Wildpurl, your appointment sounds interesting! 3 months before waiting list! At least you can decide what’s best for you and you are more balanced in the meantime!
Hello ladies,
Sorry to but in on your thread I started chemo in June but started reading your thread some weeks ago to see how you transitioned from fec to tax. Have been hooked on your thread ever since feel like I know you all !
Anyway just wanted to post to the ladies who are worried about surgery in next few days, I had mastectomy last year , DIEP reconstruction in March this year when they found more cancer so had ANC 6 weeks after recon.
The mastectomy was the most straightforward and believe me a total doddle compared to all you have gone through with chemo… I only took paracetamol for a couple of days for pain relief and at least every day that passes you are healing and getting stronger (with no return visit in 21 days.!!)
Hope all goes well and thankyou to all you lovely ladies on here you are an inspiration
Morning everyone, Jackie, good luck with pre op assessment today, it’s not too bad, just a lot of waiting about!! Agree we should be wheeled in to operating theatre together for moral support! I am like you- getting very worked up now!
Rosie, thankyou for your encouragement, just want it over with now- yes I am working this morning, have a selection of family and friends dropping in later too- I know they mean well, but it’s just adding to my worked upness( no such word!!) especially my poor mum and dad who are so worried it transfers to me! Hope you are not too tired tomorrow with your trip again to Limassol.
Jos, hope you are ok? Deep in my addled brain I think you have had or about to have your surgery? If so hope everything is going well.
Wildpurl,agree if you are happy with your surgeon it’s worth waiting for your reconstruction and further surgery and yes 95% is a no brainer! Have a good day whatever you are doing!
Tulamo, welcome to the thread- I also find it very helpful to read other monthly threads to see further down the line! Thankyou for your encouragement regarding surgery! I hope you are coping well with chemo etc and you are getting stronger?
Gave a good day everyone!
Tulamo, welcome to the thread. I was quite anxious about the switch from FEC to Tax, but in the end it was not as bad as I had feared and I preferred Tax to FEC. I hope you are getting through chemo OK.
I’m at work today, the sun is actually shining and it was quite warm when I went out for my lunchtime walk. This evening is grocery shopping evening and we are considering going to Tescos instead of Sainsburys LOL, yes my life is that exciting.
Hope your day is OK Lovewine and you are not feeling too stressed. Rosie, how is your day and how are you feeling now?
Jackie,just seen that you are having to cope with hospital alone today, I’m sure you will be fine and will be happy to see your son this evening. Hope all goes well with the pre op.
Big relief, got the results of the tests not the tumours they removed and they did get clear margins so no need for further surgery. I feel very lucky and also quite surprised. Only slightly worrying thing is that they found a third tumour in the bits they removed, which hadn’t shown up on any of the scans, but they are confident they got all of that out too. They are waiting for the Herceotin results on that one but since that was negative on the other two I doubt this will be any different.I have an appt with the oncologist a week on Monday to plan the radiotherapy, which I am hoping I will be able to delay until we come back from Barcelona. Just been looking into insurance and it wasn’t as costly as e had expected.
Jackie, hope the pre op went well.
Lovewine, hope having your visitors not too exhausting and that they provided som distraction.
Wildpurl, 95% is an incredible difference. As you say, a no brainer. Hope you manage to cope with the excitement of Tescos!
Rosie, glad you are now pleased with your eyebrows. How wonderful to have got to that point.
Tulamo, welcome to the thread, I’m glad you have found it helpful. It has been a lifeline to me. Hope your side effects on TAX have not been too bad.
Joan, that’s great news no further surgery needed! You must be so relieved. Yes my visitors were a welcome distraction, I will just be relieved now to get it over with .
Rosie, hope you enjoyed your quiet day, it’s nice to be ordering things for school, it makes you feel useful and part of things! Good luck tomorrow.
Jackie, hope you got on ok today? Will be nice to see your son after his trip.
Well, am trying to rein in my panic about tomorrow and succeeding so far, don’t know if it will last long though!!
Wildpurl, hope you coped with the excitement of tesco!! A change now and again is good!
Thanks Jackie and everyone else for their well wishes!! Jackie, hope your pre op went ok today?
Good morning everyone, sitting up at stupid o’clock, can’t sleep even though feel totally exhausted all day.
Lovewine best wishes for today, a few more hours and another hurdle out the way.
I am lucky in that I am not facing any more major treatment after chemo had all my surgeries and not having radiotherapy I am HER2+ so will be having herceptin for 12 months but from what ive read that doesnt seem too awful compared to surgery and chemo. I should have started herceptin last week along with my first tax but I was not given heart scan so I couldnt have it. I was really annoyed the consultant came to see me on the chemo ward and apologised that I had been let down but insisted missing one treatment wont affect the overall outcome. Easy for him to say he’s not the one with the evil disease.
Oddly although I have had fewer SE’s with the tax I felt more toxic and hit a real low wondering how I can go through two more treatments not made easier by people now cheerily telling me how I’ve nearly finished now “just” two to go… I know they all mean well.
Joan so good that your results were positive especially given you had to wait so long the waiting for results is the worst thing in this whole process I dont think they have a clue what we go through.
Must try and get some sleep my little boy will be up with the larks hope everyone has a good day
Morning ladies, just ready to go off to hospital now for surgery !! Will let you know how it goes , good luck everyone with various appointments! All have a nice weekend!
Tulamo, I was also not given heart scan at right time( finally had it on Wednesday) so my herceptin has been delayed too! I am her-2 + also.
Thankyou for all your best wishes!! X
Hello Ladies,
The thread is as active as ever, I am not able contribute as much as I would like with work and appointments.
The thyroid appointment was OK but they want to do an aspiration biopsy they don’t seem to concerned as I have been told the appointment should be in 1-2 months and follow up in Jan, so who knows but the waiting is awful. The Rads are still fine at the moment no se’s. I have also weaned myself off of the sleeping tablets as I hate taking anything thats not absolutley necessary, leaving them off one noght and taking them thenext then two nights for a cuple of times then stop, not much difference in my sleeping pattern to be honest.
Have a good day ladies x cassie
Rosie, that is good news. In terms of swimming, I read through my leaflet about radiotherapy last night and it advised against swimming so sadly you may have to miss out this year.
Rolicarpet, great that you have finished rads and minimal side effects. I can understand you bridling about having to take tablets for years but glad that you decided to pick up your dummy again and suck it!
Cassie, I have also been surprised that my sleep has returned to relatively normal after quite a lengthy period on sleeping tablets. Made me realise how much chemo and especially high dose steroids on TAX had affected that. It does seem a good sign that your aspiration biopsy is some time ahead.
Tulamo, like most of the ladies on this thread I really struggled with insomnia and felt I would not get through chemo unless I could get at least a few hours sleep. With FEC I only took them for a week each time but with TAX it had to be a bit longer. Like Wildpurl I also found later chemosynthesis more difficult to face. In theory perhaps the prospect of getting near the end should make it easier but it doesn’t seem to work that way. Several of us finished up in the grumpy corner at this point so you are not alone.
Wildpurl, that must be a relief that your teeth have not been affected. I am dreading going to see my dentist and am rather putting it off.
Those of you who have already started/finished chemo, did you have one or two planning sessions? I have been given an appt with the oncologist but the info leaflet I was given (which is not specific to my hospital) suggests that one sees the oncologist and then have a second one with the radiotherapy people.
Lovewine, hopefully your op will now be over and you are not in too much discomfort.
Hope everyone else has a good weekend
Hello ladies,
Thanks for all your encouragement I am usually a very positive person and hate myself for moaning I am so lucky they found the new tumour during my recon surgery if not I wouldn’t have had much chance of seeing my little boy grow up and I keep reminding myself how fortunate I am the treatments are available to me. Determined to be more positive from now on and stop moaning.
I have never been a very good sleeper so knew I would have a bad time through chemo. I have sleeping tablets but only take half a tablet or I am too muzzy next morning to deal with my son he will be three in October and I do use most of the little energy I have making sure we play games and have fun every day I want things to be as normal for him as possible.
I am cold capping lost a lot of hair after 2nd fec but nothing catastrophic since I had lots of hair to start with and still have a reasonable amount so havent had to buy any wigs scarves etc. I am very relieved I haven’t had to explain where mummy’s hair has gone to him and fairly confident I wont lose much more on the tax (hope that doesn’t come back to bite me on the bum!!)
Hopefully all went well for Lovewine today and she is having a restful night without too much noise disturbing her.
Rosie you must be relieved the doctors happy to let you heal now cant imagine how uncomfortable you have been with all the stitches and dressings in all that heat. Cyprus is a beautiful island last time we were there found lovely place called Pissori had lovely lunch in a shady bar wish I was there now ! Last year I sewed my softies into the cups of my swim suits for my hoidays it worked brilliantly as I just pulled out the fuzzy stuffing after swimming so it could dry and I never had to worry about my “falsie” escaping and bobbing off across the pool I didnt want to buy mastectomy swimwear because it is really expensive and not the sort of costume I would usually choose I bought costumes from tesco and bhs and am happy I have swimsuits I willwear again now I have my reconstruction.
Wildpurl I really envy your creativity I would love to be the sort of person who grows lovely things intheir gardenand actually knows how to use it but I am a rubbish gardener and a lazy cook although I have promised myself I will make more effort in the kitchen when I am better. I have quite a few animals, a horse donkeys and three dogs border collies so lack of time is my enemy. I love all my fur babies and wouldnt be without them and I have amazing friends at the stables who do so much to support me…
I hate the dentist too though dash to the surgery at first hint of a problem good you needed no treatment youve had enough bad suff this year.
Am determined to get more sleep tonight and very slow typing these posts so will say goodnight everybody have a good weekend x
Hello everyone, am relieved to say surgery over, I was back on the ward by 10.30 a.m and came home early evening last night! I feel not too bad at all today- really want to reassure you Jackie that it is not as bad as we feared at all!! All other ladies were so right when they said chemo was so much worse. I came around very quickly and have had minimal pain( fingers crossed it stays that way).
Lisa, your jam sounds delicious, glad Wildpurl had a good recipe suggestion for you, I have suggested Wildpurl you publish your own book with some of your lovely recipes and ideas in it!! I would certainly buy it as I love to read about your tips, food etc.!
Tulamo, I can see you are a fellow animal mad person like myself- I have 2 border collies and also regularly babysit my sons collie whilst he is at work too, and 3 cats, several resident, quite tame hedgehogs in garden too!!
Rosie, you sound like you are helping much better now and moving on to radiotherapy soon, that’s a step closer to the finish line!
Wildpurl, just read your plans for the weekend, sounds lovely enjoy your trip to NT property, must admit I envy your energy levels!
Jackie, I also had problems with blood count just before my op and had to go back for further tests and didn’t hear anything and didn’t need a transfusion after all, they did say my bloods hadn’t recovered well after chemo too, but they were happy with them on operation day! So try not to worry too much! I had to wash in special body wash and shove cream up nose! I wasn’t told about wig washing though so just carried on wearing it and washed it in my usual way the night before surgery.
Joan, hope you are doing well too and cassie? Sounds like you are busy too.
Regards to all other ladies, hope you are all enjoying the weekend.
Rosie, am so sorry to hear about your dad, it’s really hard when you live a long way from close family and there is a problem, as Wildpurl says hopefully it may not be as bad as you first think, at least you have your sister keeping you informed and did spend time with him recently, just as we think there is an upturn in things something else comes along and causes us worry and stress, take care of yourself.
Wildpurl arboretum sounds lovely, I enjoy autumn so that would be a lovely place to visit then, we have lord byrons home- newstead abbey in Nottinghamshire not too far away and it’s lovely in autumn as it has a Japanese water garden full of maple trees and the colours are stunning!
Rosie, so sorry to hear about your dad. It would be worrying anyway but being so far away magnifies it. As others have said, it’s good that you managed to get to see him when you were over. On a lighter note, I lived your latest mistype wishing me a food weekend. I shall do my best!
Lovewine, glad your op is over, that it wasn’t as bad as you thought and you are not in pain. I was advised to take painkillers for the first few days even if I wasn’t in pain. Have you been given the same advice?
Jackie, no wonder you’re on the sulky step. I know you’re very worried about the op and any hitch at this stage just prolongs the agony. But at least your bloods haven’t gone below the 1.0 threshold and may even improve by Monday. It’s interesting that both you and Lovewine had to wash in the special stuff. I did as well but was told it was because my op was following closely on my pre assessment and there wouldn’t be time to get the results back from the usual tests. Fortunately it’s fairly innocuous stuff.
Tulamo, it must be really tough coping with all this and looking after your three year old son. I take my hat off to you. Well several hats really since I never got on with the wig. Rationally there is lots to be positive about as you say but what a blow for them to discover another tumour at the point you were expecting to be nearly finished with it all.
Rolicarpet, hope you are managing to make some inroads on the plums. Thanks for info about radiotherapy appt. just had letter through from the hospital confirming my appt which is just given as a follow up. I imagine they would have said if I had also been seeing the radiologist since it looks as if that takes quite some time.
I am continuing to make a good recovery from the op and finding myself able to do much more and in particular walk further and not just on the flat. Rather oddly, since I had the all clear on Thursday my husband seems to think I am completely over it all and back to normal. He also read an article in the newspaper citing research which found that 20 mins walking every day at a pace which increased the heart rate dramatically reduced the rate of recurrences. So I anticipate a bit of nagging. He may just be trying to be helpful, in an annoying male way, because since Thursday my anxiety has moved on from ‘has all the cancer gone’ to ‘will it come back’…
First sign of hair returning today. Annoyingly though, only on my chin!
Joan , good to know you are improving well, I have read too that regular daily walking supposedly helps in reducing recurrence, but i think generally the medical profession recommends this for just about everything!! Maybe the chin hair sprouting is a sign of life for hair elsewhere!!
Jackie, yes a mini meet up sounds a good idea! Do you live in Nottinghamshire? We used to live there, but now neighbouring Leicestershire! I can understand you just want op over and done with now as I felt exactly the same, this time next week it will be done! Incidentally I am a Wendy also!!
Morning everyone, the sun is shining so I hope everyone is in a good frame of mind and the sulky step has been put away.
Lovewine, glad to hear your recovery is going well. Rosie, sorry to hear about your Dad. I know how difficult it is when you live a plane ride away from family when there is a crisis.
I have survived my Dad’s visit and now need to put the clean sheets back on the spare bed as my sister in law arrives today.
My lovely husband has bought me an amazing gift to aid my recovery. It’s an electric bike. You still have to pedal, but the electric motor kicks in when you need some extra power. I’m going to take it on its inaugural ride in a minute with my boys. Hoping it will help me get my fitness levels back.
Hi everyone, what a good present tij ! Like Rosie I think I would be wearing the motor out! Hope you enjoy your debut ride out with your family today.
Rosie, any more news on your dad this morning? Maybe your daughter can fill you in more today.
I have just shuffled around the field with hubby and dogs for 15 min walk and enjoyed the fresh air, not sure about the exercise part though !! Although must admit do feel more energised after doing it!
Enjoy your Sunday everyone.
Lisa, plum gin sounds good! Have had sloe gin before - very nice indeed! And totally agree with the mini meet up!! How do you distill the gin - in a Demi- john ? We used to make plum wine and blackberry wine years ago, never did get around to bottling it, just poured it straight from the Demi john- very uncouth!! Sounds like you have had a busy day! Your holiday sounds nice, great to have something to look forward to.
Rosie, hope all is well as can be when you speak to your daughter, I havnt had such a hard time ( fingers crossed so far) as you have had with surgery, wounds etc, so am able to shuffle around a little more than you have been able to- I think you have been super human to make it to the uk for the wedding so soon after surgery and chemo ! Just shows what we will do for our children doesn’t it!!