The Great Recovery part 4

[TopOfTheCliff]

Time for a new thread. Welcome aboard!

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.

I finally contacted hospital about bone pain - I think its nothing or just lower oestrogen and gardening causing but haven't been checked for a while and not on anything for bones and they are going to order a blood test and bone scan which can be done same day. They said to let me know when I have a date, love NHS systems!

Still waiting for results of my 1st mammogram post treatment.
Had the mammogram at the beginning of May .
Rang the Breat Care Nurse today and my results weren't available yet.
Apparently the wait time is 4-5 weeks for results. Sigh...
What is your book called @TopOfTheCliff ? X

I’d take that as cautiously good news @Zoopet- if they’d spotted anything while doing it then they’d have pulled it out sooner.

Well some for making the call @MsPenguins- it’s a difficult thing to do. Hopefully they’ll get you through the system quickly and all will be well.

Hopefully that's a good sign Zoopet I was told immediately for one I had as follow up, maybe they have put it through as routine screening.

Thanks Sierra Hope you are enjoying your holiday.

Just did more gardening with DH for a couple of hours. I ordered a collection of items by the council for later this week and includes an old waterbutt and composter from previous owner so had to sort those.

Scan date through for 6 June and a new black bin as old one was damaged. Exciting times here. 😂

@Zoopet the book is called the West Country Cruising Companion. I had to make a little video for the publisher which was quite fun.
Fingers crossed for your results soon.
Today my kind friend came and helped me with the PILs bungalow and we have cleared the living room out. Just two rooms left to go! The estate agents are going in on Friday but I will be away at a reunion. I can manage one more session I think before then. It is much cleaner and fresher and less cluttered. Of course half the stuff is now in my house but that’s life.
I have a date for the root canal filling next week. Oh joy! But I am losing weight nicely as I don’t want to eat anything hot, cold or chewy. Only 1.7kg to go till BMI is 25 again. Every cloud etc…

I wish I could tell you I’ve been released back into the wild but I’m having the second surgery in a week - today they are putting another implant in. This is my tenth general.
They’ve worked out what the bug is and are now giving me loads of that antibiotic.

I’m loving the tales of gardening and cats. That’s where I’d like to be. The cat and dog follow me when I’m gardening. The cat judges and the dog wants to help. Sometimes he finds an ancient bone he had left behind, well seasoned!!!!

Hoping it gets sorted today.

Fairywren

Hope you are released back into the wild soon all fixed Fairywren

My post surgery chair has been adopted by the cat, 8kgs of fluff and stupidity.

Thinking of you @FairyWren7 and hoping by now all is over and you are tucked up with painkillers.
I am off on the train to a reunion of my year at med school. Weight down, lots of hair and feeling fab! I’m staying in a boutique hotel that used to be a student residence, with my old flatmate who is very chatty. It should be a fun weekend. First I must visit the allotment!

Have a wonderful time @TopOfTheCliff . Enjoy being sociable!

Up the thread @SierraSapphire was talking about medical trauma - this resonates with me although I’ve got used to going to the breast clinic - i even went into the room where I was told it was cancer the other day and thought “it’s this room, isn’t it?” However I think it does get easier - I’m currently sat in the chair in the chemo unit waiting for my immunotherapy - I totally forgot this morning and was pottering around getting the kids ready for school when I realised I needed to be in the car! I’d got so relaxed about appointments that I almost forgot! DP was like “what are you still doing here?! Get going!” 😂

Hope everyone has a good Bank Holiday weekend.

Council have now collected the stuff from our clearout - former owner's waterbutt, composter, old ladders, broken plant pot and 6 bags of rubbish from a small downstairs room and garden. Glad to have that done and gone.

Had a lovely long chat with DD last night, largely about rowing and quite a bit I didn't really follow but would just comment sounds good and I would get a reply back no that bit is not good, its annoying but this was good. And managed to establish last day has to be there is 27 June. She is so busy and happy there which is great but it makes communication limited. Sounds like she will be with us for 3 months over the summer which is lovely. But that's why I wanted the small room cleared as DH dumps stuff there, at least we are down to one room for DH dumping stuff, and when she comes back she has stuff in 3 rooms. Not sure how when she only has 1 room at uni and it all comes back in our car but house would look better with it in small room.

Not sure what we will do this weekend, swimming tonight is planned, not been for a while due to so much in garden. I've cancelled from end June as it gets too busy in school holidays and in better weather can visit gardens and do gardening and will rejoin in autumn I guess. Weather forecast is a bit mixed but Sunday looks good all day.

Have a wonderful time @TopOfTheCliff , sounds a very glam do.

Hope everyone has a great bank holiday weekend.

I’ve started swimming regularly, having joined a local spa. I have to keep telling myself that no, it is not too nice for me, I deserve to exercise in a decent environment. Our local council pool is great but bright and chaotic - changing rooms aren’t terribly comfortable. I’ve already met a few ladies who’ve had breast cancer / mastectomies and have been very kind.

Hope the treatment goes smoothly @Littlecaf. I’ve had bloods done for a number of things this week, including my zolanadrex treatment next month. First mammogram coming up in a fortnight, getting a bit of scanxiety. Can they tell us anything suggested after the mammogram or do we need to wait for a letter? I guess the letter, as it has to be reviewed. Argh!

Hi All,

Thanks for the good wishes.

It’s not been the best of weeks but at least I am home. Was supposed to have second surgery in a week to replace implant on Thursday but the infection hadn’t calmed down enough - I got as far as theatre doors. Then had to decide what to do. So we are going to try again this Wednesday.

I’ve gone from being whole and well and back at work about to get going on a whole new life and now I’ve been shoved back in this situation. I’ve got a drain in and the little bottle of doom.

But at some point it has to go good again.

We’ve just been to Garden World for some retail therapy and I have two new rose bushes. The plan was for one of them to celebrate getting through a week in my new job - technically I managed it so…

The sun is out. I hope this is a frustrating setback that will be a distant memory at some point soon.

Oh @FairyWren7 I am gutted for you. We will all be hoping the week goes better.

I am home after a lovely trip down memory lane. About forty of our year group came to the reunion including one of my BFFs whom I had lost touch with. It was wonderful to hear other people’s memories of me at twenty. I walked miles, did a guided tour of the hospital and historic docks, and looked up a cousin whose husband is unwell. Now I am home exhausted but happy. I had lots of positive feedback on how I have got through the last four years and how well I am looking. Nice to hear!

Hope you got your operation and it went well @Fairywren.

Hope scan goes well @dancingwhilstfacingthemusic I've only had the one mammo since mine and was told on all clear the day but had symptoms at the time which may have made a difference to how told.

Good weekend was fun Top

Just gardening here but since the fence is now done and bird flu restrictions over its gardening with 3 fluffy silkie chickens who are loving it. DH is loving it, photographing the silkies a lot, told me this morning how lovely our garden looks and said he would like us to get a fig tree. I have a big garden order arriving tomorrow from RHS with 15 plants, lawn seed and feed and some more garden tools so we will be busy there on Saturday as well. DS is going out in the garden a fair amount and seems to love garden tools so he will be happy with new ones though hoping he doesn't snaffle them. A robin and a few other birds follow us round too. Been talking to DD as well and she is busy rowing this weekend, 4 day rowing event.

Thinking of you @FairyWren7 hope all is well this time.

@MsPengiuns you are a great role model, if I just stuck to gardening I could probably get things into shape but I have been house clearing PILs house, and the For Sale sign went up yesterday. There are 3 viewings on Saturday. I weeded the front garden and planted out some cheery Busy Lizzies to brighten things up a bit. Plus a recycling centre trip today with DH. I've also been entertaining his family over half term and racing in the evenings. Then I wonder why I am exhausted and need a rest after lunch!
Talking of robins, our reincarnated MIL/robin flew into the conservatory today and sat on a cushion and chattered at DH. She must be bothered about her house sale!
Tomorrow is Root Canal Day. I am not looking forward to it but will be glad when it's over.

Nothing positive this end unfortunately. It’s been very difficult. Both implants have failed and been removed. I’m back at home with drain tubes in.

It was lovely feeling like myself again for a few days but I never want to have to go through anything like that ever again. But hope springs eternal I may decide to try again in a few months or a year but it’s the disruption. To have been back to functioning normally only to go back a few steps is very disheartening.

Hope everyone is well - I’ve got a bit self absorbed again which is not good.

Love the chat about the robins.

One of my mates from uni has lost her Mum, very difficult.

My mother came out with the classic that if it had been her she wouldn’t have bothered with the reconstruction. To which I pithily responded that she is a bit older than me so circumstances are different. 🤣

Either way I’m left with the feeling that I don’t have a lot of luck. But of course it’s not that.

Really sorry, it’s not gone to plan @FairyWren7- and it’s fine to feel that you haven’t had much luck. Reminds me of the low odds bin that we talked about on diagnosis, where things got progressively worse each time something happened and we were told, “hmm, we don’t see this very often”. It’s not surprising you feel hard done by. Hope you can recover and get a bit of equilibrium back even though it’s not the outcome you wanted. Sounds like the sort of thing my mum might have said as well, she was fond of pointing out “Do you think you shouldn’t have xxx?” to add insult to injury each time something didn’t go to plan. Being forced to justify what seemed like good and considered choices at the time without being able to have the information you have in retrospect always made me furious!

Nice sunny day here, I am supposed to be going to visit a friend for the day somewhere or other, depending on how she’s feeling as she has many health issues, I’m just waiting for her to let me know.

I’m still trying to sell my mom’s house, we reduced the price a bit, but I think we’re waiting for a very specific type of buyer, a downsizer, We do have someone who’s interested, but she has to sell her own house, it’s kind of getting me down a little bit. I just wanted it over.

Work’s been kind of stressful as well for various reasons. My team is lovely, but other people are inconsistent and chaotic, and senior management, are just not as strategic as they should be which makes things difficult. I keep telling myself not to get stressed as it’s not as bad as having cancer!

Really sorry to hear of this knock back @FairyWren7 I keep telling myself that at least I tried at each awful step of this disease although things regularly went off piste.

Im back at work very part time and building up. Amazed how slow I’m finding my brain - this too will pass eh, or maybe it’s how things are.

Yeah, I’ve definitely lost cognitive ability @dancingwhilstfacingthemusicsince chemo, or possibly just menopause, or probably both. At least it is a menopause symptom so I can just put it down to that rather than having to talk about cancer. I do tell my team that I do forget things, so don’t feel bad about reminding me, I used to have a really good memory and I would have things that I had to do in the back of my mind, but now things can just completely disappear unless I write them down.

@FairyWren7 So sorry to read your news about your implants, it's disheartening when all the physical, mental & emotional energy invested comes to nothing.

I had a meeting with my Consultant last week and he confirmed that the surgery to try and lengthen my Roux Loop ( whoever even knew there was a bit inside of us called a Roux Loop) hadn't worked and that I was still getting reflux of small bowel contents up into my liver - sounds revolting - which causes infections. He was as disappointed as I was and we sat there for what seemed like ages telling each other over and over how disappointed we were. I felt quite sorry for him. I thought I was OK about it, but as the days have gone on I feel quite tearful. So, it's back to the permanent antibiotics. I need to do some research about probiotics.

I feel like I've lost some cognitive ability too - I'm not forgetful and my memory is still good, but I used to be very good at maths & could work out quite complicated sums in my head. I find it a struggle now. Maybe it's lack of practise because I'm not teaching maths everyday.

So sorry about the operation @FairyWren7 that's so hard to go through that and I really hope there is a solution. I think there were a couple of others who had implant issues, I think one ended up with DIEP in the end which worked but its a lot to go through. I can allocate you a lucky silkie chicken so your luck will improve. I do think things can change for the better.

My memory is back to normal, just had about a year when it was foggy. Researching things helped, I have always been a list keeper. I am back to being the person told to remind everyone about everything.

Hope root canal goes as well as it can Top Good you are doing so much. I noticed when gardening DH is super focussed and does one task to perfection and I flit between tasks doing 4 tasks but not as well. Overall it probably achieves the same but I decided to have a main focus this month on gardening projects. Will probably be the same in June. It kind of ties in with other things as the silkies can go out now and DS goes out a lot in the garden and loves the tools. I found just doing it once a week was just maintaining in spring and it needs more than that in spring to improve. All the things arrived yesterday.

Sorry work is difficult Sierra

Sorry operation didn't work @MissMarplesNiece

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Just done 3.5 hours gardening with DH and the silkies. Got the 15 new plants planted, new tools unpacked, some clearing. The silkies were fighting not sure why they normally are fine but the white one was going for the silver one. It was like gardening with toddlers. The little robin came and 2 pigeons. Quite hot today. The good thing about so much gardening is can have a nice meal after - had a chinese veg chow mein, spare ribs and then sticky toffee pudding with custard.

Root canal filling? OMG the drama! I went down on Friday afternoon as the surgery closed and the staff were leaving. The senior dentist ushered me in and talked me through his plan. After numbing me up and drilling out the tooth he fitted a weird rubber mask over my mouth that fitted onto the tooth. Then he drilled precisely 20mm into each root, poured bleach into each hole then set fire to something so smoke came out of my mouth!! I was utterly astonished. It wasn’t painful and seems to have worked but I walked home afterwards in a daze. It almost seemed like a con trick to extract £600 from me.
After that I had a weekend of looking after 2 small relatives determined to either break limbs, drown or catch fire. I handed them back today a bit bruised but very happy after an energetic time in the garden cooking sausages on the fire pit and jumping in the hot tub. I think I need a quiet day or two now. Gentle weeding and tidying sounds very soothing.

@FairyWren7 so sorry about your bad luck. Life isn’t fair! We all know that here.

@MsPengiuns I would like a lucky Silkie please. I think things are improving here. I managed to knock a minute off my Parkrun walking PB 🥳

@MissMarplesNiece what happens next? Is there a plan beyond long term antibiotics? Sorry for your news.

Of course you can have a lucky Silkie Top We have an older brown one or the two younger girls who are white and silver.

Private dental bills are quite scary - so far its been fine and worth every penny but I always expected it to be NHS prices so hoping my teeth don't go west.

Just a quiet day today with Sunday lunch. DS has been in the garden a lot today starting at 5am. Managed to clean his room whilst he was out there.