Endometrial Cancer Stage IIIC1

Icing seems to work for many/most people. I have virtually no neuropathy and I had 10 cycles of Abraxane and Carboplatin. They make special gloves for your hands and booties for your feet. The brand I used were made by Sussi, which you can get on Amazon. I had two or three pairs for each since the ice inserts melt. I froze them overnight and brought them in a small(er) cooler to chemo. Some infusion centers have the gloves and will let you bring the inserts (which they might keep cold during chemo), but I found that too difficult to put them in the gloves and booties while there. Get some very thin cotton gloves off of Amazon, along with thin white socks (I got mine at Publix) to wear at first, because sometimes the cold is hard to tolerate. Some cold is better than none. Start early and ice late, but certainly during the infusion if you can. Also, for particular aches and pains after chemo, try Claritin. I had acute pain once or twice during chemo and a dose of that knocked back/got rid of the inflammation. It’s worth a try.

@mtstack yes I think anything under 40 is good-but as I previously mentioned the head of the department at Moffett told me that sometimes there are false positives -if there is a cold or other illness.

I always thought that changes in my CA125 numbers were a good indication of what my cancer was doing, even though the actual numbers were low and in the normal range. Mine has been as low as 14 even though I had visible tumors. (I wish I knew what it would be if I had no tumors, but it's never been measured under those circumstances.). When my CA125 went up from 14 to 20, that was a bad sign.

However recently I had a horrible episode of ascites and my CA125 went up to 200. I started some new drugs that made the ascites go away, but are having little, if any, effect on the cancer. My CA125 dropped to 39. So it seems like things other than the amount of cancer can have pretty big effects on CA125.

@greatgrandma2025
POLE is a gene that is mutated in about 10 % of endometrial cancers. This is a mutation that is only in the cancer, not one that you inherit from your parents and that predisposes you to getting cancer (very, very, very few people have an inherited POLE mutation.). In other countries, endometrial cancers are routinely tested for mutations in POLE, but not in the US. Getting your tumor tested for POLE usually requires pulling some teeth. You hope your tumor has a POLE mutation because it confers a much better prognosis, even without treatment.

@mtstack I think of cancer cells like this. They’re like the ant hill you see on the sidewalk in the summertime. You stomp them out or throw a bucket of water on them. You *think* you got them all……. Until you see an ant 2 doors down that got away…….
Chemo will take care of that ant.

@mtstack

Now that I am thinking about it I think I had the choice to opt for weekly treatment or treatment once every three weeks. I heard the outcomes were the same, but the weekly was tolerated better and so opted for that. But I don’t think that the difference was due to differences in the taxol versus abraxane. In any event I will be interested to hear what you come up with.

@juliea55
I decided to wait to ask the medical oncologist on the 31st instead of her NP today. So I will let you know after that consult.

@bocabird
They make mitts and booties with freezeable inserts. I used them but still got neuropathy

@juliea55
You are truly an inspiration.
I feel petty complaining about everything. Spoke with a good friend who is ovarian cancer free after 21 years and her advice was to treat chemo as my friend. So hoping to be more positive in future.