Don't know whether to laugh or cry!

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I went to work this morning not knowing whether to laugh or cry!!

I watched Trisha on GMTV, and I felt quite angry and despondent. I know we have had several debates on the Trisha saga, and yes everyone is different and deals with BC in their own way, each woman has her own journey, physically and emotionally. I don’t dispute that exercise is good for you (endorphins etc), and yes, each person reacts differently to chemo and RADS, however if you are just starting on this journey, how do you feel? Did she inspire you?

She RAN into RADS!!!, and continued her route afterwards. (Me I could barely crawl in! The radiographers used to say I looked exhausted my Mom was ill in hospital at the time, so I used to visit her and then go to RADS.)

Any body else posed by the scanner?!!

I couldn’t run before BC and I certainly can’t now. (I used to go to the gym and swim before BC.) The DRS tell you particularly not to swim (because your immune system is down and you are open to infection in a pool or public place), I went swimming once during RADS and I had the dilemma of going in the changing room in a wig and going into the pool commando, I did it but it took a lot of guts. (once I had spluttered up and down the pool, I realised how unfit I was!!! LOL)
I have started swimming again now and I am trying to get fit again.

I started work in Sept after 9 months of absence and I am still fighting fatigue now.

I remember I used to sit in the garden watching the weeds grow, and wish I had the energy to do the garden!!

Body language! “Breathing through pain” (is that when you grimace and drag your body out of bed like an old woman, then eventually limber up when the pain killers and other stuff you take kicks in (after effects of Armidex.)

Did you see the interview? If you didn’t it is still on the website for GMTV.

I know I am opening up a can of worms by posting this, but it is nearly a year since my DX (12th Dec), I can listen to Trisha now and maybe laugh, but some of you are unfortunately just starting this journey, I know I would not have wanted to hear her at the start of my journey last year. Is she helping? I think she is sending out conflicting and somewhat inaccurate messages. I do agree that we “live day to day” Perhaps I should just say HEY HO!!!

Maybe I am just having a moan? But she does feel a book coming on!

I am not “anti” Trisha, I sympathise with what she has gone through, maybe this is her way of coping with it?

What do you all think? (Don’t slate me too much!)

Cyber hugs((( )))

Sarah x

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i’m with you on this one 100%.

i too watched her on GMTV just before i left for work.

she makes me so angry, i agee she really is sending out the wrong message.

i even emailed GMTV to give my feelings on her!

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There is a certain way of talking about breast cancer which gets lots of media brownie points…talk of battles, ‘all clear’ and exercise are very popular and Trisha Goddard does all these.

Drives me bonkers

Jane

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After chemo I was pushed to rads in a wheelchair for first 10.I didnt ‘give in to it’ I honestly couldnt walk.Trisha was lucky; its time she acknowledged that instead of implicitly criticising those less fortunate.

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I’ve never watched Trisha but read this today…the Daily Mail online…I only hope she cleared up the mud she ‘trailed’ into the rads dept!..hmmm doubt it somehow…

Trisha Goddard today revealed she has been given the all-clear in her cancer battle.
The TV presenter, 50, told earlier this year how she had been diagnosed with breast cancer after a lump was found during a routine mammogram.
But following radiotherapy and chemotherapy, she said she was on the road to recovery.
Speaking on GMTV, she added: ‘We live from day to day but for now the cancer is gone.’
Trisha won the admiration of thousands across the country as she vowed to beat the disease and told how exercise proved a vital part of her recovery.
She said: 'A week after I had my last radiotherapy I went mountain running in Maine in the States. I ran while I was having daily radiotherapy.
I used to park my car on the other side of the park. I would do a 20- to 40-minute run, run into the radiotherapy department, they’d say slow down, have radiotherapy, then I could continue with the rest of the 20-minute run.
'I trailed mud into radiotherapy, I said, “Hurry up you’re spoiling my running times!”
Trisha stressed how helpful exercise can be to cancer patients and admitted she’d like a few changes to be made to the way health professionals conduct treatment.
She added: ‘I’ve been able to show them that you can go through it all differently.’

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After each blast of chemo I used to meet up with a friend and go for a Guinness.

I like to think I was also doing my bit to show the health professionals that you can go through it all differently.

L. :wink:

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Thanks for posting this, Sarah. I don’t get the chance to watch TV during the day (have a three-year-old who demands my attention), but have just watched the GMTV interview. It’s pretty irritating and certainly gives a false impression of how individuals cope with BC. I was fit and healthy and had a really good sensible diet before DX and these things have contributed to my recovery from mastectomy and are helping me cope, more or less, with chemo, but as for running, yeah, right! I can barely keep up with my son at the moment, and that’s like the rest of us, not because I’m giving in to it, but because I’m blooming knackered from the chemo, the drugs that go with it to counteract side effects, and having to live a normal life without the money to be able to afford physios working with my oncologist, etc.

I guess it’s Trisha’s way of dealing with something really rubbish, and we all do this in our own way, and she can only comment from her own perspective. What I’d like to see would be ordinary women without the money and media circus behind them telling it how it is for them. If you can’t run into rads, so what? Just means your body is telling you what you can and can’t cope with at the mo, doesn’t make you a lesser person than Trisha. Gosh, hate to say it, but maybe it was a denial issue for her - if I keep on running and exercising then this isn’t happening to me. Or maybe she’s just laying the groundwork for a book deal about her experience. I won’t be buying it. (Apologies for cynicism, Trisha, if you read this - BC is vile and you cope with it your own way; just don’t make light of what a huge deal chemo, rads, and drugs are, please.)

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I have to say, whatever she says about everything that’s gone on in her life over the years, I’ve always found her to be a bit of a bull*******. I posted a comment on the Mail yesterday as I was angry at the “all clear” bit in the headline.

One BC lady who was in the public eye I’ve always respected is Diana Moran, the “Green Goddess” (remember her doing keep fit on the telly?) She is from the days when BC wasn’t spoken about too much as it was like something dirty and she got it into the public’s awareness, though not in a sensational way. She’s still healthy and well in her 60s, saw something about ther recently where she said it took her years to come to terms with losing both her her breasts.

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Hi,Cat your words say it all.I have sent an email to GMTV about how I felt after watching the interview, but am not very good at expressing myself in writing.Perhaps you could send them your post,as I think it says what most of us are thinking.

love and best wishes mellx

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Blimey Mell, you think I summed up how a lot of us feel? I only presume to speak for myself, not anyone else, but I think you’re probably right that we should all contact GMTV to express our thoughts and feelings on such an important issue for us. I’ll find the website and copy my comment to them, though I doubt it’ll make any difference.

Cherub, I agree with you about Diana Moran, a woman with dignity! I hope to live as long and to be dignified as her.

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I have just been contacted by local radio they are doing a piece on bc and are coming later today. I will show them the face of secondary bc someone not super human, but is really tired, disfigured almost bald feeling a bit of a failure because I dont have the energy to do the Christmas shopping. If I get the chance I will bring this unrealistic approach to bc by someone who does not even have to put the kettle on when they want a cup of tea. She may run to radiotherapy but she has her own runners in her work life.
If you are reading this Trisha I am really glad that you have been able to cope with your primary diagnose. In 1999 when I was first diagnosed I found it a whole different ball game to my secondary diagnosis in 2004. I was still able to ask the positive questions but was scared witless when given the positive answer “yes this is going to kill you”. If I was able I too would run.

Love Debsxxx

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Hi cat,no I didnt mean that you should speak for anyone else,just that you put into words what I and maybe others were thinking.Maybe not,I dont know.My words never come across the way I mean them to.

love and best wishes mellx

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Mell, I don’t think I expressed myself too clearly last post either, blinking chemo brain rules today! I’m glad about what you said because it prompted me to write quite a long comment to GMTV, not something I’d usually do. Like the rest of us, I feel strongly about this interview and the way bc is portrayed. Thanks for giving me the boot up the proverbial to do something hopefully useful.

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Hi,I was a bit worried that I offended you.its so easy to missinterprit(spelling?) what is written down isnt it,its not like speaking to someone face to face.I agree it probably wont make a difference GMTV will no doubt just disregard our emails.But I must say I did feel better getting it off my chest.(no pun intended) .

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Lol @ getting it off your chest, great to see a sense of humour similar to mine. Blimey, it’d take a huge lot to offend me. In my chemo brain mess I just try to make sure that I do my best not to offend anyone by presuming I have the right to voice an opinion on their behalf. I got myself so riled up earlier about this Trisha interview, have been posting the link to all and sundry. I doubt that the powers-that-be at GMTV will bother to respond to any of us who write to or mail them, but to be honest, I think that Josephine Bloggs (for want of a better name for her) has more right to be heard than a z-list pseudo celeb. Maybe some of us ordinary Josephines should get together and approach the Beeb who would present a much more rounded (one hopes) version of events. What are everyone’s thoughts on this?

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I have been thinking about this thread during the day. Watched the interview against my better judgement, and agree with the comments above. Does she do these runs before or after the housework, cooking and school run?

Has made me think about the responsibilities (if any) of well-known people who become ill. I would really respect a celeb who said that this was a private matter for them and just got on with it. If someone does choose to speak in public about their experience, what can they say? Trisha can only speak with any authority about her own experience, even if it seems incredible to the rest of us mere mortals. It’s a pity though that the interviewer was so sycophantic, and that GMTV didn’t find someone from BCC or similar to offer a more balanced presentation of what treatments there are, how they affect us all differently and what it’s like to receive this kind of treatment.

I was also irritated by her apparent disdain of her health professionals, which doesn’t reflect my own experience. Then only thing I was told NOT to do during treatment was get pregnant. My BCN nurse told me that most women worked through FEC and I went in with the attitude that I would - had to give up after 3 cycles. Went back to work ( and the gym!) part time after surgery, but 6 cycles of Tax have wiped me out. Through all this, have been well supported by GP and chemo nurses, who encouraged me to do what I could. Have missed out on so much this summer - not out of choice, Trisha, but if your body can’t do it, it can’t!

I am delighted for her that she is well, and could cope with hearing her if it wasn’t for the blase attitude and the implicit message that the rest of us have got it wrong.

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Hi Everyone,

Sorry I did not get back to any of you earlier, only I’ve dragged my body into work again today!!! Didn’t run I hasten to add although my feet didn’t touch the floor!!!

I’m glad it was not just me. I agree with all you have said. Belinda the piece in the Mail was an exact transcript of what she said on TV.

Cat I agree whole heartedly with you, you summed it up very elouquently.

Hope your interview went well Debs. Yes Cat wouldn’t it be great if they did a programme about ordinary women and BC, anybody who went on it would be very brave. If any of you are involved in any media interviews you can use my poem picking me up again which is on here (not that I am trying to promote “my book”), I’m still in the closet as I did not tell many people!!! so I’m out for TV interviews!

Like many of you I tried my best during Chemo and on good weeks I made the best out of life and activities, but it was all done on low budget and for me and my family.

I agree that the Health Service in this country is wonderful too. I think one thing that certainly comes strongly out of undergoing an experience like BC is the friendships and relationships that you make and break on your journey, I can honestly say that you find out who your friends are. Yes Cat I wondered if she was in denial too?

Sarah x

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Kylie Monogue, and Anastasia are Celebrities who have had BC and they have been quite private about their diagnosis. Anastasia was good on the Soul Divas on Sunday for BCC. She was genuine in her support and saying that she was a survivor. Caron Keating’s death from BC came as such a shock as i never knew that she had it. She wanted to keep it out of the “public’s eye” to protect her children. I remember seeing Kylies interview and if i remember correctly she did say how crap she felt and it seemed that her interview was realistic though i am only waiting for diagnosis so realy can’t comment on how people feel after chemo or radiotherapy, however i did sit with my sister through her chemo and drove her into and back from radiotherapy and i can assure you she was in no state to run, she could hardly look after her 18month and 3 yr old all the family had to take turns to help her with all the general things she was so tired. There was no money for her to go on lovely holidays either as am sure that the sun brings out the best in people too. I would love for GMTV to invite some of you ladies onto the programme and have your say now that would be worth watching and i am sure that Mr or Mrs Josephine Bloggs could relate to at a more realistic level. As i know that i would relate to you more than Trisha. Love and best wishes to you all X

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Hi there, just want to add my endorsements to all your comments. I’m 7/8 of the way through my chemo, and thanks to Taxotere had to ask my 79 year old mother to slow down last week as I couldn’t keep up with her - so definitely no running for me. I also agree that the treatment here in Britain is fantastic.

Julie
x

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I have just watched this on line and wanted toa dd my thoughts.

I cannot honestly believe she went through treatment for BC with that bleeding smile on her face all the time! Did she never dribble snot into her duvet as she sobbed because she was just so tired and fed up with trying to carry on normal life when emotionally and physically she had been battered?

I too want to see a balanced perspective on “real” life with BC and not just the “celebrity, this is how I coped, you can do it too” view. I don’t watch that much TV and tend to avoid programmes about BC as I don’t like to be made to feel a failure because I am not like them.

The only programme I have seen that didn’t make me angry/upset (and want to stand in front of it so my OH couldn’t look at me as if to say "see, she’s ok) was Gok’s How to look good naked. I cried because she said how I felt. I could relate to her. I certainly can’t relate to Trisha and no wonder she sat in the hospital thinking she couldn’t relate to all the other women there - she’s the exception NOT the rule!

Don’t even get me started on Fiona Phillips and the way that GMTV slant interviews to suit the view they want to show, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an interview by her that is balanced news reporting!!