**TAMOXIFEN TEN***

[MaryAnnSingleton]

brand new shiny thread....our tenth !

Hmm, started off very wobbly and faint. Feel a lot better now. Think it's just steroid withdrawal combined with the chemo making its way through my system. SR - hope the day goes ok for you.
Think I'm persuading dh to get a takeaway tonight so we don't have to cook (having spent half the afternoon teaching him how to make cake!)

mas.. yes it made a really nice change.

amber..aww amber i hope you feel better soon,i had to start my steriods today a day earlier than usual was gutted to realise i have to take double .i swear the steriods and sickness tablets make me feel so much worse.good idea to get a takeaway unless of course you can get your hubby cooking sunday dinner but that might be pushing it after getting him baking cakes.

oooo 'eck, I think a whole Sunday dinner could be a stretch too far for him. he has many talents, but cookery is an unknown art to him...

amber..just as i thought lol hope you went for the take away option.

im off to take the dog for a walk hoping the rain stays away then going to settle and watch BGT,i want to know if simons in a bad mood or not sad i know.

Had nice swim and day out thanks all.

BTW, KK, how are the hornets?! That sounded like a lovely relaxing Bank Holiday activity for your DH.

Am wondering if I've got a slightly detached retina....hmm, what was that I said about googling? Funny visual disturbance in far periphery of one eye yesterday and a sort of new floater down at right hand corner of peripheral vision. Will see if still there tomorrow. This started yesterday.

funny you should say that sands i have been getting them here and there,will be very intrested in what you find out.its something i have forgot to ask about i presume its side effects from the chemo or medication i have been taking.

Worth getting an optician to have a look pronto if you're worried?

Yes, I'm fairly sure everything will be shut today but will ring and check now. Thanks Pink and Starlight. I didn't het this while on chemo but I am short-sighted and have always had a few floaters. No worse today but still the same.

Hope you're both feeling OK. Weather really dismal here so can't even get into the garden at the mo. (NW England)

SR - Sorry you are feeling down, hopefully when PG goes you will feel better having your home back to yourself.

If your eye gets worse and you are worried I would go to a and e. (or Do you have a walk in centre that's open on BH?) A friend Dh had a partial detatchment and had floaters in his eye, - he's being monitered atm, apparently they don't do anything until it fully detatches.

The hornets have been sprayed (I feel a bit sorry for them, they aren't as aggressive as the little wasps. But I'm allergic to wasp stings so I can't really risk having them in the roof!)

Well done to Topsy junior

Amber I hope you are feeling less wobbly today - steroids always made me feel lousy in all sorts of ways.

Pink - your day out sounds lovely

love to everyone xx

hope eye thing gets sorted soon SR - take care
We're off to Hinton Ampner later- had the nicest time yesterday at Arundel at the wetlands centre- sweet moorhen chicks,ducks of many kinds - love it.
Have a lovely day all

The wetlands sound great MAS. We had a brill time at Slimbridge once when DCs were small.

I have been on-line to my optician - very useful little video about floaters etc and have asked for an appointment tomorrow, so I expect they'll ring me tomorrow. Have asked at 2 different branches so hope that one will have a free slot for me.

Have been very busy baking due to dismal weather - made a Weight Watchers gingerbread, a madeira cake, an egg custard and two loaves of bread! It finally faired up and I went for a walk.

Little Orlando has been on brief little forays outsie - just a few minutes at a time then I whisk hom back in beofre anything untoward happens. He likes my greenhouse!

had my first chemo of taxotere today went so much better than the fec and was the first time i wasnt sick or heaving. feel a little odd and have a bit of leg ache but on the whole not feeling to bad at all and the best of it is i only have 2 more sessions to go will then have a month break then my op so im warning you lot now get ready for my pre op meltdown most likely going to be megga when the panic sets in lol.

Huge hooray for you then Pink. Told you you might prefer Tax - fingers crossed you get through the whole cycle feeling same.

Amber hope you're feeling less wobbly today. Sounded not too pleasant to feel like that.

SR, really hope your retina isn't detached.

No time to write more, but hope everyone's okay and enjoyed the BH. Wet and cold here - still been on the Southbank on their pretend beach though. True British idiocy spirit.

Hi everyone. Well, another day when I've felt very dizzy first thing and then had great problems with energy levels e.g. walking up stairs without exhaustion. But it's still better than FEC and feeling nauseous for up to 9 days.

Pink, sounds like we're on the same sort of schedule except I get another 3 of these before surgery.

Who's for a glass of or ?

Evening All

Had a lovely Bank Holiday today .
DH at work but 2 friends of mine came and picked me up (non driver here) and took me and my 2 dcs , along with their dcs to a play park for the afternoon .

For once Belfast seemed to have better weather than the rest of the UK , so we brought a picnic and flasks of tea . And spent the afternoon bitching about the world whilst the dcs played their butts off .

And these 2 friends didn't once give me any pitying looks or say anything like "poor you" .
Pure , normal 6un and laughter !

Had the first experience of someone not knowing what to say to me yesterday .
Was walking up an aisle in Tesco when I came face to face with a school mum . She looked horrified , ducked her head , and charged off in the opposite direction .

I knew the school gossips would soon ensue that the news spread .
And I know its very hard for people , I'm sure they genuinely don't know what to say .
Just makes me glad I have a very good circle of friends who are supportive , but not soppy about it . (If you get what I mean ?)
Infact one friend of mine says she is going to have a t shirt made for me that saya "I have cancer you know" . So I can use it as an excuse not to do anything I don't want too !

Oh boy , that was a ramble and a half !
Hope all your bank hols went smoothly .
And all those having their treatments stay well .
3 days till my surgery !

PS - why are post surgery bras so ugly ?
PPS - do the post surgery softees really come in the lairy fabrics that the breast care nurse showed the sample to me in ?????

Called in for a quick Amber. Though Tax suits more than FEC, it's still grim to feel so yuk.

Topsy, I like your ramble and a half! Your friends sound brilliant, as does the t-shirt. I was going to have one printed with 'I'm not dead yet you know' on it. Never quite got round to that one, but it was ever so tempting.

smee ..thanks im just taking one day at a time but for the moment im feeling ok which makes a nice change.

amber..i have had 3 fec then its 3 tax, are you having 4 of each? sorry your struggling at the moment the energy thing really sucks and so does feeling lousy it drags you down .i hope you pick up soon.

topsy..sounds like a day out with friends was just what you needed. i have chose not to tell many people family and just a few close friends which i sworn to secrecy i really couldnt face being talked about or have people feel sorry for me. i did tell my x my kids dad as obviously i have needed him to help out more i ended up snapping his head off because he kept ringing me to check up on me then saying you dont sound well i just dont want every convo to remind me i have cancer and sympathy really upsets me.good friends are really important so is humour i remember telling my friends when i was really down when i was first diagnosed and convinced my number was up that "i cant die no way can i let that B...ard of an x bring my kids up,i would never rest im not going anywhere"thing was i really meant it but we all howled with laughter.

hey that's good that you felt ok pink- let's hope it continues...
topsy- so glad you had a nice day with your friends - I do think it's hard for other people to know what to say- mostly I think it scares them -before any of this happened to me I would have maybe been the same.
Horribly wet and dismal here -didn't go to Hinton Ampner,or rather we did,but stayed in the car,waiting to see if it'd stop-instead we went to The Long Barn in Alresford which is a lavender farm selling fab things- dh bought a lavender plant,a nice geranium and a pretty daisy-like climber and ds bought himself lavender fudge and lavender jelly and some rhubarb and lavender jam These will last him a very short time.
My very good friend from London is visiting tomorrow with her dd- we lived next door-dd is 6 months older than ds and they grew up together.

Hi all! Too much here to read thoroughly, but hooray for topsy's surgery, getting rid of hornets and Polish guests, chemo not being too bad - etc. All far too busy as usual, you need to calm down.

I particularly like the idea of all that lavender stuff - yum.

Thanks to all who have contacted me ref facebook, as soon as i get a bit of time I will respond I promise. Half term is being very hectic so far. Mine is another vote for not letting go of this thread, I like it here.

Guess what? I have posted a photo on my profile!!! It's sideways on, but Rome wasn't built in a day! Oh, and it's not me either. It's dd on the chain ferry in Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday. It looks a bit posed, but I can assure you she was winding that thing for all she was worth! I can't post a photo of me I look like a fat git in all of them.

Wow, now I have to catch up on fb and on here.....so much to read, bullied children, new op appointments, ?detached retina, PG still spresent, adventurous cats and lairy post surgery..... (now how did that consulatnt describe them.....) supportive undergarments?

I agree cakes they must all calm down.

Sorry have not been around, I probably won't be muich until then end of half term, dc and laying patio means no cups of tea by the computer for me. When I say laying patio we haven't actually started yet, I mean so far rebuilding front door step, having to measure to scale and generate a paving plan to make sure the pattern is random....redoing it because it is not random enough checking and rechecking levels of sub base.....yep my dh is an anal retentive perfectionist, but he will also make sure it looks brilliant

Think I have you cakes on fb, just let me know and I will add you to the group!

Just wanted to send you extra big hugs topsy, to help get you through the next few days!

Topsy - sounds like a good day out and that you have lovely friends. (ignore the run away don't speak to you mob, or shout 'it's not catching' at them ) will be thinking of you this week and hoping op goes well.

Talking of T-shirts I saw one once that said 'I've got cancer so I don't want to hear any of your crap'

Amber sorry you're feeling a bit rough, dizziness is horrible, do be careful you don't fall (I only say this because I toppled over once on chemo and banged my hip badly - I was just trying to do up my shoelace) so take it very gently until you feel more steady.

Cakes - your DD is such a little sweetie - what a gorgeous girl You cannot possibly look more of a fat git than me. Although I have started a healthy eating diet.

Lavender fudge and jam sounds really nice MAS - hope DS enjoys it, and you have a lovely day with your visitors tomorrow.

Pink - a good sense of humour will get you through all sorts of things - great that you can have a laugh with your friends

I've just spent the afternoon at the new cancer support centre, I saw the resident oncologist there and he was really great. He spent over an hour talking to me explaining exactly how all my treatments work, why its important to eat well and exercise (I mean he told me in sort of scientific detail and I really understand it now - no one had ever done that before) And said that if I can get fit and healthy I'll feel much more in control. Anyway I came out feeling very motivated and cheerful. I'm going for a massage on Thursday.

Off to do a bit of gardening (he said its good to get plenty of sunlight, as long as you don't burn but be outside as much as poss.)

Love to all, hope everyone with young 'uns is having a good half term, good luck with the patio laying Sparkle

Hi topsy, I am glad you have supportive friends, as the unsupportive ones can be such a downer. I think t-shirts are a great idea: I always wanted one that said 'stop bloody staring' I'd like the one KK saw as well

Healthy eating, exercise and sunshine. Ah well, it all sounds very sensible and wholesome. I am glad to hear that and feel virtuous that i have had salad for tea (again).

Thank you for nice comments about dd, she is a little minx. She can't still for 2 seconds. The chain ferry takes about 2 minutes to cross the river but just sitting and letting the ferryman do it is totally beyond her.

sparkles I have had your pm and will look at facebook - am sure you have found me.

DH laughed like a drain when he heard I'd signed up - simply could NOT believe a technophobe like me would ever do it.