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.

@demivolte

Thankyou for replying. I've had one that they said was fluid still from my op and in the vicinity of my lumpectomy. I've had my annual mammogram since that one too.

I have a new one now on the side of my boob. Where the boob and armpit meet.

Very relieved for you @TopOfTheCliff

Thanks for all your good wishes. I have been out to a charity quiz night and won three prizes in the raffle! It’s been a brilliant day. I am so pleased to be back on track for the Great Recovery. I am keeping an eye on the posts as we reach the end of the third thread.
@tothelefttotheleft the point of open access follow up is that you can report new lumps and bumps to the team and they will investigate and put your mind at rest. As my week has demonstrated this is highly stressful but worthwhile. If it was something bad it would be better to know as soon as possible to get rid of it. The radiologists can see straight away whether a lump is harmless or sinister and needs a biopsy. I presume I now go away and don’t see them till next January if all is well.

@TopOfTheCliff great news. We’ve all been thinking of you xx

@Choppedcheeseagain I have to say I’m still very up and down. But I think that is also just me a bit - a lifetime of hormonal issues as well as the cancer. I’m still having hot flushes after a full hysterectomy (in two surgeries) at the age of 44. Three years ago!

There are lots of triggers out there…I’m getting better at catching them in advance though which is something I suppose.

I ran my first creative writing workshop today which went well. Very hot here at the moment - it makes me not want to go outside really.

I also did lots of gentle exercise on Friday and the nerve pain seems to be subsiding a bit.

One week since I finished the immunotherapy and I’m still quite tired. But I do think I’m recovering a bit better.

I just get the odd day where I feel very low and have to give myself a big talking to. Our neighbour has just gone on a road trip - I’d love to do that!

I just can’t seem to get a job out of teaching. So I guess I’m going to have to get back to the drawing board. Keep plugging away! Which Dicken’s character always believed that something would turn up?

@TopOfTheCliff So pleased for you that it was good news from the hospital.

Great news @TopOfTheCliff

And agree, the radiologists know what they are looking at, when I had the ultrasound of my lump he went quiet on the suspicious area, reassured other side was fine but didn't comment on bad bit. Until biopsy he wasn't able to say 100% but he definitely knew IMO.

That’s great news @TopOfTheCliff what a relief. You are right, my brother has all the info and is making his own choices. I’m going to focus on ensuring his kids are fully informed.

@FairyWren7 I’m so happy to hear the workshop went well. You’re so far ahead of me, I’d love to write but too scared to start. And I hear you on the heat. Makes me just want to hide inside in the aircon. I’m about 3 years past menopause and still get hot flushes. Always when I’m trying to look calm and professional meanwhile my face is red and sweat is running into my cleavage haha.

I woke up today with a mild sore throat, headache and stuffy nose. I am sure it is a reaction to the stress of the last week. It has made me abandon cycling plans as I know that would make it worse. I shall potter quietly this morning instead.
My book updating has gone to press for the tenth edition so I will be a published author in a couple of months! Nothing literary just a technical manual but they are paying me real money! It’s quite exciting.

@Remaker I'd love to write too. I keep a private journal but I'd like to do more creative writing. I see classes advertised but am not confident enough to join. The thought of some one reading my pedestrian efforts and critiquing it puts me off, even though I know that would be necessary to learn and improve.

Well done on getting your book published @TopOfTheCliff . Hope you feel better soon.

I went out to play tennis this morning but the courts were too slippy, the youngsters stayed there but me with my old(ish) bones decided it wasn't worth the risk of falling over! I'm going out for a walk with a friend instead which will be nice, it's a beautiful bright sunny day.

I've kept journal ever since I was 14 years old, I wrote in it a lot during cancer and I write it fairly frequently now, I do sometimes think of doing something with it, and I have the worry about what would happen to it if I die suddenly! I wouldn't want DD reading most of it. There is a project I think that you can donate diaries too, but that would rely on somebody doing it after my death. I don't feel quite ready to give them up, but I don't know whether I will ever read them again. There's a lot of history in there though, obviously, and and I like knowing that I can go back and remember a period of my life if I want to, for example we're going to Italy in a few weeks and I would like to look back and just check where I went to in my late teens. It was really useful during chemo as well so I could track where I was in each cycle.

@SierraSapphire I worry about people reading my journal too. I destroyed a lot of the old ones even though I liked to look back through them.

Yeah I had a couple of XPs reading them as I was writing them @MissMarplesNiece - I think my DM read them too when I was at home. DD has left hers lying about from time to time. I have of course been intrigued as to what she writes, but I would never read it.

Fabulous news @TopOfTheCliff I am so very pleased for you, and commiserations on the sore throat today. But very, very good news (also on the book!!) 😊

A very belated happy birthday from me @dotty2 and how wonderful re DD! Hope you all enjoyed the ramen 😋

@FairyWren7 how exciting about running a creative writing workshop. What sort of stuff do you write? I have one very much unpublished novel and am starting a second. In fact, I'd just sat down to write some and thought ooh let's check up on Great Recovery first! (I find concentrating on my writing challenging, amazed I ever wrote the first one!)

@Choppedcheese I am get how you're feeling. I was diagnosed last June and finished radiotherapy in October. My first check-up scan/potential for all clear will be this June. And I am struggling mentally a lot. It's not helped by dealing with an elderly DM with depression for which she won't seek (much) help and a DSis with alcohol dependency issues. I try to keep my boundaries in place, not always easy, and then there's all the will cancer come back etc, and feeling low and bleak in general.

@Acinonyx2 I so relate to that sense of dread alongside loss at funerals of people with cancer. Have been to 2 recently, and a third coming up. Friend said to me about one - but he was really old, why would that resonate with you? That's another thing I find depressing, that most of the people I'm close to have absolutely no idea where I'm coming from any more. Thank goodness for this thread!

@PaperbackWrighter I did wonder if you were into writing because of your user name. I’ve always written a bit. I have two unfinished novels to my name. I was really getting into it when the cancer was diagnosed. So now I’m trying to build myself up again.
I’ve been writing a historical novel that travels from the sixteenth century up to the present day. Following the Tudors, the Valois and other royal characters. I’ve really enjoyed writing it but my confidence was a bit shattered by a teacher friend who did a proofread - although I am attempting writing in the style of Gabriel Garcia Márquez with his whimsical magical realism and I don’t think she likes that.

These workshops are just in different genres of writing - just doing them as a volunteer role.

But really I’m looking to get out of teaching completely. It just appears to be taking a while. I need to be more disciplined with the writing.

@PaperbackWrighter whats your novel about?

@FairyWren7 Your book sounds wonderful. How interesting!! That's tricky with your teacher friend as magical realism isn't her thing so my feeling is how far can you trust her feedback? I'm a big fan of a gothic tale, and that's what my writing ends up being (something) like - I had a similar experience in that a friend who doesn't like that style of writing at all (who also writes) tore something I wrote to pieces. (She tore into me about lots of other things too and in the end I found her too high maintenance!)

The volunteer workshops sound good but I guess it still has that teaching flavour about it. Like you, I need to get more disciplined with my writing.

My book is historical fiction too, but recent history 1944-present day and uncovering deep and dark family secrets. The finished one was two timelines, 1960s and 1920s, and a girl who moves to a spooky house in a kind of commune!

I hope your friend hasn't put you off your stride? I'm sure her critique was gentler than that of my ex-friend!

Had a bit of a mopey week, as having some sciatica trouble, but my art supplies I bought recently arrived today! So all is right with the world now. Got myself some watercolours, as I've been desperate to learn how to do watercolour painting.

@Choppedcheese sorry to hear about the sciatica - I know that can be so painful. But lovely about the watercolours. This thread is turning very creative - writing fiction, painting watercolours! We're a productive lot!

I made a cushion cover last weekend. But that’s about my limit!😉

I know my limits and my creativity is limited to baking, gardening and decorating. My writing is related to reports of sports events and technical writing for sailing and cycling, but it does bring in a nice income!
I like the idea of writing fiction, I certainly read enough books, but I haven’t got either the discipline or the knowledge how to go about it.
I am with DM who is 91 today and still planning a new asparagus bed! Great goals 😂

Cushion covers are definitely creative @dotty2!

How interesting that you publish non fiction in several subjects @TopOfTheCliff - what was the recent book you mentioned about?
I love asparagus but am not at all green fingered!

I have helped with updating the tenth edition of the West Country Cruising Companion which comes out soon. It’s a Pilot book for Devon and Cornwall. Also I write for a cycling magazine and various websites. It surprises people who know me when they see my column! I don’t talk about it much 😂

DM has a long suffering gardener who is trying to wind down vegetable production as DM doesn’t cook these days but it gives her something to look forward to. I honestly think she expects to live another decade or so.

@PaperbackWrighter - love those plot lines. Mine has two main threads my story follows the story of a famous jewel and the slave who found her who becomes a revolutionary and then the lives that she touches - she follows their stories. I think it’s a good idea and so have others - I did an open mic reading of the opening chapter at the library I volunteer at. Yes. I was hoping to set aside a morning for writing.

@Choppedcheeseagain - pain is so demotivating. Push through if you can. I also have nerve psin on my left side, the physio doesn’t think is siatica (sp) but I’ve been doing aqua and lots of gentle stretching in water and it’s feeling a bit better.

I’m not feeling that great today. Bad stomach very sore and my nosy next door neighbour has just tried to dig about my work situation. Smile and deflect. I just said I’m doing a few different things at the moment. I should have pretended to still be on the phone.

It just makes me feel like crap. I want to move house but my husband has said not until my reconstruction surgery is done. It’s still like a lot of things are on pause.

I’m Facebook marketing a lot of old clothes at the moment and having a clear out. Doing my exercise and my art class starts tonight! @Choppedcheeseagain are you going to experiment at home or join a class? It’s good fun! And great to have a creative outlet!