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My first treatment was 6 hours (the first is the longest because they run the drugs slower to watch for any allergic/adverse reactions). First they run "premeds" (steroids, antinausea, maybe some Benadryl which will make her sleepy or even knock her out). Tell her to bring a big jug of water; ice chips (some of the chemos cause mouth sores and it helps to suck on ice chips while they are administering it), snacks (crackers, anything "low odor that is easy to eat if a bit queasy). Stay away from anything acidic (lemons, oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, ...) and sugar to help prevent mouth sores (yeast). So eating yogurt helps; keep some monistat 7 in the house; the steroids + chemo = perfect breeding environment for yeast (mouth sores which is thrush and vaginal yeast infection; I even got them in my throat; report this to doc they have stuff to make it better; don't let it get so bad they she can't eat). Blankets, neck pillow, DVD player with funny movies; funny but easy to read books (Janet Evanovich and Sophie Kinsella are my favorite authors". Keep her mind off the chemo and try to keep her entertained if she's awake; if she sleeps through it even better. My mom use to laugh when she'd come to chemo because we were like a bunch of "gossiping hens" in the chemo room; I always felt bad for the few men (most of us were breast cancer patients since the main part of the practice was breast cancer) in there having to listen to it! You usually end up on the same schedule as some people and make friends; even if you don't remember their names! I was so "high" on pain killers and steroids that the next day I was super silly; went swimming, you never would have known I just had chemo (second day I had to go in for Neulasta, shot in the stomach to help white blood cells "neutraphils" recover from chemo). By thursday the nausea started kicking in; I was just "icky", got a bit worse Friday. By Monday (I go chemo on Mondays every 3 weeks, went in for Herceptin and blood tests every week) my neutraphils were at 70; anything under 500 is considered "neutraphilia" and requires antibiotics and if you get sick (run a fever) you go into the hospital. Thankfully I didn't get sick; but the antibiotics or the neulasta (we blammed it on the antibiotics) caused me so much spinal pain that eventually shot down to my knees and they felt like they were going to explode (plus I was constantly taking antinausea meds/pain killers and not getting out of bed, only I got dizzy whenever I layed down so I had to sleep sitting up which just made my back hurt worse). They switched antibiotics; I still had the bone pain from the neulasta but nothing like that original reaction that we blame on the antibiotics. Each round the nausea/pain gets worse; but the white blood cell (neutraphils) recovery gets better every time! It's different on every chemo; I was on FEC and then Taxol. http://www.chemotherapy.com/ above is a web-site about chemo http://www.breastcancer.org/ also gives great info about chemo/treatment/research And MDJunction has a chemotherapy support group which I haven't yet visited; so you may want to pop in there and see if anyone has been on the same treatment as your mom. Don't forget www.bcmets.org http://www.breastcancerdoc.com/ this is the website of my doc in Texas (the woman who saved my life; my hero); click on the glossary page she explains everything it is awesome! One of the best resources I used while going through treatment! All visitors must wash their hands (keep instant hand sanitizer by the front door) and can't enter the house if they have any symptoms of an infection; itchy eyes/runny nose/cough/... I don't care if they say it's just allergies. Only perfectly healthy people enter! Hugs and good luck Jessi Post edited by: jessicaharris9, at: 07/03/2008 06:53 6/9/06 - biopsy positive for cancer 6/23/06 - DIAGNOSIS: stage IV (T4d N2 M1) invasive ductile carcinoma NOS with bone and liver mets; 17 cm mass (primary tumors), inflammatory breast cancer(IBC); HER2/neu+, HR- 6/26/06-12/11/06 - Chemo FEC/Taxol w/Herceptin & Aredia 12/20/06 - right modified radical mastectomy, 7 of 13 removed nodes showed evidence of prior disease 12/21/06 - No Evidence of Disease (stage IV/NED); complete remission 2/6/07-3/22/07-Radiation 28+5 boost, 6040cGy. CURRENT: Still NED, taking Herceptin and Zometa without end. Heart and kidney function remains normal.  |
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