Off to Cornwall tomorrow for half-term, hoping to come back refreshed and full of beans, what do you reckon my chances are?
Don’t know about you ladies but I still feel like i’ve been hit by a bus. So tired I don’t know what to do with myself.
Anyway I hope you all have a good week. I’ve got my rads starting on 1st. I found the planning absolutely fine and my only worry is how my radiographer will find my tattoos as they are completely indistinguishable from my freckles!!
Take care all and hope you have a great half term.
I went to the docs today to get e new sick note. When he asked how I was feeling I said, fat, breathless and exhausted and that about sums me up at the moment. Take care everyone. Debx
my week away in wales after my last chemo was really good. My husband did most of the chasing round that i normally do, but it really helped as a watershed between chemo and radiotherapy, plus i felt like a worthwhile mum giving my boys a fun time at last, hope you enjoy it, you deserve it
Hmm,well my “feels like a cold without having a cold” comment turned out to be “I have a stinking cold!”. So started radiotherapy sneezing and spluttering everywhere which wasn’t fun for anyone!
Vickie you are so right, the music the radiographers play is just awful, I’ve had dull R&B/soul so far, not even anything I could recognise! All gone well so far, I’ve been slapping on the aqueous cream twice a day and bought Simple soap for baths as they recommended.
Started Herceptin yesterday - got out of hospital this morning… Had a tiny bit of a massive allergic reaction with violent shivering, high temperature (38.3) and rapid pulse, they dosed me up with hydrocortisone, piriton and paracetemol and soon got it under control but it was so late by then (treatment didn’t start until 4.30 for a number of cock-up reasons) that they admitted me overnight, although I was OK by 9pm they didn’t want to restart treatment for the last half hour as they didn’t have enough staff to monitor me for the 6 hours after! So I go back next Friday to have session one again, and this time I get the anti-allergy stuff upfront. I know I hate steroids but it’s not the same as the chemo steroid (which was Dexamethasone or something) and it’s one low dose, so I’ll put up with it, see if I get any side effects from that.
Argh mrs s, you just don’t need that happening!! I had allergic reaction to first tax so they gave me huge dose of piriton before the last two then superslow drip. Took a few hours but no repeat of allergic reaction thankfully. Hope your meds sort out the herceptin allergy for you.
Have had a good few days since rt finished on Wednesday. Kind of just slotted back into normal life . As per usual, this now worries me as prob means there is more physical and psychological angst to come!
Just made pancakes for lunch on the basis there is no bread in the house, therefor pancakes totally justified.
Deb, post Chemo prawns etc are the best prawns in the world. Sod the diet for a while and indulge in tasty recently forbidden food!
Rainy here today. V odd for Manchester in October. Just watchingy five year old fighting his littlebrother, dressed only in a knights helmet and sword. Not a picture for posting on facebook!
Crumbs Mrs S, that sounds nasty. Have you been allergic to anything before? I have my first herceptin on the 1st of nov but my app is for 9.00 am, so hopefully if there are any problems they will have time to sort it. They told me to have two paracetamol before going as I might feel fluey. Hope you are better now and the meeds work well next time.
Diet not going well, took the kids to see despicable me at the cinema and ate a ton of popcorn. Oops.
Vickie hope your duelling knights don’t injure themselves.
Thanks everyone. Well cold is nicely settled in my throat so I spent the night coughing, other half not amused.
Yes, I had a bit of a reaction to the general anaesthetic 8 hours after I came round from my cancer surgery, I passed out and sweated out my entire body weight in liquid! Came round 30 seconds later feeling absolutely fine again but a bit sick and with an entire crash team of 8 female doctors and nurses around my bed!
I think it’s fair to say I react to stuff…
Only noticed yesterday but Taxotere has played one last trick on me - fluid retention! I have very puffy feet, noticed in the last few days my trainers seemed tighter than normal then actually noticed my right foot looked square when I looked down at it, rather than well, foot shaped!
Anyone any advice on how to get rid of excess fluid?! Should I drink more water, less water, do more walking, do less walking?
Mrs S snap on the fluid retention, I feel like I am walking on padded feet and have puffy fingers too. Not really sure what to do. Am sure drinking lots is supposed to help a bit. I am just hoping to wee it all out one day. Sorry about your cold. Debx
Yes Deb, that’s it in a nutshell, I feel like my feet are padded! I thought something was wrong with my trainers for the first couple of days last week! Getting pins and needles in my hands, but that might be because of having them above my head for radiotherapy every day, although my feet feel a bit like that too.
I guess we just wait for it to go away. As long as I can still do up my trainers and I can walk and I’m not in pain, I’m just going with it.
Put in a call to the research sister yesterday afternoon to confirm if I am having Herceptin again this Friday but she hasn’t called me back. She may be off sick or on holiday or only work part time, no idea. If she doesn’t call me back by Thursday I’ll try and get hold of the bed manager or call the ward to see if they are expecting me. I know I have to go up anyway for radiotherapy but I’d rather not turn up at a ward for 8am again unless I have to! They’re all really lovely up there but they’re horribly understaffed.
Mrs S hope your heceptin is good to go and there are no probs I have mine on Monday.
Am really miffed. My onc just rang and hearing her voice scared me witless. She was ringing to tell me my rads are delayed because I need a more precise machine because my tumour was on the left side close to my heart. So have to wait and extra two and a half weeks before starting, and I will need boosters. These were not on my original plan. This takes me right up to Christmas and wrecks our plans to go away. Feel really upset about this all and just needed to get it off my chest.
Hope everyone else is well and rads go smoothly. Debx
Oh Debs, I am sorry that you are upset about the delay but the new machine sounds as if it is the best one for you. But I appreciate that it makes you sad so a hug coming through the air to you. Love Val
Hi Debs,
sounds like they have got your best interests at heart but I can understand you being upset by the delay. Any chance you could go away before the rads start?
I’ve got my planning appt tomorrow so will prob be having my rads at a similar time. I had my last chemo on 27th Sept and just want to get the rads over and done with!!
Hope you are ok apart from feeling upset,
Gill x
Oh Deb, sorry to hear your rads are delayed, but as has been said, they have to get this right so it’s the best interests for you. Big big hug though as it’s rubbish that you have to miss your holiday. x
I finally heard back from the hospital, they (the trial team, the oncologist and the pharmacist) are all happy that the hour’s worth of Herceptin I had on the 22nd was enough to count as a first dose, so I don’t have to repeat that. So I move on to dose two on 12 November, as planned, but I still have to hang around for six hours afterwards to be monitored. However, the Sister has also recommended that I have only paracetemol beforehand and no steroids given the problems I’ve had with them (and she’s only ever used paracetemol for Herceptin allergic reactions and hasn’t had a problem with that in ten years).
I’m happy with that.
Halfway through radiotherapy now, 15 wide zaps and 3 boosty zaps. Bit surprised the actual zapping time is only 30 seconds each way, they spend more time sorting me out on the machine! Bit pink round the area but am bombarding it with aqueous cream. Hot flushes started at the weekend but radiographers are denying it’s anything to do with what they’re doing!
Back from Cornwall and feeling much better. Vickie - You were right the break did me a whole world of good.
Well my big day has been fairly untraumatic to be honest.
Had first rads this morning - totally uneventful other than the hour and a half wait. I hope it’s not like that everyday.
Went back to work. I’ve only been off for 9 weeks but I found it really overwhelming. Everyone was so full on about me being back. I felt like saying I’ve only been gone a few weeks. Anyway the best bit of the day was that once they all stopped gushing I didn’t think about cancer once.
Just about to have new number 3 of the day - just taking my first Tamoxifen.
Mrs Sloth - So sorry to hear you had such a horrible reaction to the Herceptin, it’s great news that you had enough to count as your first dose though.
With the water retention I have to say I am in exactly the same position, puffy hand, face and feet, but in the last few days I’ve been peeing like no tomorrow so I’m hoping that I will soon deflate.
Deb - Sorry to hear about the delay, I bet you’re gutted. I hope the Herceptin went ok today.
Well Tamoxifen has been completely uneventful. I haven’t noticed anything.
Rads are ok too. Other than the waiting around. I bloody hate the waiting around. I waited for 1 1/2 hours day one. 2 hours day two and 1 hour day 3. ARGHHHHHH!
Ok feel better now.
Hope everyone else is alright and apologies for the rant.
I love your rants Jo, in fact I was feeling quite twitchy as I hadn’t had a Jo rant fix for some time! I think I expected to explode or something when I swallowed my first tamoxifen. But I didn’t! Glad your holiday helped you too, it’s just good to put a line under Chemo isn’t it? I didn’t have to wait very often for my rads, but when I did I tended to tsp away on my iPhone cos the magazines in the waiting room were sll saga type ones! I ate their chocolates a lot too.
Right, off to bed soon but have to get in spare bed with my five year old who watched a guy Fawkes DVD at school yesterday and has been terrified ever since. So another night of being kicked in the head beckons. Ace.