Recently diagnosed with breast cancer

[RWR]

[QUOTE=genevieveg17;6867517]
Thank you everyone! I am doing pretty good. Had a little set back but the doctors are getting that under control. Next week I go in to get my port installed and chemo will start the following week. I will be on a 2 week schedule for the chemo and will start with 16 weeks. Then they will decide what the next step is. Radiation is also planned now.
Thanks again for your kind words and support. I really appreciate it.[/QUOTE]

Good luck! You can do it. I just finished 8 rounds of chemo last Wednesday. I have written about my breast cancer experience on my “horse” blog if you care to read it. You are not alone.

[FalseImpression]

RWR,
I have been following your blog faithfully and was so glad to see that you not only finished your chemo treatment, but that you kept the horses in your life throughout. I was very impressed!! lol
By the way, I had 30 radiation treatments in the Fall and hope I am done with this disease for good!

[RWR]

[QUOTE=FalseImpression;6881837]
RWR,
I have been following your blog faithfully and was so glad to see that you not only finished your chemo treatment, but that you kept the horses in your life throughout. I was very impressed!! lol
By the way, I had 30 radiation treatments in the Fall and hope I am done with this disease for good![/QUOTE]
Thanks. It feels amazing to be done although I am still bouncing back from the final treatment. I couldn’t have done it with out my horses. It’s so nice to hang with them, even when I wasn’t able to ride. I hope we are both done with the disease for good! One time through treatment was more than enough for me.

[mbm]

Hi Genevieve - I just saw this thread. I hope you are doing okay. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I am just on the westside of Petaluma so if you need help with your mares or errands or anything, please just contact me.

sending healing energy…

[shea_smom]

Jingles headed your way
Just checking on on you Genevieve.

[genevieveg17]

Good Morning! I started chemo last week. At first I thought it was so easy. Then later that day it kicked my butt. I think there is a definitely learning curve to getting the nausea under control. A couple days of supportive fluids and I am doing good. A little scare when my liver values sky rocketed and it was suggested that the cancer spread to my liver. Thankfully that was not the case and it was just a side effect of the anesthesia from the surgeries. Phew.
Thank you all for your continued support.
Happy St Patty’s Day!

[monstrpony]

Do stay hydrated. I’m amazed how much I learned about what “staying hydrated” really is when I did chemo! Also, keeping something like crackers or yogurt in my stomach seemed to help. But it’s so individual–it is a learning curve, for sure, and just as you get it nailed, it will all be over!

[Laurierace]

Continued prayers and jingles. I think we all learned from Leena’s thread just how important a good attitude is, you seem to have that part under control. Congrats on the beautiful Granddaughter, she is worth the fight!

[shea_smom]

I had the exact same thing with the liver scare! they made me have a PET scan, and it turned out to be nothing.
I found soft peppermints help, also small amounts of carbs.
Take care of yourself. I had to admit that my job was to fight cancer and stop trying to do everything. Thinking of you.

[vineyridge]

Jingling like mad for you to get through this with as little discomfort as possible.

You live in California. How about medical pot for the nausea?

[Zu_Zu]

Happy Easter for you and your families ~ house and barn ~

[B][I]HAPPY EASTER ! for you and your families ~ house and barn !

Hope you’re feeling a bit better and on your ‘schedule’

Sending Jingles & AO laced with Sunshine and chocolate rabbits !

((hugs))[/I][/B]

[bits619]

Just wanted to chime in with good thoughts for you! I found out about your business through a coth thread and actually got to watch the birth of Pacific coast on mare stare. It was the first foaling I’d seen and oh my goodness did I adore that colt from the first minute! It was really wonderful to be an audience member, if you will, for a foaling.
Anyway, sending the best juju your way!

[flashwhitelock]

[QUOTE=PINE TREE FARM SC;6870547]
Just curious about the port. Many Dr’s do not suggest them due to possible complications with clearing the port/heparin. It’s really done for the convenience of the chemo staff, not the patient. It is just another surgery to have installed and another to have removed. As long as you have good veins it may not be needed.
I had chemo at a major NE cancer center and they do not do ports unless the patient has unuseable veins.

As reference I had 8 chemo sessions plus a year of herceptin every three weeks.
No port.[/QUOTE]

Actually the port is for the patient. Depending on the type of chemo, some of the chemos are very damaging to the vein. By using the port, the damage to the vein is minimized. This is particularly true for Adriamycin. Long term damage without a port is a big problem for that particular drug. Every situation has to be judged on an individual basis, just as the chemos are now done on an individual basis.

[PINE_TREE_FARM_SC]

[QUOTE=flashwhitelock;6927881]
Actually the port is for the patient. Depending on the type of chemo, some of the chemos are very damaging to the vein. By using the port, the damage to the vein is minimized. This is particularly true for Adriamycin. Long term damage without a port is a big problem for that particular drug. Every situation has to be judged on an individual basis, just as the chemos are now done on an individual basis.[/QUOTE]

I’ve had adriamycin. One more time, the Oncologist stongly suggested not to get a port. Normally you can have only 8 sessions with that drug lifetime and 4 the first go round so it’s not like that gets used on a constant basis.
Ports have their own set of serious hazards and require two surgical procedures plus heparin flushes on a regular basis.
Has nothing to do with comfort of the patient. It’s simply easier for the oncology nurse.

[monstrpony]

Gen–continue to hold you in my thoughts. Hope it’s going as well as possible, with minimal discomfort. Hang in there, and keep up the good work!

[Laurierace]

Continued jingles, hope you are well on your way to beating that stupid cancer into oblivion.

[genevieveg17]

Had my fourth and final AC infusion today. Start the Taxol in 2 weeks and will have 4 treatments with that.
Now that I am bald, I found a mole on my head. Oncologist sent me to a specialist to have it biopsied since it looks suspicious. Goody.
I am feeling ok. Quite a bit of nausea for the first couple days after treatment and then just very easily fatigued.

[CHT]

Glad your feeling ok.

Thank you for sharing your journey to beat Cancer.

I hope the mole turns out to be nothing, and that things continue to improve.

[RWR]

Taxol was MUCH easier for me. I didn’t have any nausea with it. I hope that the next 4 treatments go by really fast for you!

[QUOTE=genevieveg17;6955837]
Had my fourth and final AC infusion today. Start the Taxol in 2 weeks and will have 4 treatments with that.
Now that I am bald, I found a mole on my head. Oncologist sent me to a specialist to have it biopsied since it looks suspicious. Goody.
I am feeling ok. Quite a bit of nausea for the first couple days after treatment and then just very easily fatigued.[/QUOTE]

[2ndyrgal]

Good luck

Our prayers are with you. This morning, I was bitching and crying because after two shoulder surgeries, I tore a hamstring. Badly. Thought it was doing better, then stopped the steroids. Not. Better. At. All. Already sold the big horse, the little horse was coming home this morning. Then my DH saw me hobbling up from the barn, said I looked like a crippled pregnant woman about to give birth. He decided horsey gets to stay where he is another month. I’ve been on the shelf since Christmas. I’m 51 years old and haven’t ever had anything I couldn’t wrap and go on with. I had a little menopausal pitty party meltdown.

Then I saw your thread and I feel like the biggest ass in the world, because nothing wrong with me is life threatening and it will all get better.

I hope everything goes well for you, you have no problems, a great recovery and you get to go on doing what you love.

Keep on kicking.