Shit that is a lot for you to get through so thanks for sharing - I’m wondering if I’ll still be as quick with the jokes a few weeks down the line.
You are so strong and great advice but I’m still hoping I won’t need it ……………
X
Shit that is a lot for you to get through so thanks for sharing - I’m wondering if I’ll still be as quick with the jokes a few weeks down the line.
You are so strong and great advice but I’m still hoping I won’t need it ……………
X
Oh god, don’t get me started about the mri scanning. I just about got through my last one without having a panic attack. The noise before they inject you was bloody ridiculous. If i have to have another I’m going to get a Rammstein CD to play and insist they play it a maximum volume!
Definitely make the most of your friend who does reiki- may as well start as soon as you can, it should help! My energy level has gone up since my last one!
Takes me back to my college days 40 years ago.
No need for the kale smoothie. I’ve just come through my 2nd chemo downtime. Had my picc line care this morning. A croissant in M&S food in the hospital had my name on it! Another week and I hope to have a coffee x
They prescribed anti reaction medication to take the day before, the day off and the day after infusion (oral steroids, antacids and antihistamines)
How did you get on today?
I went back to the cancer centre for the 2nd time this week. A 5 minute Herceptin injection but they were 1 1/4 hours behind. My ankles were swollen and I had parked just outside, so I said I was going to sit in my car with my legs up on the back seat. I had over an hour reading steaming up the back windows…I had a lot of funny looks! I can only hope the radiotherapy department run a bit more smoothly next week.
Hi guys
Yesterday was meltdown day just because they told me I will have to have scans which I knew they were going to tell me anyway! Next surgery on 16th.
Now…did anything funny happen? Mildly funny was that my dear husband has taken up the slack and said I must eat (no appetite last night - entirely stress related) and all we had was freezer food. I served myself a small portion of oven chips but then, just as I was leaving the kitchen, force of a lifetime’s habit saw me grabbing an extra handful and chucking them on my plate. There are some things we have no control over! I ate them too.
I hope you all have a really good day today.
Salbert
x
Hi twinkletits , hope your ok and had a good Christmas, I’ve got my 6 month bone treatment coming up 2 more and thankfully finished, heart meds slowly reducing so positive outcome after herceptin issues, we had a lovely Christmas so all good hope your doing ok sending lots of love xx
Saw the Dr today he was so lovely , thankyou so much Dr squirrel
Sparrow he replied
I quickly left laughing with the nurse giggling behind, hmm CHEMO BRAIN
hope everyone’s doing ok xx
When I saw the nurse after my appointment this week she said to me in a nice, sing-songy voice, “You’re going to have chemo, so you’re going to lose all your hair, your eyebrows, your eyelashes, but all your pubic hair and underarm hair too so that’s good 'cos you won’t have to shave”. Seriously?
Yes it does sound very condescending coming from someone who we assume hasn’t experienced it. I would be speechless if I had been told cheerfully like it’s no big deal.
However I have joked to friends that although 95% of my hair came out on Christmas Eve in the shower making me look like an orang utan as my hair was quite happy to cling to my body rather than my head, I now have lovely smooth armpits.
But I think I’ve earned the right to say such things.
As regards pubes, they started falling out a few days earlier but seem to have become more stubborn.
I still have eyebrows and lashes a week after my 2nd dose x
Oh Sal that’s so not acceptable. I wonder how they would feel if it happened to them. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this attitude. Someone previously suggested that all staff should be offered the chance to have their head shaved and see how they felt.
I know, right?! I also got told “We found cancer in 2 of the 3 lymph nodes we took. Naughty!” I wonder whether it is a way of downplaying it all to make it seem less scary. If so, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t make it less scary. Did you cold cap @isitreallyme ?
Really glad you are clinging onto those eyebrows and lashes at present but sounds like you are being super brave about it all. Stubborn pubes! That’s just pubes all over, isn’t it!
There must be more stubborn pubes! Mine didn’t all fall out, don’t know why.
Those dastardly wiry chin hairs didn’t either. The soft peachy fluff all went, why is it the hair you don’t want sticks around to spite you
My eyebrows and lashes only partly fell out as well.
I was given the choice to cold cap. They said it’s 50% successful. I decided to put my big girl pants on and thought, well it’s winter. I’ve got several warm hats I’ve hardly worn. Cold cap sounds like extra palaver. I don’t regret not doing it. Just curious if my ginger/auburn hair will return the same colour. I took a little plastic bag with me when I had my pixie haircut to take some hair home so I could compare when it does grow back.
@isitreallyme Your big girl pants are made of some sturdy stuff! I’m impressed by your attitude.
Yeah, who says us southerners are soft!
Bone Treatment Nikks? What even is that bless you?
Hi @salbert
,
I think for what it is worth - we make jokes firstly to try and help us go through it but also as a defence mechanism for ourselves - if we say it first it hurts less when someone else says it… I know some of the things I have said have confused people as if it is all one big joke - it is so NOT as you all know but sometimes you don’t want the sympathy or to cry.
I also think it is OUR cancer so our right to say what we like - but nurses should NOT being making ‘jokes’ like that even if we say it…
One nurse said to me at the MRI that she was chuffed she hadn’t spurted my blood everywhere when she took my line out at the end and it was the best part of her day (only her second time of doing it) it was not really what I wanted to hear and whilst I was pleased for her I did have to tell her it was the worst part of my day lol.
I also went out for dinner this week with a group of ‘friends’ and the waitress had no hair. One of the ladies said do you think that is a life choice if so she should have her ears pinned… I was gobsmacked as to me it was obvious the waitress had been ill and they had just also been asking me about my treatment - I said remind me not to come out with you lot if I have to have chemo…
I would have replied to your nurse I actually don’t shave my armpit hair like Julia Roberts…
well said twinkletits the waitress could have done a brave the shave in support of someone they know or might be regrowing their hair post treatment or recovering from something themselves you quickly learn to take what people say with a pinch of salt I like to think people don’t mean it there was a nurse who came in where I used to work to do a wellness check on everyone and she looked me straight in the eye and said did it change you (this is about a year after I’d finished treatment and was still rocking a pixie regrowth), I wanted to say, really love are you seriously asking me that, but I said, yes it did, and then proceeded to tell her about all the positives and how bcn had been a lifeline and reminded her to check herself regularly sometimes you might come across someone who is obviously getting a kick out of questioning you (sadly some people are just like that) but it’s how you choose to respond to their negativity with positivity so they know and can see you’ve just brushed it off and not let their words impact on you you’ve better things to do with your precious life than let their negative words impact on it) Shi xx