Tamoxifen bus shelter -42

[Gigondas]

Dragging trolley onto new thread.

It maybe Malt - but to be honest we were diagnosed around the same time and i feel like I've hit a wall just now. Just generally fed up with the length of the treatment and bored - perhaps it is similar for you?
So what are your holiday plans for next year (you've said before you love your hols)?

DS wants to go to Barcelona (football driven request), DD wants to go anywhere with a water park and DH wants to stay in castle. My role is to book and pay for all of these I think!! Barcelona and the castle will be long weekends I guess and the waterpark a summer holiday. Before I can think about the summer I need to know if my reconstruction will be in Jan or delayed. Also I think we will go away somewhere in the UK after Xmas if I'm not doing Rads.

Are you going back to work in Jan or waiting until Easter? I suspect that I will have a lot of residual tiredness to deal with but it is so tempting to believe I will be 100% as soon as treatment ends.

I have bought some lovely rainbow dyed four ply and created a marvel in my textures workshop. Lovely day out but tiring.

Malt, I had node clearance and got lymphoedema. But then I lost 2stone and my arm went back to normal. I love hot tubs, they don't make my arm worse. Cleaning the windows makes my hand swell up. But doing cross fit was fine. It sucks but is manageable.

So Trice - you can do your cross stich and sit in hot tubs but no longer can clean windows - could be worse

Trice glad you had a good day and can still go in hot tubs

Kitkat I think you might be right, the treatment does seem so long and boring at times. Your holiday plans sound fab, I just want to get on a cruise ship again don't care where to! We had one booked for October half term which we had to cancel but the in laws are taking the kids to Spain instead. That will be another hard day though I'm pleased for them

Radiotherapy will be after Christmas for me so I don't know when I'll be back at work, much as I'm desperate to get back I want to be as fit as possible

Malt - your Rads sound ages away - are you having your lymph node clearance before then? If I need Rads it will be end of Dec/Jan so similar timescale then.

Last chemo will be 7th November then they said node clearance 4 weeks after that then few weeks to recover before rads it just goes on and on !
Going to try and get some sleep night x

I would have loved to go to yarndale, lots from my knitting group were going and I saw such lovely pictures on facebook. All that bunting and yarnbombing! Did have a lovely day out with my dds. Ddd2 was very taken with living history group at my old school - we are going to do the rounds of sixth forms nearer home.

My mum had bad lymphoedema after a varicose vein op. Found manual lymphatic drainage worked wonders for her and 10 years on swelling is rarely troublesome.
Will catch up tomorrow, too late to read through now. Love to you all and sweet dreams.

really we are quiet similar. I was expected to be grade 2, 6mm breast lump. 5 senital nodes taken, one had cancer cells present. Just .25mm. I had a clean mammogram just 9 months prior to my surgery, so medical team were really not expecting to find it in lymph nodes..
My surgeon/BCN recommended Onco Type DX test to categorise my future risk, and to decide further treatment based on results. But oncologist told me I could opt to do chemo regardless. So I've opted for chemo. (I have extreme cancer family history)
My sister had a lump in lymph nodes. They removed all lymph nodes from that arm. She did chemo prior to lumpectomy\lymph node removal. Her cancer seemed quite aggressive. She developed a second breast lump during investigation of initial lump. She had chemo prior to surgery. She was diagnosed less than a year ago. But she is finished treatment now and doing fantastic.

That will be us in a years time! Out the other side , treatment complete and doing fantastic...

mumoftwo thanks for that. It's just what I needed to hear this morning. I think after my initial diagnosis and chat with surgeon, I believed that after surgery and Radiotherapy, I would just need to take the hormone drugs and that would be it! If I am honest I think part of me didn't ask too many questions at my last appointment because, I'm not sure I was ready to hear what 'might' lie ahead

The more I read on here, and more experiences I hear about. The more I see that this could be a very long hard journey, and that although I want things to carry on like normal. I'm not sure that can really happen.

It's been nice to read the posts from some of you that have had node clearance. Sounds like you are coping well. So maybe it won't be as bad as I am anticipating it to be.

Okay, now to write my list of questions, ready for tomorrow!

Hope you all had a good nights sleep. Enjoy your Sunday xxxxx

Morning all,

Bit tired and confused this morning .... Nothing unusual there.

really I understand that feeling that the journey is now longer. My initial diagnoss was small lump, lumpectomy and rads. Thought it would be a couple of months. Then after MRI i t became chemo, mx, rads and some sort of reconstructionm, and at least nine months of treatment possibly more.
I kind of just go with the flow but its tough.

Not much planned today, didn't get much done yesterday due to insomnia had a decent nights sleep last night but feeling lazy today.

Oh and malt I rang my bcn about flu jab, she asked onc as things change each year, and they advised day before or after chemo as your blood levels are best then.

That's good foo foo thanks I'll ring about mine
Sorry for being a bit depressing last night everyone especially to really who could probably have done with more positive stories x

maybe it's the weather/change of season-and treatment just going on ? I must say the relentlessness fopes get me. Felt horrible yesterday but finished a picture I am doing for someone in Denmark which was good. Had hot water bottle last night in bed too- lovely !
I think hot tubs not good for those having chemo as they're full of germs (!!)

Just out of interest I did a google to find out what the jacuzzi thing was about. Since I have a daily bath that is hotter than a jacuzzi I was a bit , not to mention spending three years living in a country where it was like a sauna, and I dripped with sweat every time I went out, for ten months of the year This is the Macmillan advice which seems to be focused on what you can do positively to avoid lymphodaema www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Livingwithandaftercancer/Symptomssideeffects/Lymphoedema/reducingrisk.aspxa nd this is where I finally found mention of the highly dangerous Jacuzzi edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy901 which basically actually says these things can be triggers but it is about using your common sense, building up gradually and stopping doing anything that starts off any swelling.

I can identify with being upset when it is implied that your life will be restricted after node removal, I was told I couldn't lift more than 10lbs and I was upset because I couldn't see how I would be able to keep up gardening, doing the weekly shop, using weights when exercising etc. but actually I just built up gradually, and I do all of those things. Just occasionally when I have done too much in the garden it will ache a bit and I know to cut back. I have certainly had plenty of long air journeys, and lived with extremes of temperatures (going outside in Hong Kong is like being in a sauna (and I hiked in it ) but the aircon in the shops restaurants etc is set to glacial) I don't see why some of these BCNs can't give the advice couched in the terms of the links and give us some credit for having some common sense......

My chemo buddies and I have been lucky in not having any problems with lymhodema but a couple did get a session with a specialist nurse at the Marsden who taught them lymphatic massage, basically massaging the lymph across the back of the armpit which I know is also offered by some masseurs. It is apart from anything very pleasant, and can help.

trice jchoc just googled yarndale , looks like heaven, there is a link to a company that do patterns for Christmas baubles which I cannot resist. I found a box with all my wool and patterns from the 80s when we cleared the loft out. There is pattern book from a then very trendy designer, Patricia Roberts, which is very funny, all the models look like they walked out of a Bananarama video. I actually knitted this one www.patriciaroberts.co.uk/books10.php But the wool is gorgeous, lovely colours, all the jumpers long ago went to the jumble sale, but my latest project is a fair isle using the wool

Cross posted MAS yes that's why I stay out of Jacuzzis! All that warm water recycling with who knows what bodily fluids....

Also friends and I thought of chemo as being a bit like pregnancy, it's a grotty few months of sickness and general meh you have to endure but you do endure it and count off the months, as the current chemo gang have done, can't believe how quickly it has gone with Betsy nearing the last one. Once it is finished you start to feel quite a lot better quickly, it takes a year or more to fully recover, and some of us have some lasting effects, but you can get back to your (new) normal life very quickly, and you do appreciate it all the more

lily great news about DS1 and DS2 will have the constitution of an ox by the time he returns to the UK, weedy english bugs won't be able to touch him Hope you are feeling a bit more over this round of tax now?

malt how are you doing today? Hope the tax truck isn't heading to your house

pigeons yes nearly there now and counting down the days :)

re flu jab my onc said wait until at least two weeks after last chemo as I will get a better immune response then than having it during chemo, but that only works for me as my last chemo is 10/10 and I'll be able to have it before the main flu season kicks in from December.

How realistic is it to work during rads? I only do mornings anyway, so was wondering (if I can schedule the rads to fit on the afternoon) if I could to do a phased return to work during the rads bit? I will have a 40 mile round trip each day for treatment as my local hospital don't do them. Keen to get back, but equally don't want to rush back and end up knackered and then have to go off again...

Lovely sunny day here, so I'm doing a kitkat and getting loads of washing done Tomorrow I need to summon up the strength to do some much needed housework...

Hope everyone is having a good day

I got no particular guidance about the flu jab from my Onc who just said it was a good idea. I've one booked for 19th October (like Betsy I have chemo on 10th October). I'm not 100% certain whether that one will be my last chemo - have to wait for Onc to tell me on 25th October! Not even 100% sure whether I'm having surgery after - though Breast Surgeon told me it was now less likely. I like clarity and planning ahead and you don't get that with cancer!
Washing and ironing day here too though have been distracted by state of cloakroom/bathroom/ensuite etc into ineffectual semi-cleaning of these with spray.

yeah for all the washing. It's a lovely day here too but I've been out watching DS rugby all morning so nothing on my line

Oh what a morning ! Water running down dds bedroom wall think from our shower above, then mil set the smoke alarms off making lunch, they're all linked though the house so a hell of a noise and we couldn't switch them off ! Had lunch now and all is quiet
I just feel wiped out, legs are achy and I've come up to bed for a lie down and to read

oh no malt you could do without that!

I did win a £30 beefeater voucher on FB so it hasn't been all bad
Hope everyone's having a good day lovely and sunny here

Blimey Malt - you were supposed to take it easy and be looked after. Is the water from the shower serious? Will you need to get plumber/builder in? Are your in-laws going home today?

Evening, thought I'd check in and say hi. I'm sorry to read about all of you who are having sickness, aches, pains, sore weepy bits and generally feeling crap. It's quite daunting for me read all this as I'm just at the start of my 'journey' (I thought journeys were meant to be fun). It's clear that cancer doesn't abide by any rules and treats everyone differently.

Thank you for your reassurances about Tamoxifen though, I guess that is one thing off my freak-out list.

Well I had my surgery on Friday, Just a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy. I've now got a couple of weeks to wait until I get the results. The surgeon sort of breezed past when I was in the recovery room and said it had all gone well, but we won't know for sure until the results are back. I feel ok, sore obviously but surprisingly ok.

Better go, DH is cooking so I'd better go and ooh and aah over his efforts.

wah about shower malt
Well done handbags for getting the op out of the way and fingers crossed for good results.
Am off to meditation shortly

well done handbags - glad the Op was straightforward. Fingers crossed for the results now.