********The 37th Tamoxifen Thread, Fun and Tears in "Cancerland" *****

[Copthallresident]

Trolley Rolled over and "Its a small small world" playing on the ipod on repeat.

Aw trice she sounds lovely, enjoy your cuddles and bitey kisses :) happy birthday tiny robot!

KK most of my projects are quite small! If you remember aaaages ago when I first joined the thread I was working on a little sheep. I abandoned that as it was taking too long! I might pick it up again when I've done all my woolly hugs squares and finished the blanket I'm working on. Today I'm making some tiny forget-me-nots for my woolly hug contribution. They are a bit fiddly but take minutes to make.

betsy enjoy your choir performance. I'm childless so probably can't recommend anything suitable! Museums and similar should be okay though :)

malt cake pops sound fun. I think you'd be okay to go away within the UK as long as not somewhere too remote! Although I wouldn't book too far in advance as my treatment schedule has changed a few times and you'll probably need to have blood tests on a specific day of the cycle so would need to be available for those. Sorry I don't mean to be a negative Nancy, your oncologist will hopefully be a lot nicer and more flexible than mine! :) we call him Dr W and I'm sure you can guess what the W stands for...

amber good morning! I hope you're having a lovely Saturday

topsy have fun riding!

Have a fabulous day everyone x

betsy even though I had a tough time with my white blood cell counts I only really had to be careful for a few days a cycle in the second week. After an infection in the first cycle they reduced the chemo dose to reduce the impact on my white blood cells and I had white blood cell boosting injections in the second week which quickly took my white blood cell counts to crazy high levels. I was too ill in the first week to go out, avoided people for the first couple of days od second but otherwise I went shopping, to the girls school, etc more or less as normal. We didn't actually go away as it was winter and girls at school and Christmas fell in a bad week but within six weeks of finishing last treatment we went to Australia, our medical insurance covered overseas treatment as DH travels with job but didn't need it. I did start to feel very weak by the last treatment, staged some spectacular fainting fits at new year events and in book shop reading Scary cancer autobiography ......

My white blood cells counts are still only around 2, normal is 4 up to figure that I forget as immaterial to me! I rarely catch things.

WAves to all, getting our picnic ready for pre concert. Big Copt decided everything has to be mini, so tossing mini sandwich rolls, cheese puffs, quiches, cup cakes on trolley. They have been rehearsing very loudly since yesterday, woken by it this morning, louder than U2 or the Rolling Stones embarrassingly I don't recognise most of the songs much rolling of eyes by Coppettes " it's destiny's child drr" am going with friend who splits her time between USA Jamaica and UK so am sure she will ensure I know who is actually on stage.......

I will recognise Madonna and Beyonce though,

Ooo Florence Welsh just rehearsed, that raised the hairs on twickenham's collective necks

Copt sounds like you're having a good day hope it's sunny like it is here :)
Ruby those forget me knots are really cute and you're never a negative nancy I always find your posts really positive
Amber I hope we can do a few short breaks, we're big holiday people. We've been lucky and been to lots of places so this country would be fine of the weather is ok like today
Topsy horse riding sounds great have a good time
Kurri hope you're having a good day good to hear the shingles are improving

Been to sainsburys and spent too much as usual, off to make the cake pops soon !

I love those forget me nots Ruby - have bookmarked that page for future reference

Copt - have a fab time at concert - sounds great (as do the miniature snacks )

Holidaying on chemo - I think again its 'suck it and see' - you'll have a better idea after your first cycle how you feel. I'd say abroad is definitely out (insurance would be v.high) and I'd stick to things that allow you a certain amount of inbuilt rest time, and go somewhere where you can stagger active with less active days (I found that if I was fairly active on one days - I was shattered the next) - but see how you get on, - I'm like copt, low white blood cell count to start with, so pretty wiped out by chemo, and I was on accelerated chemo so having it every two weeks, so only got two or three days of feeling OK before my next cycle. If you are having it 3 weekly you might get a whole good week.

I would say in principle though assuming you feel OK getting away for a few days is a very good idea when you are having chemo - helps you detach from the intense clinicalness of treatment and hospitals.

trice - your niece sound completely adorable - I do love a cuddly wee girl (little boys are nice too of course)

Of to make a veggie moussaka - did a big shop in Morrisons today, its a bit out of our way but they have a great selection of veg and spices herbs etc.

Sitting in walk in a and e , been here an hour and a half already. Hope they don't send me to proper hospital.

Waves to all- think trips in uk ok on chemo. Tbh I did normal day trips on my good week Betty so plan things for then and lots of home stuff like arts and crafts on your be careful week.

Hope you get seen quickly gigs and they can sort it and send you home. Have you got someone with you ? Xx

Ruby - those forget me nots are fab, bookmarked for future reference :)

Gigs - hope you get sorted quickly and without a proper A&E visit

Thanks to everyone for all the tips on holiday/days out/how chemo might pan out (I know everyone is different) As luck would have it we haven't booked to go away this summer and were just going to go on a few days camping here and there, so sounds like that might still be a possibility if I can time it right with whatever is going on.

It's good to know that I probably won't feel crap for the whole time. The only two people I know closely who had chemo were DB, who had two lots of intensive cycles almost back to back, so about 1 okay day in between each cycle for 14 months straight and then he called a halt, and a friend who ended up in hospital after every cycle bar one, so it's nice to know not everyone's experience is like that :)

It was good to do something "normal" this morning with the choir & I told three friends there what's going on. Two of them admitted to not checking their boobs and got a nagging off me. (I bet they do before the day is out!)

Think that camping would be doable. - smee camped when doing chemo and I could have managed it. I wouldn't give up on choir either as reckon you could fit that in- ned (who is away atm) is in a choir and am sure she kept it up as seem to remember some dramas over casting (if that's the right word ) for concert.

Wound packed and dressed by lovely nurse - got to go back tomorrow but at least it's been checked out.

While I was out big gig had some kind of dirty protest so dh isn't happy with her ( she is a pain about using the toilet) so I came home to a bit of an atmosphere . Think dh needs beer and take away so better sort that.

Hope copt is enjoying concert. It's the voice on tv here..

gigs le bandage pour le wound, cest tres comfortable (Franglais emoticon)
besty good friend of mine came early ion in her chemo to go mountain biking - and not pooling about stuff, but serious get down and dirty. She's and anaesthetist and had to stop clinical work because of infection risk. That was 7 years ago, she now has a 2 year old daughter!
copt am jealous of the concert - hope you have a nice evening - it's a bit breezy and cold here tonight (grabs medicinal to warm cockles)
tops kurri and ruby hope Saturday is all its cracked up to be.... Mines a humdinger so far. Got my second month of tamoxifen today, so far only minimal side effects. I can't work out if me being warmer at night is a hot flush, or because the weather has picked up

Camping is my idea of hell whether on chemo or not lol !
Gigs glad you're sorted and hope dh has calmed down with the beer and takeaway
Betsy it's hard telling people isn't it but I've found mostly people have been lovely. It's hard when you feel you're upsetting people by telling them though, I feel responsible for them being sad !
Coorong good about the lack of side effects and I'd go with the warm weather making you hot we're not used to it. Loving the sun today

Watching bgt here with dh and the kids, had our 1st BBQ of the year and managed to light it despite the wind why does it always get windy when you decide to have one?
I have lots of cake pops for the trolley, dd and made them this afternoon
Have a good evening all

Betsy meant to say that if you go on the breast cancer care site they have a group for people starting chemo each month. I've read some and depends what mood I'm in sometimes it scares me witless and other times it's good to see how others are coping with it might be worth you having a look

Bcc site? Yikes.

Is that a bad suggestion amber ??

I found the bcc site scary, though did take a peep early on ;) Seemed to be too much information for me... Guess it might be helpful if you can link up with a group of similar people to compare notes.

Busy day here - parkrun then met a friend then digging the front garden. I WILL tame it soon

time for a and chocolate...

love the forget me nots. I like very small knitting/crochet - I can never finish big things...

Red cherry cider here, tastes like pop
Betsy maybe avoid bcc then if it's not just me who finds it scary. You did say you wanted lots of info though
Jchoc you've earnt your wine and chocolate

hehe a bit late for that as I've already visited the BCC site - on the factual info side though, I am trying to be a good girl and avoid all forums, blogs etc (apart from this one of course :) ) as they will most probably give me the willies and actually not really provide any useful information

Bought a Crunchie today, not had one for years but it was always a childhood favourite. Just eaten it, it was lovely :) Seeing as I've lost 1.3kg this week (appetite has been a bit hit & miss since Tuesday) I deserved a treat!

Mmmm crunchie. Hope you are all asleep.

No to bc site -seriously a lot of the posts are at extreme end of desperate. It is like thinking giving birth is based on one of threads here where people have post traumatic stress from bad birth experience. Yes it happens but it us not the norm as people don't often post "it hurt,was bit scary but I coped and am over it ." Similarly you would never get married if you thought relAtionships section was what life was like·

Woke up at 2-30 with stiff hip, took painkiller but now can't get back to sleep. This is other hip so need them to check it but oddly seems go be ok when I move, just gets stiff when not .

But I have tea, my kindle and ella Fitzgerald on spotify so it's not so bad.

Morning all gig hope you got back to sleep - I keep making my way through podcasts of the history of the world in 100 objects to help me back to sleep - The narrator has a very soothing voice - but we love Ella in this house - best CD is "pure Ella" .
Agree on the bcc site. I think I visited to find out about either tamoxifen or my operation, and I did use the FFree DVD for post op stretches which was good.
jchochip envy you your park run. Did you have an op - if so how long didnyoumwait to go running again? I'm keen to try my new sports bra - I'm not sure how long I need to wait to go running again. I will probably ring and ask the BC nurse -

Absolute blazing sunshine here Glorious! And of to Chatsworth House tomorrow for school holiday fun

Sorry about typos - blame the ipad!

Morning all, hope you got back to sleep Gig. My favourite Ella (for today) is Moonlight in Vermont.

Tiny robot liked her birthday presents, particularly the wrapping paper. I had some nice rose tea that mil bought me. Then I watched fast and furious 5 with ds who thought the heroes should have been arrested as they are criminals (he is very black and white about these things) . I had a nice day.

This morning I am having breakfast in bed with sil while Dh takes all our children to archery. She brings lots of magazines and good coffee. I am looking forward to it.

Symptom wise my bowels are in agony. Trapped wind is excruciatingly painful. Why do I even need pain receptors in my guts I ask you? Any tips?