Hi there brave soldiers. Hope you are all feeling positive and happy today.
I was having a rummage around in my nightshirt, checking my underarm lymphs, nothing more, and was shocked to notice that the big one felt smaller and the smaller one, size of a processed pea, has disappeared altogether. Only had my first chemo 10 days ago. Surely this not possible? Am I deluded? I know my onc said I'm not the norm but is that a good thing I wonder. Anyone experienced the same or similar?
Love Kryssy xx
Oh yes, forgot. I can leave hospital tomorrow. Whoopsie-doo!!!
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Kryssy
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Good for you Kryssy! It is possible for chemo to work rapidly..I had horrible ascities for my first chemo but it disappeared and did not return...all in that first three weeks. Fingers crossed your little blighters are also on their way out! L x
It absolutely does work that quick. I also had terrible ascites, couldn't keep food down and was just horrendously uncomfortable. Got my first chemo on the Thursday, was eating properly by the Sunday, ascites disappeared and actually felt better than I had in weeks.
My massive ascites and swollen legs almost magically disappeared after my first chemo......it was amazing. And I could distinctly feel intense bursts of pain as the chemo worked on the many seed-like cancer lesions on my peritoneum......it was like Pac-man biting and then cauterizing. Surprised me.
Wow! Had shooting pains in pelvis for a couple of days after but thought it was nothing but did imagine cancer cells dying but didn't really believe it would be that. Also have in peritoneum. Hubby visited and I asked him to feel but didn't give a clue why. In fact, kept a rather sad face on. He said straight away, it's smaller! And the one above,I asked. It's gone, he said. I cried. He laughed. What a beautiful day
Shooting pain in pelvis can be infection. Mine was, just about a week after 1st chemo too!
But chemo works fast. My liquid in lungs stopped building up after 1st chemo. Beforw it was going at 300ml a day!!
and after 3rd cheml my own gyno surgeon couldn't believe his eyes when he opened me up - there was no trace of cancer! Still had 7hr surgery but he said if he hadnt seen my CT scans before he woudnt have guesses i had cancer.
That's fabulous, K. Well done you. My pains only lasted a couple of days and I'm sure that during my 6 day forced stay in bed this week the doc would have turned up something. I had blood drained every day by the local vampire and X-rays. I guess when the chemo works, it really works. Keep well.
Midcanada and Kryssy, Those bursts of pain are "cell lysis" which is "the disintegration of a cell by rupture of the cell wall or membrane". You are feeling massive quantities of cancer cells dying off. My doctor told me he has many patients that feel this, yet it is actually debated within the oncology community as to whether patients can "actually feel cell death".
Hi Tesia. Nice to meet you. Thank you for the information and I will look that up in a bit. So, the little sh**bags actually scream and shout when they are dying. Fabulous. Well, they have a lot more pain and suffering to come and I am so looking forward to those shooting pains. Xxx
This is why they have begun to research if fasting around chemo may help ( with nausea and killing the cancer cells off quicker ) as some women are reporting. I,ve just read that " Modified fasting for 3 days before chemo and 24 hrs after will put normal cells into maintenance mode, not reproducing as much, but cancer cells can,t stop. Starved they are more vulnerable to chemo, and normal cells protected". Read last night about our systems " Rebooting to factory mode" as they call it, after a 3 day fast, and the stem cells resetting, on a fasting site on Facebook. I really hope someone does some serious research, it.s so important but as there,s not much money to be made by telling people to not eat the cynic in me has doubts!. I,m no good at links but if you are interested there is an article from the Telegraph Science section 5th june 2014 that I also found last night, It,s by Sarah Knapton " fasting for three days ". intriguing read. Love the humour!!!!!. Hope you got home O.K . x x
It makes interesting reading and I think it has some mileage in it but as the article says, much more research needs to be done and I think it should be done under medical supervision. To cut out food completely for 3 days when we are already in a vulnerable state, may cause more harm that good, but I'm willing to have a go if someone wants volunteers.
Yes, home in one piece - although the ambulance taxi went without me. They forgot me. Always a crisis surrounds me. Eventually got home 3 hours late but it is wonderful. There's a strange body in my bed - and it snores!! Up at 6am as per my hospital routine. I hope that doesn't last.
Re the fasting, I tried this mainly to help with the after effects of chemo and found it a great success. So much so that I would immediately do it again if needed. If you look back on my posts you will see how I did it.
My medical team said the same thing . I also had the most foul smelling sweat and urine for several days as my body tried to rid itself of the dead cells.
This effect has diminished as my chemo cycles continue....I can only hope because there are less cells to kill off.
Kryssy--my ca125 at the time of my first chemo treatment was 3600 and three weeks later it was 900 (eventually down to 5--jumped down dramatically every 3 weeks). My ascites made my stomach huge and after the first treatment, gone! Yay for you! Such good news.
So delighted for you. On recurrence had pain which like that began to feel more comfy before second round. So stay positive. Nothing is impossible
Although I also had lymph node involvement, none were close to the surface of the body. However, I did have a swollen left leg and that had almost disappeared less than two weeks after the first chemo so you are probabaly not imagining the shrinkage.
I'm guessing you will start to lose your hair soon, remember to stand with the back of your head tilted well back in the shower. Initially I didn't and was facing the shower and a lot of hair fell out and blocked my nose and eyes.......
You must be feeling so happy to be leaving hospital. I assume that must mean you've successfully done the whoopsie!!
Bonjour Madame , Hello Kryssy!, fantastic news for tomorrow and being homeward bound, I expect hubby is thrilled also. Just a little thought if you are amicable to taking supplements re the neuropathy. Have a look online or youTube for ALA...or Alpha Lipotic Acid, cellular protection dietary supplement. I have personally taken it for neuropathic pain in my hands and feet with great success to the point of totally stopping taking the gabapentin painkillers ( awful things ). I no longer have the pain, which I,d been told I,d have for the rest of life, and only needed the ALA for two months, I now just take a maintenance dose for a week every six months as a top up. I have also heard of other women taking ALA with great results ( particularly diabetic neuropathy ) so anyway just thought you may like to look into it. Best wishes xx P.s It is also used by some women actually for o.c, I typed in " Alpha lipotic Acid ovarian cancer " into the search engine,
Bonjour a toi aussi. Thank you for the heads up. I'll certainly read up on that one. Hubby brought me in some of the whey today and I downed that, rather nice actually, tasted like liquid custard, and I'll be starting the glutamine as soon as it arrives. I'd better check out the supplements in case they conflict with the chemo but I would eat mud if it meant I regain the use of my fingers. One finger typing is such a pain, literally.
Yes, hubby delighted I'm home tomorrow. He's missed me organising him. He forgot his physiotherapy appointment yesterday because I didn't remind him to look at the calendar. I told him today that he must choose either a wife who cooks, cleans, bares his children and organises him or have a slut in the bedroom. He said that now he's nearly 75 he'll take the cleaner...... Men!
K xxxx
PS I'm sorry if some of my language offends but I never grew up.
You made me laugh! I'm so pleased for you about the lymph nodes. I had lymph node involvement and am paranoid that if the beast returns it will be in my nodes somewhere. It's so great to hear that the chemo can have such an effect so quickly. It's toxic hell but hey if it does the trick!
Hi January. So pleased you had good results after your first chemo. It gives me even more hope. Funny thing about the leg though. I had new knee last year and it's never been right. Never should have had it in the first place as I don't have arthritis. I had a bad fall and rather than try to fix the damage they decided to chop my leg up. But I digress. For the last couple of months or so I have had lumps all down my leg from my thigh to my calf and the pain in my knee, although it's metal, was chronic. So much so that my GP is sending me for a second opinion at another hospital from where I had it done. I assumed I had a varicose vein on top of a rubbish knee job. After reading your post I noticed that I haven't had the pain for several days now and just had a feel and there are no lumps anymore. Do you think I've just found a cure for varicose veins? Bit drastic though innit?
On the whoopsie topic, yes I am as regular as clockwork now although the first one out of the blockage was like passing a flipping cactus, but that's probably t.m.i.
I'm really sorry but you did make me laugh about the hair incident. I'm not taking the mickey but I'm still waiting in anticipation and I will take your good advice and not fight my way out of the jungle when it happens. I have stopped shaving my legs now in the hope of saving on razor blades. And I suppose that's my planned vajazzle off the menu for a while (NOT!!!)
It was quite funny about the hair and the shower. All up my nose, etc. etc. so breathing wasn't so easy. Then I'm panicking because I'm not on main drainage, common in rural areas, so instead of feeling free to remove the mess from my eyes and nose, I'm crawling around on my hands and knees, with the water cascading all over me, making more hair fall out, pulling all the mess out of the plughole, worrying I'd block things. I only took on board that one day I'd have hair and eventually none at all. Exactly what a mess I could get into until arriving at the no hair scenario, never occurred to me. But, I was ready with my wig. (I've since read that wiser people shave it almost off, before the inevitable.)
That's really weird about your leg. Who knows if chemo can cure varicose veins but perhaps your knee and leg problems are linked to your tumour. Mine were. It was my swollen leg together with an achey pain inside my hip which drove me to my GP to tell him that I thought that when dismounting from a horse, I'd reignited some three pelvic fractures I'd sustained some nine years earlier. He asked me to park that theory for a moment and proceeded to do some blood tests, etc. and so on and so, from that initial consultation, here I am.
Needless to say, I've given up self-diagnosis.
Will be interested to hear if your leg problem is permanently resolved. Mine was, in fact I focussed on that leg for months, mainly because it was the only thing I could actually see.
Ah Kryssy, your posts always make me smile as they are so full of warmth and humour! I'm so glad they are letting you out - what a relief for you to be away from Nurse Ratchet.
Enjoy sleeping in your own bed tonight, and don't worry about that vagazzle - you soon won't have any hair there to worry about 😂 Maybe something to plan in once chemo is over... 🤔
Hi Vicki. Nurse R is cleaning my room as I write. She wears so much perfume that it makes me choke. I didn't think it was allowed.
Just wondering, if hair grows back stronger, thicker and curlier does it grow everywhere like that? Will I be like an extra in Planet of the Apes?
Nurse R has left. I can breathe again, when I have opened the window.
I'm pleased I make you smile. I laugh every day as it good for the soul, unless there is a tragic moment. I am very emotional and cry with both sadness and happiness. Doh. If there's nothing to laugh about then I look in my memory bank for those precious funny moments. Mind you, all these years of laughing has given me masses of wrinkles
OMG Jenny. I've wet myself laughing at your predicament. That vision is going to stay with me for the rest of the day - at least. I shall be breaking out into uncontrollable bursts of laughter wherever I go today. As I said to January further up the page, all these hysterical stories should be collated into a book. We'd sell millions and hopefully bring the funny side of our struggles into the fore.
I'm presently lying on a sun bed in sunny Spain reading the posts. People around me must think I am very strange the way I am laughing. It is so good to find the the funny side of this s##tty disease. Keep the humour coming. Welcome home and stay out of the kitchen for a while.
Hi Kryssy, glad to hear you will be coming home soon. Lets hope they can sort out another treatment plan that will work & won't give you too many side effect. Take care Cindyxx
Hi Kryssy. I can not add any words of wisdom that the other ladies have not posted just would like to say great news and yes I think that it is possible for chemo to work that fast.
I'm in Australia so with the time zone you should be home by now and hope you can relax.
As for the whey protein, I've been having it in Almond milk for over a year now I started because I had lost my appetite and so replaced a meal with the whey protein drink.
Do keep up your sense of humor ..best wishes Lorraine xx
I'm rather liking the whey protein so I hope it's doing some good. I used it as a meal replacement yesterday as I don't want to have four meals a day. Nothing wrong with my appetite though. On the contrary I seem to be starving all the time and haven't lost any of my taste buds. I've lost 5kg in hospital but they did starve me for two days and then limited rations for two days. I have a lot to make up!
I'm up at 6am here, as was the norm in hospital. I've left the snoring beast to his slumbers although it was lovely hearing (and feeling) him last night. The first time I've been warm at night all week. Can't seem to find my way around my own kitchen this morning though. Poured the boiling water into the slops bowl instead of my cup and forgot which drawer the spoons were in. Everywhere was clean and polished when I came home and when we went up to bed hubby had put on clean bedding and made the bed all pretty with the pillows lined up like soldiers and a little love note on my pillow. Of course, I cried. Same old, same old me. I was expecting to go up and find the place a wreck but he has worked his little socks off to make my homecoming special. Tons of brownie points for him.
Night night to you, Lorraine, and good morning to those of us who are watching the sun rising. It's going to be a glorious day because we are still alive.
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