Hi Cybele. Good luck for today! I loved last night’s blog, sums it up perfectly! Like you, I am having ‘just in case’ chemo and have my 6th next week. Profile pic is me on New Year’s Eve with my own hair after 5 FEC and 2 weeks Which shows that the cold cap has worked although my hair is a lot thinner.
I really hope they give you enough sickness mess this time, if nothing else to annoy the nausea demon Ad render him redundant!
Jayne x
wow! thank you so much for posting that, Jayne, it really couldn’t have come at a better time, as I’m sitting here with a severely frozen head! Your hair looks great! That is very,very cheering - fingers crossed my hair will imitate yours! xxx THANKS!! xxx
Oh dear, I failed my blood test. The only other thing I have ever failed was my driving test. Was a lot more upset about that than this. I get a chemo holiday until next wednesday now. Woohoo. That’s if I don’t succumb to infection. Always good to look on the bright side. x
Oh Cressida! Always looking on the bright side… you are amazing… Enjoy your break then…which number was this meant to be?
mx
It would have been the start of the second 3 week cycle, but I get 2 every 3 weeks, so I like to count it as number 3 rather than 2(a) as the chemo unit call it. I have just read that and even I don’t understand it. I have gem and carbo in week 1 and just gem in week 2 then I have a week 3 off. It would have been gem and carbo number 2. Clear as mud.
Good afternoon Crackers. I had my second dose of EC chemo on Monday and am feeling ok at the moment, just tired and a bit ‘spaced out’ from time to time.
Cybele hope you are safely home and defrosted from your cold cap and chemo and the anti-sickness drugs you get are enough to keep that demon at bay for you this time round.
Jayne - hair looking plentiful!
Lolly123 nice fringe! I never thought to keep some length at the front so I’ve got the GI Jane look, although it’s starting to go patchy now.
Cressida - thank you so much for your honest post - no point trying to dust icing sugar over a pile of sh** and my goodness you certainly have shovelled some!
Marie - keep that feistiness going and pop those bottles of vino into the garage for Spring/Summer when I’m sure they will taste like heaven!
Mandyp - Backache!! Tell me about it. First I thought I’d got a kidney infection, then the fear of C spreading to spine…aaaaaaaaaaargh, now just hoping it’s all down to tension like you. I have also suffered with headaches which of course I’ve thought the worst and driven myself nuts about - Oncologist seems to think these things are normal SE’s though so I’m just going with the flow!
Lisalouw - good luck for Friday - one of the nurses I was chatting to on Monday when I had my second EC told me she hadn’t seen anyone have an allergic reaction in the 6 months she’d been at my hospital, so maybe it’s not as common as we fear and I’m sure they’ll keep their eye on you and soon sort things out if anything were to happen. I’ll be having Taxotere for cycles 4-6 and also worry about having a reaction.
To everyone else, a big hug - laugh, cry, shout, scream or quietly plod on…it doesn’t matter how we get through it - we are all coming through this together. I know there are plenty of cold dark winter days to come, but before too long the daffodils and tulips will be nodding in the Spring sunshine, birds singing at the crack of dawn (preferably not on my bedroom bay window canopy at 4am please) and we can look back with a one fingered salute and tell everyone that follows in our footsteps that we were all Crackers and we are proud of each other!!
Michelle xx
Michelle - what an uplifting post! thank you… and thanks for telling me about the backache…i have been totally consumed with it rather than getting my self better!!! this is such a scary disease that my mind has been pretty cruel…
big hugs. x
Michelle - lovely post. You are all such lovely ladies on here and as you say we will al pull together and get out of this bloody long tunnel
Love to all
Wendy x x
Hi again all,
I hope you managed to have a half-decent new year. I had some friends to stay, which was nice. We celebrated new year with Helsinki (i.e. at 10pm) so I didn’t have to stay up late!
I’m on day six since the chemo started (I’ve started with T, rather than FEC). The main HORRIBLE symptom I’ve ended up with is oral thrush. I feel dirty just thinking about it - ugh! I have a fuzzy mouth, a horrible taste, and it’s spread down my throat too. I went and got some mouth rinse from the doc this morning, but I wondered if anyone else had had this? Does it clear up a bit, or can I look forward to for the forseeable? Also, is there any food advice? I’ve seen that sugar is a bad idea. The district nurse suggested pinapple juice might help, but that’s obviously quite sugary.
Other than that, the lack of sleep is doing my head in a bit. I manage about five hours, then am awake for the rest of the night, and wrecked for the day. Going to try zopiclone from the doc.
There are so many posts from you all, that it’s hard to respond to any particular one. And although we’re in the same boat in some ways, we’re in quite different boats in other ways. I, for example, only found out that I had cancer six weeks ago, and am carting my little lump around with me during my pre-surgery chemo, and hoping that it behaves itself and doesn’t go spreading itself anywhere else in the meantime (it’s already a bit in the nodes, but the CT scan says it isn’t anywere else).
Anyway, even as a peripheral and late-joining member of the group, it’s good to know we can compare notes and give each other long-distance, electronic support and hugs.
Elee x
Hi Elee, just read your post about oral thrush - I had it bad too when I had my TAX back in August- doc prescribed Nyastin (sp?) which worked well. Good luck and remember this will all pass and you’ll come out on the other side, Em X
Elee try pineapple or even tinned pineapple it is supposed to be really good for thrush. Ask at next chemo they have given me pills to take on day 7 for thrush as a matter of course as Tax is noted for it . also carrying a 48mm lump around with me in the meantime . Have to have 4 Tax so scan after number 2 to check working hopefully kicking the bugger up the butt.
had number 1 on 31st so far so good bit achey today that’s all
Wendy x x
Back home from FEC2 and feeling quite stoned, just like I did last time.
don’t know why I was so freaked out about having the chemo yesterday, it was all perfectly pleasant, and the only instant effect is the wooziness and being Very Spaced Out again. Nausea should not be too bed till Day 3, as have had IV Fosapprepitant (Emend) and IV Ondywhatsit and the steroids, and have got the combo of Dom Peridone + Cyclizine to keep me going after all that wears off. It kept the nausea mostly under control, and bearable, once the Cyclizine w s added to my daily meds.
Wow, am feeling v.v. tired now - gotta go and lie down for a bit xxxxx
Thanks Em and Wendy for the advice on thrush. The doc gave me Nystan, and I’ve got myself some pinapple juice. I’ll ask for the pills next time - it started pretty much on day 1, but is totally gross today. Hopefully it will clear quickly!
I’ve just got myself a giant tupperware box for all the meds, with a pretty sticker saying “Elee’s Tub o’ Drugs” on top. Have to entertain myself somehow.
Happy floating, Cybele! Hope your return to Earth isn’t too rocky 
Was thinking of you today Cybele. Hope you manage to get some sleep! x
Thanks Elki and Mandy - last time, the crash came about day 3… but at least this time I’ve got lots more meds instantly available if needed. Makes a huge psychological difference.
On twitter, I just referred to #ChemoBrain as #ChemoBrian, so it’s DEFINiTELY time for a little lie down…
If I can’t sleep tonight, then that is what the Lorazepam is for, altho’ did manage OK immediately after FEC 1 - it was the next day that the sleeplessness kicked in
AlPal, hope it’s going OK, and that our OH is SHAPING UP;
Maire, sorry to hear how rotten you’ve been feeling xxxxx,
Wendy, hope you keep on feeling ok xxx,
Michelle , what a FAB post and yes, here’s to the spring XXX
Shaz you are so right - the fear before the first chemo is definitely the worst bit, once it’s a KNOWN quantity, it’s so much easier to deal with, psychologically
Lisalouw - best of luck for tomorrow - positive thoughts will be winging their way towards you from W6
sukiem thank you , and YAY!! for you finishing xxx
lolly thank you xxxx and I think your photo looks very fine indeed x
Love and hugs to everyone, and an especially big hug to the lovely Cressida, who has been going through ALTOGETHER TOO BL***Y MUCH.
Here’s to Cress - *a virtual toast, as I can’t face a real one* xxx
Elkie - only fresh pineapple has the enzyme for fixing ulcers and other afflictions of the mouth lining. The Nystan worked for me. Wierdly, it also tasted nice when nothing else did.
To everyone - clink!
hi you lovely December ladies, I’ve been following your posts for a while now getting lots of tips,do’s and donts, what a lot of information I’ve gained from you all, so just want to say a big thank you and you have helped to prepare me for my 1st “dose” on Friday.Really scared no REALLY SCARED. Good luck all you December ladies I shall still visit you from my January jems home to collect more tips.
BIG thank you.
Patxxx
Will be thinking of you on Friday Pat.
lots of love
xxx
Thanks Cressida, I did think maybe fresh pineapple would be the thing, because of the enzymes, but the district nurse seemed to think any old pineapple would do. I’ll go on the hunt for a fresh one, as the pineapple juice just gave me terrible heartburn. The Nystan is very tasty though
Pat, good luck with starting. I was really scared the day before, but the actual experience wasn’t scary. And it seems the side effects sort of sneak up on you a bit more slowly, so there’s time to get to know them (I speak as a very experienced day-sixer).
‘Chemo Brian arrives, and the Primani Snood is introduced’: