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Triple Negative Breast Cancer: What treatments are you having?
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Sep 6 11:41am | Replies (244)Comment receiving replies
My TNBC has reoccurred after 2 1/2 years. I had a right auxiliary lymph node dissection with a 1.5 cm fibrodipose tissue involved. Having my port placed on Friday with chemo starting Monday April 25th. It will be a combination Gemzar/Carboplatin protocol which will be 4 cycles with a total of 8 treatments over 3 months followed by 5 weeks of rads. Did anyone loss their hair on this regimen? What kind of side effects occurred? Any tips on helping me make my chemo easier? Thank you 😊
Replies to "My TNBC has reoccurred after 2 1/2 years. I had a right auxiliary lymph node dissection..."
Miracle fruit, yep that's the actual name, has helped a lot of patients on chemo deal with nausea. It's the red berry that interferes with one's ability to taste the sourness of sour things, temporarily. It's a bit of a practical joke as you give someone a miracle fruit berry to eat, followed by a slice of lemon and the lemon will taste sweet. There are miracle fruit cafes in Japan where people ear the fruit and sample sour things that don't taste sour. A nursery in Florida used to donate its excess fruit to local chemo patients but is growing fewer trees currently. It can be ordered online from some vendors though.
A simpler thing for less extreme nausea is frozen Popsicles or frozen gingerale pops. That's a standing recommendation from one of the best doctors I ever knew. There's something about the bland, non-acidic popsicle that works better than frozen fruit juice to settle the stomach. Frozen gingerale, or honey-sweetened ginger tea, also works a lot of the time. But use fresh ginger if possible rather than bags of dried stuff. Or make the tea drop diced crystallized ginger. The sweetness helps rehydrate and real ancestors electrolytes. Or so I was told by the good doctor. If you can sneak in a pinch of salt, so much the better.
I have never heard of miracle fruit. Wonder where I can find it? Asian Market?I have a lot of ginger ale on hand . Popsicles too! Never heard of ginger ale popsicles? Thank you 😊
I have a friend who just underwent treatment with carboplatin, and she did lose a lot of her hair, but not all. I was happy to see that she retained her eyelashes, and eyebrows. She did pull the remaining hair that was dead on her head to prevent it from just being everywhere as it fell out. (It does not hurt, you cannot feel it)
Her main complaint was not nausea but the unpleasant taste and smell. This is really common with chemotherapy. The doctors controlled her nausea quite well with odansetron and compazine.
The smell and taste associated with many chemotherapy drugs is a challenge. I found that aveeno unscented is the only truly unscented body wash I can find. Daily showering with it didn’t dry out my skin and kept the smell at bay. Everything tasted like it and I never found anything that changed that, but it doesn’t last the entire cycle.
I know you are full of anxiety right now, because I have been where you are. Not TNBC, but relapse. Are you doing anything to try and enjoy the time before treatment? I find that eating things I love during this time, helps me to set them aside during treatments. Also I seem to enjoy the outdoors more, how about you?
How are you feeling after getting your port?
Hi @leolion811, I'd like to add my welcome. I moved your question about side effects with combination Gemzar/Carboplatin protocol followed by 5 weeks of radiation for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) that has recurred to this discussion:
- Triple Negative Breast Cancer: What treatments are you having? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/triple-negative-breast-cancer/
I did this so that you can connect with other TNBC members like @thielmann1 @kk57 @olg1 @imlistening21 @lindaheard @medical01 @mlk @gbnana and share experiences.
I hope you are able to rest well this weekend as you prepare to start chemo on Monday.
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I am so sorry to hear about your reoccurrence. I just finished up 2 years active treatment for TNBC. I started out with 8 rounds of two other chemos together every other week and then 12 rounds of taxol, so I can't speak to the hair loss on your particular chemo, but what helped me a bunch for the nausea was fasting.
I can't find the study I read in 2020 but I basically copied them, going the day before infusion with just liquids and then eating dinner after infusion. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
Also, I'm not sure from your post whether you had a port for your first occurrence,so my apologies if you already know, but lots of us can taste the heparin when they flush your port before and after the chemos. Chewing gum or sucking on a hard candy during is a lifesaver and makes it go away.