**Tamoxigang thread 51**... no more sangria, but maybe some mulled wine!

[MarthaCostello]

Hello all,

The old thread has nearly run out so I hope no one minds me making a new one. And am I allowed to mention the Big C... Christmas?! our last thread was started in July so I reckon this one might take us into December.

In honour of that, I will lay out some mulled wine, mince pies and I have wrapped myself in tinsel.

A warm welcome to jomidmum, but sorry you've had to join us. No one wants to be in this club, but this thread is a rather nice place to be. Wishing you a speedy recovery from your op, and hoping the pain eases soon.

Massive hugs to beccajoh

A big yippee for Marshy, what utterly fantastic news.

Sitting on the paranoia box for ConsiderablyBiggerBuns, I hope your MRI results are good - when will you hear?

Waving and sending love to everyone else.

I wonder if seeing as we are on a new thread, it might be worth just giving a bit of history for new posters? I will put mine anyway, and then others can if they want to. I am coming up to two years since my bowel cancer diagnosis (grade 2, stage 3c, T2N2M0R0). I had major bowel surgery and six months of chemo.

Hi all. Have been getting to grips with work and haven't checked in for a while. Have had a quick read but will need to do it properly. Am just so tired at the moment.

Welcome Baw. I hope that you have got a plan in place now. What a nightmare for you.

How are you doing Minty?

Fantastic that you have had your last chemo Elporto. How are you feeling this week?

Buns- I hope your ct scan was ok.

Shrew- totally sympathise with the sickness and glad that you are starting to feel better. There are lots of different drugs to try, just make sure they know.

Dontask- how are you feeling now? Tax is pants.

Lily glad your appointment went well.

Was supposed to be having my op tomorrow but it is now in a couple of weeks. Gives me more time to manically sort my house from top to bottom!
Thinking of everyone

Cross post minty. Sorry you are suffering. Do you have an appointment soon to see if there is anything they can do to help with your fingers/feet?

Hello all,

Shrew and don'task - sounds like you are both out the other side of the worst of it for this cycle, so I hope you have some fun things planned for your good days and are able to enjoy the times when you feel well enough.

Minty, I am so sorry the neuropathy is still bothering you so much, have they said if they can do anything to relieve it? It sounds very debilitating and particularly if you are back at work now. How is it being back in the office?

Speedy, lovely to hear from you! Good luck with your surgery. I sympathise with the manic house tidying, I emerged the other side of my final chemo SEs on Monday and for some unknown reason decided to clean the oven! I have literally never cleaned it before, don't know what came over me

It's so nice to have some energy back, I am not working this week so am trying to go for a jog every day, spring clean the whole house, start eating better and generally try to get on with living a healthier life now that chemo is over. I still have rads to come, malt (and anyone else) any tips for getting through rads? Also, did anyone use any specific products to help eyebrows and lashes to come back? I am getting impatient. My beautician friend raves about Revitalash but it's so pricey I'm not sure I can justify it...

Speedy, I'm not quite sure what the plan is with regards to appointments. I last saw the oncology team on 2nd December when they told me they were stopping my chemo. I've no idea if/when I'm meant to see the team again. I had my post op appt with the surgeon last week and she said I needed to have another mammo in 6 months to see if the marker had been taken out during surgery. I would also get to meet up with her at the same time. The appt letter has arrived for July but then yesterday I got a letter asking me to go in for a mammo in February as well so I'm very confused.

I rang my BCN team this morning to find out what's going on and am waiting for a call back (on past experience I might not hear until the end of the week :( ). I will ask then if anything can be done about the neuropathy. As I say it's really bad this week.

Glad to hear you're ok with the delay to your op. It must be frustrating though but if it means a tidier house (and tidier mind?) for afterwards then I guess that's no bad thing.

Elporto, I am extremely impressed with oven cleaning and jogging!! There is no way I would have had the energy to do that just after chemo. Just walking up the hill to DDs school left me out of breath!

Hopefully your eyebrows and lashes will start to make a swift return. Looking at photos of me on Christmas Day I literally had not a single hair on my eyebrows and just a few very fine blonde eyelashes. I can't believe the speed with which they are returning. Fingers crossed in a couple of weeks you will start to see a difference.

As for tips on rads, I'm all ears too :). I know everyone has said it should be a walk in the park compared to chemo but I am nervous and don't like the thought of feeling even more battered and bruised than I do now

Hi minty, a word about rads. I'm sure it is much easier than chemo, which I didn't have. The worst part is the travelling, even though it was only 30 minutes each way for us. You can pick your preferred time, to an extent. I chose early morning, 8-8.30 which meant we avoided delays in the waiting room and managed to park easily. I saw lots of different staff, mostly very nice.

The treatment is quick and painless, you just lie on a metal platform while the machine moves around you. It's a bit lonely, big room, big equipment and the staff all leave you alone whilst the treatment happens. My skin was fine, a bit pink eventually. I did get some pain though, by the last week my breast was very tender and my nipple was extremely painful. It wasn't the usual reaction and they were keen to give me pain killers. The pain subsided a couple of weeks after treatment. I would say my healthy breast now feels like rare steak to the touch whilst my affected breast feels like well done steak, it's much firmer.

Different units seem to recommend creams to apply. I took the advice on here and bought some Moo Goo udder cream, I had no skin problems.

Elporto can't believe you are jogging! Well done. I am telling myself I can't exercise too much yet because of the expanders and then implants- don't want them moving. At some point though I won't be able to use that as an excuse .

Exciting news today- my insurance claim paid out. A silver lining in a crappy situation. Did have a moment last night where I panicked that I might not be around long enough to see the benefit of it. Silly I know. Wondering when I will start to become a little more relaxed about that sort of thing, if ever.

Thanks for that mrs, really useful to know. I like your description of rare and well done steak!

Great news speedy, hope you're going to treat yourself with some of it :)

Feeling a lot better now thanks Speedy. Bloating has passed. Current side effect is a sore nose. I now have a planned date in April for bilateral surgery which seems really far away. Wish it was tomorrow. Copped a feel of the fake boobs and now have to decide on size and bra style and that will be it ...instant reconstruction!

minty sorry to hear that the neuropathy is still so bad, I hope someone can do something about it. It is difficult after chemo to know whether to wait and see the onc or take it to your GP. I tried telling my GP about concerns with lymphodema, she thought I just had water retention and now I have a permanent sleeve, glove and a hand that looks like a blown up rubber glove!
I found rads tedious but quite easy.the appointments were efficient despite being at all sorts of random times, if I turned up early I was normally seen early, and the staff were all lovely. The appointment lasted exactly 12 minutes and in the manic run up to Christmas I tried to use the time for a relax. It is totally painless. I did get some discomfort in my nipple, like sunburn, this came on after I had finished the treatment and lasted fir a couple of weeks. I now look like I have a tan where I was zapped. I, too, used moo goo cream (didn't admit that to my skin nurse) and am still using it now 4 weeks later.
elporto glad to see you have come through the other side. The jogging has always impressed me! I finished chemo in October and have a fine (grey) head of hair already. Am getting it dyed tomorrow. I didn't lose all my eyebrows or lashes but they have not grown back very well, eyebrows still sparse and lashes are stubby. Was going to ask what was recommended, will look up the revitalash, can't be more expensive than my falsie habit. I have, however, luscious hair on my legs and arms and a goatee that has been mentioned previously!
Good to see you are also over the worst dontask. I'm hoping to discuss recon with my onc when I see him next month.

Just a quickie cos Wolf Hall starting, elporto, I've got some revitalise that I didn't use which I'm happy to send you if you PM me your address. ( my lashes came back so quickly)

Morning all,

Yes Rads easier than chemo, I was lucky as first few were a half hour drive (and a pig to park at) but then they moved me to satellite unit only 10 mins away. They always start people at big unit in case of any problems. But have to say the staff at the larger unit were very very amusing which made it all the more bearable.

I just used the cream they gave me ... put it on several times a day. The only pain I got was up on my collar bone ... that was painful a couple of weeks after. Spoke to BCN who said it will continue to burn for a couple of weeks but then goes away. It did look like a burn but on my breast area where there was more flesh it was a lot easier.

Still suffer with tiredness 4 months after treatment but I tend to cope with it. When I get home from work I have a nap on the sofa rather than rushing about like I used to. And next month am going to employ a cleaner as will be back full time! (Doing 4 days a week atm)

elporto your worth it !

Saw the Oncologist on Monday and we decided to leave the lymph nodes alone.
Tomorrows op will just be to remove the remaining cancer from my breast.
I have stage 3 breast cancer and will start chemo on 19th Feb.4 sessions in total every 21 days.
I have to go for bloods 3 days before chemo...will I have to do this before each session ?
When did others going through chemo start to lose your hair ?

Not too worried about the op this time but feeling stressed...my OH and kids have that awful cough /heavy cold bug.
My OH won't be able to go to the hospital with me or visit, I'm gutted but these things happen I suppose.

Take care everyone x

Good morning cleanas and huge good luck for today's op. Is there someone else who can come and see you in hospital as your family are all under the weather? I really hope it goes smoothly and you're not in too long.

Wrt the chemo, do you know what drug they are giving you? Is it FEC or docetaxel or something else? I had FEC first and my hair started to fall out 17 days after.the first dose (as predicted by amberlight!) but my brows and lashes didn't go until I moved onto the docetaxel. Also you ask about bloods, yes they take bloods before each chemo dose as they need to know how your white blood cell count, iron levels, neutrophils etc are holding up as you go through treatment. I bought a juicer, went crazy juicing all sorts of stuff and my bloods held up pretty well throughout.

Thinking of you today xx

Hi Cleanas, chemo hair loss started at day 17 for me and was so bad I got the remaining hair shaved off on day 23. I have to have a blood test done the day before each chemo session but it can be done at the local .doctors surgery.

Is someone else able to go with you and visit after you surgery. Hope all goes well.

Good luck today cleanas.
My hair started falling out after two weeks but like dontask I had it cut very very short after a week as it was driving me mad!

Good luck cleanas, I hope it goes well and they get all the cancer this time. Hopefully you will be home this eve?

like everyone else, my hair started coming out after 2-3 weeks and then I had what was left shaved off another week or so later. It was actually really liberating to shave it off as I went from looking very ill to someone in control again.

yep to bloods before every chemo. mine were done at the hospital as I got to see one of the oncology team as well. They wanted to do a quick exam (I had a very palpable tumour) and discuss side effects from the previous dose.

Cleanas
My hair loss occurred just after my 2nd Tax chemo. I had my hair cut really short before that. I just managed to sort a wig before it all fell out and the hairdresser shaved my hair (with me not facing the mirror!)
If it is all going to fall out, it is best, in my opinion, to have it shaved off before it starts falling out big time. My hairdresser said "your hair is going on holiday" i.e. it will come back soon!
Hairdresser also recommended (and I think this was useful) to use some gradual tanning lotion on your face and head whilst on chemo. It does make you look much better and by putting all over, there are no nasty lines.

Thank you all for the info re hair and bloods,best wishes to everyone x

My sister is going to take me to hospital and stay with me for a while.I have to be there at 12pm.

A friend will visit me tonight as I think I am staying in one night.

Hopefully I won't catch this dreadful cold/flu.

cleanas Just to let you know I cold capped on FEC and although my hair thinned I did keep it. BUT I found the cold cap very hard, in fact on my last sessions I had to take it off (and then lost a LOT more hair). When I had to go back for Docetaxol I didn't wear the cold cap and hair loss started a couple of weeks after.

I have to say though that even looking at a cold cap now makes me feel nauseous.

My friend is a barber and she came round and gave me a number 1 trim!

Hello, hope everyone is doing ok today. Have been reading but not posting the last few days. Work is a bit manic and stressful to say the least

Elporto agree with the others that rads is not too bad at all it's just the travelling and waiting around that's a bit of a faff. And I know this sounds awful but I wasnt prepared for a waiting room of people twice my age and that was a bit depressing as it reminded me of how ill I was at a time in my life that I didn't expect it.

Clean hope the op all went ok. I had my pre chemo blood test at the gp a couple of days before each chemo, I tried to be healthyish but had to eat what I fancied and my bloods were always fine. I had a great wig which a lot of people thought was my hair, gave me a lot of confidence

Love to all, have a good weekend

Hope op went okay cleanas. Hair started going on day 17 for me too. I had made a note on the calendar to expect it so wasn't a shock. I had it shaved at the hairdresser the next day and they donated the hair to a charity that makes wigs for kids. For me, it was the hardest part, emotionally, of the whole treatment and was actually A relief when it happened so that I could get past it. The wigs and scarves available are fantastic - I quite miss them!

I've been lurking on this thread and cleanas's thread for a few weeks. I was told I've got breast cancer three weeks ago, after finding a lump just before Christmas. It's grade 3 but very small at just 11mm. From the ultrasound it doesn't look like its spread to my lymph nodes. The plan is for a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy, then probably six lots of chemo and 4 weeks of radiotherapy. My op isn't for just over 3 weeks though (post Xmas backlog at my hospital) which is both painfully worrying and nice to have a bit of breathing space. I'm 37 and have two LOs 2 and 4. It still all feels like a bad dream but have found this thread reassuring and informative so just wanted to pop in and say hi.

Hi Salhal, it's hard making your first post so well done on making that step. I had an op similar to yours so may be able to give you some guidance/tips if that would help?

Saveme, any guidance/tips greatly appreciated. They reckon I should be in and out in a day, but i'm not really sure about how long to take off work, how long before I can drive, how much help I'll need with the kids etc. I have lots of support in the real world. I met my breast cancer nurse last week and I kind of got the feeling she thought work might need to be the thing to give ... So much to think about!