**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.

Fantastic news news salhal, you must be mightily relieved. Roll on the next stage of treatment!

Lily, great news from you too although not so good about your hands and feet... And DH. I sympathise on the hand front as I'm suffering a lot still with my fingers thanks to the chemo

Speedy good luck with the echo and let's hope you can try the herceptin again. My hospital are just introducing specialist pharmacist reviews of herceptin patients to see how they're getting on. I've got my first appt with them in a couple of weeks. Hope the new boobs are less painful today

Foo, I'm another one impressed with your drive and determination and early starts! Lots of luck and let us know how it goes

Marshy, really hope you can shake off the back pain, literally and figuratively! It can't be any fun :(

So I'm up early today for drum roll..... Marker removal day! Have to be at the hospital at 7 and then have the joys of guide wire insertion and surgery to look forward to. Hopefully they'll be extra nice to me as it's their mistake I'm there in the first place

Anyway, waves to all hope you have good days

Hope it goes well today Minty. I'm now two weeks after last chemo and four weeks away from the chop as my kids are calling it....wish it was tomorrow.

Good luck, Minty.

Don'task, I felt like that about my ops. I just wanted them to crack on with it. In hindsight, I wish I'd used the time to get more ready in terms of batch cooking etc.

I'm on it saveme, cottage pie in freezer soon to be joined by lasagne and cheesy pasta bake, any other suggestions for me? It's all sounding a bit dull at the moment. Husband saying he will do all the cooking while I am out of action so I need to have the freezer as backup for when the novelty wears off.

I like a good chilli (codeine can bung you up so it may be helpful to have one) and spag Bol.

I've lost track of who has had or is having which op, are you waiting for a lumpectomy or a mastectomy? Either way, I'd suggest getting some arnica as I used it and healed really well. It might just be coincidence though!

All done and dusted. Phew

Ive discovered another new form of torture along this merry journey though. Guide wire insertion whilst having a mammogram! Has anyone else had one?

They use a slightly different type of machine but essentially you lie on your side on a bed with your breast squashed between the plates whilst they take an image to check you're positioned correctly. And then another after being repositioned and then when your in the right place they inject the local anaesthetic and push in the wire... Then another image. All while you are being squashed!!! And to cap it all off you then have to stand up and have a conventional mammo done. Never again do I want to go through all that!

But it meant they could find the marker and it's gone. I'm absolutely shattered now though more so than the first time so I'm going to be taking things very easy for a few days

No batch cooking for me!

Minty that sounds vile. Thank goodness it's behind you. I remember one particularly horrible biopsy taking session clamped in the machine

Hope someone will be cooking you something nice or that you are perusing the takeaway delivery menu for later!

That sounds a bit of an ordeal Minty Feet up, telly on. Suggest you get a bell to summon food and drink.

I can't face a Panini making machine after my mammogram experiences. Sounds like a "cruel and unusual punishment" (US Constitution) ranking next to having a breast MRI.

I'm having both chopped off and nodes on both sides saveme

Ah. Don't forget to stockpile chocolate and biscuits then, preferably below shoulder height to avoid having to ask for them to be passed to you a la toddler (the voice of bitter experience)!

Just wondered if anyone of you lovely lot can tell me about your radiotherapy experiences. DP is going through it at the moment and it is making him feel awful, pounding headache, nausea, knackered, 9 rounds of chemo didn't affect him half as bad as this. Anything I can do for him to make it easier?

Hi muffin
didn't want to read and run although I don't think I can be of much help to you as I have no personal experience of radiotherapy.
Most of the breast ladies on this thread seem to find it less demanding than chemo. I'm sure some of them will be along at some point.
I guess maybe the impact would be different depending on what part of the body is being treated?
Sending you and your dp good wishes.

Poor you Minty. Not a nice experience I imagine!

Muffin- sorry I didn't have radiotherapy either but am sure someone will be able to help. I did know someone who got very tired with it.
Thinking of you and your dp.

Minty that doesn't sound nice, glad it's over

Muffin where abouts is he having the rads ? I didn't experience anything like that when I had them to the breast, the worst bit was the travelling. I'd ask the radiographers for some advice, in my experience they were very kind and helpful

Hi all, just coming on to say I finished rads yesterday so hopefully that is me DONE. Strange though that I don't feel massively celebratory, did anyone else feel this? In the back of my mind I can't believe that it's over, and I feel sure I will be back to square 1 again at some point bang on cue, I have developed a nagging pain in my coccyx which I am getting checked out next week. I had the same thing last summer, had an MRI and was told all was fine, so I'm hopeful it's the same thing this time. However my brain has gone back to 'funeral planning' mode. Ugh.

Hope everyone else is going well. I am also in awe of you foo with your bootcamp! Amazing! Minty, that wire insertion sounds grim, y have my sympathies.

Yeah for getting to the end of rads Elporto, but not so yeah for the feeling of emptiness and worry. I think everyone assumes that when the treatment is over you should be jumping for joy but after being effectively institutionalised over the last 3 weeks you're now back out on the streets on your own. Have you got any follow up appointments in your diary? My SIL had exactly the same worry re lower back pain after treatment but had an MRI and all was fine. Hopefully it's all just a rotten coincidence.

Muffin, sorry I can't help with your DH's rads as I haven't started mine yet. But I have heard that you can get really dehydrated during the treatment so you need to make sure you drink plenty. Tiredness can also be a symptom of dehydration. But I'm no expert so if you have any worries make sure you speak to his team.

Thanks for all your sympathies re my marathon mammo, lily 'cruel and unusual punishment' sums it up beautifully. If these machines were around in medieval times I can guarantee they would be included in the torture chambers!

Thank goodness I'm not suffering too much pain this time but I still need to take it easy otherwise I can feel the scar pulling which is not great. DH has taken DD off to Legoland today so I have the place to myself. No doubt they'll come back tired and I'll end up putting together some dinner

Hope everyone is enjoying this lovely spring sunshine

Thanks everyone, he's puking up this morning, constant headache. Even the morphine isn't touching it. Will ask the key worker at Royal Marsden on Monday but when we mentioned the headaches she didn't think the RT was to blame. The treatment is on his chest, malteser, oesophageal/stomach junction was where the primary tumour (4cm) was, with lymphs affected all over the place (stage 4). The prognosis was dire, they said a year with treatment, months without. A year on and all lymphs back to normal size and they can barely see anything of primary source on the PET (just a few cells which the RT will hopefully deal with). We think we may just have been given a miracle. He's a tough cookie, was getting his back into the gardening yesterday but think its definitely a lie-in bed day today....ready for another blast of RT tomorrow! Hope no one minds me hanging around on this thread....I like it here (his tumour was HER2+ so he's on Herceptin indefinitely)

Elporto congrats on crossing the finish line I have found it hard to let go of worries and have faith in the future. Have talked to my counsellor quite a bit about that. It's helped. Would recommend it.

Minty bung something in the slow cooker and feet up!

Muffin that sounds incredibly hard for both of you. You must have been through the mill. Consulting with the team on Monday sounds like a good idea. Do you have an out of hours helpline? There must surely be something they can give your dh for the sickness. Do hang around, you're very welcome

Elporto well done on coming to the end of treatment I think it's normal not to feel like jumping for joy even though you feel like you should be ! Be kind to yourself and remember every day is another day towards feeling yourself again.

Muffin you've both been through a horrid time, I'm sorry. Of course you are welcome to stick around

Been on a child free weekend away this weekend which was lovely and just what dh and I needed, back to reality now though !

Hello everyone, it's a few weeks since I've posted I think but I'm still checking up on everyone occasionally. Not ready to give up the safety net for a while yet.

I was particularly drawn to elportos last post about her back pain. I have been suffering with this a bit myself for the last month or so, right down in my coccyx. It's been worrying me so much that I have just taken the plunge and phoned my bcn. She quickly reviewed my histology and was able to say confidently that she doesn't think it's related to the cancer. I know mine was less advanced than yours but I too have recently started running again, albeit on a treadmill. She feels this is what has caused it and reminded me that taking tamoxifen affects bone health and said this was likely to be contributing to the pain.

I feel mighty relieved, she said several times that she was very confident about this and wouldn't say it if she wasn't sure. I believe her, there have been other occasions where she has been far more cautious.

So elporto, I hope your pain is also due to increased exercise, did you say you were running and also on tamoxifen? I think coming to the end of treatment very often makes you feel a bit wierd too. You're probably a bit wiped out by the rads too even if you don't realise. I finished treatment last July and although I've had a couple of issues with pesky lymph nodes I have got to the point where I do not think about it every minute of every day. But I have my 1st annual mammogram coming up!

Hello to everyone else, ouch minty that sounds like an ordeal. Marshy, hope you're feeling a bit better. Malt, how lovely to have a weekend away. Lily, no university decision yet but thanks again for your advice. Everyone else, very best wishes.

Mrs Rhod glad you're still coming back to the thread, my treatment finished a year ago and I'm still here for the support. That's great that your bcn was able to reassure you

Just popping in to say hi, still have nothing useful to add! :)

Welcome Advicewouldbehelpful, but sorry you have had to join the thread. Hopefully you'll just be visiting briefly, but if not, there's plenty of support here and whatever is going on, someone will probably have experience of it.

I can't be of much help as I had bowel cancer, so no experience of breast symptoms. But it is often quoted here that only one in ten breast lumps is anthing sinister. It is good you've been referred quickly, you should get some answers soon, and stay here for hand holding until you do. Lots of people will understand what it is like waiting for the results

I hope everyone is doing OK I do keep an eye on the thread in case there's ever anyone with bowel cancer around who I might be able to advise, as I was so grateful for this thread providing friendship and distraction when I was pretty much housebound during chemo, but there's no point me trying to answer breast cancer questions as there's so many with real experience.

While I'm here, is trice around? If so, I think about you often, in a non-creepy way, as you posted while I was here. I hope you're doing well

Hi Martha nice to see you! Ditto Mrs. Good to hear you've had reassurance about the back pain.
Malt weekend away sounds lovely. I've just had a physio session with massage and stretching so feeling a bit pummelled but back continues to improve thank goodness.

Advicewouldbehelpful hug for you. It's very worrying when you have all the fears and none of the answers. We all of us on this thread have been there and know how horrible it is. You should be seen at the breast clinic quickly, within 2 weeks. They are very thorough and kind and with any luck the outcome will be that it's nothing to worry about asMartha says. If that isn't the case the treatments are very effective with good outcomes.
Do you have anyone supporting you? It would be good to have someone with you for a bit of moral support when you go to the clinic. You're in a difficult place at the moment as you don't know what you're dealing with, hopefully nothing! It will get easier and you won't always feel like you do now. Hang in there And if there's anything specific you need to ask please do. Someone will probably have an answer or be able to direct you somewhere. We are also good at hand holding. All the best.