Breast Cancer Now Forum

Hi, Like you Lilacblushes, if I turn over onto my left side in bed, I go extremely dizzy, but I've had this problem on and off for the last fifteen years, now I never turn onto my left side. Mine started in 1993, just after my mum died, so at the time, the doctors put it down to the stress of mum dying, but three years on and I was still having problems each time I bent over or turned to the left. I went through umpteen tests, to no avail, in the end I seem to get myself better with relaxation and painkillers, but I started Tamoxifen last July and Easter of this year I turned onto my left side in bed and without warning the room spun. It made me terribly ill. I went to see my GP who in turn sent me to see a specialist, but he said it was nothing to do with my ears, because if it was I would also be vomiting, which I don't, so he said it was stress...... I really feel they - specialist and the like, don't know how to treat dizziness. I asked about Tamoxifen would it be causing the dizziness, he said not. So, here I am again, with no answers and just trying my very best not to trigger the dizziness off again. Linda x ... View more

Hi Emma WHAT A FANTASTIC RESULT....you have made my day....one less person to be diagnosed is such a great peice of news...you must be feeling very relieved....now you can relax and enjoy your gorgeous little boy. Lol Anna xxx ... View more

hi lou this is my 6th try at trying to post this and am now getting really frustrated as any other post goes straight through! firstly i cannot express how well both you and your mother seem to be doing and how all my thoughts are with you unfortunately i have no words of wisdom except carry on with what your doing. most of my advice toy you is the same as most other people make a scrap book out of wedding mags dresses flowers favours maybe you and your mother could prepare favours of her choice together which would be apart of her on the day( my daghter in law had tiny little perfume bottles from piers and put her own perfume in them) maybe you could also make a little recording of what she would like to say on the day. i know this would be hard but so comforting. i lost my natural mother (sister) to breast cancer 5 years ago after a 10 month diagnosis and even though we spent lots of valuable time together we never really talk and this was so hard to deal with after so no matter how small or what time of day or night say it. I also lost my real mum last aug with bowel cancer with a 6 week diagnosis. i moved in with my mum and nursed her through this which gave us lots of time but again she did not want to talk about it so we just reminised and laughed and were just together. on the night she passed there was just the 2 of us and i just talked all night to her even though she was sedated for the last 24 hours. we were put on what is called the path way and had all the support of nurses and her doctor and we were totally in control of her staying at home . it was so caring and gave us all especially my mum the respect and dignity she deserved. you are allowed to state and deal with it all exactly how you want to even after. (sorry if this is upsetting and if this gets to you it is because i left this out of last postings and somebody is looking down on us) anyway other things i have done are to make a DVD of my mothers life from her first baby pictures(1916) and put music to it (fields of gold) it is so heart renching to watch and yet i can hear her all the way through it with little comments and it does help. i sent this to people to celebrate her 90th birthday in oct. maybe you could do this together as a little project. i would also suggest doing a little simple family tree together with your mum as i thought i new all ours but never actually wrote anything down and when i have come to do it i have so many gaps that i cant fill.i think you would get so much out of this as your mother would get so much out of it as well and even if your crying your doing it together, but most of it will be laughter. i am in the process of doing this with my husbands 86 year old uncle and he gets such pleasure out of talking about his life. the other thing i have is cuttings of plants in my garden that belonged to others from my mothers i bought a white rose she was proud of because it came from a cutting she pinched!!!!! believe it or not and it came into bloom on xmas day and flowered all christmas! i also have lillies of the valley that cme from her garden but originally came from my nans and they have just flowered and as they flowered i could hear her comments. at the mo peonies of my dads are in full bloom and i can hear my mum and see my dad with big proud smile on his face. sorry to ramble just hope you might be able to take something from this and maybe add your own bits together. it hard to express on paper but all my thoughts are with you just laugh hug cry scream together but at least you will of done it all together. i am sending you lots of hugs and love take care mandy x x x p.s know grammer and spelling are bad many appologies ... View more

hi cherub I know exactly what you mean - this is going to seem spooky to you but I too was diagnosed in October we are celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary next Weds (been together 29 years) and I am 46 he is 47 - No one ever seems to ask him how he is - we have a 19month old daughter who he has looked after extremly well - I have had a mastectomy 5 weeks ago rads start next week I had chemo first to try to reduce the lump. My husband started working part time only to take care of us both it must be so difficult for our partners - you will grow old together you have to and so do we for the sake of our daughter. I feel sometimes it is all about me and I know he feels helpless in our battle but we will all make it. I have been put on Tamoxifen now for 5 years. I hope you are feeling better we do say awful things when we are unwell beleive me I have said some awful things aswell. Take care and look after each other Gill xxxxxx ... View more

young kids Hi I know what you are going through.In the space of one month I have found a lump, been told i have cancer and had lumpectomy /WLE with node removal. Cancer has spread to nodes so preparing now for chemo and radiotheraphy I have a six year old son so although i wanted him to know what was happening i knew i had to make it easy for him to understand re the lump i said ' we all have cells in our body, some of mummy's have grown too fast and have clumped together to make a lump which needs to be taken out so mummy needs an operation. Hes been ok apart from being too scared to hug me since my op cos he was worrying i would start bleeding Re my cancer cells and treatment i said 'some of mummys cells in her breast want to travel to other parts of her body. Thats not allowed so we need to send them back to where they should be-they are naughty cells' to do this mummy needs some medicine in her arm which might make her sick and tired. I also said mummys cells need to work extra hard so some cells might not work so well ie hair and so mummy may loose her hair. I have told him that when i go to choose a wig he can come to. I have also asked for him to be able to go and look around the ward where i have will have my chemo treatment so he knows where i go and what will happen. Radio therapy - i said mummys going to stand in front of a big zap gun which his answer was 'COOL' i'm not trying to lie to him just explaining it to him so he can understand. I also want him to be involved -he has seen my bandages and my scars So far he is coping well and I am soo proud of him. My next battle is to get his school to understand what he is going through and to be sympathetic to him -he got upset and a bit silly yesterday and the teacher couldn't deal with him so sent him to sit outside the head teachers office for an hour. Being a control freak is fine -i am a person who hates doing nothing so the past week has been so frustrating for me. I am surprised how tired i am from the operation even a week later do as much as you can before hand and call in any favours possible best wishes Julie ... View more

Going mad? Gone mad. No return. Hi Kathryn Your post rang loud bells with me. I had a similar diagnosis and treatment to you (except actually very small tumours were found). Went straight back to work. Plain sailing. People were kind, and said how well I'd done. 6 months later someone asked me had I got over it, wanting a yes. I felt I had to give a yes, so I gave a yes. I will never get over this. I just might find a way of living with it. But that is a different matter entirely (if I live, that is - no guarantees, all certainty gone...well, I hear them say, certainty could not have been justified anyway...but they're not worried...). At any rate - it's the normality thing. You were ill, you had an op. now you're better. That's how it works isn't it? Well no actually. I never was ill. I went for first screening, they hit me with a sledgehammer and the rest is history - history, as you know, is one damn thing after another...It is 2 years on for me and the pain (mental) is at its worst and I'm supposed to be "back to normal" and I have a "good prognosis" - so your story sounds just like mine, and your feelings - they are totally normal, everyone on here has them - what is so criminal, criminal - criminally reprehensible (can you tell I'm angry?) is that breast cancer websites underplay the seriousness of the treatment: the treatment, not the disease - I found a website today that said breast cancer caught early is "easily cured" - I'm spitting feathers over that one. Telling women it's fine, just come on in and be dismembered... Okay, enough now - I really just meant to say: what you've had is non-trivial and what everyone else has said to you on here, they are right and I hope it helps you a lot and keeps you going. Love and hugs snowwhite ... View more

For Sammyh Thought I'd let you know that there is a recent UK study done on pre-menopusal women which shows that pregnacy after BC treatment has a protective effect. The max benifit was for those who waited 2 yrs but I think that that is comforting to know. All the best XXX ... View more