I reckon my hair about 7mm se3ms longer on top than the sides. My bf says it’s prickly! Feels soft to me and mainly white/grey the odd darker bits. My 15 year old coming home today and Thursday my.sister that not seen in 3 years and Friday her mum. My lovely step mum 
taste buds still.shot but sleeping bit more and sickness finally worn off. Temp was irratic yesterday went up to 37.6 with a massive headache but dropped again. Have a good day girls xx
Rosie may your veins be cooperative today, you will start to feel the effects after the first bag but it takes a day or 2 to feel normal good luck x
Trish glad you have company coming sometime they are the best medicine x x
I have appointments with bcn to discuss op and post op practicalities.
Have a good day ladies x
Tatyana:-
Mouthwash I have is Difflam (supplied by hospital) helps with sore throat. Biotene that I get online from boots it’s special for dry mouth. I also use the toothpaste.
Hard boiled sweets with sharp flavour will help also ice pop lollys.
Some BBQ or sweet chilli sauce help with making food taste better when mouth really bad.
Eye spray sooth eyes if lashes come out.
Epsom salts for your bath.
Xxx good luck xxx
Loratadine works to help with bone pain. T chem is made from Yew tree clippings. Loratadine is antihistamine and controls or lessens the effect on bone marrow as it make new white cells. Make sure hay fever tablets have Loratadine in it and not cetirizine hydrochloride variety as that doesn’t work.
H
Epson salts help with finger pain (neuropathy). Use in bath and soak for about 20 minutes. You have to balance its use and the state of your bowels on T can make you loose rather than constipated and so can Epsom salts! Finger and for neuropathy started day 4 on my first T but eased a lot using Epsom salts on 2nd. Remember to tell your Onco about any neuropathy as it can become permanent nerve damage, then they can reduce last T dose to prevent this.
Onco or GP can prescribe Difflam mouth wash but if you get oral thrush you need diff meds. Think we have all had oral thrush on T, again mention to Onco.
I have used Aloe Vera toothpaste from the first day of chemo, I get it from Boyes, around 1.69 a tube, has worked well.
I am also convinced that my daily teaspoon of Manuka honey 20+ grade has saved my mouth from ulcers. I see Lidl is doing 15+grade for 5.99 at mo.
H
Mai I am sooo happy for you ???
Glad you are back in the game.
Big day for 3 of you tomorrow!!!
Great news.
I get as excited about all of your treatment and progress as I do about mine.
We really are all in this together ( leave no one behind)
Great news Mai I’m sooooooo pleased your back up and getting back on track again hope all goes well tomorrow.
With this loratadine what brand have you all been buying? Is this something I can start taking now and then continue each day all year round? I used 2 take antihistamine tablets for hey fever during the summer but luckily for what ever reason my hey fever cleared up a few years ago it was strange because I’d always suffered badly before.
Good news, the blood dance has worked for me and chem 6 is good to go tomorrow!! The nurse said my blood levels (too technical for me to understand the lingo) were back to pre chemo levels and I was obviously doing something right. Apart from drinking protein shakes for 3 days prior to each blood test I am far from the perfect patient, craving carbs, eating fish and chips and generally ignoring the healthy eating diet I promised I would do.
I have to ring between 8-9am tomorrow as they said if chemo was authorised today by Onco they would give me special last treat and get me started earlier than my appmt!
Heather
Good news for you all ladies.
Glad you are back on course mai. Hope all goes well today rosie. Just back from no 8/9. Woo hoo one to go! Although she said my blood levels are dropping so need to watch for next week as may have to miss my last one. Nooooooo. So Im doing blood dance non stop till next Tuesday. Are there any tips on getting your levels back up? What are the guidelines for levels does anybody know?
So jealous you are all buying new pjs . Sainsburys ones look so cute might buy them as a treat for end of chemo. When I get there x
I’m also undecided on Quorn. I did start eating it as an alternative but then read bad reports so not sure?? X
Katie, I read somewhere on an American chemo site, that the best thing to do is increase protein intake prior to blood tests for chemo. I eat chicken, eggs, peanut butter etc a lot on chemo and drink high protein milk shakes. Yes you get extra calories from adding milk shakes but I just do it for 3 days prior to blood test. Got some 35g protein shakes from Morrisons recently, I drink half with my breakfast and half after lunch. Weetabix also do a 21g breakfast shake which I used to have too. I have only had one bad blood test and that was when I picked up my son’s sore throat and kept using cough mixture and didn’t read the label, it had alcohol in it and my liver function was a bit iffy, but on retest was ok for chemo.
H
Well done Mai - so you’re in with Heather and I tomorrow - I’ll be thinking of you both as that delightful cocktail hits my system for the FINAL time…! We’ll then be going through the side effects together - where days 3-8 feel like a lifetime!
Heather you best not start before 11 as that’s so unfair…!!! haha!!!
You have all set me off wanting pjs with balloons and caravans so may have to treat myself as celebratory treat for end of chemo!
Good luck Mai tomorrow, won’t be long before you get to the last one!
Wolfee, I use loratidine for hay fever and I buy a cheap generic, go to boots and you’ll find their own brand, but next to it is an even cheaper one. The active ingredients are exactly the same so don’t buy the expensive brands like Clarityn. I take one a day from march to mid-July but I’ve stopped now as “my” pollens have ended for the year. So guess what? I’m going to start again!
Thanks again to all you ladies for the brilliant tips and info!
Thanks Mai7,
I eat a lot of chicken. I don’t eat red meat (unless processed I’ll eat a sausage, burger, ham in sandwiches) but I don’t like steak, chops or lamb joint etc. So cutting out processed meat or reducing what I eat leaves mostly chicken and I can’t afford only buying organic.
I do like mince and eat a lot of bolognase, mince and potato etc so I think I will replace all mince with quorn mince and perhaps chicken style chunks in currys etc and deli slices in a sandwich. Even if it’s not great for me the alternative of processed meat is also bad but personally I feel the quorn has less cancer risk??? It’s also low in fat.
Apart from veg everything appears 2 be bad in some way especially for breast cancer. I’ll probably still eat pork or beef mince but replace every other one with quorn. I’ll still have the odd treat of bacon. Same with dairy. I’ll switch to almond milk and dairy free butter and yogurts but if I fancy some cheese while eating out or a friend offers me a coffee with normal milk I’ll still have it I’m hoping reducing dairy, meat etc is better than having full amounts.
Continuing eating dairy free, meat free and organic I feel is unrealistic for me I could perhaps do it for a year but for life??? And the cost I really can’t afford it all the alternative options cost a lot more. I do find a lot of the dairy alternative products have soy in them so it’s not even as simple as looking for the dairy free label in the supermarket your limited to perhaps one brand in cheese that is soy and dairy free and yep it will be the one that’s £3 more expensive!!
Gosh all this makes me nervous and again contributes to my anxiety of never leading a normal life again!!!
Great news Mai. For our fab trio, go bust some chemo moves tomorrow (in a Charlie’s Angels kind of way).
I am aiming for meat and dairy to be organic. I avoid Quorn but that’s because it has the same effect on my bowels as Dozy Tax Hell ??.
Heather and Mai - hope you’ve remembered to take your steriods today… buzzing is how I feel! Going to steam through a pile of ironing now…! Got my pre-op assessment at 5.30 today - whoo this is all getting too much!
Yes taken steroids but 1st dose was late at 11.30 as nurses too busy to look at bloods when I phoned at 9am breakfast time. Just taken 2nd dose now. Not worried about being up late or awake early, got loads to catch up on Netflix so can have a late night and will take nap tomorrow afternoon. I think knowing that it is the last one I don’t care if I asleep or not, kind of excited like night before going on holiday!!!
Great news musketeers ?We will all be cheering you on tomorrow.
Just had pre op chat with nurse. Provisional date for op 12th Oct.
I like to know what is coming, what to expect and what to look out for.
I can do this !!!
I know what you mean, I am not brave , I have no choice.
X
Wow. Looks like there is a lot going on for people this week! Good luck to everyone and hope treatments go smoothly.
With regards to food, I think if I’d try to change my diet too much I wouldn’t stick to it, so everything in moderation (with the odd pig out thrown in), the one good thing to come out of all this is I’ve increased m veg intake!
I think I’ve got PJ envy. I’d be popping to Sainsbury’s this weekend myself for some but the nearest decent size one is 30 miles away!
Fingers crossed for everyone this week.