I am a bit premature writing today and and praying for no machine breakdown tomorrow but I’m almost done!! whooppeeee!!!
I think I’m busy tomorrow afternoon and I wanted to get on with my “I’m finished” so I’ve decided early is better than late!.
Bit longer than most as I’m STILL in the closet and have vented and logged and shared whatever-elsed on here for a year so I need to mark my finishing “properly”.
The highs and the lows …
BIGGEST SURPRISE … Tax was no big deal for me really and I had been dreading it for months …
BIGGEST SHOCK …Radiotherapy was a total nightmare and I had been looking forward to it!
BIGGEST THANK YOU … to my OH, the cat (who has been almost as marvellous as OH), the very few friends/family in the know who have helped me maintain my smokescreen and of course - to all of you…not to forget the doctors and nurses …
BIGGEST EMBARRASSMENT … nearly throwing up all over the onc in Tax 3.
BIGGEST REGRET … try not to have these but possibly worked too hard
WEIGHTCHANGE … I would say between 10-14 lbs on - not too bad and it will be OFF by New Year
BIGGEST RELIEF - my hair never all fell out and was dropping out daily and I will never forget sittin6 gon the sofa feeling how very thin it was getting (40% of not a lot to start with) and then feeling tiny prickles at the roots and knowing it was coming back - even though it was still faling out.
WORST DAY - I can remember one chemo day just feeling very very ill - so for anyone in that position it does get better!
BEST DAY … I think that this may be tomorrow!!!
Good luck everyone … you can do it …one day at a time!
Congratulations for tomorrow. I finished mine 16th Sept and returned to work part time last Wed. Life is looking and feeling more normal now after the nightmare last 7 months.
Congrats Fiz… I have just been out celebrating NOT having chemo today as it’s 3 weeks and since my 6th dose so that’s that done… Rads next and hoping I find them much easier than you have! Don’t forget you’ll still be tired for a few weeks though so don’t go bungee jumping etc jsut yet
Brilliant Fizz,
I,m still on chemo and a while to go yet, but reading your post made me get a feeling of what i know i will eventually feel when that day comes for me. Hope you,ve got some celebration in the pipeline,you deserve it.
best wishes Tracey
Well done FizBix - you must be really pleased to have got to this stage - and you should be justly proud of yourself. I was the opposite of you in terms of tax and rads (as you prob remember from all my moaning lol) - I still have another (hopefully) 13 loads of Herceptin to go - so won’t be officially finished till next June unfortunately - but you’ll hear me shouting then !!
Good luck to you - and the thanks for support is fully reciprocated - you have been so kind to many people on here, including me, when I know you yourself were feeling pretty down and grotty.
Well done on getting to the end of your marathon of treatment Fiz - as Vertagngie says lay off the bungee jumping for a couple of weeks… send the cat instead
Congratulations FB and good luck for tomorrow! Well done, it’s been a long slog, but you’re at the end - yay!!! So pleased for you - it’s a nice feeling.
But do let me know how you get on losing that 10lbs; I finished rads two weeks ago and haven’t moved an ounce - might be due to eating loads ofcourse!! I need a kick up my b** to get going with the getting fit and losing weight - I’ve run out of excuses now.
Brialliant FB, it seems to have taken ages for you to get through your treatment but you have been a real star to everyone. Congratualtions on reaching the end and I hope you deservedly kick your heels up LOL!!!
Hi FB, and other old friends! I have been in England for 6 weeks visiting family and friends and it has been AGES since I looked in here! Back in Canberra now and seeing that you are at the end of your treatment has prompted me to pop in and say hello, and that it is brilliant that you are nearly at the end of your treatment. As others have said, you were a wonderful companion along the way, always with good humour, or pathos, and so kind. Thank you.
If it’s any help at all to anyone reading this, I was diagnosed last November and had WLE, chemo (3 FEC and 3 Taxotere), 6 weeks of radiotherapy, and am now on Arimidex. Can I tell you that I am feeling really great - had my (very short) hair dyed blond and styled last week, and am looking forward to going to a ball next week (same ball for a cancer charity that I went to last year on the night I was diagnosed!!). I get a bit of a stiff neck and shoulders with the Arimidex, but nothing I can’t live with. And hey, I feel feminine and sexy again and everything works!! Please don’t take any of this as boasting, just want to offer encouragement to anyone who might just be starting out. My plan now is to climb Sydney bridge on 16th November - my best friend’s 50th (she’s coming over from UK), and a year to the day I was diagnosed. I am terribly sad for those for whom breast cancer can never be behind them, but for me, right now, it is, and I hope that offers encouragement to someone out there! Love Sarah xxx
That post was the best therapy ever. I am starting next week but it was great to see how many things on your list I could relate too. I too am dreading chemo but feel rads will be a walk in the park…we just never know do we!
Enjoy your time back at work…I intend to work here and there during my treatment, but time will tell (I work for a Doctor so he’s v. undertstanding and at least I will have advice on tap!!!)
I have just 3 more rads to do then I will be celebrating,too!! Mine have been no problem, apart from shoulder feeling stiff. I’m forgetting to do my exercises!
When you start out, the weeks seem to stretch out for miles in front of you, but they do actually go by quite quickly don’t they. it’s just the days when you don’t feel so good that drag.
Do give yourself some time to relax and recover, won’t you? We forget how stressful it’s been at times. I’m enjoying not having to take lots of different tablets, for indigestion, heartburn, etc. Food tastes SO good! It seems a shame to have to deprive yourself of goodies, so I have been rather naughty these last two weeks.
Are you going away for a holiday with OH?
Is your hair growing?
Mine is coming through curly now. At least it’s almost long enough for me to start going without a bandanna. I think I’ll be switching to warm beanies next, though!
Do pop in now and then and let us all know how you are doing. We’ll miss you!
Well Done it’s a marvellous feeling, you have had a long battle and it’s been never ending for you, I’m sooo glad it’s over.
I finished in July and I’m sure we started together. Nice to hear from Sarah too, and Anna G. I don’t come on here very often but I miss all my old friends whom I used to laugh and cry with and who knew what I felt like exactly and said the right thing always.
I’m having my hair styled tomorrow for the first time so it’s scarey.
good luck with the hair style Sarah - I 'm finding it all a bit strange as I’m just not sure how it’s going to look when it grows - it’s very funny havng completely different hair - it’s growing on me though … in both senses …
Thanks Rachel
AnnaG - i delayed answering your questions as i was a bit unsure … it all turned out a bit mad as on the last morning of radio i started the worst period I’ve ever had so I was a bit late off the starting blocks “getting back to normal” …
… had some lovely days since …
like you I am not doing too well on the exercise front but I am walking more which is a start - it’s cooler here now and also i am up to it … it’s just nice to be free …
except I’m not free from work - in fact am overloaded but am hopeful that this month I will finally clear the backlog …
but life is FAB and I am looking forward to going away with OH (he looks worse than me). I confided in someone today that I had had BC and they were shocked - they thought HE was ill and I was just worried … I think he is at the end of his tether … anyway - we’ll get way soon
… interestingly I seem to have developed a lot more of an interest in food … I never used to watch cookery programs but now I love them and have even had a go …OH v happy about this … I am also enjoying walking a lot more
have to say really appreciate now what I’ve got and am really quite happy …
As ever FB you make me feel that life could be worse and I should appreciate what I have, I will never forget that about you, always looking for the good.
So pleased you are so good with life and everything at the moment.
Coincidence or is it? On my very last day of 29 radiotherapy sessions, back in January, I started the period from hell… the worst I’d EVER had… and the first since they’d stopped after, I think, 2 chemo sessions about 6 months previously. I had presumed I’d seen the back of periods for ever and can’t say I was sorry! I can only think that it was six months of it building up in me, and I’d been so looking forward to finishing all the treatment, when in fact, I felt absolutely crap that evening! I was en route to a concert and had to turn and come home so no celebration for me! Ah… it seems so long ago now, phew…
so no celebration for me! Ah… it seems so long ago now, phew…