My goal was to feel nothing, and it worked really well! Chemo Bag ItemsĪ really great friend of mine packed a chemo bag for me to take to my infusions since I planned to be in the infusion center for a long time. I, on the other hand, used the cream religiously and caked a ton of it on my port each time. I want to say that a majority of the people I talked to did not use the numbing cream because they said the poke just felt like a shot. This is used so that you don’t feel the needle poke your port. She also prescribed a numbing cream to place on my port prior to infusion. The nurse told me to do this for the first few days when nausea is at its worst. I had two different types of nausea medication that I was supposed to rotate between every few hours. My medical oncology nurse came up with a plan that included a spreadsheet (which I loved her for) for taking the nausea medication. I was not looking forward to it, and I knew I had a long winter ahead of me. It causes complete hair loss, excessive nausea, fatigue….you name it. I would do this four times, and then switch to Taxol infusions once a week.Īdriamycin (also known as The Red Devil) is the tough chemo that people hear about. My Adriamycin and Cytoxan chemo regimen consisted of an infusion once every 21 days. I also have a small scar on my neck where it ends. My port is located on my chest above my right breast. I despise getting IV’s in my arm, and the chemo port completely prevented the need for that each time I went in for an infusion. As much as I feel it’s an eye sore, I’m grateful that the port made the chemo process run more smoothly. The chemo port was supposed to make the process of getting the chemo into my body much easier. This was a really easy surgery with basically no recovery time. Surgery for Chemo PortĪbout a week before my chemo was scheduled to start, I went in for an outpatient procedure to have my port placed. Since I was going to be receiving some heavy duty infusions, my oncologist wanted my breast surgeon to insert a chemo port into my chest. So, we were going to have to fight it aggressively! My chemo treatment plan consisted of four rounds of the chemotherapy drugs Adriamycin and Cytoxan followed by twelve weeks of another drug called Taxol. He explained that I had a really aggressive cancer that wanted to both spread and come back. I first met my medical oncologist about a week after the bilateral mastectomy. Ugh not what you want to hear after a massive surgery! Preparing for Aggressive Chemotherapy I had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction with tissue expanders a few weeks after my initial diagnosis, which is when my surgeon discovered the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. It was small, but the cancer was growing rapidly. My tumor was classified as Grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma, estrogen receptor positive, progesterone receptor positive, and HER2 negative.

Burn zombie burn the diarrhea bundle