Ah, welcome allybally! No need to fear any of us - correction - me! I think the other’s have deserted me lately. All input greatly appreciated, otherwise this thread will vanish. Mind you I could end up talking to myself, I keep catching myself doing that lately - there’s no hope really! Congratulations on all of your surgery, I’m sure your snb results will be fine - it’s just the waiting isn’t it, not long now. What sort of reconstruction did you have? Still having s**tload of problems with this bloody LD recon., it looks as if I’ve had an operation and nobody bothered to stitch me up! x Jacq x P.S. Glad we raised a smile - we aim to please!
Hi Jac I had beker tissue expanders put in as i am such slight built that the surgeon felt that taking muscle from shoulders would put me in too much of a disabled state,but i can say that the “taps”(well thats what i call them) are sitting on my blooming ribs and hurt like mad.Breast nurse coming to visit tomorrow so will ask her to check it for me as it has a pocket of fluid around the left one especially.Don’t mean to brag but i have to say my surgeon has done a fantastic job with the scarring he has left me,it has been less than two weeks but already it is just a very fine line owe surgeon a big sloppy kiss me thinks he he he!!! The waiting on the next procedure/results is always the worst part i feel,i just want to get on with what needs done and am very impatient.Want the results of snb then want dates for chemo then want to know how many chemo??then want to know about radiotherapy too so much still to do but want it all at once!!! talking to yourself well i have started answering myself lol xx Chat soon xx
Hi, allybally. Well done with your lovely scar, my boob one is ok 'til I turn round of course. Got a call from the hospital today to say that the swab they took from back on Friday has shown up the third - or is it the fourth - infection, lost count, so back on the old penicillin again. Totally peed off with it now, been very placid with them up 'til now, but can feel one of my rages coming on for my clinic appointment this Friday. Might just pull the rest of my two hairs and a nit out! Had second chemo yesterday, at least that all went well, and my bloods, etc. were all back to normal. They reckon I could have been an athlete with my stamina, blood results and low pulse rate. Hmmm, maybe many moons ago I was quite good, not for the last few decades though. I think they’re looking for a new Jane Tomlinson (bless her) to carry on her charity marathons, sorry, not here! Didn’t help myself by watching what used to be one of my favourite films tonight - “Beaches” with Bette Middler - yeah, that old tissue-soaker. Why do I do it to myself? Anyway, I don’t want to depress you any more than I am, so I’ll bid you goodnight. Best wishes and a big hug, xx Jacq xx
Hi Jacqui
Thought I would drop in on your thread as am finding it hard to find anyone to speak to on this new forum and understand your frustration re your wound - am now 18 + weeks post surgery and am finally looking at “maybe healed in 6 ish weeks” thats 6 months from surgery! Its NOT something I really thought about at my op and am soooo desparate for a deep soaking bald bath you wouldn’t believe… sympathy and hugs (((((()))))))) (dont know what to do for sympathy but its there anyhow!) xxx
BTW - you always make me laugh! 2 hairs and a nit! Love it! Have just deloused my 10 year old and thank gawd that I don’t have enough hair for them to run around on without feeling naked and exposed! I now have baby fluff and odd white (eek!) hairs sticking out but hey its hair and I’m only 1 week post 5th FEC!
Hi, ostrich, I remember you being one of the first to speak to me on this site! Correction - on the better, first, why fix it if it aint broke? site! So glad (sorry for you of course!) that I’m not the only one going through this back thing. I’m really peed off with it tonight, and have been very placid up 'til now, but I can feel one of my not nice rages building for my clinic appointment on Friday. You’ve done well growing a few tresses already. When can I look forward to losing my eyelashes? Must try and sleep tonight and wake up in a better mood! xxx and hugs, Jacq.
Hi Jacqui
I agree re the site! NOT happy!
Sh8t, just lost one of my eyelashes that I pulled off whilst typing earlier! Darn it! There’s one staring at me from the desk and the other is who knows where blinking up at someone!
My back wound has been the biggest pain in the ar*e for me, as you know from earlier/other posts of mine, not being able to lie in a bath and soak away post BC/post chemo aches and sorrows has been interminable for me. I have to say that I am angry at my PS for not taking more care post and during surgery to prevent this or to warn me of it (though during my talk with BCN was soo sick at what she was saying prob went over my head!) but still feel they could and should have taken more on board how much this has affected my quality of life!
Now that I can see the end I just bleeding hope that my first bath wont be a disappointment and also hope that the nurse knows what she is talking about and I don’t end up with a set back (back, lol!) but 6 months without a bath is not something to be sniffed at (gawd I crack myself up!).
Hoping the fact that you have had a graft and surgery means that you wont have to wait six months for the bubbles but, yes, do make a stink at your appt and tell them how sh*te it is!
My sister also had bc and had tissue expanders put in but she ended up with an infection so they took one of the expanders out and 18months down the line have finally decided to put it back in again.She has had her chemo and hair has grown back now and i have to say that if i can get through my chemo as well as she has i will be chuffed.Jac make sue you do kick off.As for bcn giving out info the one i had assigned to me at the hospital where i had my operation did not even bother to come and visit me whilst i was in there!!!It has only been since i have come home that the bcn from the hospital that i was diagnosed at had bothered to visit and she is so lovely,so the one from the hospital can just leave me alone!!
Hope everyone doing wellxxxx
Hi ladies. So annoying that you can’t refer back whilst typing a response! HATE THIS NEW SITE! No, I didn’t get the skin graft, they decided against it, districts nurses say that it can put you back to square 1 if it doesn’t go right, so best left alone then. Still no effect with 2nd chemo I had on Monday. Keep getting worried that it’s not doing its stuff, but it must be 'cos of the hair loss! Look proper ill withough wig -like one of the holocaust survivors, but look lush with it on! Well, need to big up yourself sometimes! Have a good day ladies. xx Jacq xx
Jacqu, you can look back at earlier posts in the scrolly box below, though its not as nice as before they are there to see.
My eyelashes really started to go after my 3rd FEC but also started growing. I had about 2 normal length lashes left on each eye and 2/3mm ones everywhere else when I noticed it (they must’ve fallen off overnight and grown back the same night) - I got so fed up with 2 long lashes on each that I pulled them out the other day. Mascara doesn’t do much good when they’re that short so I know what you mean about holocaust survivor - losing my eyelashes like that and also the majority of my eyebrows meant that I really felt I looked like a cancer patient, before with no hair but eye furniture I felt sinead o’connorish (I wish) - now, well… to sum it up I was out completely head/face hair naked at the chemo unit today (I have days where I just can’t be bothered to stick them all on and put the wig on) and my youngest (10) asked - why does everyone look at you and smile - my answer - “nothing says cancer like bald”
Have you got a clean wound though Jac or is there dead tissue still in it? If you are having to have the dead tissue dissolved then do push for the medical honey - it cleared my “slough” (dead tissue) up in 4 weeks where the purilon gel they were previously using hadn’t done it in 8 plus. My wound (4 months on)has now shrunk to about the size of a 20pence piece, granulating nicely and has a very thin layer of new pink skin on!
Will stick my nose out of your thread now, xxx
Nooooo, leave your nose in there! No other buggers are about! Yeah, wound is clean, saw top dog today who said he might do a punch biopsy (?) to give the healing a kickstart, just a day thing in the clinic with a local. Got to go back next week, gotta be cheaper to stay in a travel inn up there for the next year - I swear! Still only waited an hour today. Have a good weekend, can’t wait to go to bed tonight. Been running round after 2 sick daughters, doing their shopping since I got back from hospital and doing home delivery service. Who’s the one who’s ill here? Have a great weekend. xx Jacq xx
Nose still here then as you seem to be a billy no mates at the mo!
Punch biopsy to kick start healing? Never heard of it (but then I’m a copper not a nurse so why would I?). Hope that whatever it is it works for you. (((((hugs))))
I know what you mean re the travel, my surgery was done in Bristol 20 miles from where I live and whilst I still have to go there to see the surgeon its not as frequent now but at one time I was up there every bleeding week and the waiting is awful!
Hope you get a good sleep and someone brings you a cuppa in bed tomorrow! Mum’s never rest do they? I spent today rushing youngest to dentist as what he did yesterday made it worse and they ended up pulling out one of her baby molars (ouch!) and then after I drugged her up and sent her to school I spent 5 hours junking out her bedroom - 8 bin bags! - she’s a terrible hoarder and even now its far from minimalist but much better.
Take care, xx
Hey, hello, only done vanishing act cause new site is a bit rubbish to navigate. Have made feelings clear to BCC.
Punch biopsy isn’t that awful, I had 2 done on the same day and it was that which diagnosed cancer a year ago. Nothing else (6 x mammo’s, ultrasound) had spotted it.
It’s like a staple gun without the staples, but it’s ok, doesn’t hurt…just a sting.
I really had no idea, seriously, that there was a tumour there and had always thought I was an “aware” kind of girl. After the core biopsy i became aware of the f*cker for the first time: the punch biopsy causes the tumour to bleed internally and the invisible demon lurking behind nipple suddenly became a soft lump.
Which then became a hard lump, thanks to EC, shrunk with Tax, and lived with me until surgery last October.
But core biopsy shouldn’t be a big worry…just watch they don’t put staples in the staple gun…
L
Sod it, don’t like the sound of it now. Be just my luck for them to find something else! How can that kickstart it into healing? Not gonna hold my hands up for this one! Just got used to site now, still don’t know why they had to mess old one about though! xx Jacq xx
oh Jac what ever it is i hope you are ok and start healing soon xx I live in preston and surgery done in Manchester hows that for travelling lol.Back there tomorrow for results of snb!!! Will let you all know asap. Take care Ally xx
I understand what a punch biopsy is, I had one to dx my cancer (and ended up fainting whilst lying on the table and then rushing to the sink in the room and throwing up - I ended leaving the hospital in a wheelchair with a sick bowl where I had previously walked in!) I just don’t see how it kick starts healing - maybe as Lanterna said it will start bleeding and that will cause it to heal. Once my horrid slough had gone my wound bled slowly for quite a while (weeks) and still does a bit but thats because it is actively healing I suppose?
I hope it goes okay for you Jac and you heal soon, xxx
I did have a couple of core biopsies when I was first diagnosed - with the staple gun thingy Lyn, so a punch biopsy wouldn’t be that again would it? Bugger that ostrich, did an ambulance take you home, if so, what would happen to my car left at the station car park? Need sleep. Am currently very peed off at having had to give my self-employed job up 'cos of this sodding back, and have just been given £60 per week benefits, so glad I’ve paid into the system all these years for that little treat! Grumpy old woman is getting worse and worse. Love to all. xx Jacq xx
Hi Jacq,
Hubby was with me that day so he drove me home. Not normally a fainter and it wasn’t the pain. Fainted again and threw up everywhere 2 days post surgery after coming out of the loo in the hossy trying to see if my bowels would work (!)- my blood pressure fell through the floor and I went. V embarressing!!
Thats a bummer about your job and your back. So sorry for you and I would be peed off too to only get that amount of benefits! I am so very lucky that I am on full sick pay for as long as I want (the joy of public sector working) and don’t have that worry. Its not something you think about pre-surgery and factor in the fact that you could have a bleeding hole in your back for months!
Hugs to you ((((((((()))))))))
Well everybody reading this, as I’m not really ‘newly diagnosed’ anymore, I have decided to take my words and abscond to ‘undergoing treatment - chemotherapy’ - ‘friends needed please!!!’ I’m boring myself now by keep repeating myself on 2 threads, so feel free to join me over there if you can bear to keep reading Mrs. Grump! xx Jacq xx
Dont want Tizzland to go under
Mahatma Gandhi, as you know walked barefoot most of the time,
which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet.
He also ate very little,which made him rather frail.
And with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath, this made him
(this is so bad Jaq its good)
A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis!!!