hello im new and newly gnosed

[alphaomega9]

I am nut sure if this is where to introduce myself or if I am using poor forum etiquette or something. I have to get chemo and radiation before surgery - how long till your hair falls out?

 

[Donna G]

Hello.  Welcome.  Since you are newly diagnosed I bet you have a lot on your miind !

I remember it was overwhelming to me.

I also had chemo and radiation before I was able to have surgery.

I lost most of my hair in a few weeks .  It was very thin on my head but I still had some..

I did not have to shave my legs etc.  at all.  That part was good.

 

I assume you have some type of NSCLC.  I hope you have family and friends near by to

help you and go to appointments with you. 

I pray you respond as I did.  I started my journey in December 1997.  I have survived.

 

Please keep us posted.  Share with us how you are doing and don't hesitate to ask

questions.  That is why we are here.

 

Best wishes,   Donna G

[alphaomega9]

Thanks for your straightforward response! Yes, I;m either Stage 1 or Stage 3 which they will figure out after a bronchoscopy on Wednesday. How did you stay alive so long  ? I have an adult handicapped son at home - my relatives live in other states. Yes, it is non-small cell squamous. I really messed up the subject line plus my letter o isn't typing 90% of the time. why didn't you loose all your hair. Do others loose all of most?

[Tom Galli]

Alpha,

 

No need to apologize for typing skills.  My spelling is horrible and my stuff would be unreadable without computer assisted spell checking.  This follows up on Donna's experience and advice.

 

I also had pre-surgical radiation and chemo.  In my case, I was told the chemo was "adjunct" treatment meaning it was not the full strength stuff because the radiation was the primary treatment agent.  Chemo was used to sweep up any cells in my blood stream that got dislodged by the killing power of radiation.  Therefore, I didn't lose any hair during my pre-surgical chemo.

 

I had the same chemo recipe after surgery and after tumors appeared in my remaining left lung.  This was the full strength, high octane, real deal,  taxol carboplatin.  My hair fell out, even my eye brows and eye lids, 1 day after my second infusion.  

 

To your question about why people don't loose all their hair.  Hair loss varies from person to person.  Chemo attacks cells with rapid metabolism and some hair cells have faster metabolic rates than others.  The attack varies.  I've known lung cancer patients to have full strength taxol carboplatin and loose no hair.  I can tell you, that hair loss is a temporary side effect.  All of mine grew back.  I started treatment at 53 years old, and now at 65 my hair loss is an old age phenomenon.  But after treatment, it all grew back.

 

Stay the course and welcome here!

 

Tom

[Donna G]

Wow.  You are having a bronchoscopy on Wednesday.  Please share the results. 

I lived some in Norfolk Va.  in about 1976 to 1977, my husband was in the Navy.

 

I am sure your son is blessed that you are there for him.  Do you have any close friends

that can help you?  I hope so.

 

I agree with Tom regarding hair loss.  Some people loose it all and some don't , some loose just some of it.

The drug you get makes a difference, the dose you get and other factors affect your chances also.

 

I am grateful that being late stage--------3B  --------with great treatment I did survive.   As you may

be able to read below my husband who had 2 tiny spots in one lung had a vicious disease that

immediately spread every where , did not respond to his chemo,   I lost him.

 

Again I pray that you respond as I did and your son will have you with him for many years to come.

 

Keep us posted.

 

Donna G

[CindyA]

Hi Alphaomega9,

Welcome to the Lung Cancer Support Community Message boards. You can post wherever you like in the forums. Here is a great start to read about side effects if you would like to read up on side effects http://www.lungevity.org/support-survivorship/survivor-resource-center/living-well-with-lung-cancer/managing-treatment-side

 

I look forward to getting to know you,

Cindy

[MaryTD777]

​Yes, Please come back Wednesday to update us. As far as hair loss goes, I don't think you might get the same answer 3 times in a row no matter how many people you ask!! When mine started falling out in clumps after 3-4 weeks (hard to remember for sure now, which makes me smile because I wanted to type "It's hard to remember how long it took because that was A LONG TIME AGO!!" I know 4 years isn't such a long time to some people, but here... it can feel like a very long time compared to those first few days and the nightmares we gave ourselves.

 

Back to hair. When it started, it was falling out in what you might call Thin Clumps. They were clumps to me, but probably only 20ish hairs. It was still kind of upsetting since my hair was thin to start with. Rather than going to get a haircut I asked my hubby to use his beard trimmer to cut my hair shorter so the clumps wouldn't be so messy. Eventually most of it did fall out, but since a bit was left on the front, what I saw in the mirror wasn't too bad. The whoopin I wanted to give hubby months later was another story!! I came across a picture where the BACK of my noggin was right in the center of the shot!! How could he DARE to let me walk around like that and not tell me to cover up before I scared children at the store?? ARG! What got me tho was that at least a dozen people told me, or showed me, that when they or a loved one lost their hair it came back softer, thicker and curlier than anything they could have imagined!! Mine came back the same scrawny, mousy brown with grey yucky hair I have had forever!   I guess I should say that I am glad to be here no matter what my hair looks like!!

 

I hope you got a laugh out of that! I have always used myself to try to get others to laugh. See Ya Wednesday or Thursday I hope!!