April 2024 chemo starters

@altoan Ahhh, where in Surrey are you? I grew up in Surrey and miss the countryside there so much! It’s much more arable over here and I miss the amazing woodland and open heathland!

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Walton on Thames, barely counts as leafy Surrey really :sweat_smile:

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Ahhh, I was down towards Walton on the Hill/Kingswood/Tadworth area but I went to school in Sutton and then Epsom and had a misspent youth in Kingston at Options and Volts! :joy:

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My favourite area! I remember (or don’t) many a night at Cinderella’s! I so miss Surrey! X

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Hi ladies, oncology appointment went well, I’m not suitable for the trial as no lymph nodes involved, but I’m grateful they weren’t so not too disappointed, I was offered reduced docetaxel for my last round but decided against it, in for a penny in for a pound just hope I don’t regret it, I will be having 9 radio but no dates yet as she said I would need my scan booked in first. No results from brain scan yet but she agreed no news was good news, got opticians booked in for Thursday as eyesight been awful since start of chemo.
Loved catching up on all the messages, :heart:
@swk1981 had all the bupa paperwork signed whilst I was there so thanks again for the info and they have sent a lot of information through the post for me so will look to see if it mentions the spa.
Regards to holiday insurance has anyone managed to get any that will cover you before you finish radiotherapy? Xx

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@swk1981 @isthisreal - it really is a small world! I do love the area, even though it’s getting busier and busier, we have nice scenery for walking/running, great places to visit etc and it’s also easy for access to London (in the other life, not this one!)

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Glad to hear it went well @elle16. It’s good that you were able to ask about the trial and have your questions answered.

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@isthisreal i live in Fleet! And I’m currently having my chemo at the Nuffield hospital next to the Royal Surrey in Guildford!

@swk1981 free spa day?! I’m with Bupa I need to find out about that one!

Interested to find out about insurance for when chemos finished but pre radio, has anyone managed to book any and was it reasonable?

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@hc1973, I’ve been able to got lots of quotes pre radiotherapy. I used go compare and lots of company’s quoted and are very reasonable. What I have noticed drives the price up is, not had surgery yet and also having Lymph node involvement.

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Thanks @pollyanna1 i don’t have anything booked to go abroad which I find really depressing. We usually travel a lot and it’s the one thing that drives me is travelling. I’m not bothered about material things but I do like my holidays!

We have friends coming over from Hong Kong and we are meeting then in Cornwall for 6 nights, the hospital have been really good and allowed me to push my chemo by one day that week. So we are going to get up at the crack of dawn and drive straight to the hospital!

I hate having it weekly as I don’t feel like I have a day when I feel great and now it’s Weds and I go back again tomorrow urgh.

Josh is due to start university in September and my chemo finishes around 23rd Aug so maybe I can fit something in!

It’s so hard though as your finish date is never set in stone so planning is difficult.

However I’m going to start looking!

We are driving down to see my dad in Southampton today and I’m really looking forward to seeing him.

I hope everyone has a good day. @belle1 i hope you slept OK and your line is settling in.
Helen x

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Aw @hc1973 I’m the same as you with holidays! My husband and I don’t have any children either and always said our thing is travelling so it’s weird being grounded for now :joy: I moved our holiday we already had booked for January to April too just to give me more time to recover and actually enjoy the holiday as January was cutting it too fine with the end of my treatment as still surgery/radiotherapy to go (and 4 cycles Docetaxel).

Line has been painful till it settles but I’ve slept mostly ok :smiling_face: they called me yesterday morning as I was due to go in in the afternoon but they wanted to see me. Went in and got my dressing changed and bloods taken (soooo much easier!!) and they had a chat with me. Seems to have been some weird event and not infection related which is random but good. They said they’d normally delay chemo due to what happened to let me recover but after a chat they were happy that I was feeling better and eating again so are letting me crack on with my first Docetaxel and Herceptin tomorrow. Back on the pre chemo steroids now!

I can’t remember who mentioned this (as I also struggle to keep up with who said what lol) but I get acne/breakouts after the steroids each time. It was really bad after the first time and I started using the MooGoo blemish busting moisturiser and it really made a difference. I’ve actually had hormonal acne for the last 15 years and been on the strongest treatment (Roaccutane) for it twice, and before this had a hefty maintenance routine to keep it at bay so I was gutted with my response to the steroids but the MooGoo stuff really helped and my skin is pretty good now with just the odd spot after steroids so I’d recommend if your skin is breaking out on treatment :smiling_face:

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Oh and just in case anyone is interested (due to mention of recurrence here) and has instagram, thetittygritty done a live chat with Dr Liz O’Riordan last night that is now on her grid. I watched it this morning as it’s also something that worries me so I like to try educate myself a bit around it as that’s how my brain works/I reassure myself. I found it quite decent so worth a watch if you’re interested

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Ahh thanks @belle1 I will try the moo goo. Good luck with the Docetaxal and Herceptin x

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Not sure if this will open on everyone’s phone but it felt very relevant to us all. She describes it very well. X

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Boo! I had my oncologist meeting and apparently my bloods are out of whack (neutrophils in particular, but various other things out of range too) so round 6 is not happening this Friday. I’m really quite disappointed as just so want to get on with this and reach the end asap. They’ve taken some more blood to investigate what’s happening.
And to make matters worse they have put me back on those blasted bone injections today to help me recover. Argh!!! And then 7 instead of 5 for my last two rounds.

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@isthisreal - oh no, sorry to hear that, I would feel frustrated too, especially as it is your last chemo! I really hope that everything gets back on track so you don’t have to wait much longer :crossed_fingers:

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Sorry to hear this @isthisreal as I know it’s one of the things we all dread. Another hurdle for you, but you’ll get there soon :relieved:

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Aw sorry to hear that. I hope they get to the bottom of it and you can get it again soon. Even though we know there can be delays it’s still always disappointing when it happens :smirk:

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@isthisreal so sorry that this has happened - everything is so unpredictable isn’t it. I’m hoping cycle 5 goes ahead for me tomorrow. Just been to one of the Look Good Feel Better workshops - so impressed with it and the goody bag awesome. As someone who never wears makeup really informative too- I now have eyebrows as I now know how to do it!!! Did make me realise how many eye lashes I’ve lost though. But so nice to have a morning not pretending, as everyone in same situation. Highly recommend. Laura xx

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Isn’t it amazing how we all have such different treatment! I never have the day before steroids, just the day, and 3 days after. And I’ve always had 7 days of filgrastin injections from day after chemo

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