*** TAMOXIFEN * 12 ***

[KurriKurri]

Tada! A shiney new thread - get me with my fancy asterisks

Yup, though the car parking was eek today. Really lovely to just have that chance to walk round and enjoy ourselves. There is life after chemo!

Ooh Kew is lovely amber, - I went last year, I hope the weather was nice for you.

Mange is horrid Figgy - one of my sister's dogs had it, I'm glad it got sorted in the end. I bet a bearded collie is a big grooming job if its hair stays long, - beautiful dogs though.

Hope you aren't too worn out MAS - you've been working hard over the bank holiday.

I have made an enormous vegetarian moussaka, vastly over estimated my quantities. DD has said rather forlornly 'I think we are going to be eating this for days' - Do you think I'd be able to freeze some of it? - it has a sort of egg and yogurt mixed topping, and its been cooked.

I would think so - sounds yummy -love moussaka !
I was quite relieved to be able to do some work- dh went for a walk,ds in his room- now there's a surprise ! He was asked if he wanted to go for a walk but declined. I feel a bit guilty for not going but really wanted to get my work underway. Tomorrow we're planning a trip to Portsmouth to the Spinnaker Tower which should please the boy
Hope everyone is ok x

Yup, I reckon it should freeze (though I'm not a great cook so don't quote me on it...)
Weather at Kew was just right, thankfully.
Enjoy that trip, MAS!!

Might see you there MAS! I am off to Gunwharf to please DD2 and DS, although he is feigning disinterest in anything but lunch at the mo!

Gah !
Posted a long missive and the damn thing disappeared on me !

DD went back to school this morning .
We had tears and snots as she didn't want me to walk her there (I can see the school from my living room window) .
I thought it was because she was being sensitive about her baldy , headscarfe wearing mummy being seen with her .
But that will teach me to think "its all about me" eh ?
She is apparently "too big" to be walked to school by her mother , and all at the grand old age of 8 !!!

I wanted to do the run this morning though , because I knew I had to face the "aaw look at the poor baldy cancer ridden woman" looks from the other mums .
Got a few , not that many though .
Got a lot of hugs , which I found disconcerting !
But my favourite was a mad friend of mine who has decided we are going to henna tattoo my head

Haven't been around much over the past couple of days , as my poor tummy (and botty) has been giving me the most awful trouble .
Have had to be within 3 paces of the loo at all times (sorry if that's tmi !)
Am feeling much better today though .

Hope you are all having good weeks so far .
Is smee back off her hols yet ? Or has she thrown it all away to live in a beautiful medieval castle in France for ever ?

If she has any sense at all, she will have, though the tent could prove inconvenient by around November

Glad you are feeling better Topsy. Good on you for getting the school run over with, it'll get better from here. I also had hugs from people i hardly knew, it makes them feel better so i suppose we need to allow it. They mean well. It's better than having 'Oi baldy' shouted after you And TBH, now I've been there myself, I think I might become one of the random huggers myself, if i saw someone in a similar boat.

well done topsy - it must feel a bit daunting- people's reactions to things are unpredictable ! Bless dd for being so independent ! Hope bot and tummy are behaving a bit better today.
ILGC - I'll be the one with the teenager walking several feet ahead of me..he'll be pleased about the Spinnaker,less so about looking in shops-though lunch will cheer him and there are Krispy Creme doughnuts I see...

Have a good trip today MAS. You too ILGC

Well done for braving the school run topsy, and the hugs and 'looks'.
at your DD being too big to be walked to school - 8 is the new 12!

Regarding the runs, - have the hospital given you anything for it? they gave me a huge bag of immodium, - and it helped, you don't need to put up with it, or you will get very uncomfortable. Another tip, (and this is far TMI ) fill a bottle with a squirty top with water and squirt it in the appropriate place as you are going, it makes it less painful < chemo diarrhoea veteran emoticon>

I imagine Smee was waiting until after the BH to return, but then again she may have upped sticks and decided to live in a medieval castle in France. That sounds like a very attractive proposition atm.

DH is back on Thursday, he left me the plane times, - I find it very hard to get my head round the time differences. He leaves Canada at 20.00, and arrives in London at 13.25, - took me ages to work that out - couldn't understand why the return journey took 17 1/2 hours!

I totally get what you mean about the "chemo bum" kk , I truly understood the meaning of "ring of fire" this bank holiday weekend !

And I too , refuse to cannot understand time differences around the world . Surely you don't need time differences as EVERYONE knows that the world is flat .............

In other news , I have decided that I really need to start wearing makeup . I put my new red dress on yesterday . To my horror , when I looked in the mirror , I looked like my DHs Mad Great Aunt ! She is in her 80s , she is a housekeeper for our local priest (good job he is a priest cos he needs all the Good Lords interventions to survive her cooking !!!) , and she has a love of wearing "inappropriate" clothing

Now don't get me wrong , when I am in my 80s I would give my right arm to look (and behave) like her . But as a (very very young !) 41 year old , I think it is too soon to be "mad and dress in purple" all the time !

Ok , spiel over .
Back to work Ladies

Do they have the Look good feel better scheme in NI topsy? - worth asking about - you go to a session and they show you how to do your make up, and you get given a big bag of make up/ perfume - posh brands, its fun to do, - I'll see if I can find anything about it on t'internet for you.

Sudocreme is good for chemo-bum too.

here is where they are in Belfast

and here is their website and all about the charity.

It really is nice if you do fancy doing it.

It's temporary topsy, only temporary.

When I was on chemo I took dd to quite a nice restaurant for a meal. There were 2 old ladies in the corner and I distinctly heard them say how nice it was to see a little girl out for tea with her gran . And I WAS wearing make-up

have a nice day out ILGC and MAS. KK, I hope he returns with a nice present.

Yesterday we went to one of the Shakespeare properties where they were doing a lot of hands-on stuff. She now wants to add archery to her long, long list of things we pay for and taxi her to activities. Sigh.

Have already booked myself onto the Look Good course kk .
I have got the 4th of October , which is fab cos it will be my birthday the next day . So that will be a lovely treat .

Do still have a small niggle that I will come out with Drag Queen eyebrows

DD should get her list of after school clubs this week cakes , I feel your pain . Shall it be African Drumming or Dodgeball she chooses this year ??? She is an eclectic little madam

That's great - you won't have drag queen eyebrows, - it's a nice relaxing couple of hours, and you'll look fab.

I miss the days of after school clubs, now they are in the past. I remember DS coming home and announcing he was going to do cello, because it was all girls, he'd be the only boy and that was a good thing. I got sick of carting that cello to and from school.

Hahaha kk , smart juniorkk
I played the cello at school .
I went to school in central London and dragged that damn thing on the bus every day for 5 long years !

At our 'danger is everywhere' school girls have to wear track pants for African drumming so you can't see their knickers . Dodgeball sounds more fun!

This year (so far) dd is doing swimming (1 lesson pw), football (1 training sesh plus 1 match pw) Tae Kwon Do (1 sesh unless about to grade, then it's 2) and guitar (1 sesh plus practice). Groan. Not sure when she thinks she will fit archery in, or how we would afford it on top of that lot. Have told her that I used to keep catching my chest in the bow to try to put her off but, obviously as she has no chest yet, she does not care.

Cello is v dedicated though

Don't be impressed cakes , you've never heard me play .......

And don't get me started on how I permanently sit "legs akimbo" in all chairs these days

I'm impressed with your cello efforts topsy, - I must point out that DS didn't get very far with the cello - I don't think his mind was really on the job

DD is home from school , and she says she may aswell go back tomorrow !
She has 2 party invites for this weekend , I wish I had half that girls social life

Wrote a message, mn lost the message......ah so goes life at the mo.

Hi everyone sorry I haven't been on for a couple of days. I've been having a bit of a wobble

I half convinced myself I could run away and not have to go through the mastectomy next week.

I've almost pulled myself together now (hopefully)

Deep breaths, Earth.

This is quite a scary bit. You will honestly feel better when the bloody thing has gone.

Oh Earth,poor you, - wobbles will jump up when you least expect them, - the waiting for everything in this process is so, so hard, but you will get there and as Cakes says you will feel better once its done.
It's scary, but its a step on the way to getting better
Take care and come on here and voice your fears if you think it will help, - its often easier to say things anonymously than to say them to family and friends.

Sparkle MN has been down for me fro most of the afternoon, - it was obviously busy eating your message

Oh Earth, damn this waiting..... I am sure cakes and kurri are right and that you will feel better when it is done. Please have your wobbles on here....if you think that sharing it will help. Big hugs.

Kurri - try and eat this one mn