Well done @rbf!! What an achievement, to have finished your chemo! Do you have surgery next or further treatment?
@dilly I’m waiting for radiotherapy, but the oncologist said there’s a really long delay for it in my trust so who knows when that will happen!
I had my surgery at the end of July with a clear but close margin and my oncotype showed my tumour was a high recurrence risk, hence the chemo.
So next I start the anastrazole tablets and the monthly Zoladex injections in January and first Zometa infusion in February.
I will be put on ribociclib too, but they won’t start that until I’ve finished radiotherapy.
I’m not expecting it all to be a walk in the park, but I’m really hoping it won’t be as taxing as the chemo has been 
Well done, it’s a great milestone to finish your chemo. I hope the side effects are not too bad for your last one x
I had my last EC yesterday. I start paclitaxel in January so held way through now. My oncologist finally prescribed the emend anti sickness for this round and so far it is working. It is so much better not having that daily awful nausea. Still feeling very tired but it’s more manageable without the nausea. I hope everyone else is coping well. X
Thank you 
Well done on completing EC, and so glad you have a more effective antiemetic - nausea is MISERABLE! Hope you have an ok cycle x
It’s all so complex and drawn out, isn’t it @rbf. I was diagnosed on July 30th, and I remember saying to my breast care nurse ‘This time next year I’ll be all back to normal!’ And I couldn’t understand why she said ‘Well, let’s not get too ahead of yourself!!
I hope you have a lovely Christmas and some time to regroup before your next treatment x
Well done @rbf!!! Huge milestone passed! 
I hope there are no side effects at all from this last round and you can really enjoy Christmas knowing you have this part of treatment ticked off 
x
Absolutely, it’s not a quick fix for sure.. sometimes the term ‘warrior’ makes me cringe, but we actually are! There’s so many battles to conquer in order to win the war.
We were close in diagnosis timing - I was June 30th!
Wow!! what an amazing achievement @rbf you must be feeling very overwhelmed!! 
I hope this cycle your last cycle is kind to you!! 
xxxx
That’s brilliant @rbf hope the side effects are minimal! Gives us all hope that we are getting there! Lots of love!
@rbf that is so amazing!! Also I thought you had you had to wait to ring the bell until after all treatment, would love to do it after chemo as it feels like a massive achievement to complete it!
You would never be kicked off, I think this will end up going throughout next year with everyone hitting similar points at similar times and encouraging each other on! Its such a supportive group, I know I couldn’t have got through the past couple of months without this group!
I really hope you are doing much better this time round @lumpybyebye now you are a few days after chemo.
Thank you! Oh my nurse was adamant I had to ring the bell to mark the end of chemo milestone! 
Lots still to come for sure, but chemotherapy is such a slog, right we should get to celebrate the end of that! 
Yeah that’s it, none of us are suddenly going to be suddenly back to normal after chemo and I’m sure we will all have challenges ahead, I love the support of this group 
@tessie86 TBH im wiped out … refuced my Docetaxel to 80% kept Cyclophosphamide 100% it’s still a bugger. In the knackered days, waiting for pegfil pain days next then the chemo surprise days. Grateful I only have 2 rounds left in January, it has been shite. My other medical conditions havent helped my progress but here we are still plodding along. Im aiming for wearing actual clothes tomorrow rather than pjs! Ignoring my chemo round face at the moment with with glands all up and swollen … hoping it will subside in a few days. I will not be going back to hospital! Determined. Tummy is a mess, water retention all over the place and on and on … when you think about it too much it gets depressing. Itll all come good in 2026 
@rbf congratulations 
that’s amazing you’ve completed chemo! We’ll all be joining that milestone over the next few months and moving on to our next treatments, so we all definitely need you and all of us in the forum for a long time yet!
I’ll be starting my first cycle of 12 weekly sessions on Weds now that EC is done. Because of the issues I’ve experienced with the steroids, my Oncologist has suggested swapping from Paclitaxel to another drug called Abraxane but also referred to as Nab-Paclitaxel. They are very similar, but the Abraxane doesn’t need me to have steroids along with it. It’s more expensive so he needs to get approval for it but fingers crossed. It looks like it’s only a 30 min infusion time too which will be helpful with the cold capping.
After EC#4 I’ve had horrendous pain with Piles/Hemorrhoids. My god, the pain! I’ve almost passed out after each bowel movement. I’d say it’s in the same ballpark pain wise as childbirth. Hoping it clears up before next chemo Weds.
Hope everyone else is doing ok and managing to find some joy over the xmas period which is not easy given all we are going through xx
@Mairead_49 my arse feels your pain. Last night I had 5 hrs of Chemo farts every few minutes. 
Bloody awful but also mildly amusing. I’ve invested in haemorrhoid cream. My new wee friend. Zero dignity with this life now. Trying to find the humour. I actually woke my daughter in the room next door up at 1am with a thunderous one, she was laughing. Thankfully no accompanying diarrhea- the velocity would kill my beige carpets, lol.
Ouchy to botty pain!!! Poor you! 
@lumpybyebye 
thankfully I haven’t had that, but even a bit of air escaping was a pain level 10/10. Tell you what though, the smell of farts after chemo - wow 
! Luckily my family haven’t been down wind of one yet.
@rbf thanks, it’s something I hope to never experience again.
My word this chemo life is nothing but glamorous!
my husband and girls have been literally running away from me because of my wind and my word i’ve always been windy but this and the smell is next level:joy:
@lumpybyebye i hope u managed clothes today and i hope this round is kinder i feel like a swollen chipmunk too! 
@Mairead_49 i feel your pain! i’ve suffered bad with constipation and the piles from child birth have come back to annoy!!
not fun! have u got treatment for it?
I really hope in good days christmas can be enjoyed guys! Love to you all 
@Mairead_49 and @lumpybyebye just seen this, totally with you on the mad guts and butthole pain. It’s been a feature of EC2 , that I hadn’t had on EC1. Felt like I was shitting and farting shards of glass. And my guts were in spasms after eating, continuing for a few hours. Went to see GP who didn’t find piles or fissures, just redness and extreme tenderness. Got steroid/antibiotic cream which is amazingly helping a lot. And I’ve cut out lactose which seems to be helping loads with gut spasms and farting xx
Has anyone else had the skin on the bottom of their feet crack into painful splits? I’ve got a nasty one on my right foot that’s currently got sudocrem and a dressing, and I’ve just realised there’s another starting on my other foot 