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 !

Mary Ann - so glad to hear you are feeling better, I second everything reallywoundup said.

Reallywoundup - glad to hear you are feeling positive and that you are able to have a bit of a rest. Will keep hoping it is just wind!

I am feeling pretty reasonable having been away for a long weekend in Bath (VERY posh address too, - good job we know people with money, they can be SO useful ) however, no treatment holiday for me at the moment )unless the bloods come back crappy, of course). Got to keep going. Rats! So back for another zapping on Wednesday. I am not sure when I am going to get to do any work, but I suppose I should keep that problem in proper perspective.

I think I will get the jab as well, but no-one seems to know much for certain, so we shall see. If offered it my advice to both of you would be to take it, I felt like shit, and apparently I was by no means badly affected. So if it gets offered, grab with both hands before they change their minds!

glad to hear you had a good w/end away Cakes - I do like Bath ! Will take the flu jabs offered - the only times I've had flu I did feel really awful, so it's just sensible !
Hope all ok reallywoundup and that you are resting and feeling a bit better

oh and good luck with zapping this week Cakes

Thanks! Am I right in thinking Reallywoundup is also on a zapping week this week? If so - good luck to you!

To be honest I am getting pretty fed up of it, and am only halfway through. Suppose I have to just focus on the fact that I am working towards the end of it (hopefully) now.

We are going to try to plan another long weekend soon, so we have something positive to look forward to, as it really seems to help.

bath was truly lovely as always. There was an open air perofrmance at a posh school on the outskirts, arranged by the Bath Theatre Royal and using local kids. It was great fun - NO idea what the plot was about, but our dd really enjoyed it, and the kids in the show were absolutely brilliant. It was a great way to spend an afternoon. I think the weekend away was an absolute godsend, made me feel loads better - so thanks to my brother in law for the loan of the flat. Yay!

hope you are both ok this w/end - thinking of you

Hi MaryAnn

I am doing OK thanks, hope you still are, too. Finding this time around a bit of a trial, nothing too horrible, just very tired and completely obsessed with drinking anything and everything, you'd think I had been crawling through the desert for a month. I just can't get to feeling properly hydrated.

Apparently the tamiflu zapped my liver a bit and that can make the body hold onto the chemo more than it should, so it may be my system trying to flush it all out - anyway, starting to feel better today so no worries.

Eyelashes thinning out quite a bit now, but at least they are not gone (yet ). Doing everything i can to hold on to them.

Longing for the end of the school holidays, my work is backing up horribly!

Do let me know how you get on when you go to talk about tamoxifen!

hi Cakes - dehydration sounds horrid..really hope you feel better soon...just quickly checking in as we've had the longest day in London and I am completely shattered and can barely think,let alone type ! take care and will be back when I can make sense

Hope it was a fun busy day, and not a business one.

Get some rest!

it was a fun day ! we seemed to walk a lot !

'ello! having a silly day atm- been playing power rangers with the kids all morning! hope all is well ladies.

Hiya reallywoundup - so glad to hear you are feeling up to it! A bit of daft play with the kids is often just what we need (can't personally do much of it though, all our games end up with us owning shedloads of pets and going on a boat trip to Africa. It wears thin.........rather like my eyelashes )

I am absolutely fine, thanks, apart from the eyelashes thing and the baldness - and MaryAnn sounds like she is getting on well with life post treatment.

Am having to take weekly blood tests as my liver currently looks a bit rubbish, prob (the consultant thinks) the result of the flu and the Tamiflu, but they are monitoring it. Felt a bit tired and rubbish yesterday but a lot better today. Trying hard to work, but hard to get down to it.

Why is it the hair we like disappears, but the hairy legs remain untouched??

aww bless- i am patchy everywhere funny how hair loss is so random- would be nice if you could order it in advance wouldn't it- "i would like no hair on my legs, armpits and a tidy ladygarden please but leave everything else "

I'm just getting on with it- i figure i can collapse in a heap when the kids go back to school but in the meantime i owe it to them to be a bit of a prat although baldness does come with advantages- no hedrin [yey]!

was held hostage for a few days earlier this week and spent the time sewing name labels into uniform- the nurses were so impressed they brought theirs in for me to do kept me sane!

Ha ha

Yeah, the Hedrin thing is a definite plus - had to do dd earlier this week, The new one hour only Hedrin is an absolute b***d to get off, thank God I avoided that one.

Most impressed you are sewing labels - and for other people as well!! - I scribble on the wash care labels with a laundry marker pen. I am very domestically challenged.

Was a captive myself a couple of weeks ago, with swine flu. It is not nice, is it. Some people were only venturing into my room fully robed, with nose masks and plastic eye visors. But then the tea trolley lady just used to wander in without anything, except a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. I think their barrier nursing technique was a bit patchy. Or maybe tea trolley ladies have natural immunity owing to their generally smiley nature.

Either way, I think I could easily have started baying the moon.

Agree about the kids - being mad with them when you can probably does you as much good as it does them. (In small doses).

hi you two - am just back from three days away visiting MIL who is in a nursing home (broken femur - is elderly and frail)
I sew labels on very badly (I cringe at the memory of ds's Beaver uniform and my awful stitches)
We have one week of hols left,which is nice - school shoes and a haircut for ds I think.
at hedrin !! touch wood ds has got to yr 8 and no head lice (I plaster him with BIZ NIZ which he loathes)
Hope you both have a good week and feel ok. Am fine, tired but fine.Will start tamoxifen when ds goes to school.

Hiya

At risk of sounding like I have had EVERYTHING (am usually quite healthy, actually) - have broken my femur and it is very, very painful. Poor her. Has she had a nail put in it? major op, that one - had mine taken out two years later, though. Now thankfully metal-free. I feel for her, especially if she is old and frail, as the exercise afterwards is crucial and she may find this very difficult. Hope she is OK.

What is BIZ NIZ? How does it work? I am willing to try anything. The one-hour only hedrin is awful - I have just completed stage 2 of the treatment, which I am sure will have been effective, but it has taken THREE washes and nearly half a bottle of shampoo to get the stuff out of poor dd's hair, and I was quite vigorous with the washing. I think I prefer the stuff that requires a nit combing, with hindsight. Really, she has been lice-free for nearly 12 months but she persuaded me to let her go to school with her hair down for a few days and bang! here we are again. (Really, I am a pushover for anything that cuts down on effort for me, but the time taken to Hedrin her has far outweighed the time I saved on hair tying. My own fault, clearly).

I really hope your MIL is going to be OK, now you have told us about her I can't get it out of my thoughts. It really was one of the most painful things I can ever remember. I will be sending some positive thoughts. Poor, frail little thing. Puts my moaning into perspective.

xx

I read it as if you'd broken your femur just now !! !
MIL is very stoical and hasn't made a fuss at all. It is pinned..she broke the other one a few years ago !
BIZ NIZ is tea tree and lavender and a conditioner which I just rub through his hair as a preventative- he says it smells,but it doesn't smell nasty,just lavendery,which is probably not what boys want to smell of ! It is used to comb through too.
It's very sweet of you to think of MIL and send good thoughts - she deserves to be well as she is very brave.

God she does sound brave, I was a total wuss (it was 10 years ago, not much has changed, still am).

The pins are not nice things at all, really bloody hurt. I was advised to get mine out by the physios who said they could start to come out through the knee (gulp) - i think they meant over a long time, for younger people who were quite active, not for older people who manage better because they are less active, but still......

Sorry to confuse you ref timmescales! I think if I broke it now it might prove to be the straw that broke the camel's back!

And I'm going to be looking out for the BIZNIZ.

here

Ooh thanks, MaryAnn, will take a look.

Hope everyone has a good weekend - I am taking my dd to the Cotswolds for a long weekend, so am hoping for decent weather. Dh is going on his annual lads walking weekend in Wales so I decided that she and i should have some fun as well. We have found a very nice place to stay and they have done me a special deal on a luxury suite as it was all they had left available. Hooray! She will definitely not let me take my preferred option of lazing about with a good book and a face pack all day, but it will be fun anyway!

Dh now very jealous - apparently their accommodation is "bunk house style" whatever that means, but it doesn't sound luxurious, does it? I suspect it involves them all sleeping in a kind of dormitory in sleeping bags, never a very nice idea when you have about 15 blokes who have all drunk a lot of beer.

They take it in turns to arrange the thing - this was not Dh's turn. He would have preferred more luxury, more beer, and less walking......

Whatever you are doing - enjoy it! Kids back at school on Monday. Yippee!

think I know which weekend I'd prefer ! have a lovely time

hope you had a lovely weekend - first tamoxifen taken this morning

hi ladies, hope all is well with you.

I have seen my onc today to discuss results and a forward treatment plan. Wasn't the news we had hoped for and me and dh are going to have a think before i agree to any further treatment or major ops.

On the up side- my lot are back at school [yey] and loving it - doubt the enthusiasm will last, but i can dream

reallywoundup - was just thinking of you this morning...sending a huge hug xxxxx

many thanks mas, head in a spin atm- see other thread for details, as i don't want to bring it onto here!