Hope you had a lovely chat with your daughter Rosie! Your sons wedding not far away now too, it will be great to see all your family together! X
Had a lovely day in Oxford yesterday and wasn’t as tired at the end of it as I thought although we did get a taxi back to the park and ride rather than face the 20 minute walk we had in the morning. I decided to abandon my hat both in the restaurant and the exhibition and wasn’t aware of garnering any stares or comments so hope to be able to continue. However I do still have some stubble which appears to have grown over the last few weeks so I may feel different if I go completely bald. I am more embarrassed now about the state of my hands. The top layer of skin, which had been very inflamed, then went quite brown, as if tanned, and is now peeling off leaving pink skin underneath. It really looks horrible. Fingertips also feel calloused and there’s a slight loss of sensation. Like others I also have weepy sore, light sensitive eyes, probably made worse at the moment by the high pollen count, and a runny nose when I eat. Isn’t it wonderful. I keep having to remind myself that if it’s having such effects on various parts of my body it must be doing something to the cancer cells.
Lovewine, is Clarityin different from Piriton. Is it a non drowsy antihistamine? I sympathise with your fedupness, I think it’s partly that the side effects of TAX for us have been more severe and long lasting than FEC so the prospect of going through that again, with a shorter respite, are daunting. Also we’ve come quite a long way up the hill so were knackered but there’s still a way to go. But we’ve made I this far; we can do the rest. Hope your outing today lifts your mood.
Rosie, glad you enjoyed your evening and your wine. Your wig was evidently a great success. The comment from your pupil about liking your new hairstyle better was priceless. When I went out with some ex colleagues the other day I had forewarned them that I looked pretty awful. So of course they were at pains to reassure me. One of them went a bit too far though and said she thought I looked better than before because I looked less stressed from work! No matter how stressed I might have been before I don’t think I ever went nearly bald, had red blotches on my face etc. I can understand you worrying about putting weight on with the lack of activity; I was relieved to lose weight with FEC although it seems to have stabilised now, but am trying hard to eat sensibly and not to have recourse to comfort food too often. Sorry to hear you still have wobbly legs with TAX. Mine seem to have got a bit better although I was pleased I took my stick yesterday.
Louise, glad you enjoyed Whitby and good luck for Thursday. I ’ m being done on Friday so hoping for a few outings this week before the return to Zombieland.
Rolicarpit, so sorry to hear that your nails are lifting off. I doubt there is anything you can do I’m afraid, have you asked the hospital ?
Tij, your energy levels certainly do seem to have returned. Shopping, mega wash for your son and a BBQ sounds more than enough for one day.
Nellie, glad you are on the mend. Re nail painting, there was quite a lot of discussion earlier on this forum about how to minimise nail damage with TAX and although there is no research evidence, there is anecdotal evidence that using a very dark nail polish can help by cutting out UV light… Since my oncologist was happy with this I decided to go ahead so now have purple nails. My other reason is that before chemo I used to nibble at my nails, especially when sitting at the computer or driving. Since I do little of the former now, and none of the latter, they grew. So for just about the first time in my life I have decent nails, with painting. Dark polish also stops any temptation to nibble. Re herbal remedies for insomnia you probably need to check this out with the hospital. I remember when I filled in the form at the start about medication they specifically asked you to note any herbal remedies you were taking. Thanks for your mouthwash remedy. I had a very sore mouth with FEC and did find bicarbonate helpful though had no idea about the dilution rate. I had also heard that salt was good but have never tried them together.
One final thought. Our shower is out of action because we are having some work do e on the bathroom. So I am bathing every day and using E-45 bath oil. It is absolutely brilliant, my skin has never felt so smooth, better than any body option. I plan to continue using it after this is all over. Unfortunately, because I like to read in the bath my hands have never been immersed. Am wondering now whether it might have helped with the dry skin.
Hope everyone has a good day.
Morning everyone, here we go again this week with bloods etc!!, had a nice day yesterday with visit to northants and a picnic in a country park! Making the most of it before Thursday.
Joan, clarityn has an ingredient in it called loratadine , it is different to piriton, I have found tesco do their own brand of non drowsy version at half the price and contains exactly the same ingredient of 10 mg loratadine- I think it’s worth a try for aches and pains!
Rosie, yes a rollercoaster is definitely what we are on , I must say though just lately feel more down than up!
Have a good day everyone with various procedures etc!!
Morning everyone, good luck to all those getting bloods etc today. I’m at work this week and my bloods and onc appts are Wednesday. Like Joan my chemo is Friday so putting it out of my mind for now as much as possible.
Rosie I also have a fear that there will be a delay, from that point of view I agree every one done is one less to worry about!
Morning jos, you have described me exactly on my first Tax, I did fairly well on Fec, but was also knocked for six for a lot longer on Tax, couldn’t get off settee for days hardly either!! I started to feel a little better by about day 10, but even now my energy levels have not picked up like they did before and have next round on Thursday! Hope you have a better week, especially if you have your daughter to care for- must be hard being a single mum with all this to deal with too, all the best. X
Jos, really sorry you are having such a tough time. I have been pretty much the same on my first TAX and it took me till day 10 to start to feel better. Next time my oncologist is going to keep me on steroids for a couple of days longer, at half the dose, to see if this helps. This might help to postpone the onset of the low mood. She is also prescribing codeine. Tramadol I think may be stronger, shame it made you feel sick. As others have suggested Piriton or similar antihistamine may also help with the aches and pains and warm baths if you have the energy to get into one. When I had neck aches with my first FEC I also found a microwaveable neck cushion helpful. In the end, however, it does seem we just have to grit our teeth and get through it. I am dreading the next one though. I hope your partner doesn’t have to go away next time, that was very unfortunate. Like you, I didn’t feel up to visitors. Hope you start to feel better soon.
Hi Jackie, what a relief everything went smoothly for you this time, I find in the few days after chemo my temperature creeps up too, this just adds to the general anxiety doesn’t it, Good luck with the next few days.
Jos, I have suffered with headaches for many years, they are very debilitating, a few years ago I was prescribed sumatriptan, which you can buy from pharmacy under the brand name of immigram, they are very expensive at £8.00 for 2 tablets, so see your g.p and get them on prescription for free!!they changed my life, my headaches go within about an hour and they are safe to take with chemo, I used to have to go to bed and sometimes a headache would last for days, so to me they are a miracle pill!!
Hope everyone else is ok x
Hi guys! Haven’t posted for ages. Can only use phone and its a nightmare!! Am very anxious about my first tax tomorrow…especially after being supposed to have it today and being sent away from hospital because they hadn’t allowed enough time!!! Grrrr. Everyone seems to coping well. I am more nervous about tax then i ever was about fec. Not sure why. Have been given pain killers. Would be grateful for any guidance and advice…is tiredness same as fec? When do pains kick in? How long do they last?? Nails??? x
Rachel will reply to you fist as need to read all others. Re tax had my fist three weeks ago next is today. I have found it tougher than fec others are opposite. With fec though u only had a few though days tired aches and no sickness. Re tax it kicked in four days later so you will probably feel it Friday fir me very very tired and aches I had one night with high temp bordering on going in to hospital. But worst was sore dry mouth and no taste buds fir around 12 days This week week three been ok taste etc. oh and I has a rash around neck got antihistermune from sic lasted five days now gone. Nails I tried painting got sick of chipping also frozed gloves same theory as cold cap not frozen when I got to treatment gave up on stenghtnwr and vitamin e oil. All the best
Hi just tried to do a quick catch up on posts Jo’s get your sister to bring you over some pineapple lumps. Great flavour post when taste buds are good pineapple I find as a juice nice when yuck mouth and pineapple lumps are coated in chocolate bonus. Also Lemon and Paroa it’s a drink specific to NZ you may enjoy a flavour change. Perhaps some manuka honey should be easier to get real thing and cheaper. Be lovely to haver her over as company.
Wildpurl hats off to you and your energy
Rosie you seem quite bright hope all is well
Best to everyone else
Lovewine great advice re headaches some thing I usually don’t get but have with tax. Re wine opened a bottle the other night as was ok re gin and tonic but still a little acid will battle on as oh on beer. !!!
Frustrating Rosie frustrating !! Remember nearly at the end.
Rosie, totally agree , I get very frustrated with people who don’t do a simple job properly! Sounds like you have a busy week!
Rachel, as everyone had said about Tax, I think it’s the tiredness is the worse thing, I am having next one on Thursday, this week i feel not too bad, but day 4 onwards until about day 10 I felt exhausted with aches and pains- but will be better prepared with painkillers this time!!
Wildpurl, I also enjoy reading about your garden activities! It must be very relaxing to potter about in it and how satisfying to watch things grow and even better to eat them!!
Good luck ladies with bloods etc this week, bloods for me this morning and then off to work! Xx
Rosie glad faith is restored agree small tough things are a hassle no one needs right now !!
Rosie, I had a similar experience this time re bloods. Because I have a PICC line it can’t be done by the nurses in our local treatment room at the surgery, it has to be a district nurse. So you have to send the GP a letter from the hospital and be then passes it on. I did that immediately after my last treatment but heard nothing so had to chase it up. Put through to the treatment room who wanted me to have the bloods done in the normal way. Had to convince her that wasn’t on. Then through to district nurses office, where went through same thing with receptionist. She wanted to know why the hospital/treatment centre couldn’t do it. Managed to convince her I thought, only to have to go through the same thing with an unhelpful district nurse. I do eventually have an appointment for this morning so hope it will be OK. The bizarre thing is that I have had bloods taken from the line by a district nurse at least twice before. Why do some people make things so difficult? I must say, though, that this is exceptional; I have found most health service personnel to be very caring and helpful.
Nellie, sorry to hear your feet are sore and cracking. Try soaking them in water to which you have added E-45 bath oil.
Rachel, good to hear from you. I hope the chemo sent ahead today; how awful having it cancelled. The experience of TAX even in this group has. Been very varied with some people finding it easier than FEC, others, like me, more difficult. On the plus side, for me, the nausea was less, I didn’t get mouth ulcers and the jelly legs effect wasn’t so pronounced. You also get 1-3 good days at the start, with the steroids providing quite a burst of energy. But I struggled with aches and pains and restless legs, lost my sense of taste and felt completely exhausted. My hands and feet have been sore and the skin on my hands is now peeling off. With FEC I started to feel more normal by day 6, with TAX it took longer. I am one of the painted nails group and so far OK. Splashed out on having them done professionally every week. Also careful when outside to cover my toes with a towel.
Jackie, good that the process of having TAX went OK this time; good luck with the rest. Like you, and others, I have had sleeping problems all the way through. A good night is when I wake up every couple of hours but manage to get off again quickly. Then there are the nights, especially around chemo, when one gets no sleep at all.
Jos, great your sister is coming over. I have been told that manuka honey is good for a sore mouth.
Must rush off now to get the bloods done.
Rolicarpit I am jealous too that you are about to have your last chemo! But I know that I will soon be there too, and it is good that our group is starting to reach the end of chemo 
I’m glad that some of you have found my chatter about my garden enjoyable. I am very fortunate that OH also loves gardening and has taken on more of the work this year as otherwise I would have had to give it a miss for this season. As it is we agreed not to make elderflower wine this year because it is so labour intensive. We are thinking of trying blackberry wine in October instead.
It is interesting that some of you have Tax in an opaque bag. Mine was in a clear bag just like the saline (it definitely said docetaxol on the bag though).
When I went walking on Sunday I wore my walking sandals so I painted my toenails dark purple to protect them from the light although come to think of it my hands are constantly exposed to light and I’ve used clear strengthener on them. Not very logical thinking on my part!
I’m at work again today and am getting a new laptop, my old one has been handed in and I don’t get the new one for three hours so can’t do much at the moment. I work on the second floor of 4 floors so walk up and down stairs a lot during the day, I do find that harder than I should but can still manage at the moment. I have Pilates this evening, looking forward to that.
Rosie I’m glad your appointment got sorted out. I too am not very tolerant at the moment of people wasting my time or creating more difficulties. The District nurses are lovely but I so hate having to stay in and wait and not knowing when they will come. I ant settle to anything. I’ve managed to get my practice nurses to do them except for the Sunday one because then I have an appointment and I know when it will be. Yes, my name is Carol and I too am a control freak LOL
Good luck everyone with bloods and treatment and I wish a good recovery to all those who have just had chemo.
Hi, blackberry wine, how delicious!! I remember my other half making wine about 26 years ago and he made some lovely blackberry wine, drank loads of it until I found out I was already 12 weeks pregnant with my eldest son- felt really guilty, but he has a first history degree, very well balanced and intelligent and is married to a beautiful Chinese girl who I love like a daughter!!
Rolicarpit well done in reaching last stage of chemo!! Hope it goes well on Thursday, and of course you haven’t spoken out of turn I am a very controlling person!! Sounds like a lot of you other ladies are too, yes it is very difficult not to be in control of our own bodies anymore, or how we spend our tome without various restrictions, jos and rolicarpit I am really bored of it all now too!!
Rosie, hope you have survived the heat today, it will be hard for you after your op too.i agree with Joan and jos that Tax is worse than Fec, but as others have said it seems such a difference in side effects with us all, my Tax has a black bag !! Take care everyone.
Hello Ladies,
Nice to hear that most of you are faring well and have been able to get out and about.
I have not posted for a few days, I ended up in hospital day 4 of my first TAX, I slept most of the day and not until the evening realised I must have a temperature, I promptly phoned the chemo hotline and was told to phone an ambulance! The hospital were worried that I may have septic shock or pulmonary embolism, because of my chest pain, thank god I had neither. Musculoskeletal pain and not sure why the temparature. I really feel like I have gone throught the mill though, the CT scan has now incidentally found another problem…an enlarged multinodular thyroid with a deviated trachea, I have phoned my GP as I am not well enough to go out at present and they have referred me to endocrinology, I should hear in a few weeks. I am now suffering with thrush in my mouth and down below and also red raw b crack, I know charming. I have some meds but it will take a few days for them to kick in I am told.
I have a radiology meeting tomorrow at a different hospital as the hospital I attend for chemo does not have a radiology dept, I am not sure I am really up to it but feel I definately do not want to delay anything, the sooner its all over and done with the better.
Morning Rosie and ladies! Good luck with bloods Rosie, I am at the hospital this morning for pre chemo oncologist appointment and have just taken my first steroids, I can feel the panic rising again at the thought of walking into the hospital, it seems to get worse , not better the more I go!!
Good luck everyone else with all your procedures and cassie sorry to hear you ended up in hospital, hope you are doing better now! Must have been very worrying for you.
Regarding nails, so far, so good! I have cut them very short and painted them a pale pink , they are quite tender but as yet seem fairly ok, sure that will change after next dose!
Have just taken my first steroid dose, so I will probably be cutting the grass, cleaning house top to bottom and awake all night!! X
Hi ladies blood all ok so fecing tomorrow that will be 4 of 6. I have been given tranquiliser to take before chemotherapy as I was sick last time.
People are very funny with the comments they make. Your outlook changes when you have had a life threatening disease your tolerance level is very low when you feel people are wasting your life.
Well ladies here’s a joke for you
What’s the difference between God and a Consultant ?
God knows he’s not a Consultant !
Im putting together a booklet on tips during treatments for breast cancer. There is so much good advice out there but no one place to get it. Once booklet is designed i will contact the charities and ask them to put on their sites. Im just going through chemo so have surgery rads and hormone therapy to come so would be great to have tips and hints ready.
This is such a big job and impossible to do on my own. I have create a facebook group called tip and hints for bc which is a closed group to get all the tips on and then document can be designed. I have too much time on my hands but please let me know if i am trying to create the wheel but as far as i can tell there isn’t an existing document or if someone else trying to do we could join forces.
I also want to do a section on funny stories that have happened to people to give people a laugh and any positive things to cheer people up. I had a bird poo on my hairless head yesterday and it actually really hurt because i had no hair to soften the blow and even though its disgusting it made me laugh after i was having such a crappy day.
Also maybe a page of useful websites and facebook groups as its took me two months to get where i am and still finding new things everyday. Some facebook groups i have come by, by chance and they are so helpful.
If you have anything to contribute or suggestions on a section please reply or pm me, or even if you want to help. Also mention if you are happy to have your name added or if you want to be kept anon.
Please share this with as many people as you can