*TAMOXIFEN* the 5th

[MaryAnnSingleton]

in case we forget and find ourselves at 1000 - here's a fresh new thread !

RWU you are a complete inspiration. I am stunned by your approach to life and how much you pack into each day - all with humour and kindness.

But, RTPWTK, your Mum needs to find her own way to deal with this, and it seems to me that the hospital are not making this easy for her. The MacMillan team should be able help her cut through all the muddle and fight on her behalf for clarity and options. I hope so. If she feels more in control of what happens, that will be a big step forward.

Also, in our hospital there is a Cancer Bacup place in the foyer, with a notice that says 'Any question, any cancer'. I haven't tried them myself as I'd rather not know a lot of things, but if you have one of these, they might be able to give a few quick answers. I really think that going forward MacMillan would be the best support, though.

RTPWTK - As I said on your original thread, I haven't had Taxotere so I don't feel I can add anything but just wanted to send you my best wishes - its a very difficult time for you. I'm glad you've found the thread helpful.

Everyone - not posting much as still have visitors, but I'm keeping up with your news! RWU - how do the house and kitchen look now?

By the way MAS - forgot to ask - how are you getting in with radical new hair? Enjoying the change?

Kitchen is looking good, still a few bits to do, but me and sil are pottering around doing them at leisure, waiting on the cornice's from b&q- the ones we bought were not the colour it said on the box so they've gone back to be exchanged for the correct ones!

I've just painted the bathroom (1st coat anyway) i'm a bit as to whether lime green was the most sensible colour choice- but it may grow on me

dh has just gone for a walk.................... but i've looked out of the window and he appears to have taken his car on this walk

anyone want some damson jam? since the day we moved in people have been dropping of bags and bags of various fruit and vegetables- lovely thought, but not as you are unpacking the blardy removal van! so yesterday i finally got round to getting everything sorted, so the jam, onion chutney and pickled beetroots are now sitting on the side waiting to be taken to the outhouse for storage!

remember- def try and get some help from macmillan or similar, they are amazing and without them i'd have pulled my hair out (if i had any ) they are great at information, but also once you are in touch they will stay with you until you no longer need them, they know everything there is to know about living with cancer and can help get anything your mum or the family needs, even down to how to tell grandchildren etc there is a national helpline which will then put you through to your local centre but i'm afraid i don't know the number offhand. Thinking of you and your mum.

yes please to welsh cakes and jam...[hgrin]
I really prefer my hair like this Cakes - it's settled after being cut and looks best if I don't tweak it around too much- just arrange the fringe becomingly. Anyway, it suits me better to have a definite 'shape' to my hair -I must remember that.
I have nothing sensible to add for Remember - you might see if you can unearth onlyjoking as she knows a lot about Macmillan. When my brother was dying I do remember his having a night nurse who would take over from my parents- I imagine this was a Macmillan nurse. Lots of good thought to you.

Me please for welsh cakes and jam. Yum!

Lime green in the bathroom COULD look nice - depends on the light that the room gets really. At least it's fresh and zingy. Anyway, go with it now you've started, you must have enough to do in that big house without going back to the drawing board. And good news on the kitchen - how much beer did they drink?

So glad you like the hair MAS. I find mine a revelation really. I won't be letting it grow any time soon. I've just put some product in (have been slobbing at my desk all day but thought I owed it to dd to up my game a bit for parents 'evening' shortly) - and it looks pretty funky.

I am still trying to exercise a lot, but was totally thwarted last night. Pilates was cancelled so I went swimming, and was told to come back in an hour as there were lessons in the pool. Dug myself out of the chair again at 8.30 [hshock] to go back over - only to be told there was no public swimming all evening [hangry]

They'll get theirs come Halloween [hwink]

Just wanted to say thanks for all your advice,my lump completely went with tomoxifin but now have been so depressed,god only knows why,but good luck to you all xxx

RWU - Personally I love lime green and apple/lime green. My car is this colour and its fantasic as I can always find it.

Neighbour had lime green room with aubergine trimmings which looked surprisingly good - v. stylish. I think fuschia might work too, for a double zing!

Ebbie - I'm very sorry to hear about your depression but it sounds as though things are better physically?

MAS - yes, I agree that a shape in a hair-cut always imporved things. I'm waiting for DD to understand this

Cakes - how maddening about your efforts to exercise. Its still all I can do to walk. Have taken 3 visitors for several walks over past week and am exhausted now. Need to sit quietly and be mindful and try to persuade myself not to eat so much.

I've had very sad news this evening about a neighbour's daughter ( friend of my DD) who has just had a still born baby. I feel so sad for her. She's 21 and this is a heavy blow to deal with isn't it.

Oh SR. How sad

how really sad SR
Ebbie- glad to hear that physically things better,but sorry to hear about depression.
Lime green is nice-with terracotta (which is what we once did in our bathroom) can look quite Mexican - at least that was my idea - one of my favourite new inks is Asian Lime and is hugely pleasurable to use (sad aren't I !)
Have looked in my Mindfulness workbook and this week we are doing ten mins a day of breathing meditation,along with the usual...I feel quite stressed at having to fit it all in !

btw- we're nearing 1000 posts again...what shall we call the next thread ?

Sorry Ebbie I wasn't ignoring your post, I was dashing a bit though. I am so glad the physical side if things has resolved itself, and hope you find help to work on the depression. That is such a hard thing to deal with, you have my sympathy.

That is quite a lot of mindfulness, MAS - I feel the same with my physio. You get more to do each week, and it gets to be quite a lot of stuff to deal with. Will be worth it - as long as you stop getting stressed about it!!!!

Name for new thread - as inspiration is low here today - What about Tamoxifen the sixth? It'll need tamoxifen in it somewhere anyway: it would be perverse to take that out just as many of the regulars are popping their first pills...

good thought -tamoxifen the 6th...will wait until we're a bit fuller...
btw- your picture is in my work pile- I have a wedding one and a birthday one, then one long promised one for my cousin and then yours !
Must do a bit of cleaning,then Sainsbury's,then later piano for ds and Mindfulness - no need for meditation as it's the course this evening !

Thanks! No rush from this end, we are going away for half term as well so there won't be any action this end for a while anyway.

I have become PTA treasurer (I may have mentioned that before, but i have just started doing actual stuff as opposed to just waiting in the wings). I have a pile of stuff to wade through that is about a foot high. Yesterday two very injured sounding staff members came to me and said that they hadn't known who the new treasurer was: the last one was always around and available. I smiled politely but frankly, thought, tough, get used to it. The last one didn't work - I do (occasionally)

they're lucky to have you ! at our junior school when ds was there no one volunteered ever,so the same poor buggers had to stay in the jobs.. such joy to be free of it now he's at secondary-I feel I did my time on the PTA and actually some bits were fun (like the food tasting days!)
Righto, must crack on Will let you know when I'm starting picture

Thanks!

We hardly get any volunteers either. People always say either:

a - I work (don't we all)
b - I've got kids (eh?)

Well done on being PTA treasuere Cakes. I did 3 years on PTA then reckoned I'd done my bit!

I am tired - I think simply due to visitors! I think I am ready to go back to work in that I need more regularity in my life and I'll have fewer visitors. I have loved seeing them all but I've had it with all the bed-changing and washing! On the other hand I've just booked a venue for my nrithday party - I don't usually have a party but this is really to thank all the lovely people who've given me lifts and other support this past year. Budget means I'm limited to 30 pople so I won't even be able to include everyone but its a start. I guess if a few can't make it I can ask a few more. What % do you think I should assume will not be available to attend? Then I could 'over-invite' slightly.

Have taken car for service, done 3 washes and am now going to the dentist for the 1st time since last December. Trying to be organised pre holiday in Tenerife and return to work.

I support Tamoxifen 6th as I'm used to this now. BTW Arinidex seems OK so far - though I've forgotten to take it at least once, possibly twice.

SR, I agree I think sometimes a return to normality helps with energy levels and all sorts.

I imagine about 10 per cent might not turn up usually although I bet most will try really hard for this one as they'll see it as a celebration of how far you have come, and a kick up the a**e to cancer.

Glad arimidex is OK - I forgot tamox quite a lot as well - although i think I am more in the routine now. I fought against the dated pill box thing as it seemed a bit old lady, but have come up with a system whereby I scrawl the initial of each day on the reverse of each tablet on a strip, and then I can check if I can't remember what I have done. It may sound a lot of effort, but at least I always know what's what.

Tenerife sounds fab - enjoy it! I think this thread may echo a bit for a few days, it seems like quite a lot of us are on our travels.

My new pack of tablets has arrived now, with a tablet and a named day for each printed in separate little capsules - yay!! Must remember to take them on hol. with me!

We'd never have thought of Tenerfie if we hadn't had to take our holiday so late in the year, but I've consulted a friend who knows the Canaries v. well and he has recommended us Puerto de la Cruz as its not on the mass touristy end! However we'll prob have to visit the South as DS wants to do some scuba and surfing and I suspect these are more available down there. We'll see. I will have to resist the temptation to flop for the whole week - will try to get a bit of exercise each day to avoid getting even heavier! I'm wondering whether this tiredness is because I've been a bit over-busy or whether I'm at last permitting myself to give in to feeling tired - knowing I've a holiday coming up IYSWIM.

Have a great half term everyone who's still around to read this!

have a fab time SR- I shall be here all half term as I can't leave Celeste - dh and ds off to visit MIL

rwu, am liking the image of you swanning round your delectable new kitchen with an arm full of baking, though a hoping you remembered to shore up a brace of young farmers for emergencies? Surely they're medicinal.

Thread names, am feeling mightily unimaginative, so T the 6th sounds fine to me. Speaking of which I picked up my first prescription yesterday. Such a small box - somehow I thought they'd be horse sized!

SR, glad to hear Arinidex is mostly suiting you. Have a fantastic time in Tenerife. Have never been, but hear good things about it, especially if you're clued up. And anyway, who cares as it'll be hot!!

Cakes, you're a hero for PTA volunteering and good tip on labelling the Tamoxifen. Might do that myself as am so dippy these days that sometimes I can't even remember if I've had any lunch...

MAS, you have no time for being mindful - not even for a raisin. And how's Celeste? Did the cable wetting cease, or is she still having the odd accident?

Ebbie, really glad to hear your treatment's been successful. Sorry to hear you're down, but maybe it's all linked? Wouldn't be a surprise if it was, as you had one hell of a scare. Take care of yourself.

i have the phone numbers for a few of the young farmers they were mightily concerned that me and an electric drill were a dangerous combination- so they've told me to ring them anytime i need some diy assistance

I've just laid some vinyl flooring in the entrance hall- mightily impressed if i say so myself- took 3 hours, but the result is worth it! oh and the spray glue makes you high as a kite- better than oramorph any day!

i second third agree that 'T the 6th' is the way to go!

@RWU !!! you are amazing
I am totally terrified of any DIY especially involving electrical equipment!
Celeste seems to avoided any cables since we put some foil down-but I think the olbas oil is a good deterrent.
This week I'm going to be mindfully stroking her (you have to pick something,a routine/regular occupation such as teeth cleaning,washing up etc) - a few minutes absorbed in the lovely furriness will be very therapeutic !
The course last night was very good- we learned how to do the breathing meditation and am now hankering after a meditation stool

We have a Tibetan Singing Bowl for meditation: they are fab.

Don't know if you have ever tried one, but it emits a wonderful, resonant continuous note and really gets you into the meditative zone. We have been told that if you put water in it and start to get the thing rotating the water comes up into a column but we have not managed to
achieve that yet, much to dd's fury. But if you do the cat stroking, on a meditation stool, with a bowl singing, I think all your worries might just float away

And talking of floating away - good on you, RWU, for getting the young farmers' numbers. Electrical DIY equipment is very scary. In awe over floor laying - is there no end to your talents???

Have good half terms, all! (Cat stroking sounds like a great excuse to avoid visiting an MIL - makes me think about getting a cat)

Morning all, my you have been busy RWU, woolly beanie off to you. Enjoy the swanning, think u kind of deserve it!

SR and Ebbie, I wonder if tiredness and feeling down is related to end of treatment, not even just physical effects, but the drop in stress hormones which keep us going when under P (surviving treatment) then you miss them when they r gone and ur supposed to be able to cope ok. I am coming near end of radiorx now, am in 5th week, 1 to go. Skin is fine but I am a wet rag in the evenings. Tenerife sounds like just the ticket SR, (or a young farmer?)

RTPWTK, I hope ur mum can get a useful plan from McMillan, sounds like some joined up thinking needs to be done by her care team, and I agree full they are the way to go. They know all sorts of stuff.

Have trouble remembering my tamoxifen too, glad not alone there. Remembered it at 4am today, 6 hrs late, and rushed out of bed to take it.

Got to run and join the radiotherapy circus clinic. Have to say the staff are wonderful (changing to different staff for the last week so brownies in oven
tonite for current bunch whom I will miss) but lots of reading material an absolute necessity.