Cancer Support Thread 87 - everyone here is so supportive.

[LemonDrizzle10]

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@LarryStylinson Good luck for today - hope the op goes smoothly and you're back in your own bed before you know it!

Piss off Kevin!!!

@justgettingthroughtheday I had endometrial cancer as well, stage 3A but only grade one, plus a spot of ovarian cancer found on second opinion. I turned down radiotherapy too on the basis that it didn’t actually seem to make a huge amount of difference for my type of cancer and there are potentially big side-effects in terms of bladder and bowel function.

Good luck @LarryStylinson

Glad you’ve made a decision about chemo @Atreus, sounds like the same reasoning as me.

@FairyWren7 I hardly slept after my hysterectomy, a mix of trauma related hypervigilance, and then them waking me up and making me sit up and drink every hour, because they thought my blood pressure was low, when I have naturally low blood pressure, until I told them I refused to be monitored anymore!

I finished my treatment about six months ago, I’m waiting for my first scan, hopefully I’m fine but my anxiety levels go up and down. I’m relatively okay at the moment, but who knows when the anxiety is going to strike again? I’m still pretty tired though, I got Covid just after my chemo ended and then I’ve had another couple of infections so I think my body is taking a while to return to normal.

@LarryStylinson Good luck today

Thanks for all the good report backs about amitriptilyne, was a bit nervous about taking it, but I took it last night, well about 7pm along with the co codamols, and think having them much earlier really helped, slept like a log, no pain because i was alseep lol. Best night Ive had in ages ( I'm a bad sleeper anyway ) Maybe it was a placebo, but whatever the reason, no pain and more sleep, I'll take it lol

I have appreciate that no one has experienced both scenarios but I'm thinking about asking for a double mastectomy rather than just one side. Mostly for symmetry. How different is recovery from a double to a single? I have no idea but am assuming that with a single I won't be able to use that arm for a week or so? If I have a double would that mean being totally incompacitated? Am I being delusional or is a double doable? I'd like to be up and running asap afterwards, just trying to work out the pros and cons.

Good luck @LarryStylinson in evicting Kevin! May he piss off for good! 😃

@winterisnearlyover I hope I've got your username right. I noticed you posted on a really old thread last night but it was full so I couldn't reply, I hope your biopsy wasn't too painful

And I clearly didn't do it correctly because that's not even your name !

@Winterisalmostover even 🤦‍♀️

Morning everyone, and welcome @AllotmentTime . It's nice to know that our meandering chat can be useful even to people who don't post. Wishing you all the best.

@FangedFrisbee - I'm glad you've got a start date for your immunotherapy. Do you feel you have a clear picture about what it will be like? I guess lots of us have been through chemo, but fewer of us have had immunotherapy but we can offer you a space to vent even if we're not well placed to offer tips etc.

I'm going to see my hairdresser tomorrow to get his advice on what I should do about my re-growth. It's mainly still very short but is madly tufty in places. (Actually, that has quite a good ring to it. I've always hated my username, chosen in haste in a sleepless haze with a newborn, almost exactly 18 years ago. Maybe I should change it to madlytufty?)

Thank you. It's a bit sore once the anaesthetic wore off and I have a huge bandage. It's a year's waiting list for a skin biopsy, so I was extremely lucky that the surgeon took pity on me and fitted me into his clinic. He also said that there's a mole that he needs to watch on my eyebrow, the same side as the previous big surgery and the biopsy. I was just so frustrated and upset that my appointment had been cancelled without informing me and politely refused to leave. I've had an invasive cancer, so my anxiety was through the roof. While I was waiting, my sister was at the breast clinic to have a lump examined. She has a much higher chance of BC due to meds my mother took to prevent miscarriage with her. I looks like she's in the clear, but what an afternoon!

@Scandimandy interested in the answers to your double mastectomy pros and cons, think that's a choice I might also be faced with. I had several biopsies on both sides last week, waiting on those results.

@dotty2 madlytufty would be a great name 😁

@TopOfTheCliff thank you. Your allotment sounds in much better shape than mine 🤣 we have had a busy few years of all sorts of family/work/covid type things happening and I was looking forward this year to a bit of hard digging and plot recovery. That might be out the window! I do have some onions, parsnips, strawberries and raspberries in there but I haven't managed to get over to see how they're doing in two weeks 😫. Our DC are 10 and 7 and free time just seems to be like gold dust. That said, early Thursday morning before work is my usual time to go, so watch this space!!

I love your username @dotty2 !

My Mum's 'real' name was Doris, which she (and everyone else) hated. So over the years she became known as Dottie. Whenever I see your name on here I have a little smile, thinking of my Mum.

But she would agree with you - get shot if you don't like it!

talking about hair, mine has gone nuts. I, before, I had chemo and it fell out, had short cropped hair, straight with a slight wave in it. It was medium blonde colour. It is now salt and pepper, wich I love, lol, however, its grown back, wavy, not curly or straight. Its longer than i use to have it now, ive had it cut once, but i dont know what to do with it as its all different lengths, the fringe and bits near my ears are straight, and basically i look like ive been dragged through a hedge backwards 😆please, if you have any tips on what i should do with it, i implore you to share lol, Im this close to saying fuck it and getting it cropped short again, but everyone keeps saying its nice. It is not!😆

I will report back on the hair. I almost feel more self conscious now it’s not quite so obviously chemo hair.

I also had some Dots, Dorothys and Dorises in my life when I was younger. I love Middlemarch and proposed to call DD1 Dorothea. She’s glad her dad persuaded me out of it…

@Scandimandy my Mum had double but they did it as two separate ops - I think to give her body decent recovery in between and knowing she had children at home at the time. It's worth chatting over with your surgeon for sure!

Thanks one and all - Kevin and any hidden womb raiders are gone and that's the full hysterectomy done. Woke up being wheeled through to recovery but convinced I was in Lidl buying packed lunch things. Got a bit uppity with very good looking anaesthetist telling him to 'stop meddling with my satsumas'.

@dotty2 thank you.

@LarryStylinson Very glad Kevin and friends are gone. Meddling with your satsumas 😆😆 so funny. Hope youre feeling ok today.

Thank you @LarryStylinson will deffo go through all the options with them hopefully, you never know, it might be what they suggest :)

Welcome @FairyWren7 and good luck with the remaining chemo and surgery. I had two WLEs for my bilateral cancers which in effect has been a good boob job so I have nice uplifted boobies now. But I am gene negative so no reason for mastectomy.
Good luck today @LarryStylinson I am sending waves of calm towards you.

This week’s excitement is a stay in a nice steampunk horse box in Derbyshire with DH so he can roam around on his bicycle. I shall be nursing my splinter (which has given me the ideal excuse not to cycle!) and reading my book in the sunshine watching hares and oystercatchers and a kingfisher by the river bank. Bliss! My DC gave me a voucher for Canopy and Stars a couple of years ago and I have finally got motivated to use it. You can stay in a tree house or a shepherds hut too. The drive up here was vile but it is good to be away from home and stretching my wings tentatively again. I am feeling okayish on the oral chemotherapy which is a relief.

That does sound like bliss @TopOfTheCliff and you should have the most perfect weather! Have lots of fun

@LarryStylinson i spat my tea out at your satsuma meddling comment...maybe a future name change for you?!?

Also I had another hairy question...I start my chemo in about 10 days and have decided to try cold capping but am also being realistic and thinking I should also get my head around wigs. I do know that I could try and rock the shaved/bald look but it's my daughter's graduation in July and I would love to have some sort of hair for that! Does anyone have any suggestions of good wig places around the Surrey/Hampshire border or I could go up into London?

I cold capped @Atreus, they were pretty negative about my chance of success, as they didn’t normally do it with my treatment, but I kept enough to wear under a hat or a buff for the gym with hair sticking out. And six months on my hair doesn’t look exactly normal but it’s not far off what it was before, I’ve got the long bits that I kept so I haven’t had to do the pixie cut thing. I expected the cold cap to be hideous based on what people said, but it wasn’t at all, more of a faff than anything else. You can get quite cold though, I was wearing ice boots as well so I was a bit shivery the first time and took more layers after that. I thought I was going to spend a lot of money on a real hair wig, but actually the week that I got from Macmillan at the hospital was great, a number of people said they didn’t realise it wasn’t actually my hair, and as I was able to pick one that was a similar style (“It’s like your normal hair, but combed mum”!) that really helped.

Hello

Tentatively joining in but I'm still at the waiting for biopsy stage, recovering from a much bigger than planned WLE of melanoma and two other sites biopsied no results. < Waves at @FangedFrisbee as was on her thread >. @Atreus if you can get over to the Croydon side of Surrey my hairdresser works with the Marsden and has a separate hairdressing area out the back for women suffering hair loss or chemo. She fits and supplies hair pieces and wigs too.

I was told it was 50/50 chance of success with the cold cap. My hair is much thinner but I don’t look any different to ‘normal’. Apart from being more grey as unable to dye it. Apparently you need a really close fitting cap. I got really cold with EC and cold cap combo - I take DD’s thick Frozen fleecey blanket and big thick thermal socks.

@LarryStylinson hope your satsumas have recovered 🤣

My hair started coming out after my second treatment so I didnt bother - although i had already decided I wasnt going to cold cap.

@ClashCityRocker just wondering how you are getting on, you must be a week in now?

The Paxman scalp cooling Facebook group is really friendly and helpful and encouraging for tips.