Hi Ladies
I hope that you have all had a good weekend started a new post as the other one was getting a bit long…who is chemo this week Dilys is it you or Pauline??? I am losing track…had my forth zapping today, I was in and out within 10 mins which was a bonus, at the moment the time is just flying by…I really feel like I am getting somewhere now as on chemo I felt like I was getting no where fast…
have a good eveing
Love
Lucy
Hi All
Lucy, I’m glad you are getting on ok with radiotherapy and the time is flying by. Won’t be long and you will be completely finished with treatment.
I hope you are still ok Dilys and stay out of hospital this time.
Pauline, I just wanted to wish you luck for tomorrow. Halfway through after that one.
Love to all.
Love Lollie x
Dearest Lucy and Lollie
Thanks very much for the good wishes for tomorrow. As you say Lollie - halfway after this one.
Lucy I am so pleased that the radiotheraphy is going well for you and that time is going by fast.
Dilys hope you are still okay.
What a terrible weekend weatherwise. Managed to get out to the garden centre but that was about it.
Saw a beautiful bird there, I have the male version at home, it was female and so tame. I fell in love
until I asked the price £550.!!! I could get a pedigree dog for that. Oh well my one will just have to
stay lonely.!!!
Tomorrow I see the oncologist before the chemo to discuss the change to Taxotere for the fourth one.
Lollie if I don’t get back on here (hope I do) before I wish you a very happy holiday for the 25th, really enjoy yourself
and forget everthing for a couple of weeks.
love to all
Pauline
xxxx
Dear All
Good luck today Pauline. Let me now what they say about taxotere as I will be changing next time too, and they told me nothing at all. What sort of bird do you have then? Lollie have a great holiday and hope you get good weather. The current lot is starting to get me down a bit I must say. Otherwise am fine and well impressed with Lucy scooting through rads so well. It must be great to feel you are making progress.
Loads of love to all
Dilys
xxx
Dearest Dilys
Thanks for the good wishes today, don’t have this one until late this afternoon. I will let you know what they say about Taxotere.
Sorry to hear you are feeling a bit down, is it that you don’t feel too good or are just generally a bit fed up with the whole thing?
I have a Senegal Parrot which is the one that lost its mate a couple of years ago. I also have a Cockatiel. I had loads of birds until
quite recently including a Macaw and a beautiful talking African Grey, but they have gradually died and I am now left with just two.
Quite enough really with present circumstances.
Unfortunately a dear friend of ours died last week and his funeral is on Friday. I just hope I am well enough to go. Strange how you
seem to get a run of these bad times.
Lots of love and keep happy.
Pauline
xxx
Dear Pauline
Thanks for that - look forward to hearing what they say. I have just picked up steroids which I am told you have to start taking the day before. Let’s see if they say the same to you. I am ok really - I always get this non sleeping phase a few days after chemo, which is nothing really, but coupled with the weather gets me down a bit. Just need a good slapping really. And I cant complain. Lunch with a friend on Thursday and my brother and family coming over the weekend. Your birds sound just great. Sorry about the ones you have lost though. I still think of your Westie Lucy sometimes. You must still miss her. These things all seem to come at the wrong time sometimes, don’t they? And so sorry to hear about your friend. I do feel for you. Hope you will be ok to go to the funeral, sad occasions though they are.
So worry not about me - just being wimp lke and tired of it all. It will pass as soon as the sun comes out again! Hope it goes well for you this afternoon my love
Lots of love
Dilys
xxxxxx
Hi Ladies
God I am so tired with the travelling - I just get home and zonk out…I am glad to see that You are ok Dilys and I hope that you are ok with the chemo today Pauline…this is it, after this one the time just fly’s by and you wont know where it has gone…before you know where you are you will be onto rads…You do get tired of it all especially with chemo, but with rads you dont have time to stop and think, its quite weird…
oh well keep your chins up my loves
Love
Lucy
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Hi Lucy my love
Can’t tell you how glad we all are that you are still with us on here. You give me heart to go on with it. Not that we really have much choice! But lovely to hear you sounding so much better. It is so so good. Thinking back to when we first all started we have come so far. I am now half waythrough though today I did get confirmation of a whole year on herceptin. Is that happening for you Lucy? Or is it just Pauline and me? I expect I should be grateful rather than resentful! I do remember people fighting for it when it seemed so far from my own life.
Anyway lovely to hear from you Lucy and Pauline, I hope it went well today for you.
Love you all so much
Dilys
xxxx
Hi Dilys
No I don’t have any more treatment after this I just have to take my chances as I am triple negative, some say this is a disadvantage, but i am just glad to still be here and am going to live my life as I would have before…well I have made a few changes, like not getting stressed, but I think you get my drift…I am glad that I can help some times I don’t think i am very useful, especially when i get a bit down with it all, but I know everyone feels like that sometimes…
my consultant has always tried to make me believe that i will be fine and to stop worrying and that is the way I am going, he is such a wonderful and everything he has ever said to me has been right so I trust him fully…
oh well going to go to bed soon ready for another 5 hour round trip for 2 mins zapping…
Love as always
Lucy
XXXXX
Dear Lucy
Lovely thought to be able to try to get back to normal. And to be less stressed. I am so pleased for you. And you ARE useful! Don’t think otherwise. Yo have given us all hope through this lot. I am feeling more cheerful today - I actually slept ok and I think those couple of days not sleeping after chemo just get me down. Even if the weather is still ghastly I am on the up. Feeling ok too so far. When do your rads end then?
Pauline - how did it go yesterday? Hope you are all right today. We are both now well on through the treatment (well, this stage) and should be quietly pleased with ourselves.
Lollie, Candy and Dahlia - how are you all? Hope all is well. Anone else given in and put their heating back on, or am I an utter wimp?
Loads of love
Dilys
xxx
Hello Dilys, hello all (sound like Lionel Blue on R4!!!)
I have had my heating on at least for a short while every day and I now think that there hasn’t been a month this year when it hasn’t been on at least once!!! The weather is a disappointment and an easy target for complaint but we’d really no direct effect from the floods and looking at Hurricane Dean and its devastation I feel uneasy about having the real rant I’d like to have about the weather and the result lack of cycling!!!
Poor old Lucy - didn’t realise it was a 5 hour round trip - that’s a bit much. I also found that radiotherapy sucked up half a day every day but then changed my appointments to 8.30 so I was first in the queue, in fact I WAS the queue. I could get home for 10.30 and still have plenty of the day left to do things plus I wasn’t sleeping well so leaving home around 6.15 wasn’t a bother.
Pauline - it sounds like Bird World at your home. I’ve never imagined birds to be good company somehow. Do they all stop “twittering” at night and go to sleep when told?
Hm, the sun has just popped out, wonder how long that will last? Actually I think we’re in for imrpovement over the holiday weekend so fingers crossed.
Love to all
D
Hi Dahlia
Lovely to hear from you - sun? Where did that come from? Rain and gloom here for days! You are right of course - worse things happen, but am glad am not the only one with the heating on (and a thickish jumper). Yes indeed fingers crossed for the weekend. Suppose it can’t actually get much worse (ho ho). At least I am getting a lot of reading done while not feeling like walking in the park. Next week we have the neighbours dogs to look after - for a fortnight actually - so hope it will pick up by then or the dogs will lack exercise!
Lots of love to al
Dilys
xxxx
Hi Ladies
Hi Dilys - it is the steriods that keep you awake during the chemo days, I cant image having to take them the day before…it was a problem I used to rove around all night for the 3 days I was on them…My dad has had his heating on, today I went to London with a thick jacket and a winter scarf and left the wig at home it was so blowy I didnt relish having to chase it down the platform at the train station…well I have had 6 to date of the rads and it seems to be going ok, saw the doctor for a routine appointment she seems to think it is going ok too…if it wasnt for the travelling it would be a doddle, I am dreading the tube strike as part of my journey is overground the other is underground…ho hum as it its not bad enough - without having to contend with a strike as well…
love Lucy
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Hi Lucy
You back already? Your journey sounds a nightmare. When exacly do you finish all the treatment?
I hadn’t realised it was the steroids - thanks for that. Oddly enough the sleeplessness starts after I have finished them. For the next lot of chemo I have more to take, 8 a day starting the day before taxotere. Such joy. Know what you mean about wigs and wind. I feel much safer in the turban in this weather. Think my OH prefers the wig but then it is me that has to worry! I have new glasses to collect later and I am taking my thick coat with me! ven the cats are refusing to go out today for more than a few minutes at a time.
Lots of love
Dilys
xxxx
Hi All
Touch wood this has been the best treatment so far.
Lucy glad time is flying by with your rads, although the journey is such a nuisance. As Dilys said, you are far from useless you have been an inspiration to us.
Dahlia, yes the birds do stop twittering at night, but wake up very early in the morning!!!
Dilys, enjoy looking after the dogs, do they get on okay with your cats? I do so miss my Westie, when I have finished chemo I am considering fostering a Westie
from the rescue society. That way you don’t have the long term commitment. We will see.
They told me a bit more about the Taxotere yesterday. Like you say, 8 steriods for three days. Evidentally the sickness is not usually so bad with the Taxotere
as with the FEC but you can get joint aches and pains like flu. Also it can effect your nails,but they said as we are only getting 3 doses that might not happen.
Don’t know if you remember, but Lollie mentioned using dark nail polish helps. I have to go one day to see the nursedoctor and the next to get the treatment.
As it is so dear my hospital will not make it up until they are positive you are going ahead. Don’t know if that will apply to you. Oh yes, and sometimes it can effect your gut, diorherra, constipation, but they easily combat that with medication. That’s about all I know at the moment.
You were mentioning wigs, the funny thing is I am much happier in my wigs than anything else, although they do get a bit itchy after a few hours. I haven’t had a problem wth them coming off - yet!!!
Keep cheerful.
lots of love.
Pauline
xxxx
Tax …
Hi gals
Yes, extra steroids with the Tax (had 4) so when I had it, as with the FEC, I was sleepless and getting up at 2 a.m. to do the ironing I’d so carefully saved up!!! I got to the point where I was going to “take in” some to keep me busy but that seemed just a bit loopy.
Re: nails, then I lost a layer off some toenails and they went a bit beige but not noticeable unless someone was kissing my feet - still waiting for some brave person to do that!!! No PAIN in the process whatsoever. My fingernails were a different matter, they went quite ridgey and “not nice” so I kept them filed down all the time. Worst was the thumbnails splitting down the middle cos they caught on everything but it didn’t happen until I’d almost finished the Tax and by then the hair was already growing back in as compensation! I bought finger cots to cover my thumbs when in public because we were on holiday and eating out every night when they were at their worst (2-3 weeks after the end of chemo). Finger cots are NOT easy to come by (thumb cost don’t seem to exist) so have some on standby - I hunted high and low. A relative even went on the search in Canada!!! I got two washable ones eventually but they are, well, let’s say they stand out like a sore thumb!!! The rubbers ones, which might just as well be condoms if you’re desperate, were a bit tight and sweaty so only wore them in emergencies or when I wanted to look inconspicuous - as if I could! The toenails recovered fully after a couple of months. The fingernails also seemed to recover well and quickly except the poor old thumbs took a bit longer.
Everything they give us involves constipation and Tax is no different in fact I’m beginning to wonder if breathing causes constipation!!! I ate (and still try to eat) loads of fruit and avoided any “problems” except for the first day or two after each session. Fresh apricots are good, blueberries, any red berries. All citrus is good too but my tastebuds went a bit funny by the 6th/7th chemo so couldn’t eat bananas, grapefruit, oranges. Overdosed on strawberries once or twice but think maybe I didn’t take enough cream with them!!!
The bone pain from the Tax was definitely noticeable and with a bit of detective work I discovered I was a lot worse when I had the Neulasta (blood count booster aka GCSF). It had been fine with FEC but the Tax/Neulasta combo didn’t work for me so I refused the last ones and was right as rain, no pain at all. Maybe it wasn’t the combo, maybe it was coincidence but it kept me happy and fit and free from Paracetamol, Codeine etc.
If I haven’t mentioned it before the Tax gave me the most prolific wind … but only during my waking hours!!! Honestly it was tremendous and when you don’t own a dog … My husband thought I could probably compete at county level but since we weren’t aware of any competitions I didn’t get any medals!
Oh, it’s good to see some sun today and sit outside at lunchtime for a change. Been listening to the BC and MRI scan item from Woman’s Hour - cringe, cringe and cringe again.
Have a good evening all
D
Dear Dilys and Dahlia
I had just remembered they told me your immune system was destroyed even more by Tax and that you were likely to get an injection if the blood count
wasn’t up to scratch, then discovered Dahlia had mentioned it!
Thanks for the info on Tax Dahlia, it is much better to hear from someone who has been there, particularly when you have a lovely way of expressing yourself with
humour.
I think I had better get that Foster Dog sooner rather than later, if I am to suffer that much wind!
I don’t know where you are, but the weather has been terrible here all day, rain, cloud, more rain, certainly not the weather for sitting outside for lunch.
Don’t know if any of you are into football, but I shall be cheering England along tonight, well they need all the help they can get.
love to all
Pauline
xxxx
Hi Ladies
yes I was home quite quickly today as I was seen before time, rather than being kept 1/2 an hour over time due to various reasons from people having to be sedated God knows why…to machines breaking down to them forgetting me on Monday…my treatment should finish on the 19th of September as far as I know barring any mishaps or tube strikes that are planned…
I had terrible wind with FEC, my partner was disgusted with it and wouldnt believe it was the chemo…I could have done with a dog, but blamed my dad instead…I am glad Dahlia can help you with the tax, just think in 8-9 weeks time you will have finished it and thinking about rads…
I think anyone on the platform today with a wig probably would have lost it…
Love
Lucy
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Dear All
Thanks so much my loves. Just checking before bed and found so much companionship and information! Can’t wait for the wind. Dahlia I had laughed out loud at some of your earlier descriptions! Personally I shall blame my poor cats! More tomorrow my darlings. And thank you Pauline for the information. Dogs get along fine with my cats - they live with two cats normally so have no worries!
Lots of love
Dilys
xxx
Hi Ladies
Oh for God’s sake I come home to the news that the tube are on strike for 6 days during my treatment…these people are so selfish, no one knows where there job is going to take them I think they need to get a life…
sorry I am so angry that I probably wont be able to get to my treatment…
Love
Lucy
xxxx