Hi Lily - thanks for your good wishes - they don’t know what the return is, but simply because of my history, they want to watch it. Onc seems to think it could well be nothing, but of course he has to keep an eye on it.
Know what you mean about food - I am so enjoying both cooking AND eating again!
X
S
Hi Bahons, I too have been posting on other threads!!!
Brilliant news about your results, its good they are keeping a close eye on you. I understand that you dont want to take any more meds, treatement, than you really need to (re the diuretics). The massages are working too, its about time you had some easier times and it has cheered me up reading your thread. Have a very well earned break and a lovely Christimas.
Peacock, hope everything is going ok for you too. Keep massaging that op site. (and everything else>>)
Lily, how are the rads going, are you getting tired from the travelling etc, now? Have you done much more writing lately? or is Christmas planning taking up all your time?
After talking with the surgeon, I decided to take his advice, he seemed to believe that a lumpectomy (wle) and full node removal is an option and that an immediate mx was possibly not necessary and so for now that is what I am doing. I’m not sure it will be the last op. but will give it a go first. He wasnt keen at all of doing a bi lat. but will discuss that if I need to in due course. Thanks for the advice on rads Bahons, I had already phoned up and given hosp. my choice. I believe I would only be having 3 weeks rads if thats the way it eventually goes.
I have a pre-op appt. next tuesday 23rd at 2pm. I would rather have had the op sooner but Christmas got in the way!
Hope you are all in a position to have a good Christmas, I think we all just about have our taste back (not quite).
take care all,
best wishes
Chris x
Hello to all
Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet on here, I’ve had terrible sciatica and the pain in my back and legs has been crucifying. This was caused, I believe, by the physio I’ve been having to my shoulders! Anyway, the lymphatic drainage to my legs seems to be working, swelling is going down thank goodness. Keep running to the loo so I suppose its got to come out somehow.
Had my tatooes done yesterday, I have 2 as well Lily. My rads are starting on 5 January for 5 weeks, so 25 sessions. It sounds a bit scary about what rads can do, so I don’t blame Chris for not wanting to have them. I’m not sure I need them really as they tell me all nodes were ok and no cancer? I think they are just blasting as much as poss - so hope it works.
Good luck with your pre op appt Chris - at least you know what is happening now so you can rest easy over Christmas.
Glad to hear your swelling is going down too Bahons, and its good news that your nodes are ok. Will you be going to Claudius Regaud for further scans etc?
I had a dose of “chemo belly” again this week, funny how it came back after all these weeks - by that I mean diarreah and stomach ache, just like when I was having Taxotere.
Well having Herceptin again tomorrow so yet another appointment, won’t life be boring when we’ve stopped all these appointments?
Off to go shopping now, having real trouble trying to buy a Turkey for Xmas, bring back Bernard Matthews!
Bye for now
P xx
Hi everyone - lovely to hear more news.
I expect you are glad you made a decision and things are sort of settled Chris - hope all goes well at the pre-op. Will you be sneaking in a bit of last minute Xmas shopping that day as well?
What great news that your legs are coming down, Peacock - running to the loo is an excellent sign, I reckon. Any luck with the Turkey, Peacock? I have a small French oven and am in an agony of indecision over what to do - still haven’t bought anything yet. There is a big Xmas meat market here tomorrow, so will see what’s on offer there.
My arms are feeling easier and, whisper, I think the left maybe going down a bit!, I think I’ll be going to the Clinique Pasteur for my PET scan - that’s where they’ve sent me before. I must say it feels strange not to be taking anti-C meds for the first time in years. I’ve taken them all in my time, Tamoxifen (by far the worst!), Arimidex (the best), Aromasin (mild panic attacks) and finally Femara (hair thinned drastically). I may be having Faslodex injections instead next year. I’ve posted on here asking for people’s experience of it, but I’m beginning to think it isn’t yet prescribed much in the UK.
Yes, we’ll all be twiddling our thumbs with no appts, one day, to go to, won’t we? Who are we kidding, we’re women! Anyhow, doesn’t look as tho’ mine will stop - I have to to the dentists’s on Dec 26 - to get another tooth sorted! A word of warning here, girls, after I had FEC four odd years ago, I had no end of trouble with my teeth - I think the chemo altered the pH of my saliva and no less than five teeth chipped or broke within a few weeks of each other. I think I could be in for a repeat performance by the looks of things.
Hope all is well with you, Lily and you are not getting too tired with rads and travelling.
X to all and take care
S
Hi,
well as odd as it sounds, I am really enjoying rads!!! Partly because it is such a doddle compared to chemo and no needles, but also because I have such a good time each day. I just handed my treatment schedule over and all and sundry signed up to take me, family, friends, and even neighbours. So I have only driven 2 out of 9 times and as it is 9 am we go on to a cafe or shopping, sometimes both. The waistline is expanding unfortunately but I was told on no account must you try to lose weight while having rads, so I have a great excuse. No tiredness so far and just the faintest tan the disappears by the next morning, so fingers crossed will be ok. Chris I am having 15 rads as had a lumpectomy too. I get about 50 seconds zap on each side and just to the breast. I wondewr whether it is the rads to the armpit and longer sessions that cause most problems? I hope you will be glad you have a smaller op and the wound will be so much smaller to heal. Just hope they are on the ball and get it all first go. I will be thinking of you on Tuesday. I just had to fill in a form about horses!!! Apparaently if you work with them you are more likely to be carrying MRSA as they carry it!! I did not even have a blood test as when on chemo they already know your situation. I was just in overnight, how about you? Open fronted PJs and tops are a blessing for the first week as it can be uncomfortable to raise your arm, depending on how much surgery is in the armpit. Just keep thinking how soon all that bit will be done and another big thing ticked off your list and the C will be in the path lab instead of you - the best part. Bahons, are most French ovens very small? I have a huge turkey breast crown waiting to get the treatment next week. They are much easier to fit in than the whole body. I feel like a turkey when I go for rads!! I am sure I must be glowing in the dark!! I am rather concerned that Femara thinned you hair as that is the one he says I will have in a year or so - not my poor hair again! Peacock I hope your wound is starting to flatten down and that you are getting full movement back slowly but steadily. You must feel much easier as the fluid goes and your legs feel lighter. Pooo about the sciatica, I have had that on occasions and it is a beastly pain. I hate that feeling that you have been slapped and burnt down the legs, hope it shifts very soon for good. I had no positive nodes, mind you they only took the one sentinel node out, but seem to think that was the only one in question. Rads are better than chemo at getting BC around the chest so I think it is extra insurance really. Apparently rads can get tiny bits that have curved round and under bones so i felt it was a good thing to add. Maybe it is when you have rads to other parts that the side effects kick in more often, I am not sure. Take care.
Still 6 days of rads left and then I am done, so feeling very cheerful this week and humming Christmas songs most of the day. I dare not go into town, feeling this happy I would buy everything in sight for the family!!
Starting to think that work will start again soon and can’t always get myself in the right mindset to teach soem days. Chemo brain could not even remember what time the school day ended!!
Enjoy the run up to Christmas and Chris try to put everything out your mind for a bit if you can.
Lily x
Hi ladies
Yes Bahons we managed to get a turkey in Champion, it was 13 euros for a 3 ½ kilo so I don’t think it was too badly priced. Guess what, the chickens are finally laying eggs and we get around 4 per day, so 5 chickens with 4 eggs. Some of them are double yolkers too, fantastic. It’s good that your arm is going down at last (touching wood) but sorry to hear that your teeth are playing you up, what a Christmas present eh!
Hi Lily, I am so relieved to hear that your rads aren’t too bad, and hope I will have the same effect. Only a couple more to go now, how lovely for you that everything is over before Christmas. My back/sciatica is easier now thanks, still doing the arm exercises which are a bit “uncomfortable”, not painful but during the night when I am trying to sleep (not easy at the mo) both my arms hurt.
My weight has dropped by 8 kilos since I finished chemo, and can fit back into most of my normal trousers and my lovely boots now. I was 68 when starting chemo so that’s not bad, but I will bear in mind what you say Lily about not trying to lose weight whilst on rads.
How are you Chris, how did it go at with the pre op appointment?
Haven’t heard anything from you Carrie-Ann hope everything is ok? We both start rads on the same day, 5 Jan except I am having 5 weeks - I do wonder if it is necessary for so many but I suppose they know what they’re doing.
Anyway, must get on – oh forgot to say that the roof is finished – hooray – Mr P is testing out the woodburner as I write. We won’t be in for Christmas unfortunately, the weather put us back but we do hope to have our Christmas dinner in our “grand design”.
Take care and happy Christmas to all xxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,
Peacock there is no way I could lose weight on rads. After the cement/glue taste went, everything taste so nice I am getting fatter every day! I am not joking I really am.I had my first apple today, yum. I am hopeful that my cesspit stomach will agree to let me eat fruit and veg again now! I have a slight cough with rads but no-one is taking any notice. They just told me not to move and I should not attempt to put my hand over my mouth. Just to cough into the air! I am not sure what rads will be like in France. At my unit they just talk to each other mostly and it is a jumble of numbers, angles,degrees and measurements, then they all run out. It is a very precise process to get you skin at exactly the correct angle to just skim the tops of your lung but not too much. At the moment it is just nothing really going in, just a part of your day but no worrying involved. You do have to have your arm raised back, almost hand to ear so it is worth exercising the arm to be ready for it. That is the only disadvantage of having the chemo first as you are still recovering from surgery with less time to recover than us surgery first ladies. Will you have far to travel for rads? That is the worst part.
Dipstick hope all goes well at your appointment tomorrow and that you are ok now with what they plan to do. Good to get it over and done with but I know how horrible it is when it is hanging over you. Hope you can relax a little over Christmas.
bahons happy Christmas to you too and hope you can have a restful spell to recharge your batteries.
Happy Christmas all
Lily x
Hi all - just a quick one to say Happy Xmas to you all - hope it’s everything you’re wishing for.
V busy - will post more, and again, when the dust has settled after the festivities.
Peacock - I think your turkey was a bargain - the prices down here are much higher - we have settled for a free-range corn fed capon instead. Haven’t had one of those for years…
Anyway - Season’s Greetings to everyone and DON’T OVERDO IT!
X to all
S
Hi all,
had my pre op. ass. yesterday, all went ok, bloods, heart check, form filling etc. The nurse wasnt sure if I needed a chest xray so she will get back to me on that one and I may have to nip to hosp. before 2 jan. I am going to my daughters for xmas dinner this afternoon, I will go a bit early and help with the prep. Tomorrow my friend is coming and we are having sirloin steak and all that goes with it!
Hope you all have a good, peaceful, restful (!) time and lots of gentle healing.
Well done everyone, we have come a long way
Love Chris xxx
Hi,
hope you were all able to enjoy eating, drinking and generally having a nice time for a change. Chris just wanted to wish you tons of luck and smooth sailing through the next part of your treatment. Will be thinking of you
Lily x
Hello all
Just wanted to say that I hope you all had a really great Christmas, and wishing you lots of happiness, luck and of course health for 2009!
We have all done so well, Lily you must be finished rads now, Chris is having her op next week and Bahons you must be all done too. Just me now to have my rads, starting next Monday.
Our Christmas came and went so fast, we had snow on boxing day - about 4 ins - which was really lovely to look at, but really was a nightmare when we tried to get out on the road the day after - they don’t grit the roads here and we live in the sticks.
I managed to keep upright all through the snow and icy patches, then guess what, yesterday I went down with a bang, right onto my bottom and my “dodgy” arm. I don’t know how it happened, it just did. So today I am very sore, my chest feels really bruised, my bottom is aching and my poor arm and hand really hurts - but hey, after what I’ve been through this is nothing!
I know I shouldn’t lift heavy bags and to be careful with my arm, but what happens if it gets bruised and bashed?
Chris, lots and lots of good wishes for your op on 2nd
and thank you all for being so supportive during this year
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE, and may it be a good one.
P xxxx
Hi All
thankyou for your good wishes for this friday 2nd Jan. I have to be at hosp for 11 am for a pm op. I have managed not to think about it much but need to get my head into gear now. I will sort my overnight case although I may not need it but know that I am usually very very sick after anaesthetic. I will let them know as I think there is something that they can give me that may help. I am getting the odd fluttering butterfly now as I talk about it!. Thankfully all the chemo s/es have all but gone so I am ready for the next stage. For a couple of weeks I had a lot of swelling on my lower legs and feet like pumpkins. I have just been left with quite strong aches in my legs but am sure time will sort that out.
Peacock so sorry you fell, especially injuring your bad arm/side, the last thing you needed. Fortunately we havnt had snow in Lincoln but if it does I am staying indoors, bread or no bread!!! Have you managed to keep doing your exercises Peacock, can you put your arm above your head now that you have hurt it again? (very gently!) Good luck with the rads on monday x.
Bahons, did you do ok at the dentist? That is a job I will need to sort out eventually, along with hearing aids! and no, I am not 90!!!.
Lily, all done and dusted. A mere 3 months ago we thought it would never end. Let this be encouragement for anyone reading this at the beginning of their journey.
God bless ladies and lots of good wishes that you all continue to go from strength to strength and that 2009 brings nothing but happiness and above all good health.
Will get back when I can
Chris xxx
Hi,
Chris I know just how you feel waiting for the time to tick past but I take the view, the sooner it gets here the sooner it is done. I think we have more strength than we think at times like this. As it is a lumpectomy now it should be much less surgery and I think I was out of surgery in under an hour easily. Think carefully about the clothes you pack as you will probably come out with a drain below your arm pit, for a few days. I had very little pain or discomfort afterwards except if someone tried to hug me. Will be hoping you sail through this part and are soon home convalescing. It was much much less than I thought.I was quizzed about whether I was usually sick so I’m sure they will chat about it and make this time better. I had no nausea. Anyway lots of luck with this next part.
I have finished rads, my last visit was new years eve. I am so glad not to have a 50 mile drive early each morning now and celebrated with a lie in this morning till 9. I was surprise to wake up to slight soreness after I have finished as nothing to speak of before now. It apparently keeps cooking like a microwave and will peak in 7 - 10 days. Hopefully not red hot peaks!!! LOL. Peacock you must get some cream as it is just like a sunburn feeling and the cool cream soothes it. On advice I started the cream a few days before rads to keep moisture levels up. I think you said there is no aqueous cream but think most eczema creams would be simple enough to not irritate. Is it a long trip for you each day? That is the bot that gets tiring. I was sorry to hear about your fall and can imagine how it would hurt your arm, etc. Better get some shoes with better grips if you are out for rads every day.It sounds like you are in for a snowy year, none in my part of the world yet. Someone phoned from Florida to say it was 80 degrees, grrrrr I didn’t need to know that!
Bahons hope you had some nice days over Christmas and stayed clear of all the bugs. My GP gave me the flu jab yesterday as IO said I was thinking about it. He ran out, rushed in and stabbed me!! Yoweee he hasn’t done one for a while and bled down my jumper. He says I might still get it but it will stop me getting pneumonia and ending up in hospital. I really didn’t need another injection! I am going back to work next month so at least 1200peopleto get me with their bugs each day.
Happy New Year and hope it will be better news for all of us
Lily x
Chris, thinking about you for tomorrow and hope it all goes well. If it is any consolation, just a few weeks after a mx and full clearance, although my arm hurts a bit at times (even more now after my fall) I can move it pretty well and can do most things. You’ll be fine, I wasn’t sick at all even though I can be quite nauseaus with anaesthetic I think they give you something.
Lily I am pleased for you that you can start 2009 with your treatment at an end and hope the tiredness doesn’t get too bad for you. My journey will be about an hour and 1/2 each way, so quite a long trip for a few minutes of treatment. I have got some aloe vere gel which I had heard was good for rads, so will start using it tomorrow ready for Monday.
You’ve been quiet Bahons, and hope that is because you’ve had a super Christmas and New Year.
So, good luck to us all for 2009 - this WILL be our year!
P xx
Hi all - and apologies because…
I haven’t posted really since before Xmas - it was hectic - but lovely. My Mum (and best friend) and my two sweet grown-up sons were with us. They all went a few days ago, but then we had the (close) rellie from hell + alcoholic spouse for New Year - not so lovely, but our duty is done for the foreseeable future as far as they are concerned.
Chris, so sorry I missed wishing you well before your op - I do hope it went well and that you are now back home and well on the road to recovery. Take it easy, won’t you?
Lily - it must be lovely to have finished rads and be looking forward to going back to work next month. I hope you are feeling nice and ‘cool’ when you do. A flu jab? I don’t think I’d fancy one just yet - did you feel unwell at all afterwards or have you just sailed through it?
Peacock - snap! - we had snow, too. Woke up to a blizzard on Boxing Day (but still managed to get into town to get tooth fixed, thanks - he’s done a smashing job and you can’t see the join - it’s a front tooth). OH took some brilliant pics of our palm trees weighed down by snow! Hope you have recovered properly from your fall - just what you didn’t need, I imagine. How are your legs now?
I’ll sign off for now. Going to flop on sofa and recover.
Here’s wishing 2009 is kind to us all.
X
S
Hi all
went in yesterday, had op about 4pm and out at 6pm into recovery room till 7 and then had to stay in overnight, luckily was prepared for that. WLE plus complete node removal. Surgeon and anaesthetist (sp ?) were brilliant. No sickness. I came out at 2 pm this pm. Surprisingly I wasnt draining much fluid and therefore drain was removed before I came home!!! I was amazed, hope it doesnt build up too much in me now. I have some lovely knee high socks to wear for 2 weeks. I am not due to go back to see surgeon til 14 th Jan when I hope to know what they found, so am holding fire on being too happy unless I need to go back again. So far so good. Will sign off now,
Chris xxx
Hi Chris good to hear things went well and you are back home already. Take it easy, and it goes without saying that I hope your results are good when you go on 14th.
Have you been told to do exercises for your arm? My arm seems to be stiffening up now despite doing the exercises, but I am not sure if this is down to the tendonitis I have suffered in both shoulders for nearly 3 years because the other one is quite bad too - I must get something done about it!
Take care
P xx
Hi Peacock,
yes I have been given some exercises to do, beginning today. I pointed out to the breast nurse that the 2nd exercise may be a bit difficult for me as it said you should brush your HAIR!!! i wish… My right side seems a b it swolen but I suppose that is only natural and also quite numb. I will take pain killers today and then stop and see what happens. I think for us it is v important to carry on doing gentle arm and shoulder exercises always to try to keep things from tightening up. It was quite funny trying to get out of the bath today as I didnt want to push up with my right arm, had to get on my knees first!!! funny what we take for granted until it isnt there!!! but we will find a way around these things!!!
take care all
Chris xxx
Hi,
i tried to post last night but lost it and then lost the internet link, so much for broadband! Chris I am so pleased that it is all done and that you sound like it went well and very cheerful. We will all be hoping for good news from the results. Why did they do a full clearance? Anyway my physio friend always told me that doing the exercises gently and more often produced better results than doing less but more vigorously. So keep up the ’ head polishing’ !! best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Peacock how are you getting on with rads? Hope the arm position is not uncomfortable when it is done. I have a sore burn now, which came out after I finished so no-one to show it to. It is fine when I am cold but like sunburn, when my body temp goes up it burns like it is on fire. I might seek an alternative cream tomorrow as aqueous is not helping apart from being cool.
Bahons I had no after effect from the flu jab. As my neighbours have flu, I am glad to be covered as it must be round here now. I did have an itchy lump on the site for a few days, thats all. The nit injected it right through my smallpox scar so the lump went off to one side. How are you feeling now? Have all the tax effects worn off?
Love
Lily x
Keep up the gentle exercises Chris, it will pay off in the end hopefully. Don’t worry about the swelling, I am still a bit swollen and numb, after 8 weeks. My biggest problem is my arm, it really can get quite painful but only really at night, so sleeping can be a nightmare - I wish!
Lily so far so good, although I’ve noticed a bit of heartburn/acid in the evenings again, a bit like when on chemo, did you find that? The arm position is very uncomfortable, I took a painkiller today about half an hour before going in but it didn’t really make any difference so I might as well grin and bear it. I’m surprised how long I am on the bed in that position, about 20 minutes in all with about 6 zaps from different angles. Sorry to hear you are getting a sore area now, how strange after all those weeks of rads. I haven’t managed to get aqueous cream here, but the dr suggested almond oil or even olive oil. Sounds like I will be cooked quite nicely, 180oC for 20 minutes! Please keep me posted about the burn as I might need to know myself at some stage.
Are you managing to avoid all the grippe and viruses that is going around? So far we’ve been ok but there is a lot of it about. For you English ladies grippe is the same as flu.so hope its keeping at bay for you too. Are you all snowed in? We have snow forecast, so I hope I will still manage to get to my treatments ok.
Anyway that’s it from me for now, take care all
P xx