Tamoxifen bus shelter -42

[Gigondas]

Dragging trolley onto new thread.

I am off to Yarndale. I have two pairs of handknit socks on as my feet are a mass of blisters. I am only taking a small carrier bag and £30. I must not buy sacks of yarn!

Notj, waiting for results is tiring. Have you set up a pintrest board for your new house? It is so exciting moving to a new place. You must have loads of dreams and plans.

Morning all

Thankyou for the supportive words and hugs yesterday, after my major wobble

I have calmed down a bit now, spending the weekend with my parents! Hopefully taking my mind off things for a few days.

I have an appointment with my BCN on Monday morning. I shall go armed with a list of questions, about surgery and about what might happen next.

If anyone has any good questions that they remember asking, or wishing they had asked prior to node clearance surgery. I would be very grateful to hear them!

I hope everyone enjoys a nice weekend.

Special hug and for you NotJ sounds like you need a bit of TLC xx

I am feeling better after a quick walk on a stormy beach and a free waitrose coffee. I got caught by a wave and drenched up to my knees but my new goretex shoes should be fine. Just can't wait for the blasted muscle aches to go so I can do proper walks again.

The move is very exciting but we are trying not to think too much and plan until we get the mortgage agreed. I am so cross as we are porting existing mortgage and it has been so much hassle. We are in a very short chain so it is holding it all up. When our fixed deal is up I am going to switch banks and never ever deal with them again.

Really I haven't had the op yet but how many nodes do they take out ? Is it the same for everyone ? As I will have already has chemo they said they either find no cancer, scarring to show it was there but the chemo has zapped it or cancer still there I would want to know recovery time and how long the drain needs to be in

Trice enjoy wool shopping

NotJ glad your walk has picked you up a bit

I have just waved DS2 off - back to university today. Much rushing around the house earlier looking for vital items such as spare car key, his phone etc. No doubt he has missed something vital. Whilst hunting around for the missing items I found a letter copied to him from hospital about his leukaemia confirming he has got to the major molecular response stage - great news, but not something a 22 year old would bother to tell his parents! It has been great having him here for the past month as he has really helped me, so can almost forgive his flatulence!
Now all by myself as DH is off on a weekend walking trip and not back until tomorrow evening. But have friends to see and things to do.
DS1 phoned from his tropical home today and told me he had just had typhoid! Apparently the vaccination he had was one of many in a faulty batch (700k people affected worldwide). Of course, it might not have been typhoid as his doctor gave him medicines to cover any tropical disease that might give you the runs really badly (and stuff for tapeworm!)
Now 9 days on from 5th Tax chemo and still in retch mode, though not too much sickness. I've been thinking of the plus side of chemo for me:
no need to shave or wax, "hair" never goes all curly on me, easy to diet and lose weight (but not too dramatically), nails are longer than usual - though now getting the brown markings. Always look on the bright side of life de dum.

hooray for lilymaid's ds ! that's great.
And also good news about clear MRI gracie
malt I remember bcn saying that some people only have a few nodes in their armpit while others have lots.
No email back from my bcn,so am assuming she was either busy or not in. Am feeling really quite poorly and may well lie down- I've got work to do but I think I might just fall asleep over my desk.

really I had 5 nodes removed. My arm was stiff and tender for a few days, and around the wound felt kind of numb, but nothing major. Prior to surgery they called it senital node surgery and I expected that to mean just one node...

Hi malt and momofTwo

As far as I can make out because they found that the nodes removed during my lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy, contained cancer cells. They now do a clearance. Which involves removing all the fat in my armpit. Within that will be all the nodes, and apparently everyone has a different number of nodes!

Like I said I need to ask lots of questions on Monday. Really do feel like I am going into this, with very little information.

Phew and hooray for you, Gracie. Though am not surprised you bawled your eyes out. I can't imagine the stress that MRI must have caused. Hope you can sort out whatever it is soon, but at least it's not bloody cancer.

Malt, I think they usually do sentinel node testing first, so they put a dye in to see which way the nodes are working (ie trace where fluid goes), then take the first few to sample. If no cancer in those, there won't be any higher up, so you only get full clearance if the original sample has some cancer iyswim.

worried, it's weird how we're all so different nodes-wise. They managed to take 22 from me (4 had cancer traces), but I was chatting to a woman at my last check up who'd just had her op and they'd only taken 9. Glad your op's so soon, as that's another thing done with. Ask anything you want here.

Lily, have a restful time being home alone. Typhoid?! Didn't he also get Malaria a while back, or am I remembering wrong??

MAS, hope you're feeling okay today. Not surprising you have your down days, but still, must be irksome. xx

Yay for Betsy and one more Tax

NotJ, house move sounds mighty stressful. Really hope you hear from the bank soon.

Are you buried in yarn, Trice??

Been swimming with DS, off babysitting for a friend later. Hardly rock and roll, but all good. Hope everyone's okay today and having the best of weekends.

I had the sentinel node biopsy when I had my lumpectomy and they did find cancer there so I'm having the node clearance after my chemo
No more jacuzzis :(

Mil making dinner I've just been chilling, they like my wig !

Smee Yes DS1 also got malaria a couple of months ago. He's out in the tropics for two years on a fellowship scheme so some tropical diseases are par for the course. DS says he is perhaps a little unluckier than most, but everyone goes down with something or other. Otherwise he is having a great time and the work experience out there will be very good for his CV.
Sending good thoughts to all and wondering why my LGFB date is after I may have finished chemo!

malt interesting how there seems to be so many different ways in treating this!

I was initially told that I was likely to need radiotherapy after lumpectomy, no mention from surgeon about Chemotherapy. Although my BCN said because I am young (38) that they would possibly want to use the chemo too! This was all before they found cancer in the nodes. So I suppose they might be more likely to want to do Chemo now. But that's another question to ask on Monday. I will be glad when this surgery is done and then hopefully I can start the next steps in beating this, and getting back to being 'me'.

I am enjoying being at my parents, although part of me wants to stay here and not go back for the surgery which I know is stupid! Need another kick up the backside

Really - they might want to see how many modes are affected before confirming chemo or not but i would have thought it likely. Did they tell you the grade, size and type of the lump as that will also have a bearing on the required treatment?

Malt - I didn't know that you couldn't use a Jacuzzi if you had lymph nodes removed but I can see that makes sense - is that for a full clearance or any number of nodes do you know?

My team seem to offer a lot more choice then some other areas - eg. I have chosen not to have node clearance even though I had 2.2mm mets in Sentinal node (on their advice) so just had 2 nodes removed. And in fact now that I am doing a bit more research myself that does indeed seem to be the latest thinking. Same thing with completing the chemo and the type of chemo - I've had a lot of input myself. I will aslo be involved in the decision on whether to have rads or not. It may be that I happen to have a lot of 'boderline' elements but now I'm used to it I feel a lot more in control of the treatment plan.

Hi KitKat That'll be another question I need to ask. At my original appointment before surgery the surgeon said it was a 2cm lump, and grade 1 possibly 2? She said they would know more after the lumpectomy! But of course I didn't see her for results, I saw one of her trainees! She didn't tell me much. Other than it was in the nodes, and that I would need the CT scan and Bone scan to check it hadn't spread!

I will definitely ask the BCN what they found. That was the one positive they did remove the whole lump with a clear margin! I'm a bit annoyed at myself for not asking more questions. But I was a bit stunned to hear it was in my nodes and honestly couldn't think straight after that.

This is all new to me, I suppose I need to get used to asking more questions.

really - the grade is important in any decision making and also the type - ie. is it ER+/PR+, HER-2 + or triple negative. It sounds like you need to get a list of questions prepared as they haven't told you much at all. Have they mentioned Tamoxifen? It's very difficult when you get results you weren't prepared for as you don't know what further questions to ask.

KitKat it was ER+ and hormone drugs after radiotherapy were mentioned in my first appointment.

I'm kind of hoping that the doctors know what they are doing and they are offering me the treatment I need!? Or at least I hope they are!

Really I have trusted mine and gone along with what they have suggested. Some people want to know everything and be involved in the decisions, I think either way is fine
I was told from the start I'd need chemo as I was 41
Jacuzzis not recommended after sentinel node biopsy but the risk of lymphodemia is much greater if you have a full clearance

yes Malt - I am 45 and kept getting 'you'll need chemo because of your age' and Really is younger than both of us so it seems likely.

Thanks malt and KitKat I am figuring it's better to be prepared that Chemo may be on the cards.

Will hopefully know more on Monday. Xx

You'll be fine really and if you do have chemo we will help you through it as all the lovely ladies have for me x x

No more Jacuzzis? Where the flip did that come from. I may have slowly but surely broken every rule on the advice sheet they give you, aside from not having blood taken from that arm, so lift wights over 10lb, garden and get stung, scratched etc. without any ill effects but nowhere have I ever seen the advice about Jacuzzis mind you I have never really liked them since I saw some prat at a swish Business School I did a course at pick his nose in one, recycled snot at warm temps eeewwww ....... But it does sound like the advice MAS got on swimming pools, bit over cautious.

I had all mine removed at the same time as the mastectomy, had a problem with seroma as it took a while to knit with the underlying flesh, probably me doing too much but now apart from it being less fat than the other armpit (but they remove breast tissue there too?) and a small numb patch there are no long term effects

smee almost twinnies again , they got 20 !

lilymaid dropped big pigeons off yesterday after a lot of bad behaviour in IKEA (I could never get her to stay in shopping trolleys when she was little, we used to wrestle around Waitrose, now she wouldn't get off as little pigeons propelled her at high speed waving a Swedish flag she found somewhere) she has been back and forth over the summer but the realisation hit little pigeons and I as we left that this was it, another term and she won't want to see us again Hope your DS has a great time.

I was definitely told no jacuzzis or extreme temperatures
Have come to bed, my legs are achy I don't like it
In laws lovely but so jealous of the holiday photos they're showing us and talking about moving house, when I'm 30 years younger and going through cancer it's not fair. I want to grow old with my dh and children too

ahhh Malt - you will grow old - this is just a blip - a year out from your usual life. Let them take care of you this weekend and plan your hols for next year .

just don't plan a health spa with a Jacuzzi

Thanks Kitkat I wonder if this is the post steroid depression again