel my confidence growing and am starting to live in less fear that the BC will return. While you cant let the thought of a reoccurrence stop you from living your life, I think its a thought that'll always be with me....just in less magnitude as time goes by.

I am also taking Tamoxifen and get hot flushes, have gained weight and get aching bones now and then, but apart from that all is good. I was under the impression that Tamoxifen was usually prescribed for pre-menopausal women, and once you have gone through menopause you get switched to a different drug...Arimidex?..?..or something like that? Do you know much about that? Celeste

Hi Celeste,have stumbled across your blog.I'm still new to this online site and not sure what I'm doing.I had my first breast cancer 7 years ago- I had a lumpectomy,full lymph node clearance,followed by radiation. Anyway,what I want to say is that it took me about 2yrs to get my confidence back that I was ok and going to live. Unfortunately it reared it's ugly head again,7years later.This time I had the mastectomy and some chemo and am now on Tamoxifen.I tried it 7years back and I couldn't stand it so didn't take it.Now that I'm menopausal it seems to be kinda o.k.I'm sticking with genox brand as it's much better than the other brands.I get the odd hot flush,trouble sleeping,bit depressed,terrible concentration and memory but otherwise it's a hoot!

                                        Tonya

have just had a look at headcovers.com and there are a couple of short wig styles that I'll get..just have to decide how adventuresome that I'll be with the colour!  also their other headwear looks great as well.

as for clothes, that's another story, especially coming into summer, am so used to wearing short sleeved and low cut tops...having to cover up abit more this year...a revamped wardrobe...aargh....long sleeves/light weight tops coming up as well as not spending time outside....oh well had better adjust!