First Haircut

Got my new hair styled for the first time today. I think I'm still gonna wear a wig for awhile because I'm just not used to having only four inches of hair. It's nice to have some style though so I can choose which.

My hair is 2-3 times thicker than it was, that was my estimate and my hairstylist confirmed it. It's darker too but that's probably just because it has never seen the sun.

Still pains in both boobs now and then, definitely more on the mastectomy side. There are still mini-menopause symptoms but I'm learning to avoid them. Yogurt helps keep the yeast infections away, and vitamin E and Flax seed seem to help with lubrication (and KY too!).

Boobs Still Hurt

A month post-surgery and my breasts still hurt, especially the non-cancer (not tissue-expanded) breast. I did not expect it to last this long but friends who have had breast augmentation say it may take another month to feel better. They look fantastic though, they haven't "dropped" completely yet but they look almost normal. My plastic surgeon was fantastic.

The Tamoxifen side effects seem to be mild so far, no hot flashes and periods are nearly normal.

One last chemo side effect: fine blonde hairs on my face and back, something I never had before. Guess I'll have to Nair or wax them, they don't seem to be getting worse so I bet they stay away after I get rid of them.

On my head the hair is about an inch long. Still wigging it, probably will for another couple of months until I can get a hairstyle that doesn't look like a boy.

Much More Tired

This time I'm napping every day for the last 3 days. No more aches (from the Neulasta shot?) but I'm definitely more tired. Lots of help from friends and family is helping us and helping to wear the kids out everyday.

I feel all dried out everywhere too, despite lots of water, lotion, etc.

The hair continues to come out a half dozen at a time, tomorrow I have to wash it and I'm not looking forward to how much comes out then.

So glad this is halfway done.

Chemo Day #2

Second time much like the first. After getting my lab work back and seeing good white counts (thanks Neulasta), we're sent off to the Chemo room. 2 hours of Adriamycin, Cytoxan and the gang. Mild nausea at home tonight, calmed by Zofran and Compazine. Today was actually a little better than the first cycle because I tried harder to eat and drink.

Still have all my hair but everyone agrees this is the week it must go. I've got one wig and a hat with more to come when I feel up to it this week.

Feeling Odd

At chemo +3 days I feel like my head is full of something, maybe the medicine. I almost have a headache all the time and I just don't feel like myself. I'm lucky I'm not tossing my cookies all day long. At least I can eat and I'm not completely useless.

Chemo Sets In

The chemo has been pretty light up until now, just nausea the first day and mild fatigue after that. But today I'm sleepy and napping at noon. Things smell funny but I'm still tasting things normally. A friend warned me that the first treatment can be lighter and they get worse as time goes on. I'm hoping it'll just be easy on me.

Chemo Day #1

Today is the first day of Chemo. We go and talk about it for awhile and the oncologist finally recommends we take Adriamycin over Docetaxel, with Cytoxan added. We'll "only" have 4 cycles, and we're doing the "dose-dense" treatment every two weeks, so we feel sort of lucky that ours will over in 2 months.

They give me a steroid, Benadryl, and something called Aloxi for nausea. Then they push in two big vials of the Adriamycin (a.k.a. doxorubicin). Finally they hang a bag of the Cytoxan and let it drip in. The whole treatment takes about 2 hours.

We go home and I feel fine for about 4 hours and then start to feel nausea. I take the Compazine they gave us and then the Zofran. No vomiting. I finally get some sleep at about 11 pm.

Chemo Decisions and HER2

We go in for a final appointment before chemo to discuss just what we'll take and what the effects will be. Just as we're getting started we discover the path report from surgery #4 showed us as having a 2+ score on the ICH test for the HER2 receptor. Oh shit. Our first path report showed us as being HER2- and we rejoiced because HER2+ tumors have a worse prognosis.

This ends our dicussion of chemo treatments, we can't pick one until we know HER2 status. We go home and read that 2+ ICH score is ambiguous and they must do a "FISH" test to tell for sure. The next day we discover the FISH test was already done (but not not entered in the computer at Mayo) and we are indeed HER2 negative.

It sure made for a horrible night though.

We have a friend who is getting considerably more chemotherapy because she is HER2+. In all other respects we are almost the same (stage II, node negative, ER+, PR+, about 40 years old). We sure did not want to hear that was our future.

And it all delays us yet another week.