June 2026 chemo starters

I can recommend Bald beanies for simple cotton pull on beanies that you can use to anchor a headscarf to. they are nice lightweight and they make them in a range of sizes from small kids to teens to men. Suburban Turban Uk sell a range of pure cotton. Pure silk and pure bamboo scarfs. The cotton stays on even when you have no hair. THe silk and bamboo ones anchor on a bald beanie for if you loose all your hair. IF you retain some the silk and bamboo ones can stay on. Wrapunzel in the USA provides a huge range of informative headwrapping how to videos on its website that I have found very helpful especially if side effects stop you from going to suggested workshops to help you feel more like you during cancer treatment.

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Thanks for the information. I have only looked at one “Bald Beanies” and will investigate them further. The one I looked at only had Standard or Large, so fear they will be just a bit too big. I watched a Wrapunzel tutorial but don’t have any scarves suitable. I will look into suburban turban, so thank you.

You could contact Bald Beanies and ask about the beanies they make for teenage girls. They will be a smaller size than the woman’s but larger than their two kids ranges. Might be a bit more limited in pattern choices but that should not affect the plain beanie options. I found having four worked for colder weather as they work as an extra layer under knitted beanies and wok well as a pull on layer at home when your head gets cold.

I wear the handy bands from Seasalt. They are just stretchy tubes of material and come in all sorts of plain colours and patterns. I put it over my head so one edge is on my forehead then tuck the other end in. Not sure how to add a photo to show you!

Thanks I will check it out. Hoping by the time the cold weather comes it will have started growing back :grin:

I will definitely look those up. I will check the website of the closest store to see if they have them. Thank you

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Hi everyone, how’s everyone getting on with cycles 2 & 3??

I had my 2nd docetaxel and Carboplatin last Tuesday and had a horrible reaction this time.. felt tight chested and BP shot through roof and back pain in my spine and pelvis to the point couldn’t move.. they were fantastic at day unit for sorting me out calmly and quickly .. they truly are a fantastic team!!

My side effects have returned with. Vengeance also.. bradycardia again!! Stomach upset and being sick!! Seems much worse than last cycle for me!!

The oncologist said that if I reacted again this time ( reduced dose also) and my heart played up That he would stop chemo for me!! As it’s not worth upsetting my heart for! :cry: I’ve already had surgery first so this is preventative chemo but it still feels like I may be missing out! Just a lot to think About whether I risk my heart health for more chemo. I have a 9yr old That I want to try everything for.. but this is so hard to make the decision.

I have a week or so to research, and think about it before I meet the oncologist again..

just wanted to rant !!

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Oh @loopylea that sounds like a really tough decision. Hopefully the oncologist can give you some sort of statistic by how much chemo is making a difference. Can you ask for a cardiology consult with yourself or a MDT meeting between the oncologist and cardiologist (if this hasn’t already taken place) to try get some feel for the probability of cardiac complications (I imagine this will be harder to put a number to) but just some idea so you have all the information possible in order to make a decision? I hope your team give you lots of support making this decision and once it’s made I hope it feels like the right one for you and you can move forward. It feels like fighting cancer comes with a little bit of cost and that cost will be different for all of us with our different cancers and different bodies but also how much ‘cost’ we are willing to accept is also going to vary hugely depending on our circumstances and lifestyles. Having little people in our lives makes all of these decisions so much heavier I know and trying to make big decisions through the brain fog of chemo- even harder! Vent away to us here anytime you need to xxx

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Oh no!! What was the outcome of the cardio app you had last time ? Also what have they done about the bradycardia?? Very hard decision because you don’t want any damage to the heart but I understand what you mean about missing out, none of us want the chemo but also want it -very weird headspace isn’t it :pensive_face:how are you feeling now?

Did you have the same reaction the first time?

Xxx

It’s a hard decision but they said it’s not shrinking the tumour as the primary had been removed so is it worth causing other complications?? Not sure will discuss with them again in clinic when I see them.. maybe there an alternative I can have instead of docetaxel

Hi @LittleBitBrave , I had horrendous spinal and pelvic pain on infusion with tightness on chest and BP sky rocketed! ( felt it in my head) then bradycardia again after for about 3 days after infusion. Cardio just said to oncologist that I can swap my beta blocker up to accommodate the heart drop but what’s concerning is it’s happened worse on a lower dose which oncology reckons can progress each time. I can’t afford for it to sit in the 30s as I already have dilated cardiomyopathy and it could deplete my function eventually. No one has given me an echo or ecg which I’m miffed at so have asked for one from oncology team.. it didn’t help that my cardio team are welsh and oncology English stream-as I live on the border so they don’t have the same systems to Check what the others doing. Feel a littlr lost really. But all of my research indicates chemo isn’t usually the best option for lobular er pos cancer so may ask to go straight for radio and hormone treatment xx

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Can’t believe they haven’t given you an ecg or echo!!! After my first EC i had palpitations for days went to A and E and the doctor at the hospital said let’s do an echo (find results tomorrow actually!) and then my oncologist said let’s do a 48hr ecg monitor just to make sure all is safe! I hope the oncology team gives them to you!

30s is so low :pleading_face:my tachycardia was 160! So i know how you feel (in a way!) knowing that it doesn’t feel safe or normal!! It’s so scary!! And we are the ones that have to sit at home day in day out and deal with it :pensive_face:

so are you due to see them next week? x

160 Is scary!! I’ve requested an echo from oncology so waiting for that at the moment.. I think it’s more about the fact it’s happened every time so worried there may be cumulative effects over all cycles. Wished they had done oncotype score so I could See my recurrence risk but they won’t do one. That may help With decisions.. tbh my tummy is giving me the most grief!! Fed up of feeling sick :nauseated_face:!!

Hope you’re all sorted now.. which cycle and regime are you on? What was your diagnosis? X

What is oncotype score?

I’m on 4 EC then 12 weeks carbo placlitaxel , I couldn’t have immunotherapy because of my other health conditions! I have TNBC and lymph nodes affected also. I got my 4th next week and a scan then they discuss what’s next!

Couldn’t they give you anything stronger for nausea?:pleading_face:

All I know about the oncotype score is that it provides a score from 0 to 100 to estimate the risk of cancer returning and predict if chemotherapy will be beneficial. I think there is a score that the hospital do initially. With mine, I presume they thought it would score high, so sent my breast tissue off to the USA. Mine came back with a score of 50 (I believe 25 and under is the lower end and you might get different treatment options. So I am on the preventative chemo route. Under 25 and I was told that if chemo will not make a difference (for good reasons), then it is not necessary to put yourself through it. I presume the borderline scores are the ones where you get a choice. I am going with the flow and doing what I am told, although I had decided that if borderline, I would probably have chemo as I want to lessen the chances of it coming back.

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Never heard of this? So is it offered? Or something peopel request?

In my hospital, as far as I am aware, it is not offered to everyone. I presume they weigh up a likely risk and if they think there is one, send tissue samples off. I expect as there are so many different varieties, grades and stages, that every individual’s results are analysed in the hospital and it is decided what the initial treatment is going to be. As far as I am aware, I am on chemo and then just letrozole for the next 7 years. Some people have chemo before surgery, but I am having mine after. Radiotherapy has not been talked about, so at the moment, I am assuming that unless something changes, I won’t get it. I have just found the booklet I was given - it says:
Your healthcare team has offered you a genomic test known as the Oncotype DX test. You have been offered this test because:
You have early stage breast cancer that is HR+ requiring hormone therapy.
Your breast cancer is either Lymph Node negative or lymph node positive ( I had 1 out of 19 they took out)
Your doctor is not sure if chemotherapy is necessary.

I am post menopausal but I don’t know if that made a difference or not. I also had a mastectomy of the affected breast and with that and the lymph node removal, they got it all out.

Hey @LittleBitBrave

The Oncotype test is for ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancers so if you have a diagnosis of TNBC, you wouldn’t have been offered this.

I’ve included a link to the info below.

Hope this helps! x

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They won’t offer you onco type if your cancers larger than 5cm or of you’re pre menopausal as chemo is of benefit at you’re high risk anyway!

I was devastated at not having it done..

on the up side I have echo planned in next week and seeing oncologist 24th about whether to continue or not.. I’m reading so much research implying that my hormone positive lobular isn’t as sensitive to Chemo as other cancers and so I may be doing all this for nothing when I need hormone blockers more.. I just hope that whilst I’m Having chemo that nothings progressing because it’s not actually working when I could be having hormone treatment which is the cornerstone of my treatment overall..

I’m really close to saying stop chemo and move on..

The only thing I always hang onto is positivity, my surgeons last words before I moved to oncology were that it’s the positive mindset that do well here .. I also work in MDTs in the NHS and all of our pts who have positive mindsets do so much better than Those who don’t.. my neighbour has 3x cancer was given 12m about 4 years ago and Still Goes on everyday like Nothings wrong.. washed car weekly, tends to beg garden daily and goes on holiday 3 times a year.. he’s inspiration. !! He doesn’t dwell on his cancers and can’t even timber where it is half the time you ask! :laughing:

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Love this! x

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