Anyone due to start chemo April 14??

[Jackie09]

Merry Christmas lovely ladies. I hope you're all having truely fabulous days x x. (Sorry, no fancy icons )! Love and hugs to you all x x

[Tlj63]

Happy Christmas everyone. Aren't we lucky that we all finished chemo long enough ago that we can enjoy our Christmas meals. Hope you all have fantastic days.

[Lovewine]

Merry christmas all🎅🎅🎅, rosie, glad to hear you have arrived safely, enjoy your time with your family!
My dad was finally discharged at 7.00 p.m last night🎊🎈😄 very emotional and tired but home!
Have walked dogs, peeled sprouts, laid the table and O/H cooks the rest! He made some lovely fudge yesterday with baileys and pistachio nuts, so pigged out on that for anniversary celebrations and a large glass of smooth, good irish whiskey🐷🐽
Joan, hope the pidgeon brings you good luck!! Wildpurl, have a lovely lunch, cassie, lisa, jackie, have a lovely day too. Tij, hope your husband doesnt get called out and you can enjoy your time altogether! Kirstie. Enjoy your day also.
🎄🎅🍷🎁🎁🎁🎁

[rosie14]

Merry Christmas everyone got 30 mins free wifi at Premier Inn! The flight was 5 hours long due to a head wind ✈️💨 .
Our E son and fiancée were here when we arrived, from France. Had a nice meal with them and some🍷🍷😜.
Lovewine I do hope your dad got home!
Tlj enjoy your family day hope your husband doesn't get called out!
Wildpurl I knew you would finish the blanket hope the lunch goes well!
Joan let's hope the pigeon will bring you good luck!
Lisa enjoy Christmas!
Cassie hope you are having a relaxing time with family!
Kirstie and Jackie hope you enjoy a family Christmas!🎅🎁🍷😜🎄🍸🍗

[joan47]

Got comprehensively splattered with pigeon s..t on way to children's crib service today. I'm told it's good luck! So maybe it augurs well for 2015. On the other hand both grandchildren have nits. I don't recall anyone saying that was lucky . Hope you are now safely in the uk Rosie. Hope your dad got home Lovewine. Have great xmases everyone else.

[Tlj63]

Happy Christmas everyone. And happy anniversary Lovewine, hope your Dad made it home.
Good news on the herceptin Rosie. Hopefully will be like me and not find the side effects too bad. I had my 10th one today, bit stingy on the way in then absolutely fine. I quite like visiting to unit once every 3 weeks, it makes me feel like they are keeping an eye on me. I had to cancel my hair appointment today. Still not enough hair to bother with.
We are all snugged up, presents under the tree and wood burner going. We are not going mad with the cooking tomorrow. My husband will be on-call tomorrow, the phone is guaranteed to ring just as we sit down to eat! The family vote was for roast beef. So we will be having that and then I have cheated and bought individual sticky toffee puddings and chocolate puddings. The boys are quite excited but no where near as excited as they used to be. I've told them they will have to go to bed at a reasonable time because santa's helper needs to go to bed too.
Hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow. Happy Christmas

[Lovewine]

Well done Wildpurl for finishing blanket, hope the bread sauce is completed now too!
Lisa, happy Christmas too!🎅

[rolicarpit]

Merry Christmas everyone ... thanks for all your support this year ... you've been brill, have a great couple of days x

[Wildpurl]

Merry Christmas to everyone!
Rosie, you will be on your way now, hope you have a smooth trip and a good night's sleep tonight. Very pleased to hear that your Herceptin will be starting in January at last.
Happy anniversary Lovewine, and I hope all goes well with your Dad coming home today.
Hope you have a lovely Christmas Joan

I finished the blanket yesterday evening at 10:30 and it is now wrapped and under the tree. DS and DD are here and DD and I are listening to the Carols from King's. I will be going to make the bread sauce after that, ready for tomorrow. I am just beginning to relax now but never really relax at Christmas until the dinner is safely on the table.

[Lovewine]

Merry christmas to you all🎅🍷🎄🎁🎅🎅🎅🎅!!
Rosie, wildpurl, joan, jackie, lisa, tij, kirstie, tulamo, cassie. Xx

[Lovewine]

Morning rosie, thankyou for anniversary wishes!🍸🍷🍷❤️ And also for wishes for my dad, am so keeping everything crossed nothing will go wrong at the last minute and stop him coming home😬. I am so sorry you and your family have faced the loss of your dad, i will be thinking of you on the day of the funeral.
I am off to pick up sons engraving which has been done on bracelets, last minute stocking fillers! And so many other little jobs my head is in a whirl🌀!
Hope you have the wind behind you on your flight, it certainly was blowing a gale here last night! ✈️

[rosie14]

Lovewine happy anniversary!🍸🍸❤️❤️
and I am hoping that you and your family get the best Christmas present.
Wishing all of you lovely ladies on here a wonderful Chritsmas time with your families. Wildpurl, Joan, Jackie, Cassie, Lisa, Tlj and Kirstie.( I hope I didn't miss anyone)
We are off to drop the dog and the car to arrive the airport form12.30 ish hopefully we will leave on time at 2.30pm! Arrive Manchester 5.45 gmt (7.45 ours!) hopefully we will have a bit of a tail wind to get us there more quickly!💨✈️
Hopefully we will arrive at DD tomorrow at 11am!!!
Wifi willing I will post as often as I can. Certainly DD has internet!
Merry Christmas🎄🎅🎁🍷🍸😜x

[rosie14]

Joan I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your family!🎅🎁🍷🍗

[joan47]

Tried to send this earlier but poor internet connection.

A brief respite from very excited granddaughterwho has been taken down to the playground on the seafront by my husband, daughter and partner. Minor crisis beforehand when she locked herself in the loo and we couldn't get it open from the other side. Fortunately she stAyed calm, rather calmer than the rest of us.

Granddaughter just gone. Four exhausted adults in need of wine. She looked good for another couple of hours!

Rosie, your poor sister, it is going to mean a big adjustment for her. And if she was thinking of giving up her job it will be harder to find distraction there. But perhaps over the next few weeks she will become less traumatised and start coming to terms not only with the loss but what it means in her life. It was fortunate that you and she are evidently close and even at a distance you will be a great comfort to her. thank heavens for Skype. Good that you at last have firm news about the Herceptin starting.

Lovewine. That's great news about your dad. Hope he gets home. And the fact that he was able to ring you sounds as if things are looking up. I endorse what you and Rosie have said about this thread. Through bad times and not so bad times it's been really helpful to have the support of the group. Re the nails, it may make a difference whether the nails are damaged but still intact or have fallen off so the false nails would be stuck to the regrowth.

Wildpurl, well done for braving the shops on what is heralded as the busiest shopping day of the year. Hope the blanket gets done in time and you're not crocheting into the small hours.

May not have an opportunity to post tomorrow so Happy Christmas to all.

[rosie14]

Oh Lovewine that's brilliant news I shall be wishing very hard for you!⭐️

[Lovewine]

Thanks rosie, dad actually rang me from hospital today on his mobile phone!! Everything crossed he may be allowed home tomorrow!😄
At least your herceptin can start soon, not great having to drive to the hospital for it though! Compared to all the other procedures there is nothing to it( hopefully!!) just minor niggles.

[rosie14]

Snap Lovewine I have found this forum a lifeline. I had a phone call today form the oncology centre to say my Herceptin would start in January!!! Still hoping to hear that your dear dad gets home!😏

[Lovewine]

Afternoon everyone, well done wildpurl in your sainsburys trip!! Hope the blanket is finished in time- you will be hard at it today, and yes really bad about dads double dose of warfarin, would have been even worse if it was morphine or similar, they were very apologetic and consultant came personally to see him and explain, but does make you worry when something basic can go so wrong.
Joan, your chunky waistcoat sounds like my sort of knitting, will have to look for a pattern and start one i think! My ES and DIL always have a cold house and i wear warm clothes on visiting!! My nails are suffering on herceptin so not sure if i can have false ones, i think i probarly could.
Rosie, have a good trip over tomorrow and hopefully no hold ups! Definitely a hat and warm jumpers needed!
And will be lovely to hear from you when possible!! Really miss your updates when you not around, so definitely dont want to be abandoned, you and all the other fabulous ladies on this thread have made a s..t situation so much more bearable and a big thankyou to all of you😄, have a lovely christmas all of you and a healthy, happy new year, i will be posting on here for some time yet! The support and understanding is invaluable😄
I will raise my glass to you all🍷 love, wendy xx

[rosie14]

Wow that's an accomplishment! 😃

[Wildpurl]

Shopping complete (turkey obtained, phew) and the wool has been delivered, so I have no excuses now LOL

[rosie14]

Good luck with the shopping and the blanket Wildpurl! 🍀

[Wildpurl]

Morning everyone!
Joan, it sounds as though you have a busy time ahead with your grandchildren, it is lovely to have children around at Christmas! Interesting about the false nails, at least you will be able to get them done for New a Year.
Lovewine, I'm appalled at the f*** up with your Dad's meds, at least the hospital has owned up and know what went wrong so there is a chance of making sure it doesn't happen again, but really you would have thought filling in the notes when giving meds was pretty basic. I'm so sorry this may mean he won't get home tomorrow but keeping fingers crossed. Great news about your son's job.

Rosie, your Dad's passing will leave a huge hole in your sister's life by the sounds of it, and it will take time for her to be sure what she wants to do. It's good you are going to be there for Christmas.

I've got 16 rows to crochet and the wool has been shipped yesterday, still doable but requires me to spend most of today working on it. We are off to Sainsburys this morning to get our final Xmas shop, including the turkey.

[rosie14]

Good morning ladies!
Joan how annoying to find out now that you could have false nails. I should get them done for New Year's Eve!!!💅getting mine done this morning and eyebrows waxed( well 9 of them anyway)
Can't believe that tomorrow night I will see ES and his fiancée in Manchester! We are taking them with us to Newcastle. Our DD used to live in Wallsend Joan they moved to Great Park last year which is a newly developing area near Gosforth. I have hat at the ready!
I am a bit worried about my sister as she is feeling so,very lost not going to visit Dad. Her daughter returned home yesterday and didn't want to talk to her about Dad. I suggested perhaps they did something girly today together and let the daughter speak about her new posting first. I think I am going to have to suggest she goes for councelling after Christmas or else I feel she will have a nervous breakdown! Her school is on the road where dads M&S apartment was and she used to go to his most lunch times over the last 10 years! She wants to give up teaching- she has cut back over the last few years. She is 4 and a half years younger than me.
To all of you ladies now that are getting very busy over the next few days. Have a happy time with those you love and be thankful we are here to share it with them!
I shall be around as often as I can get wifi I won't leave you Lovewine! I am really hoping that a miracle will happen for your Dad and he will get home! One chunk of your stress has been lifted with your YS's good news he can at last move on! What a relief!

[joan47]

Lovewine, really good news about your sons job. Let's hope it helps him to put the girlfriend behind him.

Wildpurl, hope you manage to get your wool. You've set yourself quite a task to get it from finished for Xmas. But then someone who tackles making marmalade just before Xmas clearly is not fazed by something like that. I m afraid I topped up our marmalade stock at the farmers market on Saturday. I am knitting myself a longish waistcoaty garment in superchunky wool on size 12mm needles. Very quick but I think I will only be able to wear it comfortably if the temperature drops near to freezing! My daughter thinks it looks lovely though and wants me to make her one. Possibly because their house is pretty freezing. We have our smoked salmon with scrambled eggs for breakfast, sometimes accompanied by Bucks Fizz. Hope you enjoyed The wildlife photographer exhibition, we're lucky in that it comes to bristol so we usually go to see it over the holidays. I had thought of going to see it today after I had been to the hospital while daughter was shopping but instead went to a very interesting exhibition of modern Chinese ceramics and glass.

Lovewine, glad you don't havevto have your Herceotin on Xmas day! Congrats on going wigless but as you say, it does feel a bit cold.

Jackie, glad your got your heating sorted out. Your son sounds delightful. I have kept a Xmas card I sent to my younger daughter when she was little with a quote from her saying 'in all the world I love you'. Still brings a tear to my eye and she's 35. What a frustrating day you had on Friday. No wonder you resorted to licking your wig. Was it your old one or the new one?

Cassie, hope you are having a lovely and restful time in Norfolk and come back refreshed and ready to face your very busy job. When we thanked the staff at our last appt at the. Oncology centre today they seemed really pleased. Sadly, people seem readier to complain.

Rosie, hope your flight goes well and onward journey to Newcastle go well and there are no delays. I lived in a village 6 miles outside Newcastle until I was 18 and I have lots of family still there so I'm very familiar with Geordieland. Newcastle is a great city. But you'll certainly need your woolly hat.

[Lovewine]

Thankyou too Joan for your special thoughts, hope you enjoyed your meal, enjoy your grandchildren and the day spent with them!

[rosie14]

Joan have a great Christmas with your family and thanks for your special thoughts it's going to be a strange one! 😕

[rosie14]

Lovewine that's great news about youngest son just what he needs!😊but unbelievable about what happened to your dad the first nurse should get into a lot of trouble! I do hope your Dad will manage to get out on Christmas Eve! 😏

[joan47]

Just seen the typos. You probably realise that spot was meant to be appointment. Picking up the part to protect may cause more confusion. It was meant to read tomorrow. Quite how the autocorrect works is beyond me.

[joan47]

Oh goodness Lovewine, what a thing to happen. Your poor dad. I hope it doesn't result in any untoward effects but I guess it will may scupper his chances of getting home for Xmas. ANd Rosie, your could do without having to worry about money, especially at this point. I hope it gets sorted.m

This is probably going to be a shortervpostbthan I would like. Had a busy few days with older daughter and partner arriving to stay on Saturday and younger daughter and family plus sister in law for big lunch yesterday. Today had final spot at oncology. I was initially a bit disappointed to see a registrar, and one I hadn't seen before but she was very good and, being female, I felt I could ask her the really pressing question: can I get false nails to cover up my horrible ones. The answer us YES!!!!! Pity it's too late to get them looking respectable for Xmas but first opp afterwards! I also have the sticking up hair Lovewine and Rosie and going to have to resort to hair gel.

My Xmas preparations are thankfully now pretty much done. Sit on tractor unfortunately turned out to have a part missing but hopefully we can pick that up to protect. Daughter and partner done a great job assembling it so far.

Tomorrow we have granddaughter all day then Xmas eve I am over there looking after both children in the morning before we all go out for lunch in Wells then on to the children's carol service in the cathedral.

Given my recent experience of losing long posts, and that the meal my daughters partner is preparing is almost ready I am going to post this now and hopefully respond to some of your posts later. If I don't manage it hope everyone preparations are nearly complete. Special thoughts for Rosie and Lovewine at this difficult time.

[Lovewine]

I love stollen!! Hope you all have had good days?
Well good and bad in my day- first the good- youngest son offered the post at kings college hospital london, they offered £3.000 a year extra too, so looks like a new start in january for him😀
Bad news- my dad is on 48 hour emergency watch as he was given a double dose of blood thinning drug- warfarin by mistake, apparently first nurse administered the drug but failed to record it so along came second nurse who gave it again, dad on so much medication he didnt notice! So no release from hospital until at least christmas eve, even thats not looking likely now😂

[rosie14]

Wildpurl 😜

[Wildpurl]

Stollen all done, rosie, and it smells lovely!

[rosie14]

Lovewine hope you find the next two days at work go quickly!
Didn't really get anywhere with the medical insurance got to wait until after Christmas! DH had many jobs to do,in Pahphos,amdmImended up,spending most of the time sat in the car as I can't stand around for too long! Would have been in a grumpy mood about it but he took me for lunch. Sat outside with a 180 degree view over Paphos in the sunshine. Shared a meat and cheese platter for two!
Wildpurl hope you manage to get the wool delivered to finish would be such a Pity!
Did you manage the stollen?

[Wildpurl]

Morning all! So sorry to hear about your stress with the medical insurers rosie, it is the last thing you and DH need, so I hope you can sort it out. Lovewine, I hope you can get some time to relax outside your busy work day.
OH and I had a very nice peaceful meal out yesterday evening, today I am off to the gym this morning, then housework getting ready for guests, then maybe stollen!
I am just over 3/4 through the blanket, last night I realised that I did not have enough of one colour and was borderline with another, so have re-ordered. The stockists are very efficient but I do not know if it will reach me by Christmas! We shall see. I can do most of the blanket anyway, these are pretty much the last two colours.
Hope everyone has good days

[Lovewine]

Oh rosie, thats a stress thats not needed worrying about medical bills- hope you get it sorted out, i am working today a d tomorrow, in fact today really busy with lots of extra work!! Quite stressed now with everything😬have a good day!

[rosie14]

DH and I have a busy day today mostly things to do with school, it never stops! I am not looking forward to the meeting with the medical insurance as they are refusing today some bills. I really y could do without this stress at the moment but it is so embarrassing when the clinic rings up and say the payment has been refused. We have a discrepancy of nearly 3000 euros! 😁
Lovewine are you still,working or have you now finished? Joan hope the tractor is now in one piece, Wildpurl is the end insight with the blanket?

[Lovewine]

Thanks Rosie, it certainly would be!😄😄

[rosie14]

I do hope so Lovewine it would be the best Christmas present!😏

[Lovewine]

Visitors reported dad was happier today, so am so hoping he will make it home for christmas, will wait and see!
Rosie, i think your hair looks really good! Will have to colour mine again soon with another brand of hair colour, a total waste of money one i have just used- didnt change my colour at all and even left on longer than said too!!😬

[rosie14]

My colour did make a difference Lovewine its much darker! Sorry to hear your Dad didn't have such a good day yesterday. Hopefully the visitors will find him better today.
Versailles Wildpurl,how lovely! Our ES lives in Nancy.

[Wildpurl]

I lived in Versailles, rosie.
I've done the marmalade but OH is bottling beer so we have deferred the stollen till later in the week!

[Lovewine]

Hello everyone, i cant seem to get started at all today! Had many plans, but accomplished nothing as yet, feel quite tired today.
Rosie,most evenings i fall asleep in my chair! Like you ,my hair is sticking out and looks like i have horns either side, i did colour it again yesterday with casting semi permanent colour, but doesnt look any different! Wildpurl, did you look into the daniel field range of colours?
Enjoy your festive evening, am sure it will really get you in to the mood, we have just had the village silver band come round our road playing carols- really nice.
Havnt visited dad today as mum, sister, other relatives gone in, he was not so good yesterday- upset tummy and low blood pressure, it varies from day to day it seems!
Enjoy the rest of your sundays ladies, i am going to wrap up some presents now🎁🎅

[rosie14]

Hope you got your cooking done Wildpurl!
Enjoy your evening it sounds very festive!
Which part of France did you live in?

[Wildpurl]

Rosie, when I was living in France I used to travel back to the UK on Christmas Eve, and have flown up to Scotland for Christmas also on Christmas Eve, and I quite enjoyed the festive atmosphere at the airports and amongst the passengers.

Today's tasks are to make marmalade as we have run out, and to make a stollen. So far I have not done very much, just put some laundry on and sat around resting! I did my quota of crochet blanket rows yesterday and had better get started today.

I am going to a carol service at our village church this evening, and then OH and I are going for a curry, also in the village.

I hope your Dad is continuing to improve Lovewine.

[rosie14]

Good morning everyone I had 2 glasses of wine last night and fell asleep in the chair. DH woke me by saying,"are you alright?"💤
We went to a DIY in Pahpos to treat ourselves to a hand held steam cleaner, which I had great hopes for, and I was nearly asleep in the car. I am still so exhausted. I did manage to walk the dog yesterday morning and I shall probably take her again today.
DH helped me use the second half of the hair colouring which has been successful. I think next time it will be just over 6 months since finishing chemo I will go back to my hairdresser. I think by then I will have to bite the bullet and get it trimmed it's sticking out rather. I have started to use hair gel again. Thought I may return to my shampoo, conditioner and shower gel after using the Johnsons wash all over. It's been 3 weeks now since end of rads and burns have more or less gone.
Wildpurl hope you have making good progress with the blanket.
Lovewine hope you noticed further improvement in your dad.
Joan, Jackie, Lisa, Cassie, Tlj and Kirstie hope you are all well and up to date with your preparartions.
It doesn't feel a lot like Christmas here the day time temps are still low 20's. DH and I agreed it was very cold outside last night . I asked him what he thought the temp was, we have a gauge outside the back door, he guessed 12 it was I fact 15. We will be bringing our warm clothes. Only just started wearing my thick jacket in the evenings! There aren't many people about in the evening a lot of the hotels and restaurants close for 2 months over the winter.
I used to enjoy landing in UK 2 or 3 days before Christmas and joining in the last minute shopping and trolley filling! This year is every different flying on Christmas Eve so most of the shops will be closed when we land!!!✈️
DS and fiancée land from France 3 hours before us so will already be at the Premier inn. We travel from Manchester to Newcastle on Christmas morning.bits about 2.5 hours not too bad! Santa will be out of the way before we get there!!!🎅😉
Have a good Sunday everyone!

[Wildpurl]

Our current plan is champagne and orange juice with breakfast rosie!

[rosie14]

Wow Lovewine you got married on Christmas Eve! DH and I got engaged on Christmas Eve many years ago! Yes Lovewine it was either son and fiancée or us in Travelodge I chose us thought I would need then peace!
Wildpurl it sounds like you had a lovely day in London when so many people must have been shopping!
Wildpurl we will probably be having smoked salmon with champagne as aperitif!

[Wildpurl]

Afternoon all,

today OH and I went up to London to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum, along with DD, DS and Ds's girlfriend. I really enjoyed it and then afterwards we had lunch at a Byron's, which is a burger place, and was very nice indeed. London was heaving though as you would expect on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Got home early afternoon and I have been crocheting like a mad thing and will continue to do so for the next few days. Good progress so far but need to keep up speed!

Glad to hear you Dad is a little better Lovewine.

How annoying about your two appointments jackie, especially if you are in pain from your arm. 

It sounds like a tiring day for you and DH yesterday rosie.

We also will be having a traditional Christmas dinner of roast turkey and trimmings, a starter of smoked salmon and avocado salad and a dessert of cranachan for a change, as we usually have Christmas pudding.

[Lovewine]

Thanks rosie, our wedding anniversary (26th) is on christmas eve!! Dont know what possessed us to get married then as it always gets 'lost' amongst christmas! My O/H is cooking christmas lunch and have 2 sons and DIL here which will be lovely😄. Maybe you will be glad to have the peace of the travelodge at the end of a very excitable day!

[rosie14]

SIL is cooking lunch Lovewine I think it will be traditional as DD likes her Christmas lunch! Eldest son and Fiancée are staying in the house and we are staying at the nearby Travelodge!
I can't believe they were going to administer your Herceptin on Christmas Day thank good ness they have put it back! Our Grandson was born on Christmas Eve 4 years ago and we had the midwife visit on Christmas Day!
Hope you find your Dad improved!😏