**TAMOXIFEN** 4th thread

[MaryAnnSingleton]

here we go !

Sorry to hear you're feeling rough RWU - hope you feel better soon.

Had an interesting night last night when, in hope of getting a good night's sleep I took a couple of Nytol. I spent most of the night on the loo with the runs and had a really bad night. It turned out however, that in my chemo fug I'd taken a couple of Senna laxative tablets instead of Nytol (similar coloured pack). What an utter muppet.

Felt v. bad this morning but made myself get up and go and see a friend. The walk did me good and it was lovely to have a cuppa and giggle.

Glad to hear DD is OK KK - I can't imagine how our parents must have felt without the media of texts and emails for reassurance whilst we galavanted around the globe.

Cakes - sorry but it did make me about you not paying yourself for two months! And I thought I was bad with money.

Made a major discovery today- Buffs. Cool multifunctional headcovering for people without (or with) hair who don't want to do turbans or scarves- they just don't scream the C word. Also can use skiing, running, whatever, so usefulness not limited to bald period. Seal of approval from sensitive teen sons, ultimate accolade. Lots of patterns and colours.
Promise have no shares in the company! Google em. Friend recommended on tues, ordered 4 yesterday and they arrived today. UV protection and can wear swimming so all coming to Italy with me.

Hope all well with you all in various stages of treatment. Take it easy. (I often get tired just reading all the busy posts )

Made a major discovery today- Buffs. Cool multifunctional headcovering for people without (or with) hair who don't want to do turbans or scarves- they just don't scream the C word. Also can use skiing, running, whatever, so usefulness not limited to bald period. Seal of approval from sensitive teen sons, ultimate accolade. Lots of patterns and colours.
Promise have no shares in the company! Google em. Friend recommended on tues, ordered 4 yesterday and they arrived today. UV protection and can wear swimming so all coming to Italy with me.

Hope all well with you all in various stages of treatment. Take it easy. (I often get tired just reading all the busy posts )

Hah SR - what a great idea to name your PICC line. Lenny sounds quite friendly . I have tried the chillow by the way - it is constantly by my bed along with a jug of water and an electric fan...

RWU - if you are lurking - I am sending you a big hug and hope you feel better soon.

Pennies - hope the fug lifts soon.

I'm off for a few days to Inverness to see my mum and dad and MIL and FIL so radio silence from me until Tuesady or so.
Hope you all have a good weekend.

Oops sorry don't know how that happened..

oh Pennies - senna instead of nytol - poor you.
Have a good trip to Inverness haggis
Buff sound excellent idea cupcaked
Tomorrow I embark on major baking - I think my arm will be very well exercised in the beating of cake mixture and icing - I'm planning on making chocolate,strawberry and rose - there is a butter mountain ready for it. I will lick the bowl too much and feel sick. Sorted through the prizes for the tombola and there are 34 -we stuck tickets on and folded up the rest - dh is being very organised. A friend I haven't seen for ages was coming to the tea but has sprained her ankle badly so can't make it but I hope there should be 23 people,including us and my parents.

Wow good for you MAS. Wish I was coming, I LOVE cake. Especially when it's still in the mixing bowl! Hope all goes well and the sun shines for you.

I am strangely tired this week, missed an end of term mums nite out last nite as just homed in on the jammies and chocolate instead of wig warpaint and heels. Am sleeping and eating well so bit confused as this is week 3 and want to make hay before next chemo on tuesday. Wasn't like this last cycle.

Nothing a morning in bed won't sort! Good weekend, all.

Wow good for you MAS. Wish I was coming, I LOVE cake. Especially when it's still in the mixing bowl! Hope all goes well and the sun shines for you.

I am strangely tired this week, missed an end of term mums nite out last nite as just homed in on the jammies and chocolate instead of wig warpaint and heels. Am sleeping and eating well so bit confused as this is week 3 and want to make hay before next chemo on tuesday. Wasn't like this last cycle.

Nothing a morning in bed won't sort! Good weekend, all.

cupcaked x 2! I have a Buff too - came yesterday, along with a few bandana type scarves. Still have hair, but day 15 of cycle no.1, so am sure if it's going it'll soon be gone. I had a practise venture out with the Buff on and nobody stared. Daft really, but it helped.

Pennies, your senna story made me smile, though only in sympathy honest! Nytol makes me feel so heavy and weird so have given up on it. Might try something else - anyone got any recommendations?

MAS hope the baking's going a storm. I imagine you with surfaces piled with goodies. Will be virtually with you tomorrow, so remember to reserve me a seat.

Haggis, you sound like the chillow, if it's by your bed. Is it really any good?

Top news here, as we have a new lovely cafe on our school run - it's the only one in a crow flying sort of direction. They gave me a free latte to bring home.

Good luck again with the tea, MAS. Weather looks good.

Pennies - about the senna. Sorry, but it is funny.

Buffs sound good! Glad you have found something the dss can live with.

my latest evidence of the crap way I bumble through my life - I have a bad cough following a cold last week, now being made worse by hay fever.

Last night in my greed to neck a beef casserole (diet is going quite badly) I swallowed a piece of bayleaf, which got stuck in the sore part of my throat. That b***d wasn't going down or coming up - I thought I was going to choke to death. Dh out, dd crying because she didn't know what to do, everything going a funny colour for me. It finally went down, and now the cough is even worse. Dear me, what a way to be carrying on.

Oh, Cakes, what an awful story! I can imagine it was really frightening. So glad you're OK!!

And Pennies re the medication muddle - easy to do. Did I mention I took double chemo one day as i had put anti-sickness in chemo pills box? Blimey we all need those special boxes with the days and pills written on!

Smee and CC - yes I wear buffs too. They're good and I find not too hot.

MAS - Good luck with your event tomorrow - I'm sure it will be really brill and wish I could come! I'm doing a car boot sale to help raise funds for DS's trip to South Africa in August - we've been fubnd-raising all year and nearly done now.

I felt exhausted last evening - rads trip again today so will prob just watch the match this evening. Have spent morning doing admin. I wasn't paid the right amount this month (though it was somone else's mistake not mine ) so had to chase that up to get it corrected. Plus an on-line shop, and chasing nurses etc to clean Lenny out next week . Bit like having a pet really!

Have a good w/e all, especially those going on nice trips or being heroic with scones.

Take it easy SR, that bloody fatigue just creeps up on you. Have a good and relaxing evening watching the football (though I don't know how anyone can bear to watch with the sound turned up).

Dog sitting this weekend. Oh the glamour.

Good weekend to all - enjoy yourself in Inverness Haggis, will be great to see all your family.

I'm sure strawberry tea will go swimmingly MAS - sounds wonderful, don't strain your mixing arm!

Pennies - re the senna, hope you are OK now, you probably have the sparkliest innards in the UK now.

And Cakes - bayleaf in the throat - how frightening, glad it went down in the end. I remember seeing something once on TV about doing the heimlich maneouvre on yourself - IIRC it involves bending over a chair so it sort of punches you in the stomach. [amateur first aider emoticon]

Buffs sound good CC, I went for beanies and some sort of wide woven headbands I got from an Indian shop which were great. I never had a wig (was never offered one for some reason).

Smee - cafe sounds nice, could become a regular haunt

Good luck with the CBS SR hope your DS gets the rest of his money, sounds like an exciting trip.

I was supposed to go to keep fit today, but felt so knackered I couldn't get out of bed. maybe because I had an upset stomach yesterday. I took a sleeping pill last night, in desperation for some sleep, which was probably a mistake, my head feels like wool today. (can't take nytol, because it reacts with something else I take unfortunately). Am now knocking back coffee to counteract.

Hope you are feeling a little better today RWU - loads of love to you xxxx

Self-inflicted Heimlich, hmm, with my luck I think I'd better have a bit of a practice.

Woolly head thing is horrid, isn't it, since I've been on tamoxifen I find lots of things give me a woolly head - anti inflammatories, more than about 2 glasses of wine, late night - you name it.

Sounds to me like you were/are all a lot more stylish when it comes to headwear than me. I just went with the ready-tied scarves and tried to pretend it wasn't happening.

Have you lost the John Lennon hairdo yet, KK? I think I may be about ready for another cropping, the funky spiky bits are starting to wilt like old lettuce

Cakes - mine needs cropping again. It doesn't get longer at all, just thicker and more bouffant. (Not a good look.)
I'm going to have it done in a week or so I think. DD had a really nice cut before she went away, so I'm going to the same place - to see if they can tackle mine

Head still woolly. Does anyone else still have the permanently dripping nose after chemo? mine runs continuously - perhaps I'm stuck with it.

I do have the drippy nose a bit. Plus lots of other aches and pains and fatiguey bits: I think it takes a VERY long time to clear.

Anyone else permanently convincing themselves they have a problem with the other boob? I have had mine checked so often they probably suspect I like it but they never find anything. It is so sensitive and odd feeling - maybe it's the tamoxifen and the menopausal symptoms. I'll be getting out out again for the onc in three weeks time, poor man. He keeps just saying stiffly "Well I can't feel anything to account for the symptoms you describe" and sending me on my merry way.

Oh please tell me the drippy nose stops! I was hoping it was because of the lack of nasal hair but it seems you're telling me it's a long terms SE!! Arrgghh.

Cakes - can't answer your Q about the other boob as I elected to have a double mastectomy for the precise reason that I couldn't handle the constant fear that it would crop up again in the other side. Don't worry about presenting said boob to the Consultant - that's what they're there for. FWIW I am still healing after the lymph node removal and the aches and pains that presents makes me think something else is going on so there's always going to be that concern wherever there's something amiss.

MAS - very best of luck tomorrow. I will be thinking of you and keeping a close eye on the weather.

Thanks Pennies.

I wonder how many hours we each spend over the course of a week, imagining symptoms and feeling lumps and bumps

It hadn't occurred to me that nasal hairs went awol during chemo. I am a pillock. that would explain a lot. The drippy nose is a lot better in my case. I think many things continue for a while, but just gradually dwindle, so there is general improvement, just not as quick as we hope when we get to the end of all the poison.

I also get all sorts of twinges - both in the other boob, and on the mastectomy side. I have had to train myself to stop poking around too much, and making it sore.

But I think oncologists are used to people asking about these things - its very natural really, all considered. Mine have always been very good about checking me and reassuring me I'm not a complete hypochondriac when I go in flapping.

Thanks, KK.

It is a bind, isn't it.

I haven't had drippy nose (yet) but had noticed that due to lack of nasal hair my nostrils sort of stick together occasionally

Self-Heimlich ? Do you sort of drop yourself onto the chair? Sorry - quite funny image though it wd be terrifying if you needed to do it!

Nice look!

The mind boggles over the self Heimlich - i can see it might be a life saver but I suspect my legs might be too short to make it possible

here you go SR . The chap in the picture looks remarkably calm (I strongly suspect he's not really choking at all just showing off, or boring everyone rigid with his views on the economy.)

I do not really want to see another cupcake again (48 baked) had to have a stiff gin to restore me. I have to ice them tomorrow
My damaged breast aches quite often -definite twinges and it feels more solid than the other- I know this isw just post surgery,post rads though . Thanks for good wishes for tomorrow - please pray for no rain and a bit of sun ! Sending you all cakes,scones,strawberries and mum's meringues in spirit xx

Smee, am telling u now, once hair starts to go (any day now from my n=1 experience), it just gets grimmer and grimmer every day, and I strongly advise that you do not wait till combover required but take control
and go get shaved. Hugely liberating experience! I did it on day 19, having first noticed signs of heavier shedding day 14 which progressed dramatically, but everyone is different of course. Other thing I discovered this week is amazing fake pony tail, brill under hats for v sunny days when wig too itchy.

Could not understand permanent drippy nose, that makes sense.

Aches n pains r bread n butter to oncologists, do not be shy, it is their job. Remiss of u not to mention.

Kk, surviving without dd?
MAS, so impressed.
Cakes, omg about the bayleaf. Poor dd too. I do not believe self Heimlich is possible! Too late to tell u that leaf will cause blind panic bit can't really suffocate u unless lying in v unlikely position, v unpleasnt all the same.
SR, gcses all done yet??

Have to zzzz, discovered tonite that TsingTsao beer still goes down great with Chinese food...

Cx