Morning ladies getting home today with some oral antibiotics following over since wed eve, turns out I was Neutropenic a bit of a shock will have to be more vigilant during next 2 cycles, it’s been a tough old few weeks, Kimi I’m so sorry to hear you lost your mam it’s like a double whammy when we are going through this, don’t know why but feel like it’s made me more determined and I feel I want to fight it even more!
I hope all of you are well, and good lutif you are having next one, not long now ladies wow!!!
Mishy hope you are safe home by now, just take it easy, a couple of duvet days are in order if you can manage it, be kind to yourself!
Had doxy toxy number two this morning, feel ok so far but have to keep reminding myself that this is the"I’m fine, I’m full of steroids, I can do anything except sleep" phase. Not looking forward to days 5-9, but keep telling myself it doesn’t necessarily have to be the same or worse than last time, the whole thing is unpredictable!
Have a nice weekend everyone, I hope you have some fun things lined up.
Yes I’m home and taking it easy! Hope Dozy tax is kind to you Tatyana maybe the first one is the worst just think you only have one more after this!! The lack of sleep is crap with steroids but hopefully will pass soon, just take it easy be kind to yourself and remember to take temperature xx
Feel the fear you have you 2nd one soon don’t you hope I have a good week before my next one x only two weeks till Grandaughter due to make an appearance x hopefully she will arrive on my good week!!!
Morning ladies. I hope everyone is okay.
Tatyana here’s hoping the SE’s aren’t so bad this time around. I’m sure my first fec was worse than the other two. My bloods are normal so I’ll be joining you on chemo five on Tuesday.
Kimi, some people swear by fasting before, during and after chemo (72 hours). I considered it myself for a while, then read about a nurse who’d had bc and she believed eating carbs before chemo was the key to keeping the SEs at bay. As I love my food, I decided to go with her advice instead. ?
So far so good for me. I’ve been extremely lucky. Who knows if eating a large carb lunch on the way to chemo has helped. I do know that the only bad turn I’ve had (passed out and vomited) was two days after my first T when I hadn’t eaten all day because of the grotty mouth I had.
Mishy, good to hear you’re home. It looks like it’s going to be a nice day up here so hoping you get to enjoy the sunshine.
Miss a, I hope your infection has cleared up. Hopefully no more dramas for any of us. ?
Morning ladies another lovely sunny day by the look of it up in the Ne, just had some home made Granola for breakfast delicious really easy to make too, just oats, mixed seeds, sultanas, died apricot and banana and a few mixed nuts some honey mixed together toasted off in oven much healthier than the shop bought stuff! Feel like I’m rattling the amount of antibiotics I am taking on top of what was given in hospital! I think they are going to lower the dose for next week to try and prevent it happening again, they were surprised as I have the filisgram injections for 7 days with each cycle, I wonder if all the stress and upset I have been through recently has had something to do with it, maybe just unlucky x
Feel the fear Tuesday for your 5th round it’s nearly over!
We have all done really well getting through this just a week to go number 5 for me! Sounds a bit weird but kind of looking forward to it so I can get even closer to finishing line, feel like I haven’t been able to grieve properly for my dad, I’ve got a feeling when I get to ring the bell it will all come out relief, happiness and sadness all in one go, sorry if Im depressing any of you on a lighter note thought it might be good to use bald head to advantage this Halloween for trick or treaters! Bit of black make up under the eyes dark clothes and lighting should do the trick!! Haha xxx bye for now ladies xx
Mishy, can I join you for Halloween? I don’t need the black eye makeup, I’ll rock the new natural me, all I have to do is leave off the tinted moisturizer and the undereye concealer, job done! Except I might have to stick on some nice fat eyebrows for the full scary ol’ witch look.
Morning Michelle.
I definitely think the stress you’ve had recently could of been the cause of your problem. In fact I’m convinced that the stress of my dad dying and holding in the grief in order to be strong for my mam is what brought me here in the first place.
Stress is a very dangerous thing as is grief if you can’t let it out.
Your breakfast sounds healthy. I used to eat nuts and seeds every day for as long as I can remember. I couldn’t get enough of them until after my first chemo. I made the mistake of taking a big bag with me which I polished off over the few hours. Now, even the word seeds makes me feel ill. When I see them in a supermarket I have to look away. Very random.
Yes, the weather up here has been lovely. We spent yesterday in the garden until dusk as my husband’s busy building the mother of all sheds (including a wine shack of course).
I love your Halloween idea. ?
My oncologist has booked my radiotherapy assessment in. I can’t wait. He’s also booked me another ct scan in as well though. ?
When I was first scanned they found a tiny nodule on my lung and two cysts on my liver. My scan came back as clear as they don’t think they’re anything suspicious, but they have to double check by making sure they haven’t changed during chemo.
So the scanxiety is back again. It’s bloody awful. I wish I could just look forward to getting through chemo, but the secondaries fear monster is trying his best to make me wobble again. X
Feel the fear. I’m at sane stage as you. Round 5 of Tax next Friday, then one more and on to rads. They also found a cyst in my liver which they say is fine and. 6mm nodule in my lung on same side as BC. They don’t know what it is, but it worries me and I’ll be a wreck at next CT result. All we can do is keep on with the treatment and hope for the best xx
It’s awful Carole isn’t it. Apparently only 5% of these would turn out to be cancerous so the odds are stacked in our favour. It would be great just to have one less thing to stress about though.
We can look forward to yearly scans for a while I think. X
That’s interesting. They didn’t tell me that. They just said it’s too small to know so we’ll treat it as not cancer and scan 6 months later. It does make everything more worrying though.
Hi Carole.
Just a quick update; I called the helpline and was advised that we shouldn’t have to be scanned yearly unless we’re showing symptoms. So that’s a relief. I’ll be letting my onco know that i don’t want scanning every year. She also said that if our lumps and bumps looked suspicious they wouldn’t leave it 3/6 months before they scanned again.
I hope everyone else is doing well. It’s been quiet here for a few days. I’m hoping that’s because you are all too busy leading normal lives and not nursing bad SEs. I’m back on the steriods now, so here we go…round five. X
Good luck with round 5. I’m actually looking forward to getting another one done now. 
Hi Ladies. Glad you’re not feeling too bad Tatyana, hope it carries on, you give me hope for my No.5 on Weds. Saw Consultant today & told her how I felt after last treatment & she’s given me something for the oral thrush, something for my tummy & eye drops for watering eyes, so hopefully like you it’ll be better this round. Hope you’re ok Mishy & you’re feeling better, keep thinking about you. Feel the fear, thank you fasting info, think I’ve decided against it based on Nurses experience, I’m sure the hospital would tell us if they thought it would help, so bring on the carbs!! Also hope you’re feeling much better Missaconitum, I expect a blood transfusion sorted your blood out & Carole it’s so easy to worry about everything, but as girls I work with say, none of us know what our organs look like unless we’re scanned & the hospital don’t seem to be alarmed, so Girls let’s crack on with no.5, then only one more to go before radiotherapy & anyone Who’s ever had it says it’s a walk in the park after chemo, then normal hair & eyelashes hopefully to follow very quickly. Hope it goes well for everyone. Xx
Evening ladies feeling much better have to say did online shop for this week just in case!! Hoping my neuts are back to normal for Monday round 5 bring it on! Just means we are tall really close to finish line, well of the chemo side anyway! Yeah heard the rads a breeze compared to this havent we all done really well!! Have any of you noticed hair, I seem to have some whitish looking fluff type of stubble on top and back of head! Nothing on sides my eyebrows and lashes have really thinned and was all but a few strands bald on my head I still look bald but like a kiwi fruit kind of coverage! The strangest bit is the colour my hair was was quite dark aside from a Malian streak I had at front!
They do say it comes in a different colour sometimes but white!!
Angela good luck for tomorrow hope you have a good one, Tatyana hope SE treat you kindly, Miss pleased you’re feeling better Kimi hope you have less SE now you have the right stuff this time, I don’t know if it’s worth taking a list of back up things to have just in case!? Think I will ask just in case dreading the steroids buzz mind!. Carole try not to worry too much re the scans, I never had one, all I ever had was my mammogram and ultrasound asked onc and he said I didn’t need one! Even after treatment don’t know if I’m happy about it but he seems to know what he is doing!!! (head of oncology) 
Morning ladies. Well I’ve had about five hours of interrupted sleep thanks to the steriods/ cats and the litres of water I drank yesterday. Face is feeling very flushed. Tears arrived yesterday afternoon. Not like me at all. Had to ring bc nurse (voice of reason). Planned CT scan knocked me for six. Back on track now.
Tatyana, really hoping you battle through this one better. And I think it’s definitely a good idea for us to get the first punches in with this thing. I’m armed and ready. Onco has prescribed me some mouth wash to collect today, so hoping I can prevent the grotty mouth and sensitive teeth. My post summer heels were slightly cracked before T, then last week they started to bleed. Never had this before. I’ve been giving them a good rub with my foot ped and covering them in vix. It’s definitely worked but they’re still sore during the night.
I’m with you on the gardening errrors. I thought I’d ordered enough creeping thyme seeds to cover a wooded area at the back of our garden; what arrived was a teeny dying plant. ? I paid about £8 for it. Chemo brain. One of my husband’s friend’s (consultant microbiologist) thought it was a very bad idea when he found out I’d been digging the garden. He says soil is probably the main place I could pick up an infection. I do wear gloves, but he says there’s still a fair chance of some transfer. The advice hasn’t stopped me, but I’m ultra careful. I bet you can feel shrinkage. To be honest, I don’t think much could survive being battered with T. It’s like we’ve got the terminator working for us.
Kimi, I like your attitude, yes let’s crack on and get this over with. It sounds like you’re armed with the tools to combat the SEs this time. I’m looking forward to a big carb pub lunch and a pint of lime and soda on the way through chemo.
Is anyone else taking clarityn? I think I’ll start tonight. One a day for a week maybe. I’ll ask the chemo ward.
Michelle, good you’re feeling better. I’d heard that new growth could come back white or grey but then I’ve heard that your original colour with eventually take over. It’s great that you have new growth though. Hopefully this means it’s going to grow really quickly. It seems like only yesterday you were losing it.
Carole, good luck with your next session. Here we go again. When I had my first infusion early July my chemo nurse said I wouldn’t believe how quickly it will pass. I think she was right.
Well I’m going to drag myself out of bed for a very large coffee and get started on the water binge. Steriods due at 8. Bedding will have to be changed as the night sweats were full on. Yuk. Xxx
And that should be vicks for my heels. ?
Words are lost on me thanks to chemo and my whole vocabulary is shot to bits. I have to read messages twice over before I post. If I sent half of them in their original form you’d think I’d lost the plot. ?
Angela hope today goes smoothly, I’m definitely going to do the same as you and eat cars prior to Monday x sorry you were feeling a down I totally get it when you are having scans I would be the same I have been getting worried as they never have scanned me apart from breast since my dad was diagnosed but they have insisted I didn’t need it but feel like I want them anyway x chemo brain is not good is it! I keep forgetting things and get stumped for words quite often another strange se maybe good advice re the garden too ill be more careful. My garden has been my haven through treatment somewhere I can totally Chill and get lost in well ladies hoping you all have a good day and SE are kind to you all I’m going to try to enjoy the the rest of my good week xx
Sorry carbs chemo brain
Haha, we’re definitely formidable enough to eat cars after all of this carry on. I think we could do anything we fancied now.
If your onco says you don’t need a scan I’d be very happy with that. Scans throw up all sorts of things that we’d be walking around blissfully unaware of and would never do us any harm. Once we have bc these things are automatically classed as possibly cancer unless proven otherwise. I’d rather be blissfully unaware. I’m stage 3a thanks to the lymph involvement so a scan is protocol.
Definitely make the most of your good week. I think one thing that most of us have in common is finding sanctuary in the garden. I feel normal when I’m gardening. X
Morning ladies. Hope everyone’s doing well today.
I know exactly what you mean about the fog tatyana. It used to wipe me out, but I’ve sort of learned how to quite enjoy it and just go with the flow. It’s great for walking around supermarkets, which I usually hate. Now I’m just in a hazy bubble.
It’s great that your stepson and family are coming to visit. Bc stresses seem to disappear when the family get together. It reminds me that they are my life and not the cancer.
How are your SEs? My onco has given me gelclair for the grotty mouth, so I’m hoping to bypass that this time around.
How is everyone else doing? Chemo went well yesterday. Felt very good to get the penultimate out of the way. Two weeks and 6 days and I’ll be saying goodbye (or worse) to fec-t. Brilliant. X