Tamoxifen - advice please !

[MargaretMountford]

Am going to be starting Tamoxifen shortly, was just wondering whether anyone else is on it and can tell me what it's like ! thanks !

Cakes - I was on both of those too. I ended up in on IV drugs as I got septic

I think the key is to keep taking them, but if your wound gets any hotter or redder (you can mark it with pen) then get straight back in.

Infections can be a bugger to clear up

ooh, dear, I don't fancy that. Thanks for the advice. I'll go and get the biro out....

Didnt mean to worry tou too much - I think I am the exception to prove the rule - everything that could go wrong did

They drew on me!!!!

Honestly, MadHouse, I am taking it all in good part, and treating it as useful information - it is all such uncharted territory, it is helpful to hear these things, albeit painful to hear about other people going through the mill so much.

It brings it home to me how careful you (I) need to be. Normally I take no notice of aches and pains, but this is clearly going to have to change.

Mind you, with all the healthy things people have been giving me/telling me about, I may yet turn out to be healthier than ever by the end of it (or maybe slightly after!) We can live in hope.

Have a good weekend all - it is meant to be sunny!!! Yay!

Cakes - how are you feeling at the moment?

Hi madHouse

I am not feeling too bad, thanks - just a bit tired! Got my chemo appt. through for Wednesday, so we shall see after that! Are you doing OK?

Abermum - if you are here - lots and lots of positive vibes for you today! Hope the taxol is not too bad!

good luck too from me abermum !
Am off to radiotherapy - first visit,very shortly...

MOrning all

Abermum - hope you are ok. Mary good luck with your visit too.

Cakes I am fine, just sore from overdoing things a little - test run of opur new tent as we are off on holiday on Sat

MaryAnn - Blimey, that radio appointment crept up on me! Stay strong for it, I am sure it will not be too bad. Thinking of you - look after yourself afterwards (that one's crucial), and let us know how it goes.

Hi MadHouse - so long as it was all in the name of fun! Hope the holiday is great, fingers crossed for good weather, good company and great food and drink!

hello ! am back, tattooed and marked with pen ! was fine though.
Hope the weather is good for your holiday TheMadHouse

Hi MaryAnn

Glad to hear all went well. Don't suppose it is a very fetching tattoo? Shame they can't give you a nice daisy, or Brad Pitt or something........

! my only other tattoo is where I stabbed myself accidentally with a drawing pen years ago

good luck on Wednesday btw..

hello ladies- been taxol'd- feel knackered- air con was off in the unit and i was sitting there sweating and shivering at the same time!

Off to bed for a few days now- good luck to you all!

PS my tattoo's got turned into flowers by a wonderful tattoo artist- dh said it would be a nicer reminder of what i went through

mmmm- dh has brought hot chocolate and penguin wafers for me to eat in bed i love him!!

have a good rest abermum - bless your lovely dh !

well i'm feeling ok- bit spaced out and very warm and sweaty- last time i had chemo it was winter but this time the heat is bothering me.

I've made it out of bed (although i will retire back to bed with the laptop in a bit) done a load of washing and waved the kids off to school- baby asleep in pushchair downstairs, dh dealing with a wasp problem and cats sitting looking as pathetic as me

planning a trip out to morrisons with dh later to get fans, cooling spray stuff and something to tempt me for dinner- won't be going out on my own for a few days but i feel ok enough to make the short trip down there.

All in all this time round i still feel human- much better than last time, although it may still hit me i suppose.

Good luck to everyone having treatment in the nest few days !

Don't suppose you'll see this for a day or two Abermum, but your dh sounds wonderful. I want one like that.

Loving the idea of the flower tattoo, eventually, when I get to that point, I may go down a similar route, never had a tattoo before. Hmmm!

I'm just going round my house like a crazy loon, trying to get it looking a bit clean and tidy before I feel too crappy to deal with it. My dh and dd have many qualities, cleanliness and tidiness are sadly not among them. I am alone in stemming the messy tide. When I went into hospital to have my dd I warned dh not to let me return home to mess - 4 days later I walked into a filthy hovel. 'I have cleaned up!' he said.

I have no hope that anything has changed in the last - almost exactly - 6 years.

Abermum - wallow in the love!

MaryAnn - no more stabbing yourself with pens, people will start to talk self-harm!

I'll be back in a few days to see how you are all doing, and no doubt to moan myself. Stay strong!

ooh Abermum our posts have crossed. Delighted to see you are not feeling as crap as before. In awe that you are dealing with a baby as well, and also in awe that he/she is asleep in a pushchair. Mine never slept in the day, ever. Sometimes people tell me that I must have just forgotten, to which I reply, no, ask our fabulous and long-suffering childminder.

I read about Alan Bennett's time on chemotherapy (ratbag never lost HIS hair )- he said he had a raging urge to be outside all the time. So I have bought quite a fetching straw hat so I can do the same, without burning my gleaming head. Weather and work permitting I plan to spend some time relaxing in the fresh air and reading Alan Carr's autobiography. It's had me crying with laughter already, so saving the rest for when I need a laugh (round about hair drop time, I imagine).

Thinkning of you and hoping you stay feeling OK
x

i shall tell you what my mother tells me- an immaculate house is a sign of a wasted life!! sod the cleaning, you have an excuse, give the hoover a holiday!!

PS- Whilst i say this i suffer from cleaning OCD!! bugs me beyond belief that no-one in this house is capable of making a bed or putting the tie-backs round curtains!

And why, oh why, can no-one change the loo roll????

every member of my family is allergic to...................

The shoe cupboard

And why oh why does dh think that i will want to use the towel he has just dried his arse on- i don't, especially as its been dumped in a wet heap on the floor

oh and biggest bugbear- "i've put the pans in to soak" NOOOOOOO- put them in the blardy dishwasher, thats what its for! now i have to fish around in manky cold water to pick out the knives and forks because they won't be through the dishwasher in time for tea

OOOh i feel better now

Aber - I think your home and mine are very similar after all!

Dh is utterly hopeless at housework and always says I have to give him a job to do, 'cause he doesn't know what to do otherwise. So on saturday I tell him that the biggest priority (I have a long, long list) is vacuuming upstairs. Nearly 6 year old Babycakes wants to help with housework (you can read that as 'doesn't want to go round Sainsburys with Mum'). So why, by all that's holy, does he give the vacuuming to her? 'Well I didn't feel I could go round after her and do it again, she'd be hurt'!!!! WTF?

Isn't it good to vent occasionally?

pmsl aber

I've given up on the house- if my family want to live in squallor then let them!

My focus has been moved to my postage stamp garden, so far i have found a hardwood table and chairs, a bargain parasol (£3.92!!!! and its HUGE!!) a kids furniture set and parasol, a hang on the wall washing line, a slide and a swing. Now i just need seat cushions and a matching oilcloth table cover and i'll be sitting out there all day every day ....Oh and a bottle of baileys would help to pass the time

On a more serious note- i feel ok, bit wobbly at times but on the whole i am doing most things that i normally would- just a bit slower. I even went on my own- well with the pushchair, to the school to get the kids (its literally a less than two minute walk down the road!)

Just goes to show that chemo can have such different effects on diff people and at diff times- weird! My scalp has started itching slightly though- not sure if the kids have brought bugs home or if its the start of hair migration

At least you know that you won't be needing to attack yourself with the Hedrin for the rest of the summer. Every cloud has a silver lining!

Really pleased that side effects seem mitigated a bit this time around. Long may it continue!