Cold cap route…silly text. Oh yes, and have been told to change my username so will be appearing as something different soon. X
Morning Diamond chicks
Good luck to Yvonne hope it all goes well today even when your back sweetheart drink as much water as you can, I have gone of tea since mine but gone on to mint tea with honey in.
Rosey sorry you are still feeling tired and low My mx was five weeks yesterday, I got really worred about how tired I felt did not think I was low emoitanaly but it could be that too. Three days before I started my chemo was the first time I woke up with any energy so for three days I felt back to my old self. But if you are worrying about it do get in touch with your bcn. Do send you lots of hugs and posative energy.
Hope everyone who has had there chemo are feeling well and are having very little SE. I had a much better night sleep feeling better today head not so cotton wooly. I am seeing the nhs wig lady on Thursday so may have my wig on order soon, mind you the last time I had one I wore it once but my kids had lots of fun with it. That was 14years ago hopefully they have come on since then.
Lots of hugs to all you chicks will fly in later
Carolann. 
Well done Hanna at least you are now here, So wellcome to the Diamond chicks. we all keep huddled together to keep us stronger in numbers and as posative as we can be by sharing are excperances.
HUgs and love Carolann
morming chicks i just want some advice i had sore throat last week its still red aand sore and now feels like it on chest as coughing doc just said u will feel weeker when u have chemo not so helpful doctor …am wondering if they will do chemo y i feel like this so fed up …glad you chicks that have had chemo feel ok and less se love to all xxx
Hi rosey. as elli said, dont fight ur body.give into what ut wants. Leave all the mundane things behind YOU ARE NUMBER ONW JUST NOW. We aee all dfferent and yet all the same if u know what I mean. we cry buckets sometimes just to get rid of the emotional grief, at other times we watch a funny film and have a laugh. I like listening to meditation CDs. nature ones. Very calming and soothing. You can down load them for next to nothing or borrow from library. above all, wear that frown upside down. a smile is ur best accessory, 
xxx
Hi rosey. as elli said, dont fight ur body.give into what ut wants. Leave all the mundane things behind YOU ARE NUMBER ONW JUST NOW. We aee all dfferent and yet all the same if u know what I mean. we cry buckets sometimes just to get rid of the emotional grief, at other times we watch a funny film and have a laugh. I like listening to meditation CDs. nature ones. Very calming and soothing. You can down load them for next to nothing or borrow from library. above all, wear that frown upside down. a smile is ur best accessory, xxx
I was out shopping yesterday with my dad, had a lovely day. Big fat unhealthy Scottish breakfast too… Yum… This is one chick that won’t be able to lift off, if the treats don’t stop.
I was in primark, and matalan and they had lovely scarves. I didn’t buy any as I was unsure about requirements for tying. I phoned this morning and got a headstrong appointment for next wed morning… Hopefully I’ll be an expert by the time I leave lol.
My side effects have been minimum. 2 days in and around bed and then just a little seedy. Today my nose is runny, my eye won’t stop running… I’ve to go and get drops… And other than that. All good. My scalp is tingling… So I’m thinking I’m about to lose my feathers lol… I’m going out tonight so hopefully no big bald patches after I wash it lol. X
Hi Diamond Chicks.
Welcome to hannahbanana.
Thanks to elli and catlovingwoman for your support. I feel better today, more rested and settled. I know a lot of it is stress, it does weird things to your mind!
I had my hair cut very short, and I am pleased with it. OH says it looks good and it’s so easy to manage!
Any ideas on supplements to keep weight on/increase weight? I am normally very thin and have lost weight with all this worry, so need to build myself up, especially if I may be feeling nauseous and not eating too good after chemo.
Good luck to you all for another day.
Hugs, Rosey
Hi rosey. glad you are on the uptake again. i got mt hair cut short too. like it. I am afraid I cannot offer any advice in how to gain weught as I have the opposite problen. try eating little and often. nice smoothies and chocolate milk shakes. yogurt with honey and nuts. lots of nice chunky veg soup with crusty bread and btter. plenty of fish, salmon, trout chicken and advocados . Sorry I di rabbit on a bit. time for lunch now, all this food talk has made me hungry. baked potato abd coleslaw here I come. pauline
xxxx
You’ve made me hungry too with all that talk about food Pauline! Did make me chuckle - and I’m gonna be the same as you Elli if I carry on! I just can’t stop eating, feel hungry ALL the time lol
Rosey - I’m also the same as Pauline in that my problem is the opposite to yours! But, I think she was right in what she put - you need highcalorific foods, bulky foods, high in protein, fats and carbs I would say. And as all the other diamonds have said, trying to relax when your body says to will help reduce your stress which will hopefully help to increase your appetite and so by default, you will eat more and gain weight. That’s the theory anyway!
Glad your chemo session went well Lynn, was thinking about you. And good luck for today Yvonne. Hope yours goes smoothly too.
Hannah - welcome, at last! Hope you find this site useful and all our messages a comfort and support
Elli - my scalp is tingling too. Had a dream last night that I lost my hair. Not a great dream - can think of better ones to have for sure! I got my wigs from simply wigs and wonderland wigs ( I think!). 2nd website was cheaper and I actually prefer the wigs from there but if you like to be schmoozed (I do lol) then simply wigs is soo nicely packaged and anyone that sends me a free & unexpected chocolate is always highly recommended 
Hope you all have a lovely day my fellow diamonds - am off to tidy (ish) my nest. Will hop back in later to cheep about my day and see how all you lovely chicks are doing xxxx
Hello ladies
I hope you don’t mind me butting in, I’m from the march thread along with Kittyqueen and I’ve just had my last dose of 6 x FEC. It feels fantastic.
I started way back at the start of March, and probably like a lot if you feel now it felt like the end was ages away.
Some adviice is drink loads, take anti sickness and listen to your body, if you feel tired rest, and expect says when you feel shattered or days when you feel really low. It’s these days that the forum is fantastic as everyone is going through the same emotions.
Im a teacher and one of you ladies said about working in a special needs school. I’ve been off work for 6 months now, with surgery first then chemo and to begin with it was soul destroying i missed work, the children my friends. It has got sort of easier, and I’m planning in returning in 3 weeks just before the end if the summer term, then during the summer I’ll have my 18 radiotherapy sessions and be ok for a return to normal life In September.
This stage you’re at is strange as your waiting for how you’ll feel, when hair goes ( mine was about day 15 after first FEC), appointments etc. as you go through it gets easier to understand as your no longer facing the unexpected.
This is doable, it’s a long road but doable. I can only reiterate the need to vent here when you feel like it and share both good and bad days.
Wishing you all an easy journey.
Love Carolyn
Hi Carolyn
Thanks so much for your kind and supportive message. It is great to hear from people who have completed their fec journey, reassuring to know you came out the other side and are doing well
You’re right in what you say - I’m day 9 after my 1st fec and am waiting to see if I lose my hair. I used the cold cap so am hoping for damage limitation. My scalp has been tingling a bit for the last cpl of days, had a bad dream last night that it all fell out on the top but not on the sides, so I did a combover! Not a good look lol
I consider myself lucky in that my SE’s haven’t been too bad - nausea (for 3-4 days after), extreme fatigue for 3 days, 2 days after, constipation (sorted now lol), funny taste in my mouth for about a week and probably the worst one is indigestion. All of it tolerable to be fair. What does make me feel physically sick now, however, is the thought of the next treatment. The thought of having all those drugs pumped into my system really does make me feel sick.
Work have signed me off until I’m ready to go back, so probably not until 2013! I am an auditor and travel the UK & Ireland, Europe & the states and because of the nature of it, it isn’t practical for me to do it on a part-time basis and there isn’t that much work close to home. Whilst its great I don’t have to worry about it, being off since April I’m already feeling my brain turning to mush. My colleagues/friends at work have been brilliant. They are having a team meeting on the 25th June and invited me along, but that’s the date of my 2nd session of fec so had to pass. Was a bit annoyed by that. Damn disease gets in the way of life doesn’t it?!
Thanks again for your message, it was very reassuring
much love
Emma xxx
Hi Carolyn,
I too am a teacher and have already been off since March. I am 6 weeks post op for a Mx and LD recon and am due to start my chemo in 2 weeks time ( I think). Looking to return sometime in 2013. Just waiting on my head to get back to me re my pay… Bit daunting as we went academy in feb and things have changed. I have two small children too and we are planning in putting them into nursery full time while I have the chemo… Until I saw the estimated figure they are going to charge! As if having this isn’t punishment enough!!
Am pleased your feeling fantastic…there is light at the end of the tunnel!
X hannah
Hello to Elli!
At last am on the thread!
Am glad your side effects to date are manageable…and they continue!
X
Hi Diamond Chicks
Well that’s number 1 done and nothing to have been particularly anxious or apprehensive about. The actual treatment was fine, no pain or effects.
I am now back home waiting to see what happens next! Thanks Pauline and Lynn for the fluid advice I am following it to the letter!
I found the cold cap treatment vile! BUT only for about 10 mins, so if you are looking to try it Hannah don’t be put off by my post because once the initial start up had finished it was totally fine.
I will pm you about it and if anyone else wants a to hear my experience just let me know but Iwill definitely becontinuing with it in the hope that I can preserve some of my hair. I am still getting my hair cut although it is short anyway and I am waiting for a wig appointment.
I’ll add my hugs and best wishes to those recovering from treatment 1 and hope the SE are minimal for Pauline Lynn and Dottie xx
Thanks to everyone who has posted to wish me luck xx
For those of you still waiting to go for your first treatment, this is doable, take heart from the positive comments and know that we are all routing for you xx
So whose turn is it next?
Love and hugs to Diamond Chicks
Yvonne xx
Oh Yvonne, so pleased it all went well for you. keep taking the fluids and anti sickness pills. I was good today except for a headache but hey thats ok now I have constipation, as expected, so away ro take a glug of lactulose. Best wishes to all us diamonds. xxxx
Hi quinny, how are you today. sounds as though you have a chest infection which will need antibiotics. are you bringing anthing up when you cough?Did doc take a throat swab? Get another doc to check you out.,good luck. pauline. xxx
Have an appointment with the consultant tomorrow for scan results and have to then rush over to The Christie hospital for appointment with Oncologist for Chemo (so I believe)
Nothing much happens for 3 weeks except for the seroma draining sessions then. all on the same day, I get 2 appointments - I expect ill be shattered tomorrow but im glad to be pro-active again
Looking on the bright side however, The very fact that an appointment has be made for me with the Onc. would seems to suggest that whatever the result is…its at least treatable!!
Im glad to hear from some of you that you appear to be coping ok with your first chemo sessions - Hopefully mine will be relatively uneventful.
Is it just me or does time seem to pass so slowly atm?
Well day 1 after the FECcing day went well as far as physical side effects went. Minuteist nausea which I controlled by doing things and forgetting about it. Emotionally!!! What a day. While OH cooked tea I started to cry. Just tears trickling nothing major. He brought the tea in and said, “What have I done now?” That did it. I ranted about why did it always have to about him and I mean ranted. Why wasn’t i allowed just to feel low and cry. Insensensitive, uncaring were a few of the words used. He tried to say that he had no idea what he was doing wrong and to shut up. I screamed, literally screamed. Good job no one was outside or they would have sent for the police. Eventually I calmed down and explained that it was probably the drug cocktail messing up my emotions. Please could he forget about himself for a while and just say nice things. He still went on about he didn’t know what he had done wrong. I screamed even louder. Then i think he got the message because he started to be nice. Not to me, but telling me funny stories.
Funny thing is I am always nice and pleasant never lose my temper, always smiling. Support everyone else through their troubles. it must be the drugs because I would hate to think that this person who screams is living in the real me.
Well got that out of the way. Good to get it off my chest. Got a lot of stress at the moment as the upstairs loo stopped working and the plumber couldn’t fix it. So having to get whole new bathroom suite put in which means new tiles flooring etc. No water!
Ordered NHS wig yesterday. I’ve let my hair go white over the last couple of years but decided to go for a blond wig. My hair is curly but wig is straightish with flicks at the bottom. Think it makes me look younger. Hope it arrives before the hair drops out.
Well this has been about me! Still feeling a bit low but on the mend.
Yvonne so glad your chemo went well.
Will have to hop back in later when I have unruffled my feathers and got that smile firmly back on my beak. Love to all. It helps to know some of you will read this post and hold my hand.
Lynn xx
Hi Lynn
Oh poor you! You aren’t alone. This is an extremely stressful time and sometimes, people just don’t get it. Especially those closest. You’re allowed to rant. I had a similar style argument with my oh when we were discussing fertility. He said I was acting like a petulant child because I was angry and upset that we couldn’t get funding for treatment!!! That didn’t go down too well. Especially when he said it wasn’t all about me! That kind of tipped me over the edge so I shouted back something like “of course it’s about me you bloody idiot! It’s all about me for once! Who else is it about?!”. I reminded him of the fact that it wasn’t his fertility being taken and that he already had kids and that he was never going to be the one who went without because of a feccing disease!!! I even challenged him to join me in my pending infertility and have the snip! As you can imagine, he wasnt so quick to take me up on that challenge lol
So you see, I reckon we’ve all kind of lost it at some point.
Keep your beak up (I was going to say keep your pecker up but that’s so wrong lol) and be kind to yourself. Youre in a unique situation, there are no guidelines on how to deal with this. So go with how you feel at the time. Stuff how others feel for once. For once, it is all about you.
Hope you have a good day - I’m going to put my face on, fluff up my feathers, leave the coup for a bit and hit the shops
Lots of love
Emma xxx