*tamoxifen* 31- in the bus shelter with the cheap booze

[Gigondas]

Shiny new thread

xcross with gigs amd sometimes can't stand Bruce either and Christine Bleakley makes me want to punch the screen. Hope your nurse phones you back gigs. Anniversaries are hard, it was a year ago last Thursday when my dad was diagnosed which I associate with the start of the downhill spiral. Panicing that my MRI result won't be good and that will be the start of another bad year.

It will be blooming baltic. I drive so DH can have a few beers but I am so tempted as guys walk around with a backpack selling hot port and whiskey. A hot port is probably just what I would need tonight. DH bought me this ticket as part of my Christmas ticket just what I needed

Oh Christine Bleakley, forgot her. Just NO.

Pen - with ref to alternative treatments. The term complementary treatment gives them their correct place, I think. For my money they're really, really useful as a supplement, but only a loon would use them instead.

Thanks for the welcome ladies!

I was thinking that must be coming up to a year with your dad - I am sorry as it is hard when that anniversary comes up. My anniversary tied in with mini gig birth so very odd as happy/sad.

At Xmas at present. Hot port is exotic - being south London it's lager or hot Choc and baileys.

And my fave quote on bleakley was from a mate who said "if she is 32, that must have been some paper she was on as a kid."

Paper round - damn phone

agree with dislike of Brucie ! there are others and dh has long list....
pen as long as complimentary means complimentary - some people can be convinced that alternative is the best way - I certainly don't. Think just be firm about how you feel.
gig hugs for anniversary/mini gig birthday - must be very mixed for you.
Am off to the post office to post work...

Can't stand Lampard either. They are so full of themselves and while we are on the subject Rooney has a face I would never get tired slapping.

AtoZ - IIRC day four is when I started to feel quite rough on chemo, - also if you are steroids too, they can make you feel quite wobbly emotionally. You said you are keeping a diary of effects - very good idea, it will let you know what to expect during your next one, I would say from my own experience (and of course everyone's different so may be completely irrelevant) that you will feel pretty knocked out for the next week, so take things very easy. Is there anyone who can pop out to chemist etc. for you? Fine to go out for a potter about in the fresh air, but don't overdo it. and - it's tough, but you will have some better days before your next cycle. And def, tell the onc.unit that you are still feeling nauseous, they can give you other things, and add something extra into your chemo next time as well for nausea.

Pen - I've also had a few alternative therapy fans tell me to avoid chemo/rads/tamox/herceptin etc etc and just think positively I am all for complementary therapy - anything that makes you feel good like massage or yoga or whatever, but my answer to extreme woo peddlars is to say that when you have cancer you have to make your own decisions and they can be hard, but really it is what you want to do, and you'd like support for your choice. If (God forbid) she ever has a serious illness she can do her thing.

gracie - anniversaries always very hard. I am finding the second year with out my Dad almost harder than the first - partly because I think people think you should have 'got over it' and to Gig - DX anniversaries are horrid too - brings it all back, - will park my ample bum on the paranoia box (and that means nothing will get out)
God luck with herceptin gracie - you are getting through them, and have fun and don't freeze at the rugby. - DH and I used to go to Murrayfield when we lived in Edinburgh, and at one match, one of our friends said 'K, you look strange, have you suddenly put on weight? ' - it was because I was wearing 3 pairs of trousers and four jumpers

waving to MAS, Sometimes, topsy and Meg, - good luck today jchoc - onwards and upwards

Can I throw Sharon Osbourne into the mix, - I know we're all supposed to love her because she's had cancer (and obviously when you've had cancer you become instantly loveable ) but why does she talk in that silly little girl voice all the time???? Oh and yes to Bleakley, Willobooby and Brucie and Tess.

And Vernon obv.

Kurri - thanks for the advice. Struggling a bit this morning as getting quite depressed and thinking all this chemo will be futile. It would be do-able if there was a guarantee it would sort the problem forever. But I know I'm being silly as I was actually offered the choice of this chemo or not - it is only preventative - but that too is difficult to cope with because not 'needing it desperately' may make me less likely to stick the course.

Still waiting for an appointment time for top-up session next Monday. Goodness knows how I'll get there.

Pen - I attened a course on complementary therapies at a well-known alternative centre when things like Mindfulness, self-hypnosis, relaxation, imagaing, nutrition etc were outlined. Every one of them could still be used alomgside conventional treatment. You can do both.

No one has mentioned Claudia Winkleman! Top of my pet hates since we went to a BBC Proms thing ( not the Classics, pop ones they don't do anymore). All the other presenters, although I can only remember that one was inevitably Jonathan Ross, were chatting to the audience and the acts but she came on looking sulky, switched it on for the cameras, all that little girl writhing, then switched it off the minute the camera stopped and marched off ignoring the audience and the act (who wasn't particularly famous but very very talented and could probably done with an encouraging smile) Mum is a fan and says it was because she is short sighted Also anyone who has appeared in a magazine during Breast Cancer Awareness Week with a my Cancer scare story, after they had a pimple on their tit or whatever, Gerry halliwell is a repeat offender.

Pen Just refer your friend to all the complementary medicine books out there, often contradictory, that say if you don't do it their way, you will die. When I was diagnosed I got sent at least two copies of Jane Plant who actually does say that everyone she has known who had BC and carried on eating cheese sandwiches died. After about the third such book I started throwing them away at the very suggestion. I did see a nutritionist, do take supplements and found yoga and visioning really helpful , especially during treatment i found it helpful just to be doing something positive to build up my body when it was under such an assault IYSWIM but it should be a pick n mix thing and an individual choice.

AtoZ Sorry you are feeling rough. I meant to add when you mentioned your problems with DWP that it is so common. I think when government departments hear you have Cancer or some other deep trauma they immediately mark you out to make it worse. I often think that the only reason i didn't go into a post treatment depression was because the months after treatment were dominated by taking my employer to court for constructive dismissal because they tried to forget I existed post Cancer (HR actually sent my papers into a black hole) after I volunteered to give up my line management role during chemo and took a career break because it wouldn't have been fair on my team, and HMRC deciding to launch an investigation of my tax, because I had worked for the same employer for over 20 years so I was obviously shifty. Demanded I go back over 10 years and provide proofs of everything , all presided over by some absolute bitch who actually said they suspected Cancer was a cover and they didn't believe I hadn't been to work!In the end they both ended up paying me a lot of money and since then I have helped quite a few people deal with similar fall outs from Cancer and encountered the same attitudes again and again. Macmillan are used to it. Also mobilising your MP. Gigs and I have Vince Cable who whatever you think of his politics is brilliant at that sort of stuff, my favourite was when I was doing battle with Camden Council over DDs Council tax , he emailed me that he couldn't sort it out directly because he wasn't DDs MP where she was living but he would "pop the papers to Glenda's office " Yes! Glenda Jackson! I had visions of them waltzing around the office discussing the injustice of it all! Obviously Camden caved in once we had Elizabeth 1 on our side!

Waves to everyone and sending lots of good vibes for all the scans and treatments. Life is a bit crazy here as doing lots of interviews for studies and it all needs writing up straight away. Bit similar to on here really as all about experiences of trauma, actually making me feel very humble and thankful, at least i have never starved, never been raped or tortured ....

www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/my-top-ten-favourite-things-about-cancer-8259616.html read this

Blimey. He said it all!

Poor bloke, though

There is a special place in hell where little devils ask Vernon family fortunes questions then prod him in the arse with an electric cattle prod when he gets answer wrong while you hear the "meh meh" sound for wrong answers.

Alan Davies another pet hate - Lenny Henry too. Have loathed him for years- am sure there is some new age book that provably thinks my cancer due to these longstanding rants.

MAS Brilliant article. Made me cry as my friend and I shared the jokes about brown ribbons and loss of dignity when she was ill with Bowel Cancer.

The really sad thing is that when it affects young people like the writer and my friend it is almost always genetic and they have known that since the 1930s. There has been a register of carriers since then. If it is caught in time it is entirely curable. My friend died simply because her family had never felt able to be open about the illnesses of her mother and grandmother who also died in their 30s, she was told they died of different things. Even when she was ill her father would not talk about it (to be fair he was a Japanese Prisoner of War, as well as losing his wife so young, and doesn't talk about anything) That was why I put Bowel Cancer charities on my list of deserving causes because with far less celebrity capital than Breast Cancer charities they are working hard to over come that sort of prejudice.

gosh that's sad copt

think Charlie Brooker said that Vernon is dead behind the eyes- that's how we refer to him chez MAS.

That was a great article as couldn't have put it better about devil on your shoulder.

Feeling bit better post therapy but waiting on specialist nurse.

What is the betting that big gig is off school after second day back (yesterday it was fantastic )?

Have also heard Katherine Jenkins described as having cold dead eyes of a shark. I feel sorry for troops when she goes out to visit them.

Also Lesley garrett poor bradley

god,had forgotten about Lesley Garrett

Copthall, that is so very sad.

If we're talking dead behind the eyes, guys, I give you Robert Pattinson. A blanker expression and colder eyes I have yet to see.....

Gordon Ramsey. Rude, talentless t**t

Is it OK to take paracetamol while on chemo? Have stonking headache

Yes but check temp first as need to see it isn't sign of infection- if more than 37.5 ring your unit. If not I would go for it but check first that temp ok when take more. Also note and ask as can be a side effect: