Jeannie

I was so prepared to loose hair - well as much as you can... I had a wig party so my family could help me pick one out - I cut my long hair to the top of my shoulders - each week during my aggressive chemo treatment the nurses would look at me and go "you still have hair!". They did this for 6 months..... I was one of the lucky ones that only lost a little on top.

Since hair loss is a side effect of the medicine it doesn't happen everytime, much like nausea or tiredness. It is a common side effect but it isn't uncommon to not lose your hair or in your case grow your hair back while on chemo. For me my hair just thinned out a bit my first time. It just effected my fingers instead.

Like lots of people have said, I don't think getting chemo is an automatic hair loss. I think it is particular to the type of treatment and the person involved. I also cut mine to a "boy style" 3 weeks after the 1st tx. It did get thinner but that's all. Now 3 months later, it seems like it is growing back and getting thicker, and growing much longer. It feels like straw growing from my head but I'd rather have straw than none.

Hi Jeannie,

Do you know her user name? Or her specific diagnosis? You can search by diagnosis on the left hand side under the "People" section (look at the top of the screen and see where it says MY: Home, People, etc. Click on People.). Another suggestion - on your WhatNext Home page - look at the top right. You should see a section called, Find Peers. If this person shares your diagnosis, then you should be able to find her in that section.

If you have any additional details I'd be happy to help. Please let me know if you get stuck - we'll figure it out =)

Thanks!
Karen

jeannie,
Sorry to be so long getting back to you but we've been out of town. Yes, I've felt pretty good for 2 -3 weeks. I had no troubles with the actual chemo treatment but just felt pretty yukky for a fews following. I first started with 6 treatments 3 weeks apart, Taxol and carboplatin. I did loose my hair about 2 weeks after 1st treatment but I had already gotten a wig. I will be praying that you will do well and have a great PET scan at the end of treatments. One little tidbit that's alittle personal is you might want to take/wear a pad (s) b/c you will be getting lots of fluids??!!! No one bothered to mention that to me.
I go tomorrow for Dr. visit and labs and Tues. will have 2nd monthly treatment of cisplatin. Praying that my CA 125 will have dropped already.
Keep me posted on how you're doing. Will be glad to answer any questions that I can.
Hope this note gets to you. I'm not computer savy so this website is alittle confusing or alot confusing to me.
Have a great week.

i was diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer in feb. i went for my mammogram in jan and noticed a calcium deposit on my right side. i had a biopsy done right away and it was cancer. then they did a pet scan where they scanned my whole body from head to toe and that is where they found a tumor and fluid. i started chemo in april and went once every three weeks. my first treatment i was there about 8 hours because they had to do bloodwork before i started and had to wait for the results. i had this done through an iv. my doctor didn't want a pick because he didn't want me to go through any surgery unless i had to. then they gave me a couple of different medications so i wouldn't have that nauseau feeling. that takes about an hour. then i had avastin (excuse the spelling of the med) which the 1st time was 90 min, 2nd treatment 60 min and then the 3rd 30 min. the taxtil takes 3 hours and carboplatin takes an hour. i felt okay just tired. i have to take emend to help my stomach on tues and wed. i have to take a shot 24 hours after chemo. that is where i start to feel lousy. that shot makes me feel like i have the flu a couple of days. my body aches, stomach feels a little upset and i go to the bathroom a lot. it takes me a week and i feel better where i can drive and do things again. that has been my experience with chemo. my hair started coming out after my 2nd treatment. i bought a wig but never used it. i lost most of my hair but not all of it.
i had surgery in july and hopefully on oct 24th will be my last chemo and they can start working on the breast cancer. the ovarian cancer was at stage 3 so it took priority over the breast cancer. my family and friends have been great. as soon as someone finds out everyone calls each other which is a blessing for me. my main concern is my 6 year old daughter and everyone has been great.
thanks for telling me about that. i can look into it. thanks for listening. i'm here for you to. good luck and i hope things go well for you. my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Sorry to hear about your cancer. My wife was recently diagnosed with Stage IIIc if not 4 ovarian cancer as well and has had 2 chemo's. By now you have already had your first according to your post. I can only tell you how my wife was affected. She received Carboplatin and Taxol and did pretty well as far as nausea and vomiting. She was prescribed Zofran, Compazine and Zyprexa for nausea. Zyprexa is typically for depression and other mental issues that my wife does not have but the side benefit of the drug is nausea control. She is to receive chemo 3 times and 3 weeks apart before surgery. On day 14 after her first chemo her hair started to come out so we buzzed it and she feels better about it. She has had some nausea and a little vomiting but the bigger issue is the extreme fatigue. I had chemo last year and experienced the same thing so this will probably affect you too as most patients report the same. It is a little hard to tell what is being caused by the chemo and what is the cancer itself since she had some of the symptoms prior to chemo. Her 3rd one is on the 24th so we are less than a week away but the pattern has been that for two weeks after chemo she feels bad and on week three starts to feel a little better. Hope this helps with the expectations. Not great news but just sharing what she went through. Good luck.

Jeannie, Good question. We do not have any special spell check features built into the site, primarily because today's internet browsers have spell check built in. So if you are typing a note on this site and see a word underlined in red it is your browser telling you that you misspelled something. Usually you can fix a misspelling by simply right clicking on the word and you will see a list of spelling options. I hope this helps.

I have the same problem! Not so great! I too am suspicious about taking the pain meds.