Thursday, June 25, 2009

On the up and up

It has been a week since my last round of chemo, and I am on the up and up. My energy is returning again and I am getting more stuff done. I took the doggie for a longer walk this morning, managed to do two loads of laundry (and even folded and put away the stuff!), and make dinner. Come to think of it these are really just chores I'd normally do without thinking much about it -- and squeeze them inbetween other stuff. For right now, however, just managing to do my chores feels like a pretty good achievement. I guess the chemo is getting to me more than I sometimes care to admit.

Tomorrow I am going for my first monthly checkup with the poison man since the beginning of chemo. I am curious to see whether they can tell if the chemo is working for me. Of course, this may necessitate another blood draw (and you know how much I love those...) that may go beyond the traditional pre-chemo finger stick and milking they do for my CBC. But then my veins have had an opportunity to recover from the insults to which they have been subjected in the past few months thanks to the port. So I do not actually have track marks any more, nor bruises, which should make the blood draw much easier. 

That's the news from my little chemo world. Nothing much, really, but I do love it when the rain finally stops and the sun shines. Just reminds me that I definitely do need to call to get an estimate for installing split airconditioners in the house. Although my hair is gone, I get hot really fast which makes me feel very uncomfortable. So I'm thinking I really do need some decent air conditioning in this old house this summer -- and not just some of those roaring monsters we normally put into the windows.

Oh, I just remembered one other piece of news. The doctor's office finally called yesterday to tell me they sent my script for neulasta to the specialty mail order pharmacy I need to order that sort of stuff from. The pharmacy, in turn, was supposed to call me within twenty-four hours -- but never did. This is curiouser than all getout. If my brain isn't too foggy, I am going to have to follow up on that tomorrow. Sigh, yet another complication just to stay on schedule with my dose dense chemo...

3 comments:

M said...

Air-conditioners sound great! It's getting way too hot and humid...

And the 'track marks' made me smile - I'm not sure why - my own brain is foggy! Mr. B. is going to have serious track marks on his foot, when this is all done...perhaps they are a badge of honor for a battle fought well and won!!

Unknown said...

What about having a baby after chemo when you had triple negative breast cancer? has anyone ever had a child after chemo? How did that turn out? any feed back would be great thanks

TNBCAmazon said...

Hi Julie,
As you can see from my post entries, I have NOT had a child after TNBC and chemo. However, I fully plan on doing just that, which is why we went through an IVF fertility preservation cycle before I started chemo. So we have twelve embryos frozen that we can use to get pregnant later.
I know that younger women should have few problems getting pregnant later, but I was 39 when I started chemo, so the chemo is likely to fast forward me to menopause.
Just to be sure the whole thing is a good idea, I read lots of studies, which unanimously indicate that women who get pregnant after breast cancer do no worse than breast cancer patients who do not get pregnant afterwards. Of course, TNBC girls weren't addressed specifically, since we're such a small subgroup.
Have you tried posting this question to the message board at the TNBC foundation (you can find the link in the right column of my blog)? You might also try posting to the Young Survivor's network, although you may not find TNBC girls there.
Finally, my understanding is that TNBC girls should wait at least three years after treatment before becoming pregnant. Why? Our recurrence risk is high, and it is highest during those first three years. So unless you want to be pregnant (or have a baby or toddler around the house), you should wait a while. If you survive disease free for that long, odds are pretty good that you'll be NED in the long term -- which is a good time to have kids.

Hope this helps!