*** TAMOXIFEN * 12 ***

[KurriKurri]

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

I don't know SR, I don't weigh myself as I would get obsessed by the numbers. But I have gone down most of a dress size. Ie I was a small 14 and now I am a 12 - but not quite a small one. Sorry to be so vague I guess i have lost less than you but I am pleased and am keeping going. For my height and frame I really need to be a small 12 or, ideally a full-blown (inappropriate choice of term) 10. But I am getting there, though progress is so slow it may well be Christmas before i achieve it. But as KK says, at least we are going the right way.

Welcome back to Pranma! Good news for you! I am very pleased. I hope your friend is doing OK, it's good that you can offer support.

I am waiting until a decent hour to call the friend I mentioned last week (she of the recent BC) - need to find out what's what as she has been on holiday since I found out and I didn't want to break into that.

Poor Celeste, MAS. I bet it was stress related. Our dog always used to suffer when we (or even just one of us) went away. He was OK, it was just that his tail stopped wagging

I hope figgy and amber are doing OK. Love to all.

Dd has decided that the summer holidays are boring and that we are the most boring part of it. She has been away for the weekend at her own request Thank God for willing grandparents!

PS There is a bloody irritating link appearing on this page that says I may have won an iPad. However i try to get rid of the bloody thing it keeps taking me to the page. And I am getting mighty annoyed with it. Anyone else got it?

Nope I haven't got that......yet!

I have been trying to catch up, but I thuink my brain is a bit befuddled today. Hope figgy is out today, fb message said she might be.

Hope everyone is ok.

Ooh, good - here's to figgy!

It's gone for me as well now. Thank goodness for that.

I am going to spend the day playing hardball. I have a client whose invoice for their last newsletter is five months overdue. They want me to start getting the next one designed so it will be ready in time for a show in three weeks' time. Oh no, I think not.

they've got a nerve cakes- be tough,be strong ! (at first I did actually think you were being sporty and going to play some kind of ball game- duh !) Am up v late -so tired after everything. MIL is sweet but it is draining - but most importantly she enjoyed our visit.

Lots of love to figgy for coming home today and amber of course.
Celeste was fine this morning !

I couldn't find my muscles to flex them!

I am glad Celeste is better.

btw- am very impressed by cakes and SR for their weightloss programmes - I never weight myself either cakes as I would get very obsessed by numbers (I know from teenage years where I plotted weight every day)

Thanks. It's more than a bit dull though

I do like salad and fruit but even so....

Since I finished chemo (December) I have lost 27 kilos, still got 20 to go! But it has actually been easy and I haven't been on a 'weight loss' diet. Where I was treated they automatically refer you to a dietitian after chemo who gives you a 'post-chemo healthy living plan'. No food is banned, except they suggest red meat/alcohol only once a week, it is just they give you a list of things you have to eat every day to facilitate a speedy recovery. By the time I have consumed an oat based breakfast, at least 7 portions fruit/veg, soya beans, flax seed, wholemeal pasta etc I am too full to eat anything else. She also recommended getting a Wii Fit and gradually building up exercise gradually, I started on 4 minutes! When I think of all the diets I have failed at in the past the only difference seems to be that I could eat anything I felt like but I am too full from all those bloody soya beans!

ILGC - well done!!

I must say the referral to a dietician sounds a grand idea!

Wow ILGC that is amazing, I could so do with a dietician too!

topsyturner-just seen your question-triple negative breast cancer means the tumour isnt driven by hormones[oestrogen and progesterone] and doesnt test positive for HER2 protein.This means that none of the back up preventative measures[tamoxifen,arimidex,herceptin]will help.I the early years after dx[up to 3]it is very aggressive indeed with quite a high recurrence rate.It is however very responsive to chemo especially taxanes.It is most common in younger women and those from ethnic minority groups and has been associated with the BRAC1 gene mutation.
I fit into none of these categories.I was over 60 at dx,am white,and dont have BRCA1.I am on this tamoxifen thread even though I am not on tamoxifen because you kind lot let me hang out with you :)

we are very pleased that you want to hang out with us pranma !
ILGC - you mention soya and flax seeds- am curious about these as surely they aren't good for people who've had bc -I know it's very confusing because plant oestrogens are meant to be good (before I had bc I liked soya yogurts and that Bergen bread with linseed and flax -still do have soya from time to time)

Hi MAS

I was wondering that too. I have been adding flax seeds to my lunchtime salad since I went on this diet but had also thought it not good really. However, i have googled flax seeds today and several sites (admittedly vested interests, some of them) suggest that it is protective of people who have had hormone-receptive BC and manages to help reduce the risk of recurrence, without interfering with the action of tamoxifen. So I am going to keep using it for now, although not at the 4 tablespoons a day recommended on one of the sites I read. I just sprinkle a handful.

Hi all, - great to see you back Pranma, and good news you have been signed off - well done I have a friend who is triple neg. I think in her case it is a gene thing -she's adopted and has been trying to discover some of her birth family history to give her more info.

ILGC - well done on your weight loss, that is very good going , - Referral to a dietician is a brilliant idea, they don't do it round here, but I wish they did.
SR and cakes -sounds as if you are both doing well too

Cakes - hope you get things sorted with your client, (would you like us to send the girls round? )

I hope Figgy gets home today, - and that she's not feeling too battered.

Hope Celeste is feeling a bit better now you are home MAS.

I'm still not sleeping [grrr] the GP told me to read or listen to music, not to toss and turn. So last night had my MP3 player plugged in, it plays tracks in a random order, was just dozing off when 'Well, shake it up, baby, now,
Twist and SHOUT. ' blasts into my ears. Must check what I've got on there more carefully

In town today, I was carrying my yoga mat and small rucksack, went into a small cafe for a tea, and I was approached by a homeless man 'Are you sleeping rough too?' he asked
I quickly put him right, then bought him a cuppa and a kit kat since he was sleeping rough, poor chap.

As DD says 'when people start asking if you're a tramp mum, you've reached a new low.'

Nonsense. It's called shabby chic

How nice of you to buy him the tea and kitkat though.

It is hard not sleeping. Going for a nice sleep used to be the highlight of my day but now i know it is going to mean several hours of tossing and turning first it seems like such a challenge. The listening to music is meant to be a good plan, if you can weed out the lively tunes, hope it works. maybe when the tablets have kicked in more? Does the exercise help? I think it does with me, but am such a lazy git it is hard to get motivated sometimes.

Shabby Chic - that sounds so much better

I think exercise does help, I'm trying to get back into swimming again more regularly. I think the tablets are helping a bit too and yoga teacher has given me some breathing exercises to help relax me. Hot weather doesn't help though.

The GP said give yourself about 20 mins and if sleep is looking unlikely then read/ listen to music/eat something/watch TV. Part of the problem is if I don't get off fairly quickly, I have to get up and go to the loo, then I'm awake again.

I have the opposite problem and, now i think of it, it's been coming on a number of years. I fall asleep almost instantly, then snap wide awake about 45 minutes later. It's really crap because by then DH is snoring and i get so riled I am beyond sleep, or even rational thought of any kind

Hot weather is not a help, that's for sure.

As ever, too many posts..! I will read and try and catch up, but am back from lovely weekend in Derbyshire. Dodging the sirens here though - DH and DS just evicted from Sainsbury's as they've closed it early anticipating riots. Blimey..

Gosh Smee - I thought of you with all these riots going on, how scary and how

I'm glad you had a lovely break though

Cakes I am also married to a snorer, worse he is a snoring denier, and consistently blames the dog. He is a fool if he thinks I can't tell the difference, he does a snort+throat rattle, dog does a whistling wheeze. I wear ear plugs.

Ear plugs are a fab idea. I'd wear them except for the fact that dd always shouts for me to take her to the loo (scared of the dark ) at some point, and he'd never hear her.

Blimey smee, I was wondering if you were anywhere near the riots on Saturday, but now they have spread it could be almost anywhere. How awful. How do those people sleep at night? (The random looters and thugs, I mean, not people peacefully expressing a legitimate grievance).

I am glad Derbyshire was good though. It is a lovely county.

Waah.. Just posted a long post and lost it. How annoying.

No time to type it all again. Most importantly wanted to wish Amber well for final chemo tomorrow. HOORAY FOR THE END!! Am sure you're not looking forward to it, but at least that's lot. Will be thinking of you.

• Figgy, hope you're home now and feeling okay. Come and tell us how it all went when you can.

We seem to be under siege. Riot police have closed our High Street. Scary stuff. Fortunately text/ phoning means all local friends know and have scrambled home.

Smee, how close are you to the rioting areas? I do hope you are safe.

I too am married to a snorer, it has got much worse recently too! If I get to sleep first I can often manage to sleep through it, but often he is off first and that is that for me. I have taken to forcibly rolling him over, even if it doesn't stop him at least he is facing the other way

Cakes can you do night lights on the landing and bathroom so she can do the bathroom visits by herself?

I am struggling with boredom today, cabin fever. I have spent an hour in the chicken run organsing the broody hens, separating some, checking,marking and turning eggs. Ds is driving me slightly mad, he just can not amuse himself like both dds can. Have no money to take them out on day trips so we are stuck here.

Smee worried emoticon needed....how close are you to the high street and is dh home yet?