I had my first FEC at the beginning of Oct and due to have 2nd one next Wednesday. I had to have one hospital overnight stay last Wednesday as I felt absolutely awful, my white cells were low (as they should be) and my temperature was nigglin away at being a problem. Hospital said I was fighting an infection and admitted me and I was put on antibiotics.
My question is …
I am SO bored, my “normal” life sees me running around like a whirlwind, I have a job in a High School as a Secretary, two girls aged 17 and 11 and a hubby. Now my life currently consists of answering text messages asking “how I am today”, answering phone calls asking “how I am today”, doing all the mundane chores that used to take me half an hour, now last all day!
Everytime I mention going to work, someone say’s that I am putting myself at risk because I work in a school, and that I should relax (RELAX!) and watch daytime tele! I really wish we had a list of do’s and dont’s that I could just flash infront of their faces and say it’s on the list, I CAN DO IT!
We broke up for the summer holidays on Friday 13 July (iconic I know!) and I found my lump in the summer holidays and so have not been to work since then, I have read threads on here that lots of you are back at work inbetween your chemo, you have my total admiration, how do I do it?
Haven’t I ranted - and there’s all the washing to do!!!
I worked part-time all through my chemo. I now wish i hadn’t. Dust etc built up gradually and although i pottered doing housework nothing got ‘bottomed’ and last week it was panic stations for a party.
I worked part time through my chemo too, but I found it helped me. I’ve worked at the same company for over 10 years, and am fortunate enough to work with three of my very best friends too. I’m only in an admin role, and as soon as I was diagnosed, my boss took away all the stressful elements of my role (I asked her to!), leaving me with basic stuff that I was more than happy with. I always had my chemo day off, followed by the next week, then usually made it in the week after that. I don’t think I could have done it full time though.
Since I had my mastectomy (3rd Oct), I’m now off for the next few weeks - and bored already ! I’m still very sore though and know I should maybe be resting, but I’m finding that very hard to do. Like you, my days are consisting of endless text and phone messages - which is lovely that people care - but its not helping with the boredom !!! There’s only so much Jeremy Kyle a woman can take, and as for Loose Women - don’t get me started !! LOL.
Anyway, you rant all you like my love - you’re entitled to it !
I know it is hard but try and enjoy the duvet days. I work as a social worker in a hospital and could not work due to infection and I could not believe the level I sunk to watching QVC and Jeremy Kyle. LOL
I finished my treatment radiotherapy on 16th March and went back to work on 8th June on reduced hours and have worked my way up now to working 4 days but it has been tough. When I first went back I could only work and had to come home and go to bed but slowly things have got better and I now go to they gym after work which has been a great help re energy levels and leg pains.
It is a tough year we have to go through but we get there. I am over the moon today because I have managed to fill the dishwasher, clean 2 bathrooms and mop! Previously it would have taken me 2 weeks to do that! LOL
I think I have lost the thread a bit sorry but you do work in a place just as bad as the hospital because kids have always got something! I read loads and joined a amazon dvd club which was soon taken over by the kids! Only thing was every book seemed to mention cancer enven the book my sister gave me to read in hospital. (she was mortified but I found it funny). I think we develop a black humour.
Have had second FEC, although sickness was better with the second one fatigue was worse and it has taken me ages this time to get back to ‘normal’ but am working here and there, just school hours, have very understanding boss, but its good to have a little bit of my old life back so as and when if you can, dont over do it and dont be hard on yourself if you cant or dont feel like it!
I worked p/t during chemo of 4xAC and 4xTaxol and at the moment during radiotherapy. My oncologist encouraged me to keep working and active.
I injected myself with Neulasta after every chemo which boosts your white blood count and supports your natural defences to lower the risk of infection.
I’m an art teacher and a couple my classes that i facilitate are in the kids unit and older people’s unit in a two hospitals where you would think i would be more liable to pick up infection but the oncologist said it was no problem to work in both places. And I actually didn’t pick up any colds, flus etc since treatment started and kept to my chemotherapy schedule. However, I did have the some of the side effects associated with the chemo drugs i was on.
I think that if you are bored then it would do you no harm to go back to work part-time as i think it would be more detrimental to your health to sit at home feeling bored and listless.
Do what makes you happy and what you feel is right and ask your oncologist for his opinion on it and maybe you could see if you are able to get the neulasta injection?
All the best, xx
I work part-time, 9.30 - 2.30, and worked all through chemo, only taking off the chemo day and then two or three days when I was feeling bad. I work in a small business - there are only 11 of us - so I have not been exposed to lots of germs as you might be in a school, so I can’t comment on that, but I have certainly felt better for being at work. I found at home I just got very depressed as there was nothing to take my mind off BC. I watched ‘This Morning’ once and that was enough.
I had the Neulasta injection each time (the district nurse did this for me - injecting myself was just not on) and had no colds or bugs throughout the six months of chemo despite various members of my family being ill.
My advice would be, if your onc is happy for you to be in a school environment, and you want to work then go to work.
It’s interesting to hear people’s take on work during chemo. My work is rather binary so I made a decision to NOT work and never regretted it, I was busy throughout chemo and still had a “to do list” when I returned to work. I did not put the TV on even once, far too many good books to read, even decorated, painted the church gates, cleaned the village hall, painted the shed, baked cakes for chairty, rather than watch daytime TV. Work is now totally inconsequential and survival will always be my No 1 priority, any work that has me travelling, stressing or anything negative is not for me, been there, done that and got the cancer. In my opinion, MY OPINION, far too many ladies see a return to work, or working through treatment as some kind of hold on normality when in fact their version of normality will never be the same again - they eventually realise. This sometimes results in people feeling bewildered and bereft several months down the line from the end of treatment - just read through the posts on “after treatment has finished”.
Sorry if I’ve digressed but there must, there just must, be something you could occupy yourselves with unless you are really hooked on your jobs. By the way I’m well aware that some people work to avoid financial hardship, I’m no rose spectacled Pollyanna.
HI GIRLS,
i had 2nd cmf on thursday and i returned to work today…
im just doing mornings and i have a very understanding boss, im a manager in a supermarket so im sure im exposed to germs ect but to be honest im only 30 and i really needed to go back to work to have some normality in my life as i was sick of the phone calls the text messages the boredom ect, so im going to see how i go and just take the days off for chemo and few days after it,
my onc said it was good idea to return to work as energy makes energy
Hi Karen,
Despite the obvious financial hit involved which can be a worry, I took the decision not to continue to work during chemo and am signed off completly now until treatment all done. Altho’ I was worried about being bored in fact I have amazed myself at how quickly the between chemo sessions pass and how nice it is not to have the stress and all demands that work inevitably brings. I have managed to get in to see some matinee shows at cinema/theatre something which I have never done in past, I ‘lunch’ with my mates who, poor things, have to then go back to work, I enjoy more time with my teenage kids (I have since discovered that with some perseverance they actually can do more than grunt!) and I really enjoy just walking by myself every now and then to help keep my head sorted. Of course, everyone has to do what suits them but I think that even if you don’t stop completely at least cutting back on the hours can help give ‘me time’ which is so important as we go through all of this tough stuff. Anyway, the important thing is to discover what works for you.
Best of luck,
Anoush
Thank you all so very much for your comments - I love this site! Get’s everything back into perspective, as the advice is from people who actually do know where I am coming from!
When I go for my 2nd FEC next Wednesday I am going to ask my ONC about a Neulasta injection - surely we should all get this injection if it is of benefit to us?
Will also discuss with him about going back to work - and see where I go from there.
I have continued to work during chemo, however I have found it more difficult the further along I get. I had my first Taxotere 2 weeks ago and it knocked me for six the following week so took the whole week off. I take 2 days off after chemo and the odd day here and there now.
Also find myself getting unreasonably impatient with people coming to work with colds that I might catch, they must think I’m terrible screaming “get away from me if you’ve got a cold”! It’s not very fair on them really so I’ll be pleased when last chemo is out of the way next Friday. I have had Neulasta the last couple of chemos for extra protection.
I have had 3 FEC so far. Like Cecelia i have continued to work apart form the 2 days following chemo. I work fulltime, mainly office based and my employer has been great, i get in about 9.30 and leave about 3.30, so my hours are a bit less. I decided to keep working for my sanity. My kids are at school and all of my friends work. I have found that i actually feel more tired when i am not doing anything.
I think the key if you decide to work is to listen to your body and don’t push it too hard.
I sympathise with your hand. The one i used first time is still sore and swollen. I have used the other one (no surgery yet) for the last two and its been fine.
Have no choice now, got made redundant yesterday! It was pretty much the whole company so not related to my illness at all, they’ve been really good to me during all this.
Oh what a lovely year I’m having! Financially the package is pretty good, I’m looking into it with various really helpful suggestions I got from my other post re. Legal Advice.
Lady of leisure for a little while, I’m sure I’ll be bored rigid though! Need to find something to do now.
If it’s really painful, get them to switch hands. Mine got too sore after 5th chemo, although it was painful most of the time, but I got them to use the other hand last time (my 6th). Final one next Friday, yahoo!
Lesley what is the story with your surgery, I haven’t had mine yet, there aren’t many of us having chemo then surgery, it’s usually the other way round.
Hi Karen. I have just had my third FEC and haven’t worked so far during chemo. I originally thought I would want to do some work either from home or part time during treatment, to keep my hand in things and for some mental stimulation. However, I have now decided I won’t venture back until after this is done. I guess my job is a reasonably high pressured one (I work as a solicitor in London which usually means working all hours), and it’s hard to dip in and out of cases without messing people around. My work place have been absolutely fantastic though, saying there is no pressure on me to do anything if I don’t want to, but if I do want to, they could find me non-client projects to help out on - which is great. However, so far, I have had no inclination to do so and, to be honest, I am not sure my mind is as agile right now with all the chemo drugs!
I am also reckoning I will be better off with a full rest and more enthusiastic when I go back if I take the time off now. A friend also said to me that, provided I could cope financially, I might resent it if I ended up spending all my good days working. Luckily I am finding quite a few things to occupy my time without having to resort to too much daytime TV - such as sightseeing and, like Anoush, going to the cinema in the afternoons (highly recommended).
I guess just do what feels right for you, and hopefully you’ll have an understanding workplace who will accommodate you and let you change your mind about working/not working along the way if you don’t feel it’s working out.
