**TAMOXIFEN 18**

[MaryAnnSingleton]

oh my,we're starting our 18th !

Oh Topsy well done at getting your bra back on! Guess your skin is better?

Holsten, I'm ravenous after my swim The sofa and fbs are what you need, I'll dig out some chocolate. rootles around. Found some snickers, anyone want one? They were called marathons in the old days...

Oh brilliant about the reinstatement of the bra topsy

hadn't thought of piriton - will give that a go. - It's only one eye though that's all swollen and lumpy looking

flapjacks - yum- - oh snickers too - , - we are down to 'waiting for payday digestives' here

we are having a clear out here - I've finally persuaded DH to tackle the mountain of paper he's accumulated beside the computer. He keeps shouting 'Oh! that's where that went'

hooray for bra topsy - have a lovely lunch !
So sorry about your eye kk - hope piriton helps.
Have reorganised my bits in my room - put them in dh's lovely painrted jewel box - I'm sure I won't find anything now, but it looks much tidier.
Am also going to work out ingredients for my mum's birthday tea next Sunday- am making spicy cheese scones and chocolate and vanilla cupcakes - easy and yum. The best bit is scraping the bowl - both the cake mix and buttercream icing are so yummy.

Amber - they are doing a trial for Herceptin at the moment to see if shorter time periods work as well as the longer ones as my consultant mentioned it to me in passing. Based on a Finnish study although the only paper I could find was where they had combined it with chemotherapy and used different drugs to those I am being given so difficult to extrapolate. I am tempted to volunteer but will ask for more details first.

Holsten - second advice to ask for stronger painkillers - there are no medals for being brave. Hope you are feeling better soon.

Hoping(?) to get my second dose of chemotherapy tomorrow -slightly in doubt as my neutrophils were a bit low on Friday.

Kurri - hope eye eases soon - no advice but I am sure FBS will ease the discomfort.

MAS - you are making me feel hungry. The best bit of baking is licking out the bowl.

fingers crossed for you Oneineight xx

Good luck with chemo tomorrow Oneineight - hope you are well enough for it to go ahead

I've definitely turned into my parents.... I've just got in from a lovely charity lunch, and have decided the next thing I must do is have a nap in front of the TV

Just popped in here, and remembered I made a cake earlier. Better go away again and make some buttercream before dh gets home...

Someone say cake ... ?

Ok dh is home we can slice it up, who wants some?

Ooh cake. What flavour??

Holstein, more drugs sound essential. Unbelievable that they only sent you home with the basics. Am sure it will get easier, but still.

BackforGood, excellent tip, though am not sure that would work with my DH. he's incredibly opinionated and though he has very good taste, we're stuck on a new sofa. If being like your parents means napping in front of the tv, I think that's one I should aspire to it..

Kurri, did the piriton work? Hope so, sounds uncomfortable.

Eight, will keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow. You never know they might decrease your dose a bit and go ahead. My neutrophils were so low on no.2 that they made me wait a week and dropped the dose by a third as they said they were overdosing me. Apparently that's quite common as they do a guesstimate based on weight/ height in terms of dose.

No time to write more. Have been having a weekend of paranoia. Is it something to do with January or something?? Am obsessing on what I think is probably just a slightly swollen lymph node, but after a glass of wine or two last night was convinced it was a lump. Today I couldn't even find it, but now it's there again. It's only tiny, but

coffee cake. The dds ate all the chocolate.

Boo for paranoia.

Missed Timeteam but thank goodness for C4+1 so watching now...

Smee like it matters what flavour the cake is ???
And down with paranoia ! Its almost as much of a bastard as Cancer !
If in doubt , get it checked out . That's my new motto .

OneInEight - hope things go your way tomorrow, all good wishes wending their way.

smee maybe you're a bit rundown ? Have it checked out if you are frettingxxxxxx

oneineight fingers crossed for today!

Poor smee definitely get to docs if you're worried. . . Saves not knowing, I think, and could be welcome reassurance.

topsy hope bobby the booby behaved yesterday?

What is everyone's experience of how long it takes after surgery to get started with chemo? I am seeing the surgeon on Thursday afternoon, and am assuming he will sign me off to oncology to start chemo. Just wondered what timescale might be? Have visions of another 2 weeks of sitting around waiting to get going with the next phase. I am crap at waiting, and will not be good company. . .

Have cinnamon and raisin bagels here, if anyone fancies one with a ?

Hi Ned, bagel gratefully accepted here. My chemo started 5 and a half weeks after surgery. Do you know what lot your having yet? _ I'm on 4 doses of epirubicin and cyclophosphamide to start off with and then 4 doses of something else whose name I can't remember.

Second advice to go to doctor Smee - no point continuing to worry if they can put your mind at rest.

Oh dear god, 5 1/2 weeks?! Poor you, what a nightmare wait, or did it not feel so long? Sorry, I forgot if you had lumpectomy or mastectomy? I only had lump, so feeling Ok, apart from sunburn-ish pain in armpit and back of shoulder. Not sure what I would do with myself for too much longer without more treatment to focus on. . . I don't know what I'm having yet, will hopefully find out details on thursday.

Hope you get the go ahead today, eight x

Oooo bagels, are there any left? I'm off for a morning at work... My turn as duty officer, hope I don't get any difficult customers! Good luck to everyone with appintments today. I didn't have to have chemo, ned, so I don't know. Smee, the paranoia is a bugger, isn't it? I've got a touch of that too - told the onc a couple of weeks ago and she tried to reassure me. Guess having lots of checkups both helps reassure for a bit and then feeds it...

Holds hand out for bagel , are they toasted ?

Toated bagel with some of topsys butter. . . Yum!

Oh bugger, looks like I'd better settle in for a long wait then. . . I rather naively hoped I might get on with chemo in the next couple of weeks. What pre chemo tests do they have to do before they can get going?

Only soggy snow here- not very interesting. At least I didn't have to defrost my car to do the school run

Crumpets please.. love 'em.

Topsy, I want an iPhone too. Wonder if you'll get one, though you'll never prise the kids off it if you do.

ned, I can't remember but 5 weeks sounds about right - I seem to remember I could have started a week sooner, but didn't want to as it was half term. You'll have to see the Oncologist first, but other than pre-chemo blood tests I don't think they do much else. Let's face it they know a lot about you by the time you get to that stage.

Hope you have a good day at work, Jane. Sorry to hear Miss P's been with you too.

Thanks all for telling me to go to GP's. I have an appt at 12.20, so hopefully he'll prod and find it's nothing v.much. DH prodded last night and couldn't feel it and then we spent ages with him making me feel all manner of bumps and lumps in his neck to prove to me it was normal. Very sweet, but I'd rather have professional reassurance.

Good on you for going to the doc's smee. Let us know what he says. I am sure it's nothing, or at most, a normal response to one of the bugs and stuff that are going around just now.

As regards getting stuff done around the house - dh could not care less, he has no interest in choosing what we have, and definitely no interest in colours/style. On the plus side, it means I get to choose what i want, but on the minus side, he is happy to live in total squalor and takes no pride in keeping things clean/tidy/unbroken. He is a total sweetie but can be quite hard to live with because if you aren't careful you end up spending half your life sorting out mess wherever he has passed

Ned - I think you MAY have an echocardiogram as well pre chemo. My oncologist was very keen on doing these, while the other one at the time wasn't, so it can seem a bit of a lottery. The wait sounds about right - they want to be sure the wound is healing well and not getting infected before they start anything else. It'll also give you some time to build some stamina back up, the GA knocks you about quite a bit.

Holsten - you poor love. Get some better pain relief - if you can feel a bit more normal and get some rest you'll cope much better.

Love to everyone else - must dash and do some work.....

Ned I had a bone scan and an mri and a ct and an echocardiogram , plus all the usual bloods prior to chemo .
They also do your height and weight so they can calculate your dosage .
Don't think everybody gets all the tests mentioned above done . So can only conclude that my Oncologist fancied me ...

Smee DS has already promised to liberate the iphone from me should I get one !

just popping in to grab toasted bagel and wave hello to everyone- must get to work- dh is home with a cold poor love.