CANCER SUPPORT THREAD 60! Here we are again... join us if you have any sort of cancer (or if you're waiting for cancer test results)

[WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo]

Welcome everyone to a shiny new thread :)

It's a club nobody wants to join, but if you need us, you are more than welcome. If you're waiting to find out if you have cancer or not then pull up a chair. We hope you won't need to be here long, but we are here as long as you need us. And if you do have cancer then this is the place for you. Swear, rant, scream, laugh, cry... someone will have at least an inkling of what you're going through!

We only have one rule, which is do not Google. Though perhaps we should update that to please Google responsibly as few can resist completely!

I hope this thread will be a source of support for all who need it

Our previous thread can be found here

I'm not too bad thanks Leslie, I had my 4th chemo yesterday. One more chemo, 4 more radio and then 4 lots of internal radio which I'm absolutely dreading and then hopefully I'll find out how it's worked. Other than the constant bad taste in my mouth and feeling a bit tired it's no where near as bad as I was expecting. Although I'm getting quite a low dose of chemo so that's probably why I don't feel too grim.

Ooh enjoy your extra days off , the chemo unit was jam packed yesterday when I was in

I'm glad you're not feeling as bad as you had feared so you should be finished in a couple of weeks? The internal radiotherapy doesn't sound fun at all will that be at the same place as your other radiotherapy?

Hello everyone
Just checking in to wish you 'compliments of the season'

Leslie I'm sorry to read that you have been feeling so unwell and I hope you are now much improved.

Fatme I hope you managed to see the GP.

I didn't realise I had been away from the thread so long - my operation has been brought forward and will be on Tues (2nd). I didn't get to see the endocrinologist but the nurse has told me that they are happy to go ahead with the surgery and will just monitor me very closely and ensure that I do not get dehydrated (I'd like to think it would be the same for everyone )

Sending you all good vibes

Yes hopefully, if the treatment hasn't cleared it completely then it will have hopefully shrunk it enough to operate on. I'm having general anaesthetic for the internal, 2 days a week for 2 days. I think the worst bit is having to lay on my back completely still for 48 hours. I wonder how many times I end up dropping my kindle on my face all the treatment is done in the same place so at least I'll have all the lovely nurses that I'm used to

This might be the friendliest thread I’ve ever seen! So many people wishing me well! Thank you all.

I did see GP who did not diagnose shingles but who was so reassuringly dismissive of me that I’m back to just waiting for my referral appointment.

I’m not not worried, but I’m an awful lot less worried than I was a few days ago. I at least feel like I can get through the days til my appointment without going crazy.

Thank you all for being so nice. 💕 💐 💐

Hope you all had a good day on the 25th - in the scheme of things! I'm sorry you ended up in A&E Leslie - I'm glad they managed to get things sorted quickly. Hope you got plenty of compensatory cheese on the 26th and your temp has behaved since! Chemo was fine today, thank you. I've lost my voice, which everyone is enjoying greatly, so it was a peaceful one! Get scan results on the 3rd, so we'll know whether it's ascites, hernias, pies or whatever that's amiss then. Enjoy your travels TQ. Good luck with your radio purple - maybe an audio book to save your face?! Good luck FatMe - hope you get your appointment very soon. Festive good wishes to everyone xx

Hi everyone
Hope @Leslie you are feeling improved and the pain is not too bad
My medication dose has been reduced slightly which seems to have improved the nasty side effects. Yay no more cystitis but mouth ulcers did hamper my usual Christmas overindulgence (probably for the best)

Hi all, thanks for the well wishes and previous replies and hope you all had good Christmases.
Turns out MIL had an infection (unknown what kind), they gave her antibiotics and she came out of hospital on Christmas Eve which was great. However she went for her second round of chemo today and they said infection was still present in her blood so postponed for a week. OH said she lost it a bit and freaked out on the way home, thinking NHS is against her and they will stop her treatment. She's like a different person since this all started and I can't even imagine the stress she must be under and the fear.

Hello, I’m a newbie, sad and shocked to be here. I’m 39 with 2 DCs at primary school. I was told at Breast clinic before Christmas that I had a 5cm lump which was almost certainly cancer.

I’ve had MRI scans and biopsy results this week and it looks as if the tumour is actually 7cm and grade 2. The doctor did further biopsies to check lymph nodes and area directly under nipple so am waiting to see if it has spread.

I only noticed a weird raised lump at the beginning of Dec so can’t believe I’m at sitting here with such a massive tumour. Doctors explaination is that is is quite dispersed. Even my couldn’t feel lump just could see breast enlarged.

I’m sorry to see so many of you already on this journey

Good idea Nicky about the audio, I don't fancy coming out of hospital with black eyes too

Aw Stitch I hope she's feeling a bit better today, I must be really frustrating for her but the doctors know best and chemo if she's not well will only set her back.

Ghoul I know how stressed you are but you've taken the first steps now to getting it sorted. My tumour is 4x4cm and although mines in my cervix I wondered how the hell I didn't realise it was there! I don't know much about breast cancer but I'm sure there's some lovely ladies who will be along soon with some advice for you

Hello again.
Leslie, how are you feeling now?
My injections are twice a year. So my next one is in six months' time.
I hope everyone is having a warm, restful day.

Thanks PurpleUnicorn, it’s such a shock isn’t it.

Hello Ghoul
Sorry you find yourself here. . As purple said, at least it will be sorted. We all know that waiting for results is sheer hell. I'm sure someone with experience of breast cancer will be along.

Hi all
royal woo hoo - hopefully 6 months where you don't have to think about this rodeo too much - enjoy that! Sorry to see you here ghoul; as wombat says, waiting for definitive results is really hard and it's much easier to deal with when you know the score and you have a treatment plan. I'm an ovarian patient so can't offer any bc help, but there are lots of people on here who can. Stitch - your poor MIL must be panicking but if I can offer any reassurance, they are so careful about administering chemo under the right circumstances; the reason they do all the blood tests and checking is to make sure that you don't have any underlying symptoms that will either give you a bad reaction to chemo or that chemo will make much worse. It's not unusual for a session to be withheld under these circumstances - I've had one delayed during this regime because of a suspect rash (on BUPA - if she worries it's an NHS thing) and they just resumed as normal once I was better and added an extra session to the end, to compensate. It is frustrating when it happens, but it is done for the right reasons. It also seems to be the case (for me, anyway!) that when one thing goes a bit wrong, it has a bit of a ripple effect that makes everything seem a bit Armageddon. Then when that little thing is sorted, everything runs very smoothly. Hard to understand if that occurs at the start of treatment when you aren't used to it and don't fully trust your team, but finding ways to relax and roll with the tricky times will help in the long haul. Good luck to her. Purple - if our bodies are letting us down, we have to take care of our face! xx

Ahhh @ghoul sorry to see you here, I was 39 with primary aged dc when diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago. Just turned 40 now, it feels so scary, surreal and just plain wrong doesn't it. But there's a lot of support and understanding on this thread whatever you discover, here's and hoping for some "good bad news" as my dh calls any positive cancer info.

wombat I'm glad they're happy to go ahead. Do you know how long you'll be in hospital afterwards? I'll be thinking of you lots on Tuesday

purple 48 hours?! I'm such a fidget I think they'd have to sedate me for that. Maybe you should wear protective goggles with your kindle

FatMe I'm glad the GP appointment helped. When is your breast clinic appointment?

nicky everything crossed for 3rd and for it being too many pies I hope your voice as returned (and yes, I actually had some baked Camembert on 26th which made up for missing Christmas dinner!)

ILoveDolly I'm glad the dose reduction has helped. Have they given you anything to help the mouth ulcers?

Stitch phew for MIL getting out on Christmas Eve. I hope you all had a nice Christmas. Most of us have had cycles delayed for one reason or another. I'm having a session on Tuesday that was originally scheduled for 21st December. I know it's frustrating and upsetting, but pleas be reassured that it is perfectly normal. As others have said it's for her own safety. If she had the chemo while she had an infection and then her immune system was depleted she might end up with a much more serious infection

Ghoul welcome, but sorry you've had to join us what rotten timing too. I hope you managed to enjoy Christmas anyway. Fingers crossed for your other test results

royal ah, bit of a break between them then. I was worried they might be daily!

I'm snuggled by the fire using my new shiatsu massage cushion! Somehow my adhesions seem to have a knock on effect and I end up with a really stiff back, so this is helping a lot. A nice GP has prescribed me more tramadol too.

I hope everyone is nice and cosy

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. It is true, it does feel surreal at the moment. I’m hoping they will give me a course of treatment soon so that I can actually see what is actually needed. I feel rather helpless at the moment. I like the idea of ‘good bad news’. I think i’ll try and look at everything in those terms.

for everyone and hoping for as much good bad news as possible for us all.

ghoul 💐 So sorry to see you here.

My hospital appt is next Friday, 2 weeks and a day after original gp appt, which isn’t bad given Christmas and NY.

I’ve (mostly) stopped freaking out and am getting through the days without thinking I’m going to throw up on my own feet at any point.

Ghoul you'll definitely feel better when you have a plan :) this waiting and not knowing what's happening is the worst bit

FatMe I'll have my fingers crossed for you next Friday then I'm glad you're mostly feeling a bit better

Ghoul ⚘sorry you are here. I've got to wait another week for my results. I've had 2 vacuum biopsies. I have got loads of lumps that are apparently cysts but on my screening mammogram I was found to have changing cells/calcification so I have to sit and wait! I didn't really ask any questions as I was like a rabbit in the headlights!
So I've put it all out of mind until next week,

Morning all - sat waiting for the letter for my first appointment at the breast clinic - found a lump about a month ago and dh nagged me to go to the gp- been referred although she feels there's probably nothing sinister but wants it checked out.

Holding it together but I have a question - I have a family member who works in the clinic who is in touch with other family members who I am nc with. I don't want anyone to know at this stage - will she be bound by confidentiality or will she be within her rights to say she's seen me at the clinic? Sorry f it sounds like a stupid worry but I'd rather find out what's going on before the world and his wife is told.

to all going through this - it's shit

@whojamaflip if possible can you get in touch with the family member and tell her she is not to even mention that she saw you because it is private? Some people are better at the confidentiality thing than others and she might not see the harm in mentioning it.

I agree with Dolly. I'm not entirely sure how strict the confidentiality rules are. But if you have a reasonable relationship it would probably be worth mentioning in advance. And sorry you're going through this whojamaflip

Sorry you are waiting and worried whojamaflip. I agree with leslie and dolly too - it would do no harm to just check if it would give you peace of mind. I had to see a dentist just before I started treatment and before lots of people knew I was ill; the dentist knows me personally and 'strongly advised' another patient of hers (a mutual friend) to get in touch with me. Not exactly a breach, but in my opinion definitely not her business to share.

Unfortunately no relationship so if I contact her would cause too many questions to be asked - it's a branch of the family I have very little contact with hopefully she won't be on shift whatever day I end up going. If she is I will deal with it I suppose.