Cancer Support thread 88 - virtual rage room currently empty, virtual collective afternoon tea - all welcome!

[LemonDrizzle10]

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Welcome Tacky I had hormone positive breast cancer and with that they said no HRT, I had not gone on it but they said to come off immediately if I had. I would ask there advice at the hospital and see but you may have to come off it.

Re menopause symptoms chemo put me in menopause, and my memory went bad in it but now a year on with also doing some research of topics to keep brain active its almost back to before, I just sometimes suddenly get like brain freeze at times but then a minute later its back. I don't take anything partly as on Tamoxifen and some anti-depressants interfere with but there are a few you can take if given that and you want one. I swim a lot which I find hugely helpful for mental and physical health, around 3 miles a week, any exercise will do the same but at least 20 minutes each time for the mental health and ideal is 3 to 5 hours for physical health but any is better than none.

Thank you silk that's really helpful. Unfortunately I'm not yet in a routine of exercise again but did a lot pre children. I found iy v hard after my youngest as wasn't well and then we went into lockdowns. I think peri really hit then. i caught covid in jan 2022 and do think I had long covid. I've since had it twice. Each time it takes ages to recover.

I do dog walk x3 a day as madam won't wee in the garden. Mostly a short 10-20 min walk, sometimes longer. I love swimming too.

It's hard with kids and juggling work. I'm going to be off work for a wee while so intend to try to get into some habits. Especially while still on hrt! Even if just a workout vid at home.

@Fuckmyliferightnow I am sorry you got a recurrence. What brand of BC did you have last time? I went from triple positive BC to triple negative BC in two years but they decided it was a new primary. Are you having chemo this time?
@bringonyourwreckingball don’t judge all men by the standards of your exH who clearly lacks morals. There will be a nice man out there who will care more about your personality and sense of humour than your battle scars. Just allow yourself to heal first both physically and mentally. They say it takes a month for every year of your marriage to recover from a divorce. No rush

I made a new friend tonight who is keen to help with my allotment. Every little helps!

I cannot sleep for the life of me tonight, I'm hungry but can't eat because of surgery tomorrow.

@Silkierabbit sorry to pester

some research of topics to keep brain active its almost back to before

Do you mind describing this please? I'm half way there for Mediterranean diet and need to get on top of that a bit better. Brain is what I've been struggling with though. And fatigue. I just started to feel ok again!

Just wondering if there's anything else other than exercise and diet

@CoachBeardsJane good luck for surgery 💐

@CoachBeardsJane good luck, you’ve got this x

Good luck @CoachBeardsJane - it's a scary prospect having surgery, but it's another step along the way

I haven't slept well either. I've got all sorts of things going around in my brain about my weird collection of symptoms and I feel convinced that what the GP saw is a recurrence rather than granulation from the scar, just that it was too small to show up on CT. I'm emotionally back in the first bit of uncertainty, it feels worse if it is a recurrence, though because I didn't have RT the first time there's still a possibility for cure. I would have to be really unlucky to get a recurrence, as the cancer wasn't originally anywhere near my cervix, but then I've been in the low odds bin before.

That's fine to ask questions tackytriceratops

I got severe memory loss in chemo and just after it to the point one time I forgot I had a cat for 30 mins even though I worship that cat.

A year on its pretty much back to normal, well maybe 95% of normal as I still can be counting swimming lengths chat to my husband then forget how many I have done though he gets that to. No special diet, infact I love my sugar and have a Portuguese tart most mornings. I did not deliberately do anything but swimming massively improved my physical and mental health and not been ill other than 1 bout of covid which recovered very quickly from in September compared to previous time ended up in hospital. Though was before swimming much, maybe the anti viral. Anyway with memory I read lots of documents from the time of chemo and learnt what happened then exactly and that seemed to help with my confusion. Also I was researching medical topics to do with my son and the 2 combined brought back my memory. Its also partly psychological and believing you are competent. I didn't plan any of it but the other day I was correcting pip on the law and got an extra £1,400 for my son as they had got the rules wrong and now I am back to being the one who reminds people. I do lists as before. Hope you can get your memory back.

Best wishes for today @CoachBeardsJane, I hope your surgery goes well 💐

@CoachBeardsJane good luck for surgery.

Hi all, had my surgery on weds - mastectomy with immediate implant reconstruction. I don’t have any pain in my new boob but where the drain comes out is sooooo painful if I move. I’ve taken a dose of cocodamil but don’t want to take them if poss as they knock me out, I’m wondering if my post op bra might be too tight! Good luck @CoachBeardsJane it will be done before you know it!
@tackytriceratops i was on hrt for at least five years due to awful menopause symptoms - flushes, anxiety, memory issues but decided back in Jan to halve my dose to wean myself off them and see if I still had symptoms, lucky I did because come April I was diagnosed and told to stop taking them immediately, the only symptom that has returned is the flushes luckily and I can live with that. I also started taking a mushroom tablet (lions mane) every day and it has been shown to regenerate nerve cells in the brain - I had to come off that too though because it does have oestrogen effects and my cancer is oestrogen positive. Hopefully you will be able to stay on yours!

Hi @tackytriceratops you are not alone with the brain fade. I found my short term memory badly impaired by chemotherapy and suffer from mild nominal dysphasia (can’t find nouns especially proper ones). I had to give up work as a GP as I couldn’t remember drug names ( and I was 60 and the job is no fun any more). I slowly recovered. Second time through I have done lots of crosswords arrowwords and sudoku and I think it’s not as bad. Reading helps too if you can concentrate.

Okay, I have just had a realisation that what I thought was blood in my pee is actually probably excess vitamin B12 from the bright pink tablets (funny not funny!). FML, what an idiot! Still, I think I have a guardian angel, because the fact that I panicked and went to the GP meant she did find something on my hysterectomy scar, which may as she said, just be granulation, or maybe something more serious. It's like I was given endometrial cancer to pick up the ovarian cancer early, i'm not a religious person, but maybe I should have more faith in everything!

@tackytriceratops i stopped my HRT immediately on finding out I had cancer. It was thought to be ovarian initially- and no chance was I taking something that might make things worse.
Only thing has been the hot flushes, and they are tolerable.
I have Primary peritoneal cancer - Oncologist has said HRT wouldn’t cause it, but would fuel it.

I’m happy with my decision to take HRT, but I think women should have more monitoring on it. My Ca125 was 1072 on diagnosis, had just had an HRT ‘check’ a month before.

We have screening for other cancers. I don’t know why we don’t get maybe two yearly Ca125 blood tests done.

Well, prom night over & I'm still shimmery from the glitter/sparkles today 🤣 My house looks like a bomb site & there are balloons all over the living room 🙈

Dd's feet hurt...apparently she was jumping in her heels 🙄 I haven't actually seen her yet; just some photos she left out and a couple of personalised things their teachers made. Am I ok to share a photo? Dd doesn't mind.

Chemo 7/18 just finished. I've been trying on wigs for half an hour - the one I prefer is, of course, the one with more top up to pay 🙄 Any thoughts...?

@SierraSapphire the "blood" in your pee thing is totally something I would do 🤣 But as you say, at least it prompted your visit to your GP.

I can't remember if I mentioned yesterday my GP sorted my medication - for some reason my repeats were never updated after leaving Sheffield & then subsequent conversations with Consultant and Registrar, but she's done them. Pharmacy wanted me to wait until Monday for them but I'm not sure whether the fact that I haven't had any nausea is down to the anti-sickness meds, or luck, so hung around for them yesterday instead.

Glad the Prom went well LucysMam Fine to share a photo if you are happy to share. MN are also good at taking it down quickly if you want it taken down later. It obviously would be identifying which some people on MN seem obsessed with not being though not quite sure what they expect to happen. DD did lecture me on this though and said its stranger danger. But I gave about 20 random people details of our house 5 years ago and nothing happened. 😂

Thank you so much for replies.

I've been fold that though it's DCIS it's both oestrogen and progesterone positive so need to start weaning.

I had just begun to feel really well for the first time in a decade

I'm only mid 40s

I was surprised at how my reconstruction looks, I expected to see a small balloon round shape as I have an implant but it in fact looks like a deflated balloon with lots of grooves, dents and lumps, I only know there is an implant because they gave me the barcode for it. Anyone else had an unexpected result from an implant reconstruction straight after a mastectomy?

I have not had reconstruction but when I had the discussion they said they implant you have to go back several times and they inflate it a bit more each time.

Hi, can anyone tell me if zolodrenic acid counts as active cancer treatment? Really asking for holiday insurance purposes, I can’t seem to find an answer anywhere!

Hi All, I’m sorry I got a bit behind I’ve been unwell this week. My third chemo cycle hit me hard and yesterday was particularly bad. I had 12 episodes of diarrhoea in 24 hrs, couldn’t eat a thing and struggled to drink. I called the day therapy unit where I have my chemo and they brought me in for fluids. While I was here I spiked a fever so they decided to admit me. I shed a few tears over that but knew it was for the best.

I’m on my 4th bag of fluid, paracetamol for the fever, Imodium which hasn’t been doing much at home, plus codeine to well and truly bung me up. Now they’ve added some IV antibiotics to try to get on top of whatever is causing my fever. While they wait for the cultures to grow. I’ve had an abdominal CT and a chest X-ray so I feel like they’re being very thorough.

I had another little meltdown when I arrived as after promising me a private room I am in a shared room. The idea of sharing a bathroom when I’m up every hour with explosive diarrhoea doesn’t fill me with joy. But the codeine seems to be taking effect finally so I’ve only needed the loo 3 times in 5 hours.

So sorry about that Remaker I hope things start to get better soon. I always found ondasetron was good for that though the nurses rolled their eyes a bit as its anti sickness. But immodium did nothing in chemo.

Podge Active treatment is for parts actively destroying cancer so surgeries, chemo, radio and not hormone tablets. Not sure about that thing. Breast care nurses or insurance company may know though tbh I travelled both times abroad without insurance. Which isn't the greatest idea but I knew would have no cancer related issues.

Zolendronic acid Is preventative. It’s a treatment for osteoporosis given post menopause and if you are on hormone blockers it’s very common. It also prevents bony mets which is good! Not a cancer treatment though if you are NED. Are you hoping to go somewhere nice @podgedodge?