what an odd day im having so far!!! its my birthday today and im feeling very positive as last year i didnt think i would see this day! im finding with each marker, phased return to work, hubbys birthday, my birthday, and soon hols at our timeshare, that the cancer seems ever further away. up until these days i felt like i was in a fog (dx nov 09 and op dec 09)but as each one has passed ive felt more and more positive!
good luck to everyone x
sue
Happy Birthday, Sue, and may you have very many more of them! Perhaps this is a good post for the “Good News” category.
Ann x
Happy birthday and glad to hear life is returning to some form of normality.
finty xx
A very Happy Birthday Sue.
It is a great time for reflection. I too was diagnosed in Nov 09, two Ops in Nov and Dec, then chemo Jan - July and am now in radiotherapy. This roller coaster never seems to end. I thought i would be elated when the chemo finished but it was an anti-climax i was more emotional yesterday when my hickman line came out. Perhaps that was truely the end the chemo stage.
These milestones keep us focused but i do not think i have had time to catch my breath fully and reflect on the last 9 months. I am looking forward to radio finishing and perhaps reflect on the last 9 months but start to look forward. I never thought more than a couple of days when on chemo, so it will be nice to have time and effort to think ahead and plan things. Again looking forward to thinking of work ( even on a phased return ) let the good days continue and the new “normal” be exactly what we want it to be !
Have a lovely day.
Wendy
xx
thanks everyone
wendy i didnt have chemo and finished rads end jan i also came off hormone therapy 10 weeks ago due to the severe SE but i am lucky in th respect that my tumour was tubular and therefore the least likey to return anyway but i only stop taking the tablets with consultation with my onc and his approval.
sue
Happy Birthday Sue and wishing you well! Just finished chemo, dx Feb and starting tamoxifen. What a year this has been, hoping now that everything will settle down! Best Wishes. Tina.
happy birthday Sue hope you have a great day.
It’s good to know things get a bit more “normal”.
Love Jayne xxxxx
Happy birthday Sue - hope you’ve had an excellent day!
I went back to work today on a phased return (although have been doing bits and bobs for a few weeks this is my first proper day back). I actually forgot for a few minutes at one point, that I had been off sick for 14 months. 6 months ago I didn’t think there was any chance of me going back. This is a landmark day for me!
Jayne, your photo is just beautiful.
love to everyone
monica xx
Two milestones in one posting!
Great to hear that your birthday is part of your healing Sue. I’m sure it has been a very special day as you face towards the new healthy phase of your life. Good luck to you for all the further milestones you are going to reach…
And congratulations Monica on your first ‘proper work day’. A real achievement and another step towards this new healthy phase of the rest of your life.
It is all about small steps and feeling enriched by every tiny movement we take to reach our future. Well done to both of you and all the other women on this site who are taking steps if not strides into their new world, whatever that might be.
With love to all the strong brave women on this site and even more love to those who are feeling weary and scared of their futures…
It is a question of time, effort and sheer determination to get to see another day.
Welsh girl xxx
What a lovely thread.
Congratulations, Sue and Monica.
Welsh girl - you’ve summed it up beautifully and perfectly.
X
Happy Birthday 
- I totally know what you mean about the landmark days. It was my birthday on Sunday (feistybluegeckofightsback.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/as-good-a-day-as-any-for-reflection/) Monday was 10 months since my diagnosis and today is 4 months exactly since my last chemo.
Warm hugs and wishes
P
how eloquently put, mixed emotions doest come into it does it, it was quite an odd feeling but i did exactly as you did i spent the day doing small things that were pleasurable to me, seeing friends, packing bits for hols, sorting pedicure etc rounded off with a nice meal at a small quiet local restaurant with my husband, i didnt want a late night so we were home by 9.30 but a lovely relaxing and fulfilling day x
sue
Its my birthday next week and i will be 37. I was dx at the age of 34 and at the time i thought i would never see 35. Cant believe ive seen 35, 36 and now 37! And i am so grateful for everything especially every xmas i am still here to see my children open their presents from santa.
Happy Birthday Sue for yesterday and to you to lolly73 for next week. May you have many more “Happy Birthdays” and wishing everyone all the best for the future.
Sil
Wishing you many more ‘landmark days’. I’m over 2 years out and have had quite a few of those days, but they don’t lose their significance. They’re even more important!
Enjoy.
Mal x
Ah - happy landmark days, everyone! I just passed my “First anniversary of last chemo” Day! And I might be just approaching my “First Haircut” Day - though I’m still reluctant to part with the lovely curls that (eventually) grew back. Still get a bit tired, and still mildly paranoid about every teensy symptomlet - from itchy toes to coughs to passing headaches - don’t think that will ever quite go away. But to all those just starting on the journey, or deep in the swamp-pit of chemo - for almost all of us, there is sunshine ahead.
I’m right in the thick of my landmark days (a year since finding the lump, since seeing the doc) and tomorrow is the big one - a year since I heard the words telling me i had cancer.
Big hugs to you all and all strength as we move forward.
P
I am 4 years on October 5th (Tues). On the first anniversary I went to see the Angel of the North at Newcastle and I just hugged it. There was nobody else there apart from my OH and it just felt right somehow.
hi fiestybluegekeo, ((((hugs))))) im sending you positive vibes x im now approaching my anniversay of the start of the rolercoaser ride that is breast cancer. whar a weird feeling it is! im happy to have reached another milestone but it has also made me rethink and reassess some things in my life, one of them being work! i dont need the stresses of the travelling and when others staff are getting fussed about planning etc im thinking ‘get a grip’ and so i have decided that i am going to finish work( im lucky to be in the position to do that financially)im going to look into medical retirement. ill let you all know how i get on.
sue
What a lovely idea,cherub - so important to do what feels right. Oct 5 is when I had my surgery (yes, they didnt hang around - the surgeon was prepared to operate the morning after I was diagnosed!!)
Thanks so much for the warm hugs tippy, and sending the same to you.
I have written a letter to cancer to mark this first anniversary (I got the idea from the Dear Cancer page on facebook) and it was incredibly cathartic. It is on my blog feistybluegeckofightsback.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/a-letter-to-cancer-for-my-cancerversary/
Warm hugs to you all
P