Well hello everyone, it’s been an awful long time since I posted, but I did want to wish you all a Happy Christmas.
Following 7 rounds of chemo in 2023 (3 x EC and 4 x docetaxel) I had surgery on 15th December last year, so Christmas was all a bit of a blur and the best gift was getting my drain out before Christmas Day! Chemo totally knackered my taste buds and they weren’t really recovered at Christmas 2023. Feb saw 10 days of radiotherapy and the Phesgo kept going for 18 doses so every week until Sept 24. Then I lost my mum to end stage Parkinson’s Disease on 1st October.
Why do I tell you all this again? Well this thread is so popular, some of you might not have read back to when I was in treatment and on here almost every day. But fast forward to this Christmas and I’ve had the most amazing Christmas Day with my Dad (brought out of his care home for the day), my 2 siblings, all spouses and Dad’s 4 adult grandchildren we share between us. The contrast with last year was so enormous I just had to tell you there is light at the end of the tunnel and things do get back to a more normal life.
I’m still under the hospital. Letrozole seemed to be giving me the runs. I thought for many months it was the Phesgo but it didn’t stop when I ended that treatment. We agreed I’d take 4 weeks off and things improved dramatically. Anyway, now I’m on anastrazole instead. I’ve been taking it 2 weeks, so early days, but so far so good. This of course was all for the ER+ bit of my BC.
Then someone asked who does and doesn’t get zolendronic acid, so I thought I’d do a bit of research. It seems it’s just for we post-menopausal BC women, whatever our HER2 status. I started on Ibandronic acid tablets, and whilst they didn’t disagree with me physically, the lifestyle changes in terms of morning routine were not at all good. I’m on other morning tablets and need to be out of the house by 8am and want to be good and stop skipping breakfast so often. It just didn’t add up so I was switched to zolendronic acid infusions. I’ve had 2 so far and no really noticeable side effects. I guess the nurses struggle more than they used to to find a vein - I did all the chemo and stuff without ever having a line or port. Oh and because I’m on bisphosphonate, I also have to take a calcium and vit D tablet every day. So that’s how I sort the potential for vit D deficiency which I read further back some ladies asking about.
In early Dec I had my first post cancer mammogram. That was a bit scary. It definitely was more uncomfortable on the lumpectomy side than before surgery, but it was bearable. Then the wait for results was interminable (I’m told it’s called scanxiety) but I did eventually get an ‘all clear’ letter.
Several people asked me in Christmas cards if I am ‘back at work yet’. I’ve just not the heart to say I didn’t really stop apart from 3weeks immediately post surgery, but because that included Christmas and New Year, nobody really noticed!
Oh and early in Jan I have an EChO heart scan to keep up the monitoring of my heart post-Phesgo.
Various changes I’d hope might go away, I suspect I now have to accept as permanent- the wierd numb sensation in my armpit each day when I put on anti-perspirant and probably most troublesome, the pins and needles like nephropathy in my feet at night. A hot water bottle is the best I’ve managed to find for that so far.
My hair is back and thick. It’s not as all-over grey as I feared and I think for the time being I will keep it nice and short, it’s so practical to manage. I had a bob before and the hair drier and straighteners were never far away, but now it’s shower & go 
So all this is a little update on me. A HER2+ve diagnosis is definitely a long haul, but I’m grateful for so much treatment on the NHS being possible and ultimately in the eyes of the NHS they tell me and I must accept and believe I am now cancer free.
I pray all those of you in here still in the thick of your journeys get to that same place
I have and wish you all a happy and peaceful new year.
Xx
I think I’d prefer to stay away from creepy haunted lanes in the dark too !
see if that helps, ive been lying about for the last 2 days hoping the rest helps x
I take my hat off to you that you’ve kept going into the office throughout all this.
Mrs Jelly works though. I think predictive text did quite well on that mistake as I think we’ve all felt like Mrs Jelly on this journey. Isn’t it true that when you least need it, cancer stories seem to be flung in your face at every turn. I was taught how to silence cancer posts on my Facebook as I’d had to stop going on there, such was the volume of cancer ads being shot at me. Bloody algorithms. So glad you’ve been given some Mirtazapine; it works for me. You are in the worst part of it all at the moment, as I know you have been told. I carried on working from home as I needed the normality like 
xx
… I’ve been told I CAN take paracetamol as long as I check my temperature before. I’ve found that the muscle heat patches are really helpful at reducing the pain level …like