Cancer Support Thread #71 - here to help if you’re dealing with cancer in any shape or form, come in and say hello.

[Brassica]

Hi again everyone and welcome to the 71st new thread for cancer support.

All those who are currently being treated, have been treated in the past, have worries and concerns and/or are having tests are very welcome to pull up a chair and chat, vent, rant, pour hearts out, share milestones and anything else! We are a very friendly and all-too experienced bunch on here and there are no questions too small or silly to ask.

Our previous thread is here .

Anyone with any type of cancer (female or male) is welcome. And we will hold your hand if you're waiting to find out whether or not you have cancer at all.

If you've got a loved one with cancer then your best place for support is probably on the Life-Limiting Illness board.

Please can I invite current members to reintroduce yourselves below for latest situations and stories so far.

Hi yogi - so sorry you find yourself here, but there is an amazing bunch of people ready to support you xx

Waiting for results is so hard, but IF you have cancer (and that’s still a big if!), at some point there will be a treatment plan for you, and you will deal with it, and there will be lots of lacies here to support you xx

Hello Yogi, so sorry you are in this frightening situation. Hope very much that the news will not be bad, and that you have some good rl support - this thread is brilliant, as others have said.

Waving back at MilesJupp!

DP and I have booked a night in a fancy B&B in Rye next week, after an oncology appointment and before my second chemo treatment. Getting very excited (and crossing my fingers nothing happens to bugger it up).

Hi yogi, just echoing what others have said about the period of uncertainty being the worst part. I start my treatment next week, and feel a lot more calm and in control than I did during the awful time of waiting.
I also hope that you disappear from here soon for the best of reasons, but if you don't the wonderful women on here will support you x

Hi yogi . So sorry to hear what you're going through. The wating is a big pile of poo and no two ways about it. Have you got a date for test results? Or anyone on the treatment team you can get some support from whilst you wait? For breast cancer there are specialist nurses who are fab when you're having a wobble. I think other specialities have similar staff.
Hope you've got someone in real life to hold your hand, though that can be hard as our loved ones have their own worries to contend with and I didn't want to tell many people until I had more of an idea what I was dealing with.
Do come back here whenever you need to though and we'll give you a virtual handhold xx

bridget a fancy night away sounds fab...Will be keeping everything thing crossed for you that you can enjoy it.

I'm just about to clean out my stinky wheely bin. All glamour here! I'm not sure the chemo nurses would approve but I'm wearing gloves so hopefully ok!

Oh and I found this which I'm going to keep in the cupboard in case of a recurrence of my problem last week. Had to travel quite a distance to find it though as out of stock everywhere. I think you can buy it online but I wanted to test yesterday to make sure I was all clear. Fortunately it was so phew! Still drinking gallons of water though.

WTF gloves, face mask and full hazmat suit required, I reckon! But you've probably done it by now!

I’m looking for some advice please.
I am going through treatment for papillary thyroid cancer. I have had my thyroid removed along with 30 lymph nodes. I will be getting radioactive iodine therapy in August. This treatment makes me radioactive and I can’t leave hospital until I’m no longer dangerous to others.
I was diagnosed in March and until this point have been treated by a surgeon and a doctor of nuclear medicine.
I received a letter from Macmillan offering to help support me. I don’t want to waste there time but wondered what help people had received from them? Do they offer counseling?

Double, Macmillan offer all sorts of support: advice on financial issues (and financial help if necessary), employment issues, the nuts and bolts of treatments, coping emotionally with all stages from testing and diagnosis to being post-treatment, side-effects, healthy eating and regaining fitness, etc. They have local staff who can keep in contact with you, and run various groups and activities. They produce masses of information booklets, you may have seen some at hospital.

I'd say it's definitely worth getting in touch - you won't be wasting their time! We are why they exist!

Good luck with your treatment.

Morning everyone!

Popping in to see how everyone's doing.

Doublethecuddles I've had loads of help from Macmillan. The free counselling was particularly helpful, & the complementary therapies (massage etc) helped so much more than I thought they were going to!

Good luck with your radiation therapy: sounds tough

Hi all. I have been away for a couple of weeks with limited Wi-fi. Haven’t caught up on the whole thread yet.

@SnowsInWater I don’t know if you already know this but there is now an IBC Network Group in Australia. There’s a closed Facebook Group

I found the UK IBC Network really helpful. Hope this is useful for you too xx

Thanks London. BitOfFun steered me that way when I was first diagnosed so I am in that group. I would love to go to the Melbourne launch on 13 September but will be doing Radiotherapy at that stage and I'm in Sydney so unlikely to make it to Melbourne. Whereabouts are you if you don't mind sharing (and has anyone seen BitOfFun here recently, I struggle to keep up with posts so not sure if I have just missed her).

I am still totally exhausted two weeks after my last Chemo, I was hoping to feel more lively by now. DH, DD and I are having a week by the beach before my surgery. Winter here so it's not warm but the endless blue skies are cheering me up, I sit on a rug and watch the waves - I've seen whales and dolphins off this beach before but nothing yet this trip so far - while the others go for a walk.

Hope everyone is going as good as they can xx

Hi
I found this thread but am almost afraid to read it.
On Thursday I was told by my gp that I have lung cancer. The info came via a routine chest X-ray.
This morning I have a CAT scan.
I am scared ! Haven't slept.

Hi beerandpopcorn, really sorry to see you here but welcome. I don't sleep much at the moment so am often around in the early hours.
This stage is truly awful, the fear is both manic and paralysing isn't it?
As the wonderful TQ said to me when I first posted here, there will be treatment and there will be a plan. I didn't find any of the scans difficult, but the waiting for feedback and decisions is torture.
Can you tell us more about your diagnosis? Have you spoken to anyone other than your GP yet?
Hang in there, ten minutes at a time if necessary x

Hello beerandpopcorn, welcome and commiserations. It's good that you have the CT scan today, hope you get results quickly and that you have a treatment plan in place soon. Have you got RL support?

Hi beerandpopcorn, and welcome.

This stage of having scans and waiting for results is horrible, and it must be such a shock to get a diagnosis from a routine X ray. It’s a lot to get your head around in a short space of time.

Don’t worry about reading the thread and working out who’s who - just come and rant as required! Hope your scan goes OK today and that you get a plan for next steps soon x

Can I ask for advice? In the last couple of days I've gone dramatically fast from being constipated to having what TQ refers to as Dire Rear! I was really worried about the constipation as I held out against taking Movicol, prescribed weeks ago, and was in hospital the weekend before last with abdominal pain and vomiting which they thought was caused by it (and partly chemo?). Anyway I started taking senna again morning and night, and obviously it's now blasted its way through!

I'm relieved to not be full of poo any more, but if the diarrhoea persists, should I take something to control it? Adjust my diet?

Bridget Hopefully it will settle down but low level Dire Rear was my normal during chemo with occasional flare up to a more dramatic form. On days when it was bad, especially if I had to go anywhere, I took Imodium to control it.

At the moment I have the opposite problem but not severe enough to do anything about just yet.

I hope yours sorts itself out quickly. On top of everything else you just don't need that as well.

Thanks so much, meercat. I feel atm I would rather have low-level DR than constipation, but not the way it's been just now (I seem to be ok today). Hope your insides start being more cooperative soon.

Thank you so much everyone. Am off to the hospital now. I will come back to the thread when I get home. Thank you again. I really didn't expect such a quick and supportive response. Love to you all xx

Hope all goes well for those with hospital appointments - today or soon

(TQ isn’t the poster who introduced the phrase Dire Rear btw)

SnowsInWater I'm sure it's different for everyone, but it took a looooong time for my energy levels to rise after my last chemo. Be kind to yourself

beerandpopcorn so sorry to hear your news but you've come to the right place. Keep posting & Don't Google! It will drive you bonkers.

Bloodybridget maybe give your contact nurse a call if you're worried? That's what they're there for.

Lots of to everyone.

Hello all. I've lurked on here a bit as I've had a turbulent few months. A chest x-ray in March showed a shadow on my lung. It turned out to be a rare lung condition but not lung cancer. Then there was a suspicion of lymphoma as the lymph nodes in my lung were enlarged. At the end of June I finally got the all clear on those.
The following day I found a lump on my breast. You couldn't make it up really. I didn't tell anyone, not even DH as I feel as though I've done nothing but moan about my health for so long.
I'd had a breast clinic referral before and it turned out to be nothing. Went along yesterday and had the full works, mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy. The doctor said she believed in being open and in her opinion the evidence is highly suspicious of breast cancer. From my reaction she could tell I had expected her to say it was nothing. So I now have to wait until next week for the biopsy results.
I had to ring DH and tell him before I got home.
I'm surprisingly calm. My DC are in early 20s and both arrived to visit just as I got home from hospital and I had to put on a smile and get dinner ready.

Hi all,
Just checking in. Hope your hospital visit is going ok beer. We're here when you come back.

On the poo front, my insides have been all over the place on chemo, only settling down in week 3 of 3. Not either constipated or dire rear (love that!) but swinging to both ends of the spectrum and just falling short of problematic. I have movicol to use as they upped my steroids last cycle owing to nausea but im using it cautiously.

Bridget hopefully your tum will settle down now you've be able to 'empty'. I think drinking plenty is key, something I struggle with, and moving around a bit....again Im currently lying on the sofa!

I'm on day 2 of 3rd and final FEC and it can officially feck off! Taxotere next for me, with herceptin and perjeta.

Treatment day was challenging. My bloods were ok so that was good, and my veins held up despite being sore from last 2 times (effects of the evil red stuff I think) but I felt increasingly sick throughout and really struggled with the cold cap this time. I also got a really blocked nose, which cleared as soon as I got home, and had to breathe through my mouth. Not easy with a tight strap under the chin.
There was also a lot of drama going on around me with some poorly people on the unit, and one nosy visitor who irritated me. I wasn't in the mood for nosiness chat.
So all in all I was glad to get home.

Very pleased to have first section of chemo done. Feeling ok today apart ftom nausea and tiredness.

How s everyone else doing? Xx

Sorry to hear your news skap. You certainly have been through the mill with all the horrible waiting for what turned out to to be false alarms, and now this...such a lot to deal with.
Do you know when you get your results? Please don't Google the meanwhile as it will only stress you out unnecessarily. Once you know what you're dealing with and have a plan it will feel much better. You're probably in the worst place right now.. .it will get better. Hugs for you xx

Thanks WTF. I get the results on the 24th. I was quite taken aback that they were relatively sure it was cancer from the scan. It was a consultant radiologist who did the scan and biopsy and reported on it before I saw the doctor. Obviously the biopsy is the full confirmation but the doctor said they thought it 80% likely. She did say it was very small and the likely treatment would be lump removal followed by radiotherapy.
Perhaps it's an advantage of having tiny boobs that the smallest lump is noticeable.
Weirdly after thinking in March that I had lung cancer this feels less scary.