**Tamoxigang heading towards hearts and valentines - thread 47**

[BetsyBoop]

roses are red
violets are blue
sugar is sweet
but cakes are better

Ok so today's weird side effect is a rash! Started on my chest and is making its way down my legs.

Itchy!

Anyone had any experience of this? I am over 2 months post chemo, and over 1 month post op so don't know why it's come up now. I am on anti biotics anyway for dodgy skin of boob wound.

mom - they are Lee jeans - cost £85 which I think is a lot for jeans. I actually had no idea that Lee jeans were so expensive - anyway they look good and went down treat at the party.

foo - are you taking anything else? I had an itchy rash caused by BP meds.

I'm on anti b's but been on the same ones for 2 weeks. I did get my updated prescription from a different chemist on Friday ..... I suppose there could be a subtle difference in casing ?
I also have ulcers and thrush ..... What fun!

Thought I might go and see a pharmacist .... Or is it worth calling nhs direct ?

Just bobbing in to say hello, I'm so far behind on the thread I won't attempt to keep up...

Really that is appalling, I would be complaining. Poor you being thrown back into "waiting" again.

Foo that sounds like an allergic reaction to me.

Well I've been back at work a month now and loving it :). Slowly I'm finding "me" again. I know it seems never ending for those having treatment at the moment, but it does end eventually and you find a "new normal" :)

Foofoo, I've had problems with rashes - very itchy spreading allergic rash, then a quieter but still annoying fungal number. With me it was clearly to do with being run down - my body was completely fed up after double surgery. It sounds as though it may be similar for you, given the ulcers and the thrush. I found pharmacists a good starting point - a mild hydrocortisone cream plus epiderm for the allergic rash, then daktacort for the other, but in the end I had to go to the GP for a heavier duty cream for the allergic rash which got out of hand. Good luck: they may seem minor but can really add to the misery!

Morning everyone

Kitkat hope your infection clears up ASAP, the jeans sound great

Foo foo sorry about your rash. If you have a pharmacy near you might be worth showing them as they can actually see it and give advice. You do sound rundown, hugs, I think I'll sneak you in my suitcase

Hello everyone. Sorry I've not been on here to keep up with you all for a while. Since my tumour was in my back, I've needed the back group.
I hope you don't mind me asking one question that one of you may vaguely know the answer to:
After the tumour was excised from my spinal canal and sacrum (sarcoma), they have done a CT scan on my chest. Routine, apparently. There was no sign of something beginning with 'm'. So they don't expect cancer there however, they identified what they think look like scar tissue nodule things. They want to repeat the CT 3 months after the first to check to see whether this has grown.
Now I'm a bit concerned as I've bit had an op or bad infection in my chest. Wish there weren't any question marks hanging over. So want to hide away from everything now.

goodness don't know the answer I'm afraid but just wanted to say Hi.

Spoke to nhs who said to take anti histamine as sounds like an allergic reaction but also to go to out of hours dr at 3pm as well just in case. So have taken one of DPs hay fever tablets and trying to ignore he itching.

malt hope you have a big suitcase.

foofoo that doesn't sound like much fun! Hope the doc can give you something for the itching! Xx

I had another rough night! Managed about 3hrs sleep! Hoping to try and have a nap now! Just been for a walk by the river! It was lovely. Although I did need to sit down approx every half hour god I feel so old! I hope I get my energy levels back eventually!

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine! Long may it last!

goodness loads of people have scar nodules in their lungs, it could have been from a chest infection as a baby or a child which you might not remember/know about. The difference being that most people are not aware they have them as they are symptomless. However the do show up on a CT scan and often a chest x-ray. Now with your history they are just doing belt and braces to make sure you definitely haven't got metastatic cancer lurking. If they scan you in 3 months and the nodule is exactly the same size they prove they were right, it's a common, all-garden nodule and they (and you) can forget about it. If it's grown then they need to treat it (chemo/rads etc). It's standard practice to do this when you've had cancer, just to be on the safe side. Cancer, the gift that keeps on giving, eh?!

foo - hope the anti-e's help to ease things

foofoo, I used have Lee jeans years ago, and I loved them. I had no idea they are now in that price range!!

Morning everyone. I did pop in on one of the previous threads but have just been waiting for my first chemo to start which is FEC-T and starts tomorrow.

Been browsing the Tamoxigang threads for tips. I just want to get it started now. Went to the main cancer hospital here for the 1st time on Friday and it made me feel quite weepy. there were just so many people!! I don't know what I was expecting.

I just really can't believe this is happening to me. I feel so well!!! I alsmost feel a bit of a fraud if that makes any sense but I still feel that maybe someone's made a mistake somewhere along the line...

I told my boys (9 and 13) a week ago. Didn't use the 'c' word but said I would lose my hair and would be very tired and sometimes quite poorly so they needed to organise themselves a bit better and not leave everything to the last moment. Neither seemed remotely perturbed but again there's been nothing that would make them think I was ill. Even my lumpectomy went incredibly well.

My 13 year old then helpfully suggested that he show me what out he wants to wear for Comicon (in July!!!!!) so I had plenty of time to prepare (!!!!). The self centrednesss of teenagers will never cease to amaze me but at least neither got upset although the 9 year old just said he doesn't want to see me without hair. I suspect the 13 year old knows more than he's letting on though as he did ask me if it was the radiation that would make me lose my hair.

DP is being very supportive but I worry that he's bottling things up. He has said that he used to have a crush on Sinead O'Connor so has no problem with me losing my hair. I have said that he will never see me without a wig or scarf. I can't imagine I'll let anyone see me like that.

Welcome back feline. Good luck with the chemo tomorrow, if there's anything you want to know do ask us. You know about the red wee with fec ? It surprised me how red the drugs were and how much of them there was. The first one is the headers I think as you don't really know what it expect. After that you can start ticking them off
I still find it hard to get my head around feeling so well when you know you've you cancer, you'd think there would be some sign but there's nothing is there with BC. It's just the treatment that makes you feel poorly though I had fec t and wasn't sick at all

The hair thing is hard, have you got a wig yet ? I wore mine all of the time when I went out but close family did see me without it. I didn't wear scarves at all. People I didn't know just thought I'd had a haircut !

And my 10 year old still doesn't know I've had cancer either though my 14 year old does. They've both been fine, they've just seen me be tired this year but still been making their teas etc, we've tried to keep everything as normal as possible

The first one is the hardest I meant to say !

Hi Foofoo!
Thank you, Betsy. Hope you're okay.
That's really reassuring to know. Laughing at the 'keeps on giving' gift analogy. Quite.

malt Thanks for that. I went to try on some wigs on Friday but decided to wait until tomorrow as DP will be with me for the final decision. I actually want a long wig (my hair is quite a short bob which I was actually trying to grow so thought I would try out long hair for a few months!!!)

I do think the 1st will be the worst as obviously I have no idea how it will affect me personally although am aware of the side effects.

I think I will feel better mentally once the process has started.

Feline, it feels much better to be getting on with it even when it makes you feel lousy! Good luck, and I Hoo the side effects are gentle.

Sorry for your bad night, really. I hope tonight is better.

feline don't worry too much about the hair thing, it becomes less important, and after a while you get used to it. I didnt lose my hair until 3 weeks after my last chemo. I have been out all today with my grey number 2 cut ....I just like sticking two fingers up at cancer ..... I am also a little drunk.

Good luck tomorrow feline, we'll be thinking about you.

Good for you foo foo ! Did you go to the doctors ?

Bought some swimwear for my hols and a cover up thing today

Hello everyone. So question: when you get a drain put in after the mx is it for the breast removal or for the lymph node surgery. In other words if I am having a double mx will I have two drains? What do they actually drain into and how long are they in for? I am only in overnight fir the op so just trying to work out about what needs managing at home.

Goodness I have an "unknown" in my lung, showed up on CT but surgeon said they weren't concerned about it at all. I've had a follow up CT but he didn't mention it at all after that one so I assume that nothing has changed. I've never had any chest infections or surgery either, I have very mild asthma but surgeon didn't think that would have caused it. Many, many people will have something similar somewhere in their body, just that most people don't get scanned.

I heard an interesting piece on the radio quite a while ago about the benefits or not of routine full body scans to prevent cancer. The specialist being interviewed said that they'd find lots of abnormalities as so many people have odd things going on inside them but very few of them would actually be harmful, and overall more harm would come to the population through over diagnosis and testing/treatment than from possible prevention.

The word beginning with m is metastases, which are secondary tumours where the cancer has spread to another area of the body. So no metastases is very good.

Oh for heaven's sake, must read the thread more carefully. I rushed on excitedly thinking I might actually have something helpful to say but Betsy has already said it all much more clearly!

Waving at everyone else x

Buns - I had a single mx with no lymph node surgery and I got 1 drain - hope that helps - I had it in for 4 days.

Hi I haven't been on the thread for ages (i had treatment from January-September 2010 and have been back in full health as far as I know, and back at work since November 2010)

Anyway, was just popping in - and feel happy that I can answer a question, or part of one.

The drain goes into a sort of bottle which (In my hospital at least) I carried round in a plastic bag. I only had op on one side but I suspect you'd have 2 drains if you had op on both sides. This was after a lumpectomy and lymph node removal.

My consultant does not let anyone go home until the drains have done their job - which was about 3-4 days. Practise varies on this point.

It was a bit uncomfortable when the drain was taken out but not bad. I didn't find them difficult but one fellow patient had a bit more trouble than I did. Good luck.