1st FEC!!

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181

Hi all

Oh Caroline - do you think we should start campaigning for Sky Plus on prescription - what a lovely thought !! Your GP sounds like a lovely bloke. I have a nice one too - think OH is getting worried cos my GP (who is a bright cheery Irish young thing !) keeps ringing to check I’m ok. I took some insurance forms down to the surgery on Monday for him to complete and he rang me yesterday morning to say I could pick them up. When I went in, the receptionist handed me an envelope that only had one claim form in (I’d left four) - I just said that was fine and I knew he was busy and that I’d pick the others up whenever. The lovely man rang me 2 hours later to apologise and said that he hadn’t realised there were more, and that he would do them straight away, and he was sorry I was going to have to walk down again - lovely man !

On the subject of the OH - on the recommendation of someone else in another thread I bought ‘Breast Cancer Husband - How to help your wife (and Yourself) through diagnosis, treatment and beyond’ by Marc Silver - what an excellent book - I would thoroughly recommend it. A very honest, everyday account of one man’s struggle to help his wife - sometimes with disasterous results!!

Lorna - glad I make you chuckle - I do so like to have a purpose in life haha (only kidding!). In turn you too have made me chuckle - I keep having very strange visions of a woman I’ve never met doing all the moves to Saturday Night Fever !!!

Had a very productive afternoon today - did a whole basket of ironing, completely gutted my sitting room, wrapped a few more pressies and now…I’m knackered again lol. Tomorrow I have an electrician here fixing wall lights and recabling my kitchen - I so hope he doesn’t expect me to run after him with cups of tea. At the moment I plan to let him in at 8.30 - then I’m going to go down the local cafe and have a cuppa and a bacon roll ! (that’s assuming I’ve managed to get dressed that early lol.

Anyway - mine, my daughters, and my husbands tax returns beckon arggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh - I have to try and do them while I’ve got my sensible head on - it doesn’t seem to come round very often these days

love and hugs to all

speak soon

Margaret x

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Hi All

Starting to feel a little better although mouth still yuk. Caroline - I wonder if the effects are cumalitive - seems to take longer to recover after each one. When are you starting your tax - mine is 21st Dec - just in time for xmas. Not looking forward to it - after all I have read, but hopefully will be ok.
KNow what you mean about housework - I get really wound up - OH keeps telling me to rest - can’t b… rest if stuff still to do but then feel knackered. Will have to learn. Have been short tempered with kids today - will have to try and chill out.
Why do men not see the same mess as us? I do feel sorry for them though - it must be tough not knowing what to do to make things ok.
Margaret - glad you are feeling better.
Mizzy - any news on your tax dates yet. I am not having herceptin just tamoxifen and rads. Roll on spring.

Well of to bed now, exhausted.

Take care, Love

Anne x

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Hi Jackie - and everyone.

Jackie - thanks so much for your reply. I’m really sorry you’ve had a delay as well but it helps to know I’m not the only one - and that it made you feel just the same. My bro-in-law said, “Hurray! You’ve got a reprieve!” but it doesn’t feel like that. It just upsets all the plans I had for the days I thought would be good ones. One BIG lesson I’m learning is: DON’T MAKE PLANS!!

As for the hair… I dared to wash mine this morning and loads came out but it does feel better to have a clean head again! I had a good cry on my partner’s shoulder and he’s taking me to look at wigs this afternoon. I’m lucky I suppose that my hair is (normally) very thick, and now that it’s dry it doesn’t actually look very different - but I don’t think I can cope with the ‘fall out’! Also, it’s making me very anxious which can’t be doing me any good so my long-suffering partner is taking me to look at wigs this afternoon.

How are you doing with your hair, Jackie?

Christmas shopping…!! I really admire those of you who’ve got to grips with this. I feel I don’t really want to ‘do’ Christmas this year but the grown-up step-children are still quite romantic about it all so I’ll give it my best shot.

Someone asked about hobbies… I’ve been thinking of taking up knitting again. The thought of making something, seeing it grow, could be a bit of an antidote to the hair loss - not to mention the loss of so many other things. Just thought - I could knit myself some beautiful hats to go on top of the beautiful wig I’m hoping to find!!

Take care everyone and keep warm.

Caroline (2) xx

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Hello ladies
I had an appointment with my oncologist yesterday and have been told that I don’t need to start my chemo until 15th January. He told me to go away and enjoy christmas, which was great. I was very impressed with the way they explained everything, including all the statistics showing the difference the various treatments would make (a different story from when my mother had chemo for bowel cancer). I will be having 6 FEC treatments, no Taxol which sounds as though it is the worst part. I expect a lot of you will have nearly finished by the time I start but it has been very useful reading your logs as it meant I was armed with lots of questions to ask.
Hope you all recover from your various treatments so that you can enjoy christmas.
Best wishes
Karon

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Hi all

Caroline (2) - I’ve gone back to knitting - mainly because I can’t find any hats I like - so I thought I’d try and make my own - maybe we can swap patterns lol

Karon - glad you had a good appt, hopefully you can get on with planning xmas now - and glad they explained everything well to you.

I will be just having my 3rd Fec around the time you have your first - have to have 4 in total, then rads for a month, then 4 cyles of Taxotere yukkkkkkkkk

Where’s everyone else gone today??? Hope they aren’t about because they all feel so well they’ve gone xmas shopping…!!!

I have had the electricians here all morning fitting new lights in my living room and recabling my kitchen - at least that’s what they were supposed to be doing. Didn’t turn up till 10.30 (if I’d been in my dressing gown, with no hair done and no make on they’d have been here at 8.30 lol) - they haven’t touched the kitchen, have put the wires in the living room for the wall lights - and said they’ll come back and fit them after hubby plasters over the bits they’ve cut out - which would be all well and good but as they have wired them into my main central light, which now has no switch on it - I have no flippin lights in my living room till next week !!!
And the place is covered in a cloud of dust from where they cut through the walls arggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I was having such a good day too !

take care all

Margaret xx

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Hi All,

Had my 3rd FEC yesterday and given that FEC 2 was a breeze, really was not expecting to feel quite so bad as I did! Very sick yesterday and during night, but am feeling much better today. Taken things easy, went out to friends birthday lunch in fact and ignored the ever looming housework and teetering pile of ironing.

Margaret - you really thought the builders would turn up at 8.30! lol! After living in old house and renovating it over 5 years I sympathise! Knitting sounds like a good hobby, a friend of mine says knitted, multi-coloured blankets and throws are very ‘in’ this season! You could start a little cottage industry!

I’m having 4FEC and 4TAX too, but my rads are going to be at the end, not in the middle. Am trying to be positive about the TAX but read quite a lot about more severe side-effects, but like my onc says, everyones different, and I’ve been quite lucky so far on FEC so fingers crossed!

Hi Anne, glad ur feeling a little better, seems you’ll be starting your TAX about four weeks before me, will be asking for top tips from you. Are you having three or four?

Hi Caroline 2, hope you find nice wig. I chose one ages before I started chemo and haven’t worn it much as it didn’t feel right. Took it to my hairdresser earlier this week and she’s cut it very much like my normal style and trimmed the sides and fringe so it’s now a really good fit and I feel much happier in it. So if you don’t find something exactly right it may still be worth getting and then get it trimmed or styled to suit you more.

Karon, glad you’re free over Xmas! nice to get your dates sorted for start of chemo, but really nice to have Xmas first I think. Enjoy!

Love to everyone, take care, stay warm!

Hugs, Louisa xxx

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Hi all , everyone seems so busy at the moment !
Just had my onc appt /bloods done and he tells me that my steroid dosage will be doubled while I’m on tax . hope that doesnt mean double the downer after I come off them.

I was telling him about my mouth ulcers (which have gone now) due to the curry . And he said ’ Dont forget we have effectively poisoned you’
so you are bound to experience some effects’ . I like the guy as he tells it how it is!

Well had a ‘funny’ experience last night. went out to a drinks party and within 5 mins the host had poured half of his beer down my cleavage accidentally as he was showing us his new appartment and waving his arms around with a beer. I havent checked the chicken fillets yet !

You sort of think why me dont you after a while , just about holding it together in these social events without being drenched too.

take care all
cally xx

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Hi Cally,

Good to hear from you. When will you be starting your TAX? I am having my last FEC on 27 Dec so presume 1st TAX 17 Jan if all goes to plan.

Chicken marinated in beer - nice! Have ordered my New Years Eve party wigs - a bright blue bob, a beehive (very Amy Winehouse) and a waist length baby blonde! Shall wear them with assorted tiaras and deelyboppers - just hope no-one makes a grab for them or they might get a very unpleasant surprise!

Didn’t see any festive squirrels in town, but did go in to Harrods pet department (next to Christmas World) where they had six black toy poodle puppies for sale. My nine year old spent half an hour pleading for me to buy one to keep our Westie company - think I would have been the lonely one if I’d arrived home with a puppy, my OH is very tolerant of my shopping habits but he has limits!

Hope things are going well for you, take care,

Louisa xxx

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Hi everyone

Feel great today - day 8 - hopefully will be good until next chemo.

Louisa - I am having 3 and 3 - so next is tax. I have also been reasonable well on fec - woould also like it to continue on tax. Will have to wait and see. I think Caroline, vanessa and Mizzy are also starting their tax that week - so hoepfully top tips from all of us. Have read quite a bit and wished I had not. Everyone including the nurses say if you do well on fec you do not do so well on tax and vise a versa. Hoepfully we can all break that mould. Not really sure how they make a decision about 3 and 3 or 4 and 4 or 6 fec. Must be to do with type, grade and node involvement. I too am having rads after chemo.
Glad you enjoyed your shopping trip - can not believe you did not buy the puppy!!! After all it was a Harrods puppy!!!

Cally - I also have been told about the steriods - have to take 4 tablets twice a day instead of 1 3 times a day - have to start day before tax too!! My Consultant said it was the Gold Star treatment and Domestoes!!!

Hope everyone else is well and busy shopping. Have a 6 year old birthday party tomorrow - need to get a xmas tree and a date withe Santa Sunday evening in a 18th Century Grotto - think the weather is going to be appauling but the kids wont mind.

Have a good week end

Take Care, Love

Anne xx

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Hi again
Louisa just remembered you are on 4 fec , 4 tax arent you ? I shall have last fec on dec 12th and start tax jan 9th. Its a 4 week gap due to the hospital being closed over new year.
after that its jan 20th , am away for half term so I’ve delayed by a week and the last tax is feb 27th hurrah. Rads then tamoxifen. I am a walking calendar at the moment ask me a date , any date. I had to correct my oncologist today , lucky one of us is on the ball !

I asked about the dreaded fingernail loss on tax and he leant back in his comfy leather chair and laughed in a dracula sort of way (he looks a bit like dracula too ) and said he had never had a patient lose a fingernail. I dont want to disprove him and was a bit comforted by that I guess ??

love the sound of the wigs you have , where did you get them . I feel ebay coming on.

Anne , I am on 4 steroids (2 taken twice a day ) at the moment (8mg in total) and apparently it will increase to 16mg. As you said to be taken before , during and after tax . That tells me that tax must be pretty toxic as the steroids are anti sickness too. I did ask if I could not have the steroids and he said no !

Think I will be doing xmas tree duty this weekend too
bye for now
Cally x

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Hi all

Glad everyone seems to be doing reasonably well today.

I ordered some party wigs and hats from www.partydomain.co.uk - they came today and they are excellent., My favourite is a very short bob in rainbow neon colours - its orange and red and blue and green and yellow - and far nicer than the wig I got from the hospital !!! Also got a couple of excellent ‘snood’ type santa hats with turn up peaks with ‘Merry Christmas’ on them.

Hubby came home tonight and saw them - his immediate reaction was ‘do you think I’m going out with you, with one of them on!!!’ - then he started laughing, called me a complete nutter and said ‘I suppose it’s better than a bald head though!’ - bless him.

I will be a good while after you lot in starting my Tax, because the rads are in the middle. Should be around March when I start Tax so I will be depending on you lot to give me loads of tips and pointers!
I’m dreading the radiotherapy more - not for the treatment but for the journey. I’m in Scotland and my health board don’t do radiotherapy so I have to change hospitals - and the one I have to go to is 120 miles away - so a 2 1/2 hour drive for treatment - then the same home again - every day for 4 weeks !!!

take care all

Margaret x

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Hello everyone,

I feel encouraged by all your posts. I am newly diagnosed, and i will start FEC on 20th December. You have answered a lot of my questions about what it feels like and when the hair comes out and all of that - it is all sacry stuff, but reading your posts have helped a lot

thanks

A

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Welcome Anne - to the club no-one wants to join

You will get a ton of support on here I can promise you - I know I have. It doesn’t matter how much support you get at home from friends and relatives etc - it’s somehow different to come on here and chat with people who know exactly what you’re going through.

You will have your first Fec the day after I have my second - it honestly hasn’t been as bad as I feared - I’m on day 10 (technicaly given that its almost 2am day 11) and awaiting the hair loss early next week!!

Please keep us posted as to how you get on - or just feel free to come on and rant when you want lol - we’ve all had out turn as you will have seen from the posts

take care

Margaret x

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Hi All,

Anne - it most certainly was a Harrods puppy! the cost - a mere £1,700!!! Husband is being very understanding and supportive at the moment, but not that much! Will make do with our very scruffy, naughty Westie who was found standing on the dining room table last Tuesday, eating my birthday cake! Chocolate cream all over his face, little beast!!

Hope the birthday party went well and the visit to Santa, it’s all getting very exciting now! We will get our tree next weekend hopefully, always way too big to fit in house, much trimming and cursing by hubby, but always lots of fun!

Cally, I ordered my party wigs from an Australian web site, they weren’t expensive but looked quite good. Will let you know if they’re okay. Am bit worried about New Year actually. We always go to friends who have about eight couples round and we know them all quite well, but it will be the first time I’ve seen them since dx so am bit nervous. Silly really, but it’s the initial ‘yes I have bc and thanx I’m doing fine’ conversation I am dreading - not wanting to pretend everything is ‘normal’ but also not wanting to feel like an invalid - does that make sense? Oh well, some way off yet, will have cosy Xmas at home and enjoy every minute!

My onc is very laid back about the whole TAX thing. Said that looking on the bright side, I’ve suffered badly with constipation of FEC so TAX will have the opposite effect which may be a pleasant change!! Love him!

Margaret, sorry to hear you will have long journey to get rads, do you live way out in the country? Am very lucky here, hospital is only 15 mins away. Will you have someone to go with you? Long day by yourself.

Hi Anne, and welcome. Glad you’ve found us, have found this site a real life-line, like Margaret says you can come here and find support, advice, have a moan, there’s always someone who can relate to how you’re feeling which I think must be hard to do for friends at home. First FEC on 20th sounds okay for Xmas day, I’ve had 3 now and have felt okay by the third day on the whole - so hopefully you will be able to enjoy the holidays and eat loads of Xmas pud etc etc!!!

Hi Caroline 2, Hi Karon, hope you’re both keeping well and warm!

Take care all,

Love Louisa xxx

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Hi all

Had a brilliant day today - best I’ve felt for ages - went and did all my food shopping for xmas, my freezer and cupboards are now fit to burst. Have wrapped almost all my xmas presents - and am now sitting with a bery large voddy & coke !!

Louisa - no I’m not out in the country, local hosp is 15 mins away, they have an excellent reputation for cancer treatments but just don’t do radiotherapy - patients are usually referred to either Glasgow, Ednburgh or Ayr.

Hope everyone else is keeping well

Margaret x

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I am having a Sentinal Lymph node biopsy on Tuesday - has anyone had one of these? What is it like? I feel such a wimp!!

A

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Hi everyone, just had my first go at FEC. thinking all ok, sailed through it, but 2 days later felt very strange, just needed to sleep, for 24 hrs. Better today and now I’ve stopped the anti-sickness drugs, hoping to be a bit more normal. I guess everyone has a different reaction. The main thing to have changed is my taste - I can’t get enthusiastic about any food! making myself eat healthily, but really not hungry - that’s so not like me!
Kas x

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Hi Kas

Welcome to the forums, where I am sure you will receive lots of help and support. I have added a link to a Breast Cancer Care Eating well dvd, that you may find helpful. The dvd can be either ordered direct from the website or via the helpline on on 0808 800 6000 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm and Sat 9am-2pm.

Kind Regards
Katie

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Hi Anne,

I had a SN biopsy when I had my mastectomy in September. I had two tumours in my left breast therefore had to have mastectomy but at that time it wasn’t clear if there was any node involvement so they did a biopsy. I had an injection few hours prior to surgery which I believe is a very small amount of radioactive substance (is only small injection into vein in arm and didn’t hurt at all) which travels round the body and gets trapped by the lymph nodes. Your surgeon then removes the nodes that have trapped the radioactive material and these are examined for any signs of infection. My surgeon removed 5 nodes. A week later I got the results of the biopsy and 3 of the nodes were showing signs of cancer cells therefore I had the rest of my nodes removed two weeks later (all of which were clear but better to be safe…!).

Because I had my biopsy at same time as mastectomy it was probably much longer op than yours will be. Hopefully you will find none of your nodes have any sign of infection (I understand many women don’t) and you won’t need any more removed.

Hi Kas, glad you got through first FEC okay, I’ve had 3 now and have to say have done alright too so far. My taste buds went completely after first one, only thing I really fancied were cheese and onion crisps and tomato soup! Salads, fruit, in fact most ‘good foods’ didn’t do anything for me at all. Try some healthy spicy soups, pineapple, ginger and lemon teas. I found eating little snacks, even just crackers helped keep on top of any nausea. And rest when you need to, if you can! I found I felt fine after first week but still took things easier than normal. This time round am feeling bit more tired, maybe cumulative effects?

Hope everyone is well and warm!

Love Louisa xxx

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Hi Anne, I had a sentinal node biopsy 4 weeks ago. They injected a radioactive dye before the operation. This did not hurt much, just a slight stinging. Then during the operation to remove the lump they injected a blue dye which shows up the sentinal nodes. They removed 4 of mine as well as the lump. I had 2 incisions, 1 for the lump and 1 (under the arm) for the nodes. I was lucky in that none of my nodes were affected, so no further surgery was needed, although I do start chemo in January as the lump was grade 3. I left hospital the day after the operation and I have had no problem with either of my incissions, both healed very quickly and apart from sensitivity of the nipple which is now beginning to wear off I recovered from the surgery very quickly. Hope it all goes well for you on tuesday.
Karon