The Great Cancer Recovery part 3

[TopOfTheCliff]

You may have finished active treatment for cancer, be in remission or NED. You want to look forward not dwell on the past. You know you ought to be eating well, exercising more and picking up the threads of your old life. Join us and share the ups and downs of recovery. We understand!

Here are some resources we found helpful:

The Mountain Lion
https://www.cancerpal.co.uk/post/what-it-s-really-like-to-receive-a-cancer-diagnosis

Peter Harvey on Psychology of recovery:
https://workingwithcancer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/After-the-treatment-finishes-then-what.pdf

Resources from Penny Brohn:
https://pennybrohn.org.uk/our-approach/resources/

Breast Cancer Now Moving Forward:
https://breastcancernow.org/information-support/support-you/moving-forward

Get your Oomph Back with Carolyn Garritt
http://www.oomph.london/home.html

Charity providing treats for cancer patients:
https://somethingtolookforwardto.org.uk/

Exercise is good for you:
https://www.webmd.com/cancer/features/exercise-cancer-patients

Any more suggestions? Post them below

There is also a thread for those suspected to have cancer, or newly diagnosed and facing treatment, and also a thread for those with Stage IV cancer who want to talk to others in the same boat.

Sorry to hear about your pain @isaxx , and all the inevitable anxiety associated with that. It seems cruel just when you are recovering from the LVA surgery. Keeping everything crossed it's something unrelated.

House clearing progressing slowly. Today's best find was an envelope of my baby curls neatly labelled in my mum's handwriting: 'dotty May 1975'

Thinking of you @Penguinsa and all the best for a smooth recovery.

Sorry to hear of your pain @isaxx. I hope it turns out to be nothing of note.

I hope your procedure goes ok @TopOfTheCliff. Good choice to get the professionals involved haha.

Thinking of you @dotty2 and @SierraSapphire clearing parents’ property. My mum’s house had to be sold last year to fund her aged care costs. I was immersed in cancer treatment so my brother and SIL did it all. My SIL is notoriously devoid of sentiment and I often think oh I wonder what happened to this or that, knowing they were probably consigned to a skip.

I had my hair cut yesterday and instead of my usual post salon routine of looking glamorous watching tv on the couch, DH and I went out! We saw a George Formby cabaret act at the Sydney Fringe Festival. It was really good and quite moving. I had no idea GF had quite a tragic life. I do love the weird and wacky things DH takes me to. We went to see Herman’s Hermits earlier this year at a local returned serviceman’s club. Just us and a lot of people in their 70s. It was a great night!

Right I have been inspired by all the talk of exercise so I’m getting out the resistance bands that have been languishing in the cupboard.

At least I'm the house clearer in chief @Remaker and I'm making sure people get what they would like, my mum's best friend is coming round to the house tomorrow hopefully to choose something that will remind her of my mum. I bought my mum lots of lovely things over the years as well, a very nice woollen throw, ornaments, jewellery, so the rule is you get to reclaim whatever you bought. Not that I can imagine that my brother is very interested in the jewellery! I'm also sitting under her very nice gold coloured electric throw, as I gave DD my rather plainer grey one to take back up north.

I think I'm in my seventh week in my job so I was thinking I should take some days off, it's weird having annual leave to manage after self-employment, obviously I want to take time off but also I don't want to end up without any if I have a sudden last minute offer to do something!

Hoping everything has gone smoothly @penguinisa

@isaax sorry to hear you're in pain. I had a really nasty bout of sciatica in January/Feb time and was very worried as it seemed to take ages to heal but physio and patience sorted it. I was panicking that it was a sign of recurrance but the cancer nurses reassured me and it did improve.

I did manage to get dibs on the microwave @SierraSapphire. I’d bought it for Mum quite recently and mine had packed it in. But I don’t know where her jewellery is and I’m nervous to ask! I don’t want anything for value, just sentiment.

So much for getting the resistance bands out. The apprentice hairdresser gave me a head massage when she washed my hair which is usually a treat. But she squeezed my neck quite tightly too and now my shoulder is hurting. Bloody hell I do not like this aspect of middle age one bit - feels like I’m constantly on the verge of a muscle strain.

I got cramp in the night @Remaker - not happened to me before, at least not for many years. It hurts today, I was limping when I got up! It has been twinging after playing tennis so I'm putting it down to that, and lots of sitting. I need to stretch it, I tore it playing tennis before so need to be careful. Makes me feel old too!

Waiting for news from @Penguinsa !

I’m assuming that @Penguinsa has had her op and is still in hospital high on painkillers. If they had postponed it she would be here ranting 😂 Get well quickly friend!
My micro procedure on my nose is healing nicely. I’m not going near the hospital again unless my life is endangered now. But there are three tiny stitches to take out next week. Meanwhile I am foolishly going on a bike tour with friends who are all fitter than me. I know I’m going to fall behind and hurt a great deal over the next four days 🙄 But France! And croissants! And scenery! DH has promised to stay with me too.
Oh and last night was the final race of our sailing club series and I won!! What a way to end the summer 🥳 Loyal thread followers will recall I fell off and broke my ribs in April. Progress is being made. Things get better.

@ penguinsa hope your op went well and @TopOfTheCliff well done on your sailing club race! Xx

Woohoo well done @TopOfTheCliff and enjoy France!

Brilliant news @TopOfTheCliff we've been watching all the boats during our devon break in GLORIOUS weather- wondered if any of them were you! It’s been fantastic down here.
@Penguinsa hope everything went well.

Congrats @TopOfTheCliff - what an achievement!

Well done @TopOfTheCliff and enjoy your cycling holiday.

Greetings from La France. To my surprise and delight I managed fine yesterday. I cycled 75 km along the coast with my friends and didn’t get left behind. DH carried the panniers. We reached our hotel by 4 pm and it’s a wonderful beachside foodie place. I’m so happy I wasn’t broken yesterday. Recovery continues!

@TopOfTheCliff Well done on winning the sailing race! You cycling holiday sounds great too! Onwards and up!

Thanks for your replies all. I have been doing loads of lower back stretching exercises, watching my posture when sitting and keeping up the swimming. It seems to have moved my backache from constant to intermittent. So, I have calmed down a bit and will keep working at it. Keeping fit used to be so easy..

Waiting to hear from @Penguinsa. Hopefully not in too much pain and back home.

Well done on last race of season and keeping up in Brittany Top.

Sorry to read of the admin and sorting out of stuff so many going through post death of parents.

I’ve found it interesting and supportive reading how similar, and how different, our experiences have been, and continue to be.

Hopefully, I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough with emotional and mental recovery recently, a yoga retreat has resulted in me feeling much more like ‘me’. And I’m physically stronger than I have been since pre diagnosis.

Hope Penguin is doing okay

And thank you all, we are enjoying a few days in Dorset in lovely autumn sunshine. Hope sun shining where you are.

Go @topofthecliff! A beach side foodie hotel sounds lovely.

I have been shattered this week, I'm sleeping ok but work has been stressful and then we had the Week Of Cancer Results last week which was also very stressful, plus DP's little girls mum is playing silly buggers (generally everything muddles along fine, but now and then she seems to find a sack of spanners to throw into things...) so I think it's just that. Or maybe menopause?

DP is claiming that I always go through a spell like this when the seasons turn.

Hoping lovely @penguinisa is safely home and recovering.

Congratulations @TopOfTheCliff on the sailing. Enjoy the holiday in France. Great to see exciting recoveries.

Hope all well @Penguinsa

Can I ask a question about electric razors? I have never had one before, and I was going to use instead of my wet razor (due to lymphoedema), but when I looked on Amazon, a few of the reviews for most of them said about scratchiness, which is not ideal. Does anyone use them? Any good?

All the hair is coming back after chemo now (including the dratted chin hair! ) and I feel the need to sort it out, particularly my underarms 😬

That sounds wonderful @TopOfTheCliff . Enjoy your trip!

Sorry to hear about your tiredness and stress @ClashCityRocker. I hope next week will be better.

I’ve had a busy but lovely weekend. Went walking with DH both days. Today we did a gorgeous walk around part of Sydney Harbour past a beautiful little beach. Thankfully we remembered it was a nudist beach so we didn’t walk down the steps to the sand or that might have been awkward haha.

I went to visit my mum on Friday and while I was there one of my aunts phoned her so I was able to crank up the volume so she could hear. I’ve mentioned here before that my SIL was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer earlier this year. She’s finished 20 weeks of chemo, had 2 mastectomies and will start radiation in a couple of weeks. Obviously it’s a slog but she’s doing well and there’s no reason to think she won’t make a full recovery. Mum knows all of this but still went into full doom monger mode with my aunty. I was so cross! I gave her a big talking to after she got off the phone. Then I had to call my aunty to give her the correct information before she got on the phone to my brother full of unwarranted gloom. Honestly they’re more trouble than children sometimes!

@Onelessboob have you tried depilatory cream? I don't have hair under my lymphoedema armpit due to radiotherapy there many years ago. So, aside from it having contributed to me getting lymphoedema in the first place, at least I don't need to worry about shaving!

Back pain playing up again. Bad night. Have no idea why. Am away next week but will probably have to pick up the courage to get this investigated when I get back. The last thing I needed now.

I have lymphoedema and just use a good quality wet razor carefully on my armpits. I reason that I never once cut my armpit with a razor in 35 years of shaving before I had cancer, so I'm unlikely to do it now. (Legs are another story - I was always cutting those). But I have had rashes with both cream and an electric razor, which would obviously be worse. Hope you find a solution. My body hair is weirdly patchy post chemo. I'm short-sighted, so don't always notice it, as I never have my glasses on in the bathroom. Then I realised the other day that lots of bits of my legs have no hair at all, but odd patches I haven't noticed (including my big toes) were really long - much longer than they ever used to grow before. And my pubes spread just as far as they always did (annoyingly onto the tops of my thighs etc), but are very sparse. As my charming husband said - it used to be like the rainforest down there and now it's like the tundra 😂

Thank you @remaker I have woken up full of cold this morning so suspect the tiredness might have been due to that! I have had a very lazy and relaxing weekend which I think was much needed. Going to try and work from home a couple of days this week I think - I tend to get bothered less there!

I hope all went smoothly @Penguinsa and you are recovering well.

I hope you are having a better week @MissMarplesNiece

France sounds amazing @TopOfTheCliff and 75km is impressive.

I've been running a little bit and am quite enjoying it, the challenge is going to be continuing once I'm working full time again and it is dark/wet in the evenings.

I also have patchy hair post chemo. No underarm hair at all and no real eyebrows, but really hairy legs. My head hair is still sparse. I've been debating microblading or similar for my eyebrows but am a bit concerned that if it looks ridiculous I'll be stuck with it for 2 years.

I'm trying to book in my first annual mammogram which is due - in some ways I can't believe a whole year has passed, though this last bit of treatment is also dragging.

@isaxx thanks , maybe I should try the cream, although @dotty2 I know what you mean. I never actually cut myself shaving underarms before either, so it'll probably be fine. I might wait until the 8 weeks after radio, and then try the cream on my legs (which were the only hairs that didn't seem fall out at all) and if I don't get a rash, move on to my underarms

Sorry to hear about your back pain @isaxx . I hope it's nothing, but you'll feel better to check.

@demivolte I was lucky enough to not lose my eyebrows completely, they just got patchy. I tried to do with a pencil, but it looked a lot worse 😂. I've hear a few people swear by microblading. If i'd know about it before chemo, I would definitely had done it.

Thanks for all the good wishes re diep just to confirm operation went ahead, third time lucky, was an issue on the day when their theatre was not heated and had to find another one and tried to snaffle another surgeons. Then about 9.30am they found one. Just back home today after 7 days in. Very pleased with results, almost perfect match to other breast and got feeling in it only a nipple is missing. I did get told I was too active after operation and to calm it down and rest and was called a baby kangaroo. 😂 Same mobility as normal now and want to leap around but can't. 4 drains and 1 catheter and so many bruises on my arms and so many people looking at my breasts was a bit strange, once an hour by nursing team and doctors came a lot too. They all seemed delighted and they should be proud. Only issue is just noticed I am leaking a bit from both abdominal drain sites so need to rest. Saw air ambulance whilst there and could hear all the nurses conversations some of which I mentioned to doctors and also that I had been given one nurse who was so unwell with covid symptoms, poor nurse, 11 hour shift coughing constantly, feeling really ill saying it was flu not covid but also said she had zero sense of smell. DD been to boyfriends at Bristol uni and off to Oxford on 7th. I have next appointment on 30th but zero concerns so far apart from me being a bit hyper. Left nurses some F&M biscuit tin and a cake.

Will catch up later but love to all.

@Penguinsa great to hear all went well and that you are pleased with the results. I too have been pleased with my diep breast. It is over a year on for me and it just feels like my breast. I like that it is permanent so you don't have to think about it anymore. Are you planning to have your nipple reconstructed? I haven't yet but still think I will. Have just been too busy dealing with other things. Anyway great to hear it all went ahead so you can now move on and focus on your forthcoming job.