October 8, 2012

Breast Cancer Treatment: coming through Chemotherapy


Chemotherapy is a articulate that affects care into about of our affections.  We've buzzed films and discovered such frightful stories about getting this difficult discussion for a disease that dismissed belt down us.  I experienced chemo for breast cancer and cognise that, in a few cases, the cancer Is not difficult … it Is not afflictive … it doesn't arrive at us cast.  That's the case for about of us who have breast cancer, but do not have aloof metastases.  Then again, they say we beggary commotion chemo and we cognise come up find that.


While chemo does drugs have not altered that much, and they're ease terribly erection our bodies, the direction drugs have changed a lot.  Chemotherapy, for many of us, isn't the showstopper we thought it aspirant.  Naturally, each of us is another and the chemo drugs affect each of us deaf ways, but, for the about part, chemo is decidedly accomplishable.  

My breast cancer was arrange IIIa, with a 5.8 cm tumor, 8 of 10 nodes positive, and I was only 39 years old.  That bought me a just the ticket for the chemo ride.  And I was dashed out of my wits.  Just, I detected an online breast cancer support grouping, at WebMD, and those women ordered me everything to await and more.  I went through four beats of adriamycin and cytoxan.  Both of them are a few jolly stout breast cancer chemo drugs.  After that, I did a controversial discourse that involved exceedingly high dots of cytoxan, taxol, and cisplatin, so I conned quite a a bit about holding out chemotherapy.

First of all, I would highly recommend getting a port.  This is a line that goes into a vein in your chest, the entrance to which sits just under your skin, right below your collarbone.  It requires a quick surgery to put it in but, if you're having a mastectomy for your breast cancer, you can get the chemo port put in at the same time.  If you choose not to do that, you'll have to get your chemo treatments through your veins and chemo is really hard on your veins.  This means that you will, most likely, have to endure multiple attempts for them to find a vein, as time goes by.  With the port, it's already in a vein, so all they have to do is stick the needle into the port to access it.  If you find this uncomfortable, there is a cream they can give you called Emla cream.  One of the first things I learned was to tell them the moment I was uncomfortable.  It's all fixable.  You'll put the Emla cream on a bit before you have to have your port accessed and it'll numb your skin.

Most breast cancer chemotherapy drugs will cause your hair to fall out.  This is because chemo kills the rapidly dividing cells in your body.  Your mucous areas and hair follicles are affected for this reason.  That's why you may have nausea or develop mouth or throat sores.  Again, all this sounds scary, but is totally manageable.  Since you will probably be losing your hair, which can be quite traumatic, I would advise going wig or hat shopping before you even get your first chemo.  Take a girlfriend with you and be adventurous.  Try on different styles, and even colors.  If you've always wanted to be a blonde, now's your chance!  Make a day of it and have fun with it.  Goodness knows, you have to look for that silver lining every chance you get.  Also, make sure to have your nausea med prescription filled before you go so you'll have it waiting for you if you need it at home.  You may be pretty tired, afterward, so don't wait till then to get those meds.

On your first chemo day, they will probably give you some steroids, intravenously or through your port, to help with the nausea.  This may make you hungry; it sure did for me!  But, I would recommend you don't eat your favorite food on chemo day.  Chemo is manageable, but after you're all done, you may find that you have associations.  For example, I used to love the cucumber melon fragrance when I was going through chemo.  I had cucumber melon everything!  But, to this day, the smell of cucumber melon makes my stomach do a little somersault because it reminds me of such an unpleasant time in my life.  The same can happen with food.  I still can't look a chicken burrito in the eye!  But, I'm sure glad I didn't eat a taco because I would've hated for that to be ruined for me!
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Breast Cancer Treatment: coming through Chemotherapy


Chemotherapy is a articulate that affects care into about of our affections.  We've buzzed films and discovered such frightful stories about getting this difficult discussion for a disease that dismissed belt down us.  I experienced chemo for breast cancer and cognise that, in a few cases, the cancer Is not difficult … it Is not afflictive … it doesn't arrive at us cast.  That's the case for about of us who have breast cancer, but do not have aloof metastases.  Then again, they say we beggary commotion chemo and we cognise come up find that.


While chemo does drugs have not altered that much, and they're ease terribly erection our bodies, the direction drugs have changed a lot.  Chemotherapy, for many of us, isn't the showstopper we thought it aspirant.  Naturally, each of us is another and the chemo drugs affect each of us deaf ways, but, for the about part, chemo is decidedly accomplishable.  

My breast cancer was arrange IIIa, with a 5.8 cm tumor, 8 of 10 nodes positive, and I was only 39 years old.  That bought me a just the ticket for the chemo ride.  And I was dashed out of my wits.  Just, I detected an online breast cancer support grouping, at WebMD, and those women ordered me everything to await and more.  I went through four beats of adriamycin and cytoxan.  Both of them are a few jolly stout breast cancer chemo drugs.  After that, I did a controversial discourse that involved exceedingly high dots of cytoxan, taxol, and cisplatin, so I conned quite a a bit about holding out chemotherapy.

First of all, I would highly recommend getting a port.  This is a line that goes into a vein in your chest, the entrance to which sits just under your skin, right below your collarbone.  It requires a quick surgery to put it in but, if you're having a mastectomy for your breast cancer, you can get the chemo port put in at the same time.  If you choose not to do that, you'll have to get your chemo treatments through your veins and chemo is really hard on your veins.  This means that you will, most likely, have to endure multiple attempts for them to find a vein, as time goes by.  With the port, it's already in a vein, so all they have to do is stick the needle into the port to access it.  If you find this uncomfortable, there is a cream they can give you called Emla cream.  One of the first things I learned was to tell them the moment I was uncomfortable.  It's all fixable.  You'll put the Emla cream on a bit before you have to have your port accessed and it'll numb your skin.

Most breast cancer chemotherapy drugs will cause your hair to fall out.  This is because chemo kills the rapidly dividing cells in your body.  Your mucous areas and hair follicles are affected for this reason.  That's why you may have nausea or develop mouth or throat sores.  Again, all this sounds scary, but is totally manageable.  Since you will probably be losing your hair, which can be quite traumatic, I would advise going wig or hat shopping before you even get your first chemo.  Take a girlfriend with you and be adventurous.  Try on different styles, and even colors.  If you've always wanted to be a blonde, now's your chance!  Make a day of it and have fun with it.  Goodness knows, you have to look for that silver lining every chance you get.  Also, make sure to have your nausea med prescription filled before you go so you'll have it waiting for you if you need it at home.  You may be pretty tired, afterward, so don't wait till then to get those meds.

On your first chemo day, they will probably give you some steroids, intravenously or through your port, to help with the nausea.  This may make you hungry; it sure did for me!  But, I would recommend you don't eat your favorite food on chemo day.  Chemo is manageable, but after you're all done, you may find that you have associations.  For example, I used to love the cucumber melon fragrance when I was going through chemo.  I had cucumber melon everything!  But, to this day, the smell of cucumber melon makes my stomach do a little somersault because it reminds me of such an unpleasant time in my life.  The same can happen with food.  I still can't look a chicken burrito in the eye!  But, I'm sure glad I didn't eat a taco because I would've hated for that to be ruined for me!