23rd **TAMOXIFEN** thread

[MaryAnnSingleton]

oh my !

I'm glad you've got the scan out of the way snoopy, and its good you will get your results quickly. How old is your DS? - mine were grown up when I was DX, so different problems to confront - but there's quite a few people on here with school age children who might be able to give you tips on how to talk him through it all

An awful lot has happened in the last 3 weeks for you - you go from being 'well' to having a serious illness and major treatment, that's pretty scary, give yourself plenty of time to get past the initial shock, don't try to be brave all the time or constantly hold yourself together, and give yourself plenty of things to treat yourself with and perk you up if you get a bit down.

IIRC - I lost my hair just after my second chemo (but i had chemo every 2 weeks because I was on a drugs trial) - so it might be that it was the second dose, rather than the time that was relevant to the hair loss. Anyway it'll be around that time. Some people like to have theirs cut short beforehand so it's not a load of hair coming out.

Good luck with your chemo anyway - we'll all be thinking of you

Smee - sorry to hear your mum's problems are getting more apparent - it must have been upsetting that she forgot your operation.
Well done on the gardening - great that the kids have a veggie patch at school.

We've been doing the usual boring grocery shopping, DD is making a cake (which I'll have to resist - lemon and poppy seed madiera so it'll be hard. I'd better put my share on the FBS trolley)

Next door are having their wedding today, it looks as if the marquee is to be used for the evening do, so we expect to be kept awake all night by the sound of neanderthal dancing, club waving, gnawing of animal bones guests enjoying themselves.

[[

three minutes in- orange theme]]

Knackered but doing ok- my wedding anniversary today.

smee and j sorry to hear about your mums.

snoopy fingers crossed for scan and I sympathise about litany of tests and no time at home.

kurri how is your neck?

well done for getting through the scan snoopy and will be thinking of you with your first chemo x

smee that is very sad about your mum- in a way physical deterioration ,though awful, seems easier to bear - my parents are both mentally sharp but then the realisation of physical decrepitude is all to obvious to them. Sigh.
We saw Patience,the friend who died earlier this year go from vital,super sharp brain to helpless and confused fairly quickly which was heartbreaking.
Am working on 3 little pictures/cards - dh is gardening and ds has been revising (so he says) - 2 exams this week.
Cake sounds delicious kk - we've just had some from the garden centre which was yummy.

oh happy anniversary gig ! how many years ? did you give dh the picture, or is that a birthday pres ?

happy anniversary Gig and thanks for the orange men, they really cheered me up strangely
Lime, I hope you're feeling a bit better but belated hugs for you.
Snoopy, glad the scan is done now though didn't sound fun. The latest scan I had was a bit disturbing because the man who went in before me came out covered in blood but apparently he was taking blood thinners and the radiographer was a bit gung ho when she took his line out.
Smee and J, sorry to hear about your mums. I am noticing that my mum finds it hard to have a conversation nowadays. She talks and talks and talks as if her life depended on it but she doesn't really interact which is hard because I can't really share anything with her now. My dad is still very with it but he is getting really quite immobile nowadays which is sad as he always used to be so active. He does still go out and do things though which is good, it just takes him a long time to walk very short distances.
I've had a tough few days because I've had a lot of quite bad digestive pain. I feel rather down because I had been feeling so normal again - back at work, running again, able to eat most of the things I like but now I feel like I've taken huge steps backwards. I'm also a bit worried that it's a sign of something bad but I had a CT scan so recently and that didn't show anything so probably just being neurotic. I have a gynae hospital appointment on Monday and they normally give my stomach a good old prodding so I'll talk to them about it and go back to the colorectal clinic if it doesn't clear up.
Hi to everyone and sorry if I've missed anyone's news - I don't get the chance to log on that often and this thread moves so quickly
xxx

Happy anniversary Gig, - hope Dh has provided treats

thenight - sorry to hear about your digestive pain, - but you are right, you've had a recent scan which is good. I imagine stress doesn't help matters in that area - hope they can help out at the hospital on Monday.

Waving to MAS.

Cake just about to come out of the oven - hooray

thenight yes,sorry about horrid digestive problems - hope gynae docs are gentle.
Waves to kk and snaffles a bit of warm cake
Had a look at my breast in mirror, first time in ages and noticed a few dimples,which I'm sure the doc would have noticed in my check up - (though consultant always makes me sit facing him first,then I have to raise my arms -so he can see everything and this doctor just examined me while I was lying down) Am sure they must be from surgery,but as I never look then can't be sure. Am not worried really but are others who've had WLEs similar ?

Good evening friends,
For those who don't know me I reassure you that I'm not a troll or anything - I was on this thread daily from December 2009 to November 2010 during my treatment and found it extremely helpful.

I'm on again today because I'm going to lead a project at work to pull together/write materials for managers and staff about dealing with cancer from an employment angle. As an HR manager I support managers who are dealing with illness amongst their staff and cancer is the second highest reason for long term absence. I think we could do a lot more to help managers understand cancer and how it affects individuals in different ways, so that the managers can support their affected staff as well as possible.

I am aware of good material eg McmIllans, Breast Cancer Care and CIPD - and do use this at times. I just thought I'd ask on here if anyone is interested in sharing any thoughts about cancer and employment. If so please feel free to send me a private message. I know this thread is for support and discussion and don't want to block it with my needs for the project - but if anyone is keen to share ideas on this do let me know and I'll be in touch. I will be working with our Occupational Health team and Public Health. I'm thinking that we could be mainly supporting managers to support their staff but we could also provide some material for all staff in terms of health awareness re cancer. (We already have some of this - actually I don't really like being reminded of breast cancer every time I go to the loo but that's another issue. There's a poster in our loo pointing out that excessive drinking of alcohol raises the risk of BC)

Bon courage to those having treatment at present -
Sandripples

Hi SR!!! Very happy to help but as I'm an employer who has had cancer, not sure if mine is the angle you're looking for. Good to see you here again .

Hi everyone else... on for those in need.

waves to SR - can't really comment as I am self employed

sr have pm'ed you as I think this is a great idea. If cancer really is going to move towards being a chronic/curable condition, we need more understanding of it and how it affects work. Thirty years ago people weren't particularly good on maternity leave/returning to work - here is hoping we can get some good practice in this area too.

mas that pic is a birthday pressie. 6 years today we were in vegas- having nice chilled day (well as chilled as anything involving a birthday party and 2 kids with colds can be ) as went out of dinner last night.

Hugs to all those who are having a tough time.

topsy if you are lurking, tom doing himself no favours with his jacket tonight.

Morning all.

Carers got Mum up at 7 am. Bit early. Falling asleep while drinking a cup of coffee is A Bad Idea. :(

Hello to KurriKurri, MAS and everyone. I hope you are all doing well. Sandripples, I'll pm you, I have experience from the point of view of being a temp and a permanent employee, which may be of use!
Just started on a cycle of chemo (capecitabine) yesterday, which was something I was hoping to avoid, but the hormone treatments weren't keeping things under control recently. I've been bricking it at the thought of chemo, as I'm terrified of throwing up more than anything (wimp!) but so far so good, and I have a bagful of antidotes to anything that might happen. Has anyone else been on this treatment? I'd be grateful to hear your experiences, the nurses tell me that it's one of the better tolerated treatments, and side effects if you get them are generally very mild and manageable. How soon would they start happening if they were going to? I've got a show to do next month and don't want to get caught short halfway through my big number!
Off to try and catch up on the thread now, they move so fast, I don't know how you all keep up!

Hello all, - nice to see you SR, - sorry I can't (currently unemployable unemployed ] - but good luck, it sound like a very worthwhile project.

jane - that is very early for your mum, falling asleep with coffee definitely not a good thing - we had exactly the same thing with my Dad, carers trying to get him up at 7a.m. (then if my mum fell back to sleep, he be off wandering round the house unsupervised causing general havoc) and then they would come to put him to bed at 6p.m. - before he'd even had a chance to finish his tea! However, I realise it's the management that needs looking at, the carers themselves we're all lovely people and very kind.

Hello Columbia - lovely to see you. Sorry to hear you are on chemo again, but good that they are on the ball with keeping on top of things. I didn't have that kind of chemo, so don't know any specifics for capecitabine. I can only answer on general timescale of effects of chemo - but I'm sure you know about that already. I wonder if breast cancer care would have any information that might be useful for you - they've got a helpline number on their website, - maybe worth a try
very good luck with your show - what are you doing this time?

I'm waiting for a roofer to arrive to give us an estimate to fix the leaky roof over DD's bedroom (recent heavy rain hasn't done us any favours, and temporary repairs aren't cutting it any more) am dreading the cost!

Good morning to everyone else, hope it's a good day wherever you are. xx

Hi KurriKurri, we're doing Fiddler on the Roof, and I'm playing Grandma Tzeitel. Luckily the character has a walking stick, which I do at the moment, so I can wrap it in bandages to make it look more authentically ghostly!
Hope the roof isn't too horrendously expensive! x

sorry I can't help with your question SR - I really need to learn to proof read!!

waves to columbia - sorry to hear about the chemo,but good that you aren't feeling too bad- I love Fiddler on the Roof- how exciting !
jane poor mum, it is terribly early to get up..hope the coffee didn't scald her.
kk fingers crossed for reasonable roof repair quote.
Gloomy here,the only cheery thing outside the window is our tamarisk which is in beautiful pink frondy blossom...

Roofer has said, it's the worse flat roof he's ever seen - he will ring us with a quote tomorrow. We've got someone coming next week for another quote as well.

MAS - you are bit ahead of us, our tamarisk is not quite out yet (its cold up here in the East )

Fiddler on the Roof is fun Columbia (although the title is slightly making me laugh because of my roofing problems ) - I think DD studied that when she did musicals for one of her Uni modules. Have you got many songs/words to learn?

We had a flat roof on an extension on old house,fortunately it never leaked but we did have it redone in case...
have you seen how full this thread is ??

quick, drag the trolley over here

I sing three verses in the Dream Sequence, daunting but good fun, because I get to scream a bit and poke Tevye with my stick! I'm in a couple of the early chorus numbers, but not in the second act due to inabllity to run up and down stairs doing quick changes nowadays!
Flat roofs are poo, I had one "fixed" by a cowboy and then had to pay a proper roofer to sort it out. The cowboy just put a few patches on and some gloop, and didn't bother sorting the sagging ceiling board. He then legged it!

columbia- come over to the newest thread- link is below

On my way!