u/You-bettah-dont

S3G3 TNBCer here:

ASK FOR EXTRA FLUIDS DURING CHEMO (Ok’d of course by your MO)

So, yesterday was infusion 3 of docetaxol, carboplatin, and infusion 2 of keytruda (juries out on wether or not keytruda is tryna kill me). Round 1 took out my liver.

Round two, MO skipped the keytruda, but I still begged for a bag of saline because I’d been having heart palpitations, muscle twitiches, and my urine had been dark regardless of being meticulous about hydration (Kidney function was stone cold normal on tests) but I managed to get an extra 500ml of NACL. If I could compare 1 and 2, it was night and day with how my body handled everything. I felt 1000% better with no keytruda and the 500ml extra hydration. No sore throat/mouth, no fevers, exhaustion cut by 50%. My taste buds were normal!!!!! No bloody noses. It was wild the difference I felt but chalked it up to skipping the keytruda.

Third time (yesterday), we restarted the keytruda but dropped the DC 20% and I asked for a full 1000ml bag.

Woke up today and I feel GREAT (well, still pukey and physically exhausted but salt water isn’t gonna fix that). Made my ER doc husband do some doctor research on it- turns out that it’s being used more and more as an adjuct during chemo and it doesn’t flush out the chemo (which I mused about before bed last night). Studies are showing it actually acts to protect many organs from the toxic effects of chemo across MANY different cancers (though it’s contraindicated with a few specific drugs- none that I’ve come across in my research into Breast Cancer).

I’m not talking about IV vitamin bags or the stuff you get at those IV med spa clinics- I’m talking about plain old fashioned saline water NaCl.

Here’s one link of many that shows how it protects the kidneys for those of us on the car-platin drugs. I hope this helps! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10836314/#:\~:text=Prehydration%20was%20defined%20as%20hydration,NaCl%200.45%25%20as%20hydration%20fluid.&text=The%20European%20Society%20of%20Clinical,about%20the%20optimal%20hydration%20scheme.&text=A%20hydration%20scheme%20should%20consist,is%20shown%20in%20Table%201.

So, in a past life I was a graphic designer and even had a marketing company but I ended up completely burned out and hating people hahahah. HOWEVER- I’m thinking about starting up the graphic art piece again (privately) and making some designs that I’d offer for free so folks can use what they like for t-shirts, mugs, whatever on their own.

I’ve been thinking about TNBC because, duh. Having a teenage daughter- I realized breast cancer comes across as a little cliquey but in not necessarily bad way but also in necessary way (ie: sticking to our own when it comes to treatment, some side effects, etc..). But also cliquey in that there are the doom and gloomers, the toxic positives, the warrior queens, the social media types… I’ve also thought about the things people say to us that make us want to throat punch them. Kind of an anti-pink ribbon brigade.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I also feel like if we were all in breast cancer high school, the TNBCers would be the kids dressed all in black with mohawks and spiked jewelry smoking out back and flipping birds at the status quo (okay, that WAS me in high school, so I might just have a personal bias lol).

I would love some of your thoughts on the subject! Graphic design is something easy for me to do bc it doesn’t require a lot of moving around. I find my body to be unreasonably exhausted these days but my brain just keeps chugging along- so I want to keep it occupied AND do something that others might get a chuckle out of.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT want to create any kind of us vs them mentality, just funny winks at having TNBC in particular, but also some “f*ck your pink ribbons” that anyone dealing with any kind of breast cancer might want too.

Other ideas:

“I’ve always been difficult… #TNBC”

”Caution: AGGRESSIVE“ (like when people walking their dogs yell “NOT FRIENDLY!!!” hahaha

”Boobs are boring” for those of us going flat…

A t shirt with double skulls on the boob area… etc…

etc. etc. etc.

Like I said, this just might be me. I’ve always been a little nihilistic. So ZERO offense made toward anyone feeling any differently. I just hate the color pink. Fuck Cancer. Fuck TNBC in particular.

GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS! NO SUCH THING AS A BAD IDEA!!! xoxoxo Sara

Another day, another hitch in the giddy up.

Cracked a crown on my back lower molar right at the gum line (I have genetically shit teeth). I’m 10000% positive my dentist will want to do an extraction. Thank GOD it doesn’t hurt, theres no inflammation, or signs of infection.

I’m still in active treatment on a 21 day cycle.

Has anyone had a dental issue during active treatment? What did your oncologists tell you to do?

I’m not willing to go through all of this just to have my tooth kill me hahahahah fucking fuckery I tell you.

No one warned me.

I’d light a candle, but I feel like that could legitimately be dangerous. Even my 120 lb bulldog leaves the room. Baaahahahahahahaha

I feel like the biological conversation in my body went something like this:

Armpits: “Y’all! I never smell anymore EVERRRR”

Hair: “I am le tired (faints dramatically, while eyebrows and eyelashes shriek and clutch both their pearls and one another)”

Fingernails: (hissing)

Intenstines: “Hold my beer….”