Any Advice for Starting Chemo After Mastectomy?

My first session was very relaxing, my friend was with me and we just talked for hours 😊 I have 3 sessions already and it’s my relaxing day, I sit there and relax, I watch a show in my laptop, I drink lots of water bring my favorite snacks.

Thank you!!! That helps a lot! 🥰

Hydrate the night before a bd day of. If you can get ginger in any form tea, cookies, dried chews use them to prevent nausea.

Get a gorgeous tattoo to enhance area of mastectomy. That's what I want.

My day 2 after my 1st infusion, cannot put two coherent thoughts together. I've heart of chemo brain, I got it to an obnoxious degree. 😂

That's one massive 10" that! What would it be? Flowers? Dragons?

I had lumpectomy and started chemo 6 weeks ago. The first week was brutal (mostly bedridden with fatigue). I’m on Taxol and Herceptin for 12 weeks followed by Herceptin for another 9 months. We made a change to how they give me the infusions. We doubled the drip time for the Herceptin from 30 mins to an hour and added a bag of hydration fluid with the Taxol and extended the drip time from 1 hour to 2 hours. It made all the difference. I have some days of moderate fatigue but mostly I do pretty good. Night and day from the first week. If you’re finding that you are extremely fatigued or have other side effects that are seriously affecting your life, ask them to lengthen the drip time on your meds. It takes longer but it’s worth it to not have the chemo be such a hard hit on your system.

Starting chemo can feel overwhelming, especially with everything already on your plate, and those anxious feelings are completely natural. Many community members find it helpful to prepare comfort items for treatment days, stay hydrated, and communicate openly with their care team about any concerns that come up along the way.