Cancer support thread #73 - come in, we're here for you.

[Trumpton]

Welcome to the new support thread for anyone who has cancer, at whatever stage of treatment, is worried about symptoms, or is waiting for tests or results.

This is the place to worry, moan, ask questions, share experiences and good and bad news, and celebrate milestones!

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

Our previous thread is HERE

Current members, please do introduce yourselves smile

Welcome LittleMiss and Doreens but sorry you find yourself here

Thinking of @Stinkyeddie - hope your appointment was OK today

I had my op today - much less major than last time and home within the day, which is nice. But feeling a bit grotty after the GA, and trying not to sneeze!

Waves to everyone else x

Hi @Stinkyeddie hope today went well. Was thinking of you x

Thank you x

It went ok, I think. No further on really.
Got there early (parking is a nightmare as with all hospitals) so dh was driving out of the hospital car park before my actual appt time!!
(Prob because it was a saturday??)
I was by far and away the youngest person there!
So. Had an eye test. Passed "with flying colours" apparently.
Then eye drops to dilate my pupils. Bit stingy but fine. Couldn't really see properly until about 8 hours later though!
Had another oct scan of each eye but 2 of my left.
I will hear in due course....:(
Was SO hoping to see an opthalmologist yesterday :(
So no update really, sorry. Thank you so much for thinking of me. I can't tell you how much it means to me x

Still taking the advice of a pp - I'm decluttering!!...huge bag of dc old clothes for air ambulance.
Pile of clothes for my nephews.
Pile of bags, shoes and perfume for my mum and sister.
I've also moved some stuff in the kitchen.
Dh wants me to put some stuff on e bay later...
He's hoping to sell some models to alocal antique shop too so we've been busy.

I'm trying to tell myself that if it was REALLY bad news then
a) the optician would have sent me straight to hospital?
b) they would have told me yesterday??

Sigh. Another sleepless night last night :(

...ooops!
Pressed post too soon...
How is everyone?
I did chuckle at the amazing bladder skills upthread ^

I've also finally tackled some admin for my voluntary work that I've been putting off...

Busy week this week which I suppose is good...

Glad you are home too x

Hi @Stinkyeddie, sorry you don't have any answers yet - any idea how long you will have to wait? Well done on decluttering and admin!
@Toofaroutallmylife hope you are feeling comfortable at home.
@Trumpton how are you now? Do you think the ABs have vanquished the infection?
Warm wishes to everyone else.

No clue bridget
Nurse said look for a letter in the post?
I guess no news is good news?
My sister was theilled with the shoes, bag and perfume:)
How are you?
trumpton hope the abx are working x

Oh @Stinkyeddie that's rubbish that you still have no answers! I'm doing the same here. My 5 year old said to me today "mummy the house is very clean so why are you pulling everything out and messing it up with bin bags?"
@Toofaroutallmylife hope you're feeling better after your op xxx

Oh that's so sweet hippie!

@Hippiechick162 all the best for your appointment tomorrow and fingers crossed that you wont be on this thread much longer.
@Toofaroutallmylife how are you today? GA effects can knock you sideways.
@Zorgothslugofdoom have you shaken off the bug now?
@Trumpton How's the UTI?
@Snowsinwater I haven't seen you post in a while and was just wondering how you are doing in Australia?

I got my radiotherapy planning appointment through for this week, plus a full timetable of appointments for three weeks starting 27 January. All earlish morning which is good as it gets it out of the way but bad because I have become very lazy and I hate setting the alarm! I am diligently practising breathe holding.

Good luck for tomorrow hippie you will be in my thoughts x

@Skap and @Stinkyeddie thanks so much. Think tonight will be a rough one. Back at work tomorrow so got to plaster a smile on my face! Roll on 6.40pm when my appointment comes around.
Hope that letter comes bloody quickly @Stinkyeddie and it's all good news xxx

hippie 6.40pm? Oh, blimey! What a long day you'll have :(
If you're up I probably will be too so I'll be around to chat if you deel like it :)
I've just apologised to dh for ruining the last week of our xmas hols...

skap
Glad the appts are early for you

Good luck @Hippiechick162

Long post just went poof !
Recap UTI gone but crashingly tired . Had a nap this afternoon and just had another on the couch !
We were supposed to go out tonight to listen to 12th night renaissance music in a candlelit church but decided that the risk of more germs was just not worth it .
Oncologist tomorrow at 11am . Mil needs blood test so we will take her and park her in cafe during my appointment. The phlebotomists are brilliant with her tiny, slippery ,96 year old veins and there is one in particular that I will use my elbows to make sure she gets !
If she has the tests at gp then she has to be there by 9.45am and always bruises so it’s better to go to the hospital .

Hope the week goes well for you all.

Skap all my appointments are lunchtime, which is a real pain, right in the middle of the working day. I haven't quite factored in when to actually eat. Thursday's lunch was a sandwich wolfed down in the carpark outside the hospital, and Friday's was at 3pm, when I finally got back to the office. Maybe once the side effects get going on my digestive system I won't want to eat lunch....

Hippiechick162 - sincerely hope you get some answers tomorrow.

@Stinkyeddie I've been doing the same, dh keeps telling me to pack it in! Thanks for the offer, I'll probably check in at some point.
@Flyingarcher thank you
@Trumpton use those elbows, bruises at that age are brutal! Glad the UTI has gone. Sorry you're missing the 12th night, we went to Bach by candlelight and it was beautiful. I'm sure there'll be chance again. Good luck tomorrow xxx

Thinking of you hippie
❤

Does anyone have any idea of the likely timeline if anything serious is seen on my scan on saturday?

When would I be contacted?

All ok . Oncologist is happy even though I missed two sessions . Herceptin is only licenced for use with chemotherapy and Herceptin is the one I really need .
I should finish chemo on 7th February and he said to contact surgeon to rebook surgery 3 weeks after .
We might even get a weekend festival in before then !
So , all in all, a good morning .

Pleased to hear it :)

Stinkyeddie If I understand it correctly your optician didn't refer you to an ophthalmologist just for the tests? If that's the case the results will probably go back to the optician.I have those stingy eye drops regularly it's annoying because you can't drive. I think it's likely that the lack of urgency you perceive is because they don't suspect anything sinister. I had this problem last March when I was sent for a CT scan of lung after an xray showed a shadow. I was beside myself. It seems the CT scans were outsourced for interpretation and took weeks.
If I was you I would ring the opticians and ask if they have any news. Then ring the hospital where the scan was done and ask when the scan is likely to be reported.

@Trumpton oh good news. I have always suspected that the chemo is the least important part of treatment and if it weren't for the NICE licensing rules I wouldn't have had it. I believe meercat had her chemo cancelled after 9 instead of 12 and I know someone else who had paclitaxel stopped after 9 because of neuropathy but is on Herceptin. Google says I gather HER2+ BC is resistant to chemo which is why the Herceptin is the true life saver. I find it a bit scary though that we are relying on that one drug.

skap
It was all a bit odd tbh...
Optician firstly said he was referring me for a routine appt (4-6 weeks) and he was doing a letter for me to take to my dr.
I hung around waiting for him to do the letter.
Then he said he would fax it...
I was at the drs on the monday anyway so asked and no fax recieved...
Then later that morning I got a phone call from the hospital giving me my appt for saturday...
I asked for a copy of the referral anditclearly says "urgent"
So he obv faxed the hospital direct...
Why not just tell me that???
Tbh the way its been handled by the optician has increased my worry a lot.