TC chemo 4 vs 6 cycles
Hello I’d like to hear from anyone who has had more than 4 cycles of adjuvant TC. I’m coming up to cycle 4 next week and I still don’t know whether that will be it or whether I will have to do more, because my oncologist has been on leave since straight after my first cycle. I’ve had a different oncologist and he has been consistory saying 4 but now is back tracking and saying it will be up to the other one! She won’t be back until early April, just before cycle 5 is scheduled. I am finding the side effects and mental toll very challenging. The uncertainty around how many cycles is playing into this because I can’t give work a definitive answer of when I’ll be back. I’m also a single parent and the fatigue is crippling. So I’d like to get an idea of in what cases would 6 cycles be given? If you had 5 or 6, why was that decision made? And what questions should I be asking of the replacement oncologist at my appointment next Tuesday to get some certainty around the timeline?
1/2 through radiation, and I'm Knackered,
so here I am on week 3 of 6 of this radiation treatment, and I'm so over it! After my last post on tips and tricks on how to get through and all the updates about my horrible radiation team, like that horrible Dr and Nurse, I found the courage to put in a formal written complaint to the manager of said clinic. It was dealt with immediately and with in under 12 hours I had a new Dr and now only see the nurse manager, and the centre manager makes a point of saying hello and being super helpful Good out come all round. But it should have never needed to get to that in the first place. But now I have discovered I have folliculitis on my chest and neck :neutral: thanks to the radiation - my skin is holding up thank goodness, its only slightly pink, I hope I have not just gone and jinx myself. My throat is now sore and swallowing is fun, not! But this fatigue is killing me, All the things I could do pre cancer, pre chemo and now pre radiation, is like a distance memory, well not really, my mind say yeah we can do this, the body clearly has other ideas. 3 more weeks to go (including this week) then just, maybe just - I can start putting my life back into MY hands and not the medical teams hand who seem to be pulling all the strings. that's my update. Happy Hump day everyone :)
Feeling cold all the time
Anyone else feeling cold all the time after treatment? Had surgery and radiotherapy last year & started Letrozole in June. Had a few side effects from the Letrozole - occasional hot flush, big weight gain, occasional trouble sleeping (but that could be because my brain comes up with plot ideas as I'm an author...lol), diarrhea. Continual fatigue since radiotherapy. Anyway now it's autumn and although the temps are around 20 I'm feeling cold all the time. Rugged up, sit wrapped in a blanket, etc. I simply cannot get warm. Never used to feel this cold until the temps were in the low single digits...lol
Radiotherapy and Fatigue
Good morning, I'm only 5 fractions into my 15 day radiation treatment (post BC surgery, no chemo) and i'm feeling like I've been hit by a bus. My skin is holding up well (so far) but even after a short walk yesterday I needed to rest. I realise that the effects are cumulative, so I'm a little worried about the next 2 weeks. Any tips on how best to manage this, on top of gentle exercise and rest? cactusk (Kelly)
Radiation fatigue
I’m about to finish my chemotherapy next week but I’ll be starting 3 and a half week of radiation at the end of of August. How fatiguing is the radiation? I know I will have skin issues but the only person I know who had radiation had hers on her face for a different form of cancer. Has anybody been able to keep working through radiation?Radiation Therapy and work
Hi, I have recovered well from a unilateral mastectomy for phyllodes tumour. My team have recommended radiation therapy, still waiting to find out if it will be for 3-6 weeks. I am a primary school teacher and plan to keep working through my treatment. Should I maybe reduce my hours each day or take a day off each week to combat the fatigue everyone seems to talk about? Is the fatigue really that bad?
Emotional about DCIS and Potential Fatigue
I really empathise with a comment I read on this forum recently "I don't want to think of this as a big deal, but for some reason it kinda feels like a big deal." I was going to add my comments to that thread but that would have been hijacking someone else's discussion, so I thought I would start again. I was recently diagnosed with DCIS. I had a lumpectomy 2 weeks ago and pathology is good - only DCIS, clear margins, etc. The only thing left is 6 weeks of radiotherapy. I'm feeling very emotional about it all and worried about the potential fatigue. I live 90 minutes away from the hospital and I'm planning on driving down 2 days a week and staying at my daughter's house (only 15 minutes from the hospital) for the other 3 days (I'm currently there two days a week anyway babysitting my grandchildren, aged 4 and 1). Is this practical? I've read a lot about fatigue after Radiation Therapy. How common is it? Will I be able to cope with the children if we stay at home and don't go out? I'm 56 by the way. My daughters have both just returned to work after maternity leave so they can't get time off, and my husband works overseas (new job) and is only home 1 week out of 4. Or does this all come under the heading "how long is a piece of string"?
Post first chemo
hi ladies i had my first chemo treatment (ac) on Monday. I was ok Tues and had nausea Wed/Thurs. today (sat) I feel terrible - exhausted, emotional. I can hardly get up and I’m really scared of feeling like this. I’m used to feeling energetic and positive - and I feel the opposite. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to make myself feel better? I was warned that I might feel flat because of the steroids I’d been given. I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences of chemo side effects and how long they last. Thank you.
AHHH Radiation
Radiation i was told would be a walk in the park compared to Chemo, and i guess compared to Chemo it was, i needed 30 sessions and 6 booster sessions in the last week, i went every day was only there for 5 mins treatment and for the first 4 weeks didn't see any changes, then the burning started to happen and continued to happen over the next few weeks, the position of the cancer was at 6 o'clock on my right breast and this meant it was really lined up with my bra line - very uncomfortable and as the burning took hold this area became infected and hard to manage, even if i didn't wear a bra my breast fell over this area, i needed to have something to lift the breast up and off the wound, of course this was not possible so it made it very hard to manage the wound and as the burning got worse so did the wound, i found lots of airing - lying flat on back in privacy to dry it out whenever i could then to have the whole wound bandaged right around my back, i'm thinking at this point i do not think it is a walk in the park and what were they talking about??? I was in a lot of pain, bathing it was painful, dressing it even more painful and i could not wait to finish radiation, i felt like i had 3rd degree burns that continued to burn constantly. Finally i finished the treatment and i could begin to heal, this took alot of time due to the position of the wound but within a few weeks i started to feel it getting better - thank goodness. Its been a year since then and i look back now and think wow did that really happen seems so far away but i dont let myself forget because it reminds me to be relentless on checking myself for any new lumps, i do not want to go through that again. So far so good and i intend to keep it that way. Keep well everyone Di