Breast Cancer Care Forum

Good evening Ladies. Very long time no speak. Just wanted to put in a brief appearance to wish everyone the happiest and healthiest of New Years!! Hope everyone’s doing really really well. I’m great/knackered. For those of you who remember me and my hair obsession I managed to hang on to almost all of it with the evil cold cap but what I didn’t reckon with was the hair that I did lose is now back and doing its finest Ken Dodd impression. As you can see, still focusing on the priorities... Ha. Love and best wishes to everyone Cherry Bakewell 🍒 xxx ... View more

  Meesh, yeah - what is it with wigs?! They all seem to have far too much hair (not that I'm one to comment!! 😜) I think they'd look so much more realistic if they weren't quite as bouffant. Yep, I'm secretly hoping that my wig stays on the shelf. Although it would be nice to have decent looking hair for special occasions...  ... View more

  Hi Meesh!! No, Raquel is still on her shelf in the shop on Penny Lane. After my matted tangled scenario when I last washed my hair I've hardly lost a strand so still don't think the wig will fit on. Great news that the cold cap seems to be working for you too. Have a lovely weekend xx ... View more

  Morning Lovelies!!!   Happy weekend to us all.   Sorry I've been awol from the forum for ages. That's the thing about working during chemo, I miss out on all the merry banter here!!! So far I've been very lucky again during this second cycle - very few side effects and have been at work every day feeling perky. The only real side effects have been a sore wrist and discoloured hand where my trainee chemo nurse was digging for potatoes in my veins. I really think the fact that I'm having neo-adjuvant chemo (before any surgery) helps, as my body isn't also trying to recover from surgery whilst fending off side effects.   MrsMeow - really sorry to hear you're having a tough time with your wounds. Hope you're feeling a bit better today.    Morning Ali - hope you managed to get back to sleep, chick.    CK - great to hear you're still eating for Britain (and HK!!) Not sure about sardines as an early hours snack though. Ha 🤢   Chaffinch - thanks for your kind thoughts, wishing you all the very best for Wednesday.    Sue - I dip in and out of the October and September threads as I know people on both so want to keep up with how they're all doing.    Chasanddave - lovin' the fact you have a legitimate reason to eat pies!!!    Jencat - how you doing, lovely??    Jow - sorry you've had to resort to sleeping pills. It's odd as I'm normally a very nocturnal animal but since starting chemo am now falling asleep earlier and sleepIng pretty much right through, even on the steroids. I always make sure I take the steroids at midday though.    Rhona - welcome back and glad to hear you're doing so well.   Cathy - fingers crossed for your MRI scan results. I haven't had surgery yet either and my oncologist has informed me at my post chemo check ups that my lump is definitely shrinking.    Meesh - how you doing?? Hope all goes well again on Tuesday.   Michelle - hope you're feeling ok after yesterday.    Apologies to anyone I've forgotten. I will try to be a bit less of a slacker on the forum in future. It's tricky though  when you're not really having any side effects, as you don't want to be on here overbearingly perky and chipper when others are having a tough time of it.   Lots of love to everyone    🍒 Bakewell xx     PS  Day 11 of cycle 2 and still have what looks like a full head of hair (despite Bay City Roller modifications) 👍🏼 Go cold cap!! Am now experimenting with root blur concealer products. I'm sure that won't look crap at all... 😂   ... View more

  PMSL!!!!! 😂 ... View more

  Meesh, I'm not sure I'll ever feel comfortable with a wig. Luckily we'll be able to hide it under hats and things in the Winter xx ... View more

  CK!!!! What a legend!!! 🥂🍾🎈🎊🎉   Glad it was such a rip-roaring success but never doubted it for a second. Still not tracked down my cheque book, one last place to look but if not I'll just do a bank transfer. The wind is really getting up now - batten down your wigs, lovelies!!! 👶🏼💨    🍒 xx ... View more

  Ruth, re. introspection - today was really the very first day since my diagnosis that I allowed myself to feel a wee bit sorry for myself (for five minutes...😜👍🏼) I think keeping myself busy and in the routine of going to work has been a major and very positive distraction xx  ... View more

  Meesh, I think I've reconciled myself to looking a total lunatic for the first few weeks of wig wearing. I'm sure after a while my own hair will mash down and after this morning's experience I'm expecting to lose more hair. As I said earlier fellow cold cappers, if you've kept your hair to say shoulder length, I urge you to trim it slightly shorter now to save yourselves the matted tangled trauma!!    🍒 xx ... View more

  Oh right, that sounds a tad more complicated then,Sue. I'm sure they'll still use a very fine needle so you'll have no problems at all x ... View more

  Shi, you think I'm joking - my office is actually on the banks of the Mersey. Think I need to investigate wig insurance!!! X  ... View more

  Meesh, just imagine the drama once I've got the wig on the go!! Need to get a forum sweepstake organised - betting how long it'll be before it blows off and sails away down the Mersey to the tune of You'll Never Walk Alone 😂 xx ... View more

  I pick the wobbliest part of my tum, Sue, and job's a good 'un. I seriously thought I'd have to swing by the GP's surgery seven days on the trot to get a nurse to do it for me but it really is the easiest thing of the whole treatment. They also say to take the syringe out of the fridge 30 mins to an hour before. I didn't find this out till cycle 2 though, so don't worry if that's not convenient for you...   🍒 xx ... View more

  Hi Meesh   That sounds a pretty good arrangement. I'm just doing as much as I can whilst I can. No idea what might be round the corner or how I'm going to feel by cycle 7 or 8 (😱) so not planning too far ahead at the moment. Work have been great though - it probably helps that one of the directors had cancer himself and underwent chemo back in the day, when I don't think they had the side effects as well under control. On that basis he seems to think I'm on Shi's kryptonite... Ha xx ... View more

  Evening Sue   Please try not to worry about the injections. I know I thought that they would be the absolute worst bit of the whole treatment, as I am squeamishness incarnate but they're a doddle, I promise. The needle is so fine you hardly feel a thing. Definitely no pain whatsoever. Just find a wee bit of flabbiness on your tum, push the needle in and then the plunger. Simples!! 😜👍🏼 xx ... View more

  Evening Lovelies!!!   Been catching up on all the posts and having a good chortle at Ali's tangled hairbrush story (that's no doubt what I looked like first thing this morning) and Ruth's Wee Jimmy Krankie hair reference.    Managed to survive the day with hair on head - despite ex-hurricane Ophelia's best efforts. Hacked at hair currently resembling one of the Bay City Rollers on top, so have finally decided enough of the bad hair days - Raquel is to be summoned from her shelf. Almost all of my aggro since starting chemo has been hair-related which is ridiculous and self-indulgent, particularly as some of you have actually had to be admitted into hospital and here's me still harping on about my damned hair!!! I may actually be admitted at some point myself as I shaved furry legs, armpits and tufty club with a razor this morning. Didn't even cross my mind I shouldn't be doing it!!! Jeez, this chemo lark takes some getting used to...   Anyway, very well done to Jencat and Reboot today. Jencat - the cold cap does get easier, although after this morning's matted fiasco I'm not its biggest fan at the moment. Ruth, I've carried on working during chemo - just off for my actual treatment days. I've found it fine and as my side effects have been mild to fairly non-existent it's no doubt helped to keep my mind off things. I'd say play it by ear though. I was quite blasé at the start but seeing people I know on the forum going into hospital has been a wake up call. I had been carrying on pretty much as normal but am now far more conscious of not doing too much...   🍒 xx      ... View more

Hi Shi No offence to take!!! Always just grateful when anyone responds to my ramblings. Hope they let you out of Casa NHS very soon 😜👍🏼. On my way into work (late but hey, hair trauma!!) Actually still looks quite full, bouffant even and maybe a bit better than of late, as I allowed myself the luxury of a blast of cool hairdryer. Figured I didn't have much to lose. There's still a hint of 7 year old girl who got plasticine stuck in her hair and hacked at it with the safety scissors but hey, ho. Sorry if my morning posts today have been a downer for any of my fellow cold cappers but forewarned is forearmed. Not sure there's anything we can really do to prevent the matting but at least if you know it might be coming it's less of a nasty surprise. Have a good day everyone 🍒 Bakewell xx ... View more

  Morning Karana   Well, as Dizzy rightly said, curly hair can actually hide a multitude of sins. Now that it's dry it actually doesn't look too bad. If you didn't know me you'd probably think I had a normal portion of hair. I can clearly see where I've lopped the matted clumps off but it's fairly well hidden within the waves. Looks like Raquel will have to stay on the shelf for a couple more days.   For any of you lovelies cold capping still with fairly longish hair, you might want to think about another wee trim as my matting was clearly down to the extra length and the loose hairs getting all tangled up with those brave strands still hanging on in there.   🍒 xx ... View more

  Morning Chaffinch!!   Oh, I think flippancy and humour is the only way to cope with all this. Yes, I think I've still probably got too much of my own hair for the wig to fit well. My office is right by the river too, which is breezy on the best of days - think I'm going to have to superglue my wig down!! X ... View more

  Hi Rach   Yep, I have a wig on standby. Doesn't look too convincing though!! Hopefully it'll look better with a bit chopped off. My own hair still looks pretty full, just not sure what it'll look like by the end of the day though... Ha xx ... View more