Cancer Support Thread 84 - gently crunching our way into autumn

[mowly77]

New thread as old one about to be full. As those who have been around far longer than me have said: Welcome. Pull up a chair, help yourself to a biscuit, a large gin, or a detox tea. Or all three. This is a supportive thread for anyone with cancer to discuss how things are going, ask for advice etc., vent, scream, or discuss life in general.

Please feel free to join for support if you are going through tests as well, hopefully they will come back all clear, but if not we are here to hold your hand through the journey.

Hi @Toughie, (I like your name) I don't have any advice as I am yet to start Chemo but I wish you all the best and hope someone can come along with some advice.

I am getting a wig too and not sure how I will explain to my kids when my hair starts falling out.

Hello @Toughie and @Makemineadecafplease , and welcome to the kindest thread. I've had so much generous support from the wise women on here since my own diagnosis.

I can't help with the hair q, as I'm still on the EC bit, but I'm sure someone will have some experience soon.

@Makemineadecafplease - that sounds really tough, and it's understandable that you're anxious. As far as I know, brain mets as the first site of secondary spread for BC would be very rare - but of course we all know that doesn't make it impossible, so the worry is always there. Can you speak to your BCN about it? I think you know yourself that it's almost certainly anxiety and illness fuelling your migraines - but maybe putting the fear out there and talking it through would make it more manageable? It's not the same, but I needed an MRI to check out a liver abnormality which showed up on a CT scan, and having a calm conversation with my BCN about what they would do if it was a liver met actually really helped.

@Makemineadecafplease my migraines have started again after five years, I've just finished chemo. It didn't occur to me that they might be brain mets, but I assume it would be a very strange coincidence if I had brain mets that caused exactly the same symptoms that were being caused by something else five years ago. Isn't it unusual to get headaches from brain tumours anyway?

@Toughie have you looked at the Paxman calculator for your dose? scalpcoolingstudies.com/efficacy-calculator/ - it looks fairly high. I cold capped with paclitaxel and carboplatin, it said that there was a 34% chance of keeping 50% of my hair - lower than docetaxel, and I have probably lost about 50%.

Thanks @dotty2 I will try to speak with my BCN. To be fair though the migraines do come and go and I have tried to ie in a dark room with eye masks on today so that has helped it a bit. Your kind words have settled my mind a little bit, thanks

@SierraSapphire I am not sure about brain tumours causing headaches but it is the way my mind works especially since my diagnosis. My anxiety has been through the roof and as a worrier I consider the worst case scenario which doesn't help me at all. 😊

It's nice to talk these things through. Thank you all.

The anxiety is awful @Makemineadecafplease - I had really bad health anxiety when I hit peri-menopause. Ironically I am less anxious now I've actually had cancer, but it took a few months for it to settle down after diagnosis. I've kind of got to the place of realising that worrying doesn't make any difference at all, and just try to distract myself.

Oh my goodness - I hope no one thinks this is too trivial, but I badly need to vent. We adopted a rescue cat earlier this year, just before my diagnosis, and she's been a massive comfort to my DDs and, I thought, the only good thing to come out of 2022. But she had a little bleed from her mouth earlier and it turns out to be a probable squamous cell carcinoma - not treatable and likely to progress quickly. My younger DD is especially devastated. I can't believe we have been quite so unlucky (again).

@dotty2 oh no I am so sorry 😢 I have 3 cats and would be devastated. Your poor family. Losing a pet is so hard. We lost our dog last year to bone cancer within 2 weeks of noticing a limp, it absolutely devastated us and we’ve commented since on how I also had cancer then but just didn’t know it.

@dotty2 you poor thing, so sorry to hear about your cat, so hard on you and your DDs Xxx

@Makemineadecafplease I have horrendous anxiety which really has ramped up since all my troubles started with two DVTs. I remember waking up one night with a cracking headache and was convinced I was having a stroke. I asked adult DD to call me an ambulance as I was so frightened. Luckily, she calmed me down and I phoned 111 who reassured me that I was 'just' anxious. I've been on beta blockers 3 times a day since then, nearly 3 years ago now and am 'allowed' to take an additional one when I'm really going mad. They do help, they take the edge off but they don't take the thoughts away. When I get particularly worried, my headaches increase. I have also had migraines with colds and flu infections before too.

I heard something the other day @Fantasea about a link between propranolol and reduction in cancer risk, so being on beta blockers might help you in more ways than just reducing anxiety www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345088/

@SierraSapphire I think that's a good idea, to distract oneself. I will try to do it more often.

@AGreatUsername Oh gosh, so sorry to hear this.

I am glad the beta blockers are working. This is the first time a cold wil trigger migraine for me . Very unsettling.

@dotty2 so sorry to hear about your cat. It's not what you need again this year. So sorry. Here is a handhold.

@dotty2 I’m so sorry about your lovely cat. It’s so unfair. 😢

@SierraSapphire that's a very interesting article, thank you for sharing.

Thank you all for the kind words about my poor cat. The vet gave her some steroids and ABs which have given her a bit of a temporary boost, so I plan to make the most of the cuddles while she's on good form over the next couple of weeks (hopefully). Hope you are all bearing up today - it's extremely grey here in the East Midlands. I couldn't sleep so got one of the things ticked off my work to do list before 6am, so am off out for a walk now in spite of the grey.

I'm in the foggy E Mids too @dotty2 - I've come out to a cafe for my usual Friday morning working breakfast. I struggle to get motivated in the house these days.

Thanks for that link, it looks like I have 90% chance of keeping my hair, which has given me a little boost this morning. I know hair isn’t the most important thing in the grand scheme of things, but it feels like I’m a little closer to being through this nightmare if I don’t lose it all over again.
Incidentally, I’m in the East Midlands too!
Grey and cold here today. I had chemo on Tuesday so feeling quite wobbly today. Hopefully will manage to go for a short walk later.

Oh that's a coincidence - funny to think of all three of us sitting under the same foggy skies!

I too am in East Mids, under a blanket of fog.

@dotty2 sorry to hear about your cat - our old lady is now 16 and I panic a bit if I haven't seen her for a few hours.

@Toughie hope you pick up soon post chemo.

I'm freezing here even with the heating on, and I am trying to work even though the computer system is against me. I think I might have soup and a sandwich for lunch to warm me up.

Fantasia, would you consider specific medication for anxiety. Something that would reduce the frequency and severity of your anxiety attacks rather than something that just deals with the symptoms of one.

Of course I meant Fantasea.

@MrsThimbles the beta blockers mean that most of the time I don't go into a full anxiety attack. Events like test results and appointments set me off mostly and then I take an extra one and the effect is nice and fast.

I’m on a night shift tonight and PET scan tomorrow. I don’t know what to expect really. I’ve also noticed like a boggy patch on my chest. Like ofena below my collar bone. Now I’m thinking it must be everywhere god it’s been eight weeks now. I’ve never had anxiety in my life but sometimes I feel like an elephant is stood on my chest.

@EachandEveryone you’ve had such a long wait for the answers! I don’t know how you’re still coping, but you are doing amazingly well. Do you have a results app for the PET booked in?