Posted on by fabulouscancerwarrior

Going Through Cancer Treatments My Way – Part II

The last time I posted, I had shared tips for dealing with things like hair loss and such.  I just want to clarify that I’m not endorsing the products I wrote about.  I just wanted to let you know that there are products out there that can help with our particular needs.  The brands that I mentioned are the brands that I found work for me.  You might need to try different brands in order to get the ones that work for you.  Now that that’s cleared up, lets talk about skin care.

The 4 most important rules for skin care are: Stay out of the sun, moisturise, stay out of the sun and moisturise.  Get the picture?  When you’re on chemotherapy, your skin is very sensitive to the sun so you can suffer from sunburns very quickly.  You don’t need that in your life that’s for sure!  If you must go out in the sun, make sure that you slather on the sunscreen thickly and often.  There are several companies that make sunscreen from natural ingredients too.  Any discoloration of the skin (a so-called “healthy tan”) is actually skin damage and let’s face it, once you reach a certain age, skin damage ages you a lot.  You know what I’m talking about – wrinkles and age spots.  Yuck!

For my face and neck I use one of those vibrating, rotating thingies that cleans and exfoliates your skin, that way the products I use seem to work better.  I use a Clarisonic tool with a sensitive brush attached.  I really swear by it, it cleans your face and gets rid of all traces of makeup. Once my face is uber clean, I use a face oil (there are several on the market) at night followed by a good night cream, eye cream and a neck cream.  I know, I know, it seems like a lot, but like I said, your skin can get really dry with chemo.  In the morning I skip the oil, and use a serum followed by a good face cream, eye cream and neck cream.  A moisturising face masks once in a while helps as well.  Another tip is to apply coconut oil on your face before a workout then wash it off in the shower after a few hours.  Coconut oil also works well for your hair as a deep conditionner.

As for body skin, you also need to take care of that or you’ll have a serious case of the itchies.  I find that dry brushing helps a lot.  Before you shower (don’t use hot water because that’ll dry your skin even more), brush your skin with a dry brush that you can purchase at any drug store or beauty supply store.  I was told that you should brush in the direction of your heart in order to help drain your lymphatic system.  The brush helps get rid of your dry skin so that when you moisturise, your skin will absorb the cream better and leave you with soft skin.  I also use the dry brush on my arm and hand before bed because I suffer from lymphedema and I feel that the brushing helps drain my lymph nodes and my hand swells less (for the correct procedure you should see a physiotherapist that specialises in lymph node draining).

One particular chemo treatment left me with very dry hands and feet (they call it “hand and foot syndrome” – they couldn’t have come up with a better name for it? like maybe “crocodile skin syndrome” or even “skin-so-dry-you-can-sand-your-floor-itis”).  You skin can crack and bleed and it can be quite painful.  The remedy? Try not to do chores that involve chemicals on your hands and that includes dish soap.  It’s a great way to get out of doing dishes.  Rubber gloves don’t really help because it can make your hands sweat and aggravate the condition.  Use a good thick hand cream and apply it often during the day.  If you want, you can wear cotton gloves after you’ve moisturised.  The same goes for your feet.  Use a very light touch to exfoliate your feet and apply a good foot moisturiser.  Try not to go bare feet because that really dries out your feet (no socks and sandals however or I’ll personally hunt you down and bitch slap those socks right off you!).   You can, however, go to bed wearing socks (not the ones you had on all day – gross!) after you’ve applied your moisturiser.  What works really well – I’m not kidding- is slathering on Vicks Vapo Rub on your feet and slip on socks afterwards before you go to bed.  Another treatment that I find works well is a paraffin wax treatment.  You can buy a home kit (that’s what I did because I do it at least once a week) or visit an esthetician.  The wax helps soften your skin and your cuticles (those get super-dry).

I hope that was informative and I’m sorry I couldn’t inject more humour in my page this time.  I just couldn’t come up with a funny Bobby Tee story that involved skin care.  Unless you count the fact that he discovered he can use hemorrhoid cream under his eyes to reduce the bags under his eyes.  Everyone knows that old trick!

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Going Through Cancer Treatments My Way

Now that you’ve read my story about my diagnosis and my surgeries, I’d like to share with you how I dealt with the multiple treatments I had to undergo and still am undergoing.  I know, it seems like this will be a boring read but I’m going to try to make it humorous and informative.  I hope that the tips that I’m going to share with you are useful because I know that you want to be fab like me!

Let’s start with Radiation Therapy.  If your doc says that you need to undergo radiation, believe me it’s a walk in the park.  In my case, I had to have 4 separate sessions of treatments, a 25 treatment session for my chest,  a 5 session treatment for my femur (where they fried my eggs for good measure), a 5 treatment session for my spine and rib and another 5 session treatment for my spine.  The only real side-effect was a little fatigue and sensitivity at the site.  I strongly suggest that if you undergo radiation treatment, apply pure Aloe Vera to the site about 4 times a day.  Not immediately before treatment of course but after treatment for the duration of your session and for a few weeks after your last treatment.  You’ll thank me for it.  If you don’t, you’ll likely suffer from burns and itching.  I forgot to do it for my last session, and it looked like I had a square sunburn on my back!  And it was incredibly itchy!

That’s all the advice I have on Radiation Therapy.  Now on to the dreaded Chemotherapy.  I’ve been on about 5 different kinds of chemotherapy, one experimental treatment and 3 different kinds of hormone suppressant therapies, so name the side-effect and I’ve probably experienced it.

Before I was scheduled for my first chemotherapy treatment, I wanted to be prepared for the side-effects, so I made sure to be the strongest me I could be.  I of course ate well, exercised and made sure I did everything that I could to be strong.  Fortunately, I didn’t suffer the nausea that a lot of patients do but my appetite wasn’t particularly good so I ate a lot of soups (especially bean soups so that I could benefit from fiber and protein).  I did however gets bouts of diarrhea (yay me!) but those didn’t last very long thank goodness.

After I was done with my last radiation treatment my kids, my husband, my sister and myself had tattoos done of the pink ribbon.  My daughter and I got matching ones, my husband got a Mustang with a pink ribbon, my son got a pink ribbon wrapped around a green fleur-de-lis and my sister got praying hands with the ribbon wrapped around them. I went first because I knew that I wouldn’t feel much pain that way BT wouldn’t be afraid to go. Well he cried like a baby of course!  Poor bastard!

BT trying to hide his tears
BT’s tat
My tat on my ankle

 

Renee’s Tat
Eric’s tat

 

Copy of tattoo 014
family tattoos

 

After the chemotherapy was over and done with (the first time) I took part in an experimental treatment that was specific to patients with hormone positive breast cancer.  This type of cancer can increase your risk of developing osteoporosis later on and since my mother and 2 sisters suffer from this, I said Hell Ya to the  treatment. Because it was a study and I was randomized in the group that took Zometa, I was asked by the study nurse to keep records of my side-effects. Welllll….. My niece Tara and I thought it would be really funny to include bizarre effects like uncontrollable cursing, anal leakage and general inappropriate behavior!  The poor nurse didn’t know what to think.  Of course I had to tell the truth (boring!!).  But we had a great time thinking that shit up!  The only real side-effect I had was aching joints.  Funny enough, that treatment is now protocol for cancer patients whose cancer has metastasised in their bones like me.  It seems to strengthen the bones so that the cancer has a harder time eating away at them.  I’m now on that treatment again (as well as chemo).

And now for everyone’s favourite side-effect – Hair Loss. Before I started treatment,  I visited a Wig shop to order my new hair.  I wanted to make sure to order the wig in the same style and colour as my hair.  At the time I had long curly and thick hair so I wanted the same in my wig.  The stylist suggested a wig that was half human hair and half acrylic because the fully human hair wigs are harder to maintain, since you have to blow dry it and style it.  You may not have the energy to do that when you’re feeling run-down.  By the time I had lost my hair, my wig was in so the transition was pretty easy.   The only problem with the long wig is that it tangles really easily when it rubs against clothing.  It drove me nuts so I went to see my regular stylist to have it cut into a cute bob and I absolutely loved it!

daniela and me
Sporting an awesome wig!

Once my hair started to grow a little, I used a hair system called Nioxin that includes a shampoo, conditionner and hair and scalp treatment.  I feel that it helped my hair grow back quicker and thicker. Everyone had told me that my hair would grow back curly but my hair was curly before the cancer so…… It grew back straight and thinner (or normal since I had abnormally thick hair).  What a change for me!  But it was fun getting used to it.  I grew it into a bob like my wig.  To keep it relatively healthy, I didn’t wash it more than every 3 days and limited the amount of products I used.  I stayed away from products that contained alcohol and never brushed it when it was wet.  I also didn’t blow-dry it often and only used a flat iron on it when it got longer.  The less stress on your hair the better.

The second time I lost my hair was about 3 years ago when I had to undergo another type of chemo that made me loose my hair.  Thank goodness I hadn’t gotten rid of my wig!  I wasn’t on that treatment for very long so my hair grew back quickly but it was even thinner and straighter ! WTF???  The doc switched my chemo because that particular one had no effect on my liver tumour and the next treatment didn’t make me loose hair.  Eventually, that chemo stopped working so another treatment was introduced so I lost my hair for the third time!!!  This time however, I didn’t loose it all.  I kinda had a Donald Trump thing going so I was able to buy a hair system that is fairly new on the market called Evolve Hair System.  It attaches to your existing hair with tiny clips and stays on no matter what! You get it tightened about once a month and that’s it!  I worked great for me.  Looked totally natural and the shop made sure that the system matched my hair exactly!  I just got it removed a few weeks ago because I’ve switched chemo again and this one doesn’t affect your hair. My hair has now grown back but it’s thin and fine like baby hair. Oh well! Better than no hair at all.

What they don’t tell you about some chemotherapy is that you loose ALL your body hair (yup all of it), your eyebrows, your eyelashes and for some, your nails (ouch).  As for loosing your body hair, that’s kind of a bonus because shaving, waxing and plucking are totally unnecessary, however….. It may just be me, but loosing all, and I mean all pubic hair, made me pee all over my legs!  Does the hair funnel the pee in a straight stream??? Who the fuck knows?  Please message me if the same thing happened to you otherwise….. I’m just a freak I guess!

You don’t realise the value of eyebrows until you loose them.  The no-eyebrow thing really changes your look and it keeps the sweat from dripping into your eyes!  The challenge is NOT to look like some old lady with crooked, mismatched eyebrows or Woopie (have you noticed that she has no eyebrows?).  My old aunt had mistaken her eyebrow pencil for her lip liner once.  It was quite the look!  Good thing was that the old folks at the home didn’t notice.  Instead of a pencil, I prefer to use a powder.  I feel that it gives you a more natural and may I say, youthful look .  We all loose some eyebrow hair as we get older (thanks menopause) and we need to fill them in, so the powder is a great technique for that (unless you’re a pro, penciled-in brows may look too severe or too thin).  Your eyebrows frame your face and gives a nice definition to your eyes.  If you have no eyebrows at all, or you’re like Bobby Tee and “accidently” shave them off, you can buy a kit that has powder, brushes AND stencils!  I use NYX Eyebrow Kit With Stencils. It has 4 eyebrow powders, 2 brushes and 3 different size stencils.  You just hold the stencil down with one hand and fill it in with the brush provided with the other hand.  Just make sure to align the two brows evenly because you don’t want one brow to be higher than the other. You can also use more than one colour of powder to get a more natural look.  Thick brows are all the rage now so eyebrow kits are easy to find.

eyebrows
Bobby Tee and his “accident”

For me the worst part about the hairless cat look, was loosing my eyelashes.  You would think that you could just stick on fake lashes and voila!  But no! You need eyelashes to stick on the fake lashes.  You can’t just stick them on your eyelids.  What I hadn’t realised is that eyelashes keep the dust from getting into your eyes.  Even the tiniest speck of dust will find its way into your eyes!  My eyes cried 24/7 even with sunglasses on!  So I had no lashes AND red and teary eyes!  Not a great look!  So I came to terms with the no lash look and just applied brown eyeliner to distract from the fact that I had no lashes (black would look too severe).  Some sites recommend applying dots at the base of your eyelid (where you would apply eyeliner) to mimic lashes but I didn’t think it looked good on me (it just looked like dots and not lashes).  Being pro-active, I thought that there must be something out there that will help them grow back.  I tried several lash serums and the only one that truly worked for me and made my lashes longer than they were even before the chemo is the StimuLashFusion lash enhancer. I also use their mascara and I swear by it.  Another product that I’ve been using on my lashes for a long time is the Dior lash primer.  You apply it before you apply your mascara and it conditions your lashes and makes them look much thicker. I tried other brands but most of them just made the mascara clumpy.  Once my lashes began to grow, I was able to use false lashes but I had to find glue that was latex free since I’m allergic.  The only one I found is made by Revlon and I like the little application brush.  I tried lash extensions but there must have been latex in the glue because the reaction I got was horrible! I had them taken off the next day and, thank goodness, the girl gave me my money back.  Never again!! And remember, don’t use mascara every day because you really need to be gentle with your lashes and taking off mascara can pull and tug at them.  You also need a really good eye makeup remover that will make it easy to take off your mascara.  I find that Marcelle makes a good one that is gentle on the eyes.

Another side-effect that a few patients suffer from is the loss of finger and toe nails.  I lost a few which was quite painful but thankfully it was summertime so I wore sandals all the time so that nothing touched my toes.  I kept my fingernails short and didn’t use any polish on them so that my nails could “breathe” and not be subjected to harmful chemicals.  I resorted to using Band-Aids on my fingers and toes so that I wouldn’t hit them by accident and to prevent them from ripping off completely.  They grew back to normal after I was done that first session and it hasn’t happened with the other treatments.

So that’s about all I have for the whole hair issue.  Next time we’ll discuss skin care because caring for chemo skin is a science!

 

 

Posted on by fabulouscancerwarrior

My Not So Fabulous Journey

Here we are.  It’s spring 2017 and I’ve been fighting breast cancer for almost 9 years now and have finally decided to share my story.  I know, I know there’s like a million blogs related to cancer, survival and personal anecdotes but so many people have been encouraging me to write a book about my story but let’s face it, I’m much to lazy to do that! What I hope to accomplish with this blog is to help people especially women survive their journey with a sense of humour all the while looking great like me! Ya, ya I’m vain and superficial! Whatever! Look good, feel good is my motto.  I just want to give all of my readers great tips like What to do when you loose all your body hair without looking like a hairless cat, How to draw in your eyebrows without looking like your great aunt, Managing your dry skin so that you won’t look like a scaly snake and how to respond to people offering weird unsolicited advice.  Oh and let’s not forget How to bitch slap your husband when he keeps passing out from all the stress.  I also hope to do that with a sense of humour because let’s face it, if you don’t laugh you’ll cry and ruin your really nice makeup that I hope you’ll apply following my tips.

I suppose I should start by introducing myself.  I’m Danielle and I’m of a certain age.  I’ve been married to the most supportive and amazing husband for 37 years and I’m the mother of a very smart(ass) son who is a psychology professor with a PhD and a very beautiful and funny daughter who is a lawyer with the Children’s’ Aid Society and the mother of my two amazing grandchildren.  I’m from a fairly big French Canadian family so I get a lot of support from them as well.  I’m a self-confessed fashionista and am obsessed with skin care, makeup, fashion and fitness.  I was a high-school teacher specializing in social sciences and absolutely loved my job and the kids.  It broke my heart to take early retirement but I couldn’t give the kids 100% anymore so I decided to leave.

By the way, if you think you’re not at risk for cancer YOU ARE!  I’m a vegetarian (OK I eat organic chicken now), I don’t smoke, I don’t drink alcohol, I exercise like a fanatic, drink the recommended amount of water, breastfed my 2 kids, was in my 40s and no one in my family has ever had cancer (and I’m the youngest of 7). So I was definitely not at risk according to all the studies.

I don’t want to bore you with when and how I was diagnosed. Suffice it to say it was 9 years ago and I endured a lumpectomy, mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone supressing therapies followed by a series of reconstructive surgeries. Unfortunately, just when I thought I had it beat, the cancer metastasised in my femur and my spine 5 years later and so I needed surgery to insert a big-ass pin in my femur and more chemotherapy and radiation. Holy shit! So???? like when can I go back to spin class doc? His answer was 6 weeks. Ok then, I’ve got this!  Well not quite. The following year the stupid cancer was back in my liver!! WTF??? I don’t drink any alcohol so why my liver? Who the fuck knows! So guess what? Super industrial strength estrogen suppressors injected in my butt and more chemotherapy.  Lets try 3 different kinds of chemo and see if that works. Which brings us to today.  I still have a tumour in my liver, small ones in my lungs (did I mention that I’m a non-smoker) and more in my spine.  I’ve recently had radiation to treat my spine and some ribs because those tend to crack once in a while.  And I’m still on chemotherapy. You would think I would be depressed about that shit but you know what? I’m really not! And it’s not because I’m religious or spiritual because I’m definitely not.  I just think that as long as I live my life to the fullest and have left behind great memories for the people I’ve come into contact with,  my job here is done. There is no room for negativity in my life now so for all the arseholes who project negativity? Peace out! There’s only room for positive people on the Danielle Train.

Here we go!

Let’s start with Attitude.  Everyone knows a good attitude positively impacts your healing but sometimes (ok so most of the time) it’s freaking hard to have a positive attitude when your hair falls out, your eyebrows and eyelashes have somehow disappeared and you feel like you’ve been run over by a freight train! I think that what helped me the most in keeping a positive attitude was my family, especially my husband and my two kids.  I looked at them and saw that I have so much love in my life it’s almost unfair to other people.  My job as a parent was and is make sure my children become independent, good, kind and giving people.  That they themselves become good and loving parents to their children so that my legacy lives on.  I want them to pass on to their kids the same lessons that I gave them regarding work ethic, kindness, tolerance, charity and love.  In turn, I hope that my grandchildren will learn these same lessons and pass it on to their children.  That,  my friends is my idea of eternal life.  And that applies to everyone that I come into contact with, from my students to my coworkers and my friends and acquaintances.  I hope that I have touched others positively and that they will have fond memories of my life and my Positive Attitude.  So….. If you have not led an exemplary life, and who has really? now is perhaps the time for you to work on that.  Give whatever you can to a cause you hold close to your heart.  Be kind.  You’ll be surprised at how good it feels.  (I spent my T.V. time crocheting hats for the homeless with yarn I had leftover from various projects and yarn that had been given to me.) Get involved in your community.  I know you might feel like crap right now and you want to focus on yourself. I get it.  But doing for others will, I guarantee you, lift your spirits.  Coming to terms with your mortality probably isn’t what you want to think about but let’s face reality here, everyone dies.  The only difference between you and the non-cancerous is that you have a time frame.  Your neighbour could get killed in a car accident tomorrow and he didn’t see it coming but you on the other hand know that your time will probably come sooner than you had planned.  Wow! that was morbid! But it has to be out there right? The elephant in cyberspace has been revealed.  WE ARE ALL MORTAL.  Let’s make the most of the time that we have left.

Dealing with the boogeyman Depression.  Who the fuck invited him to the party?  Not me that’s for sure.  Being the positive person that I am, I never thought depression would dog me but…. when the cancer came back in my femur and my spine, my positive attitude kinda took a left turn.  My amazing daughter had just gotten married to a wonderful man and my husband retired from his job as a car dealership manager.  He bought himself a cute little red Mercedes roadster and we were planning a river cruise down the Danube.  Then BAM! another cancer diagnosis.  That was enough to make me a tad bit depressed!  So…. I went to see a therapist at the Cancer Centre and she really helped me put things into perspective.  But I needed a little more help.  Of the pharmaceutical persuasion.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I needed therapy and drugs to get me back to my old positive self.  You do what you gotta do girlfriend! It helps that my son was working on his PhD in Psychology specializing in Gerontology.  Being the control freak that I am it’s surprising that I didn’t resist the help.  I’m that woman. “I can do anything! I’m wonder woman, give me more responsibilities I can take it!”  You have to give in sometimes and let someone or something else help you.

Another thing that helped me out enormously is exercising.  I know it’s not for everyone but COME ON just get moving!  I’ve always been somewhat fit, never letting that needle on the scale get out of control but when I finished my first bout with chemo, my daughter convinced me to join her at a spin class.  Even though I thought I would die, I pushed myself and pretty soon I was doing 3 hour spin for charity sessions! I got into the routine of 3 one hour spin classes a week and 3 weight training sessions a week.  I continued this for about 8 years but this past year, the high heart rate you achieve with a spin class make me nauseated so I stopped that to focus more on weight training.  I have to modify a lot of the exercises because of my spine and weak ribs but I figured if I do everything while sitting on the exercise ball, I protect my spine and work out my core as well.  As for cardio work , I bought an elliptical machine and to that about 1/2 hour a day followed by an hour of weights.  I know it seems like a lot but it keeps me relatively sane and the endorphines help my mood a great deal.  I figure if I can do all that, I can’t be that sick right?  The bonus is that I’m protecting my bones by building muscle mass.  And….. I look fabulous! (well for a 56 year old woman anyway)

Another activity that has helped me battle depression is reading.  A good book is such great escapism but if you’re not a reader I urge you to give it a try.  I much prefer that to movies, even though that helps too, because you can bring it with you to all your appointments.  Sitting in the chemo room in that chair with other patients can be depressing so a good book will take you away from that I promise you. But stay away from those depressing books that make you sad.  I like a good thriller or mystery myself because I like to try to figure out who done it.

One of the hardest things I’ve had to do in order to keep my life and my attitude positive is to cut certain people out of my life.  It seems really harsh but…. Remember the Danielle Train?  There is no room for negative arseholes to come aboard!  Someone who was very close to me somehow turned into a negative and bitter bitch! Ya I said it!  It was all “I hate this” and “I don’t like that” and blah, blah, blah, “poor me, nothing is going my way”.  WAAAAA!! And I’m supposed to listen to her whine about everything and everyone while SHE’s in good health, has money and can do whatever the fuck she wants while I’m struggling to keep it together??? I don’t think so Bitch!  Peace out!

Make yourself a Bucket list.  What have you always wanted to do or see? Now’s the time to see to it.  Make yourself a list and try really hard to cross off the items on your list.  It could be an event you always wanted to attend like a concert or a sporting event.  Of course it should be reasonably attainable.  Like I always wanted to meet my secret boyfriend Carey Price, the goaltender for the Montreal Canadians, but I settled on going to see a game.  I think I’ve attended concerts to all the artists I wanted to see (The Police, Pink, U2, Pavarotti, Andrea Bocceli) and I went to see the World Junior Hockey Championship series.  I’ve visited most countries and cities I wanted to experience but my list for travelling keeps growing.  I realise that these experiences aren’t realistic for many people so make a list that is.  You know your time is limited so do what you can to go through that list.

What I also find really helpful is having little projects to keep me busy.  Luckily, I’m a pretty good seamstress so I’ve been keeping myself challenged by taking on projects like making my daughter’s maternity clothes, making stuffed toys for my grandchildren and all of my daughter’s friends who are all breeding like bunnies.  She just has to say “Maman, I’d need a cover for the baby’s car seat” and I’m on it! Then I make some for her friends.  She also wanted a hospital gown because she was grossed out by the fact that people could have died in the one they give you at the hospital. So I made her two and some for her friends too.  I can now make sleep sacks with my eyes closed now because I must have made at least 20!  With the birth of my beautiful little granddaughter Daniela, I’ve been sewing pretty little dresses for every occasion and some just because.  Right now I’m working on a duvet cover that looks like an owl for her big girl bed.  These projects keep my mind busy and instead of thinking negative thoughts,  I try to design clothing for my babies and for myself.  I’ve designed a lot of pieces in the MRI machine!

But if you feel that sewing just isn’t for you, try knitting, crocheting, quilting, or even painting.  I’ve taken up painting for the first time since high school and even though I basically suck at it, I throw paint on a canvas and call it abstract modern art!  I’ve actually had people ask me to paint shit for them.  Go Me!  Baking is another hobby that I absolutely love but unfortunately I also like to eat so….. I only bake for special occasions.  I enjoy cooking as well and I try to make one meal a week that my husband and I have never tried just to spice things up.

Speaking of meals…. lets talk diet.  Not the Atkins kind or that Paleo crap.  You just want to eat healthy.  Eat what your biology and Mother Nature intended you to eat.  What I mean by that is try really hard to eat mostly only meals and snacks that have not been processed.  Sounds daunting and time consuming but it really isn’t.  Just try to eat only food that YOU or someone you trust had actually made.  I’m talking about Homemade Everything!  Make your own bread, your own granola, your own sauces, crackers and nothing processed like boxed cereals, processed meats…. You get the picture.  And the hardest… Avoid sugar and use maple syrup, agave, molasses etc… I know it’s really hard but you can do it! Your health depends on it.  Am I nagging?  I feel like I’m nagging. Sorry!  It’s all about taking control of your life and to me this is all part of it.