Breast Cancer Now Forum

Ali, thank you so much for sharing your marker coil experience.  All really useful stuff - and I surely won't look at any needles headed in my direction! Urgh!!  ... View more

All VERY best to you today, Jencat. Would echo Ali and Eliza re fluids, meds and also a bit of just whatever you fancy! xxx ... View more

Hello Team TN - have had a day of kamikaze gardening in the lovely sunshine.  All v therapeutic!   I think the reason I'm being measured so much is because there's quite a lot to measure - well over 4cm.  They're sticking a coil marker in the middle of it in a couple of weeks time, which apparently is to help the surgeon find the lump after chemo.    I had some trouble getting my head round this since, to my mind, my lump almost walks into the room before I do.  However, having made some calls (including to the lovely nurses on this BCC helpline), it turns out that - just as Jencat was advised (hi Jencat!) - TN tumours do indeed respond really well to chemo, that lots of people ask the same question about the marker and they fully expect my lumpy monster to be genuinely hard to find come January. Really positive to hear.   Ali, I think the T bit of the treatment will be just as effective at the cancer-munching/growth reduction as the earlier cycles.  I'll swap you some of my measuring sessions if you like - it sounds as if my local team just can't wait to get their little callipers out!   Caroline, I was intrigued to learn that some people can feel a bit abandoned once treatment finishes.  I can sort of understand this - all this intense focus is pretty full-on - but, like you, am SO looking forward to being abandoned asap....   Hang in there ladies, and all the lovely supporters too   Sue xx ... View more

Ali, meant to say what brilliant news about the lump shrinking - a quarter of it gone!  Got all my appointment letters about 6, 12, 16 and 20 week measuring yesterday, which was a bit of a surprise, but all good.  Here's to more shrinking! ... View more

Morning all.  I was offered the gene test (although I'm 52, no kids) - now waiting for the results, which I was told took up to six weeks.  After chemo (ECx4, Tx4) they foresee lumpectomy then radiotherapy, although the surgery stuff could always change depending on the BRCA findings. Ho hum!  xxx ... View more

Hi ladies, I'm triple negative too.  It's been a week since I had this particular news and had first chemo session yesterday.    I'd already gone into DEFCON 3 mode when the first cancer diagnosis was confirmed 3 weeks ago. Went through every pile of papers, every trinket box with the strange rubbish I'd been stuffing in there for years, re-read letters from old boyfriends, chucked out SO much stuff over days and nights of compulsive sorting. The reason for doing this, of course, was because in my head was the "This is it" moment. I even made keep-sake boxes for the people I love!   Now things have sunk in a bit, including the TN information, I've reached the view that I am where I am.  There's nothing I can do to alter the diagnosis but I CAN change how I respond to what it will bring.  It's a bit like having a toxic colleague in the workplace - you can't change their behaviours, you can only change your own, and while I'm not thrilled with the immediate prospect of 20 weeks of chemo, I'm going to try not to look round too many corners for the middle or long-term, including googling any data. That could change, of course, but the up-side for right now is that I have a very tidy house!    The first chemo session was so much better than I'd been expecting, although it started off strangely.  When I walked into the reception, we did the usual ritual of name and DOB, then the receptionist said, "Blah blah area, take the first left, Chair 21."  I must have looked very confident (like someone else?) but  she hadn't clicked I was a newbie.  Once we got things back on the right foot, I plonked down in Chair 21.  Everything was going swimmingly when, just before the cannula went in, they realised I hadn't been given the anti-emetic that I should have taken an hour before the appointment. No one had told me about this or given me the medication!  So, pill popped, I twiddled my thumbs with my arm snuggled into the heat-pad-thing for an hour before we got down to business.   It was all completely fine. Lots of lovely eye contact from the nurses, lots of explanation and some intriguing tips based on their experiences, eg, "if you have a favourite perfume you wear regularly, try swapping it out for something new while you're going through the treatment process."  Something to do with emotion, memory and smell, I think.  Anyway, it's the perfect excuse to buy a new fragrance!    Also, when the various drugs (epirubicin, which makes your wee go pink for a bit, and cyclophosphamide) were going down the tube into the cannula, I was told I might feel certain fleeting sensations, such as tickly backside (?!), a taste of black pepper at the back of my nose, a sudden headache down my nose and across my eyebrows.  When none of these things happened - very disappointing, especially the tickly bottom - my friend and I got a fit of the giggles and I kept bending the tube, which made the machine start beeping. The nurses were very patient and good humoured about us cackling away in the corner.  Thank goodness we were the only ones there by this time.   Last night and today have been fine.  I'm a bit tired, a bit spacey, and there are lots more anti-nausea pills to take than I was expecting. This could have been because, based on some advice on one of these brilliant threads, I kept saying "I'm a very sicky person, I'm a very sicky person!" so someone must have written it down.  The irony is that I missed one earlier because it was 30-60 mins before a meal and I forgot, so am off to buy a cheapy dosette box in the morning.   So after all that jabbering on, I guess the TN thing is really an extra card to hold in our cancer hands. It might mean something, it might not. I've been looking into some counselling options provided by my hospitals/Macmillan and there's also a specialist centre fairly close by which runs lots of services re cancer support.  It might be a good space to talk through some of the feelings I don't want to lay on my loved ones.  Just waiting to see if any of that nausea turns up in the next few days before I start ringing for appointments!   Sue ... View more

Hi everyone, getting ready for first chemo tomorrow.    Had a really massive chop off of my long hair at a salon that's part of the Strength in Style thing. I can post the link if this would be helpful?  It was a bit pricey but the stylist knew her stuff about chemo hair at all the stages - really impressed. Having never had short hair ever, it's quite a revelation to feel the suddenly sleek short back of my neck!    Having been keeping myself busy with cooking, the freezer is now fairly full with what I hope will be tasty food.  I've found it really really hard this last week to eat properly. It's like the stress went straight to my appetite pre-chemo.  Might need to give myself a bit of a talking-to once treatment is underway.  Still, after nibbling some of the ginger bits and pieces I ended up buying today, I was ravenous!    Jencat, Ali and Sam - all the very best.    xxxx Sue ... View more

After fretting away for most of last night, have moved my chemo start by one massively important day. I'll say one thing for this BC mullarkey, it don't half focus you on the really important stuff!    All power to us! ... View more

Thanks Ali. Spoke to a really lovely nurse on one of the helplines, who said that unless there's a pressing clinical need for treatment to start on Monday (and I don't thing there is, but what do I know?), there's every good reason for them to accommodate my needs. The last thing I want is to be awkward or banjax precious time that someone else really needs, but as the nurse said to me, if there's ever a time to think about being selfish, it's now! ... View more

Hi everyone,   Took a bit of a breather to process all the stuff from my oncology appt on Wednesday.  I'm up for ECT treatment over 20 weeks. I've not done much researching because I got a phone call from the hospital soon after I got home from a three-hour series of discussions and tests to say they want me to start chemo on Monday.  Eeek!   I don't want to throw any spanner in the works of my own treatment but I'm finding it hard to see how I'm going to do all my prep stuff in time.  Told work for the first time today, so they're in a sort of fugue state of shock. I live alone, and closest friends are at some distance, so I'm not confident they can sort their childcare etc in time to come with me for that first session and then stay for a few days after.  Most important, I've not told my mum, because I wanted to reassure her with some facts, and also need to do this face-to-face. She lives about 150 miles away and is one of life's worriers!   Thought I'd had have at least a week to get myself organised. And get the ginger and Murray Mints in!  I'm going to call some of the numbers I've been given to talk this through, but wanted to bounce it off fellow posters.  Am I being reasonable to ask to re-schedule?    Jencat, it really sounds like you've been through the wringer. We've had a real wallop at these appts, you with weird sharing of stats, and me with a schedule that feels impossible.  Hoping things are making better sense.  xxx ... View more

Thanks for replies - my word, ladies, you're fast!   Yes, my oldest friend is coming with me tomorrow.  I've been the 'ears' for friends & family for these appointments, so other than emotional support, know I need someone else there to take in what's being said.  My back-stop was to pinch the office audio recorder and play it back to myself in a quiet moment!    Jencat, saw your earlier post about being summoned with no notice and glad you've been able to go ahead.  I came home tonight to open a letter re routine breast screening appointment.  Oh, the irony!  When I called to cancel, the call centre chap missed a beat when I told him why I wouldn't be attending, but otherwise he did his stuff really well.   Runnerbean, as you say, the waiting/not knowing just saps everything out of you. I know I'm up for chemo but the rest is a bit of a mystery.  Reality won't be welcome but it will be a thousand times better than this constant focus on 'what if? what if? what if?'.   Cassie, Ali, thank you so much for your replies. It really helps.  While I've got beacon women with BC in my family, it's the response of people right now that's most steadying.  So thank you again!   Sue (am I imagining this, or are there lots of Sues on this forum?  Hail the tribe of Sues if so!) ... View more

Thank you Jencat - will be thinking of you too.    I somehow seem to have acquired a little bottle of brandy on my routine stop-off at Sainsburys tonight.  Hmmm.. Let's hope I won't be necking the lot by 10.30 tomorrow!  Have you got someone to go with you and do the listening bit? ... View more

Hi everyone,   I'm joining this thread as a newbie, diagnosed on 7 September and seeing the oncologist tomorrow.  I've read so much stuff on the forum and learned so much too.  Really glad to be able to lean in to what people are sharing - thank you all.   It's a real roller-coaster, isn't it? Apart from the sort of floaty, not-quite-connected state of physical shock, my worst moment was when I thought the bone scanner thing was going to squish me last Friday. Looking back, of course it must have a zillion built-in safeguards, but at the time, it felt like my number was up.  Anyone heading for a bone scan, it really won't squish you - it will be completely and absolutely fine!   My first experience of BC was when my grannie reached inside her blouse and then plopped her prosthesis suddenly into my 9-year-old hand.  My longest experience of BC is my mum, who's had most kinds of treatment and surgery between the early 1980s to late 2000s. She's 89 now and pretty fit.   I have my tough pants ready for 9.30 tomorrow morning but offers of spares could be welcome too!  All the best to you all.   Sue ... View more