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.

@AGreatUsername I'm thinking of you today and really am hoping it's all ok Xxx.

@Vaccine001 welcome to the thread, we can all help you here whilst you wait. Everyone said to me I would feel better once I knew what I was dealing with and I didn't believe them but it really is true, you can then eliminate all the 'what ifs'. I would say take a pen and paper so you can note down things they say, it all becomes a bit muddled otherwise. I don't know what information you've been given, but try and get the phone number of whom to ring if you have any queries regarding your next appointment. A the beginning when it was all new, I found it so confusing and looking back, I realise this just added to my misery. I'll be thinking of you today too Xxx.

Good luck to everyone with appointments and scans looming this week. I feel for all of you! I will receive my breast biopsy results tomorrow. Expecting a cancer diagnosis but hopeful a treatment plan will make me feel less worried than I am at present. My dog is fed up with being walked as a distraction and has taken to her bed.

Yes. But I’m over it now. My hernia however is more obvious than ever.

I went for a heart echo as part of my pre surgery check for my knee replacement. I had a panic attack during it. I hate what cancer has done to me mentally when it comes to any kind of scan or x-ray. I actually asked the radiographer to stop but she was just about to finish anyway. I’ve no fears whatsoever when it comes to the surgery but these bloody scans and the likes just terrify me.

It's an age since I posted so was just popping on to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I have just skimmed through the thread and was very sorry to hear the news about Bridget. She was so kind to me when I first joined.

Wishing positive vibes to everyone going through treatment, waiting for results, scans or just waiting to feel better.

I am a year post radiotherapy and dare I say feel somewhat normal. Lymphoedema under control, happily working and energy levels back. Just can't face a reconstruction at the moment.

Sending love to you all and hope you manage to enjoy some of the festivities x

My scan was clear!! Thank god. I’ve been given a script for Anastrozole. Rescan in 3 months and go from there. Really hoping I can start healing my mental health now.

@AGreatUsername what fabulous news, I'm just so happy for you!

Great news @AGreatUsername.

And nice to have you popping in @JeanLannes - it's good to hear some good news from people further down the line. Pleased that you're doing well.

Happy Christmas @JeanLannes and lovely to hear you are doing well. You offer hope to the newbies still finding their way through the mire.
(You may remember I had BC treatment before you and am now on treatment again for a second primary BC. All going well thankfully)

I am seething right now. My DH just tested positive for Covid so Christmas is fucked! We had a so called “friend” drop in with a cake on Sunday who was coughing. She asked me to listen to her chest (ex GP) which I did thinking she had been unwell for 3 weeks. Next day it turns out she had Covid. “Oh I thought it was just a cold” she said! DH is ready to kill her for being so thoughtless. It means no Christmas meal with DD and no going to see the wider family next week. So far I am fine but struggling day 10 after my last dose of chemotherapy. I’m on the list for Paxlovid if I test positive but there won’t be any post presumably so I don’t know how I get hold of it over Xmas.

Ah well. Roll on 2023 can it really be any worse than 2020, 2021 or 2022? I’m going to binge on chocolate for an hour I think.
Regards to all
Top xx

Oh @TopOfTheCliff that is awful news- I am so sorry. There are no words. How spectacularly thoughtless. 😢.

I’m really pleased to hear this. You’ve been in my thoughts a lot even though we’re to all intents and purposes strangers to each other.

Hopefully you’ll breath a wee sigh of relief now and if Christmas is your thing you’ll settle down to enjoy it with your loved ones. And maybe even your not so loved ones too.

All the best to you and yours. I’m very happy for you. 💃

It’s nice to hear from you Jean.

All the very best to you and yours going forward. Here’s to happy days 💐

Thank you for all the congratulations, this place is really a great safe space.

@TopOfTheCliff I’m so sorry to hear that, how very thoughtless of your friend. I’m really hoping you avoid it and manage to have a nice, if quiet, Christmas.

I have stage two, grade one cancer. It's complex and I'm all takes out and exhausted. I will be back and tell you more. X

Evening everyone, I’ve been reading all your posts and am at once pleased for those who have recently had good news and sad for those still worrying / waiting for results / in discomfort. This journey we are all on is such a rollercoaster.
Today, I’ve seen a doctor in radiotherapy so I have a slightly clearer plan of where I go next. Still, I have to wait for a call from RT before I go in for CT scan and tattoos (I didn’t know about that bit) and then wait another few weeks before RT actually starts. It just seems to go on and on and on!
Vaguely mentioned Tamoxifen but they tend to only give me info on a need to know basis. Sometimes feel like I’m a bit infantilised. Maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, have done the food shop, most presents bought but not yet wrapped, Christmas cake has been cut into and tonight I had a glass of fizz, the first for many, many months.

@Toughie not just you, I had a similar infantalisation feeling with my first hospital. The 'need to know' and 'not scare the patient' bs is really annoying. Some of us would rather like to know and are in fact capable of discussing in an adult manner! Don't worry about the tattoos, they are little dots that sometimes I mistake for a toast crumb down the bra.

Christmas is off to not the best start here - my crackers are oddly chewy and inedible, my caramels failed, and this pork in the slow cooker is taking its sweet ass time, AND I burnt some of my cut out sugar cookies. Should have said screw it and gone to the beach!

@AGreatUsername I am so happy for you! That is brilliant news and cheered me up. Have a wonderful Christmas with that reassurance.
Top x

@AGreatUsername I’m very happy to hear your news. That must be the best Christmas present ever.
I have my results tomorrow and will hear the ‘plan’. I’m hoping I can then get a good night’s sleep or will that never happen again? 🤷🏻‍♀️

@TopOfTheCliff I'm so sorry to hear your news, how very thoughtless of them even suggesting coming with a cold, that really is so selfish. Additionally coming to a household where you recently had chemo just compounds the crime. Some people just don't get it, it makes me so cross. I've been on chemo of some sort for two years now and some people can't understand why I 'still' have to be careful as though I should have got over that nonsense by now. I'm really hoping your DH escapes with a mild dose of Covid and you escape completely. My DD's bf's mum, whom he lives with and eats with on the evenings he's there, had Covid quite badly and had it 'brewing' for days before she tested positive and he was around her all that time, yet he didn't catch it at all. Thinking of you and your family Xxx

@JeanLannes so nice to hear from you and so pleased you're doing well 🌸

Thanks @Fantasea this is the same friend who during the first 2020 lockdown kept coming round with food deliveries and barging in despite us telling her not to during my first course of chemotherapy. I think she is a determined “feeder” who believes her cooking is so special we should risk our lives to receive her gifts. I’m going to be pretty blunt with her from now on.

@Toughie I think there is a time limit for how long you should wait before starting radiotherapy so it won’t be too long.
I’ve realised now that we might as well just start eating everything (including the Christmas cake) as there will just be the two of us. DH has been leaving me food on a tray so we don’t actually meet up for meals. I might as well get Covid now as later so we can join forces instead of having Christmas at opposite ends of the house.

My DS27 has recommended watching cheesy Netflix Christmas romantic movies which are hilarious. I can’t believe he has revealed his weakness!
Regards to all
Top x

@TopOfTheCliff in previous years I’d definitely have waited until Christmas Day before cracking open the Christmas fare. This year, we’ve already munched our way through half a dozen bags of Lebkuchen at least.
By the way, Detectorists is fab if you’re looking for something to binge watch!

Ah, that was my guess @Vaccine001 - good it's grade 1 though sorry it's complicated - my endometrial cancer was also complicated. Or rather the hospital made it complicated! There's lots of knowledge on this thread when you're ready to post

So my biopsy results that I got back on Wednesday confirmed what ultrasound suggested, come back as breast cancer. Hormone related to oestrogen. Doesn't appear to have spread but will know for sure once lymph node is checked during lumpectomy . So much to digest.

Provisionally booked in for lumpectomy on 10th Jan but still waiting for HER2 test(?) to come back to see if I need chemo first.

Can't quite take it all in. Although I already knew in the back of my mind it still feels so surreal.

I feel as if all I've done for last 24 hours is tell people 'I'm fine/ it will be fine/ I'll get through it' when really I'm shitting myself.

I've manage to keep a brave face on for my kids who know nothing but I just feel mentally drained with it all already.

I normally love Christmas & am Mrs Clause personified but ive never felt less festive in my life.

Sorry for the negative sounding post. I'm just so pissed off/ angry/ upset/ scared / drained . . . Merry bloody Christmas

I'm in shock aswell People tell me. I fee it's happened to someone else but feel sure its probably me it's happened to. If it's spread I don't know how I'll feel then... Scary