Hi, I was just wondering about others experiences leading up to chemo?
I had my lumpectomy beginning of Feb and its taken quite a while to get my chemo start date of 11 May. I’m currently battling a filling that hasn’t worked and I now have to have my tooth removed as it’s too late for me to have a root canal so close to chemo. I’m really angry that I now have to lose a tooth as well as all the things that come with cancer and chemo.
I’ve not had much info from my chemo team. Don’t have a clinic date yet for my bloods, haven’t been told anything about hair care with cold capping and preparation, what I need to bring etc. Feeling very much left to get on with it.
Anyone else just left with a chemo start date and time and nothing else?
Hi @Loubie25
You may have seen my little outburst on the April starters thread 
so I do understand how you feel. I had a chemo start date and no bloomin bloods done What I would recommend to everyone is to try and get a visit to the chemo unit beforehand if possible, I found it really helpful and came away from chatting to the nurse there feeling much more positive. No harm in asking hun x
Hi Loubie
I’m starting chemo the same day as you. I haven’t had surgery yet as my tumour is HER2+ and my surgeon wants me to have chemo first - though it does seem like a lot of women have surgery first even with the same type of tumour so I’m not 100% clear why. It’s been a rollercoaster getting to this stage as I was booked in for surgery before the HER2 test came back and then once I was told I was going to have to have chemo first instead, it seemed like it was going to be ages to actually get it.
What I’ve found helpful is to chase my breast care nurse to chase everyone else and that seems to have helped get the chemo booked in. Once the appointment was arranged, I got contacted quite quickly for blood tests etc but if it’s not happening for you can you chase your breast care nurse or whoever your contact is? When I got my appointment letter for chemo I also got a letter with an invitation to book a chemotherapy workshop that runs weekly at the hospital through Macmillan. If you’ve got a Macmillan centre at your hospital I’d suggest you contact them as I think that’s going to be very helpful. The other thing that has helped me is I had an appointment to talk to my oncologist last week - she told me all about the type of chemo I’ll be having as well as what side effects to expect (summary: they do not sound good!). So when you chase up your contact person ask them when you’re meeting your oncologist or ask them to chase up your appointment. Don’t worry about chasing them - that’s part of their job. I also asked the oncologist if I was due to have any more tests apart from the various blood tests I’d already had and she booked me in for a heart echo as this hadn’t been done. I’m sure I’m a pain but I think it’s always better to ask I don’t want my treatment postponed because I haven’t had the right tests.
I’m sorry to hear about your tooth. I hate going to the dentist and have an appointment booked at the end of the month that I’ll have to cancel unless they can fit me in before treatment starts.
Good luck with finding out more information - let us know how you get on x