**TAMOXIFEN** 4th thread

[MaryAnnSingleton]

here we go !

That looks yummy, and just the thing MAS - thanks - I can shop for ingredients tomorrow. Only problem - I won't be able to try it as its for the fete. I'll have to make an extra one

I might have a go at the weekend as there's a bag of ground almonds in the cupboard (I was going to make an orange polenta cake a few weeks ago)

Hi. Yes thanks KK, my skin is holding up fine so far. Tiredness has kicked in the last couple of days so I'm glad all these kind people are giving me lifts. Pity I can't sleep past about 5am at the mo!

WEight has crept up over the last couple of weeks - groan. Lack of activity I thin - doing less walking due to rads and watching too much sport! Still Wimbledon was very exciting yesterday. Poor RF!

Good luck with cakes and well done on your exercise.

Hope evryone is bearing up. Just hope this tiredness doesn't take me down a steep slope...next chemo is on 9 July.

Do I need a potting shed or a summer house? Views welcome! I want something that looks attractive so even an 'arbour' would be good (and a lot cheaper) but idea of a potting shed is nice (quiet hours happily pottering about with seeds ....place to store lawn mower....summer house not really much practical use and lawn mower would turn it into a shed anyway......)You can get an L-shaped shed with integral potting shed! Could put plants in the corner of L and thus make it look nice. (Sorry RWU - lapsing deeply into Gardeners World. Hope you're feeling OK)

Not sure on the shed summer house debate. But I think anything where valuables can't be readily seen through a window has got to be an option, which would suggest shed. My heart says summer house, though....

I had NO idea that you had to do exercises after rads because of scarring. Really??!? How did I miss that? It's not in the leaflet I was given either, have just checked. That'll explain the pain I had in my mauled boob last night - I have been doing the new back exercises from the physio, and also went to yoga - cue shooting pains in boob, that were quite painful. Ow! Gone now though.

Pennies - hope you are better today, you have a lot of support which is great, and treats are JUST what the doctor ordered (or should have). Hope the appt. went well too. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, things should look up gradually. The key is not to expect too much, too soon, I think.

All this baking of cakes. So industrious!

KK - do you do the cooling breath at yoga? God I felt a twit - and it didn't even seem to work!

hmm, summer house sounds very lovely, but shed practical- you could just get a smaller lean-to shed for stuff like mower,equipment etc - my parents have this, and then something lovely to sit in.
I wasn't advised to exercise after rads, just after surgery..the damage to the tissue is in the breast area anyway...maybe different if you have rads to underarm area.
Have thrown away dh's shrimp paste (hooray-it was kind of pervasive) as it won't keep outside fridge - everything perishable in camping fridge - I wonder if the jars of stuff like jam,chutney will be ok for couple of days unrefrigerated ?
Am going to dust and clean today then draw...hate dusting.

I think jars should be OK, they are preserves, after all. Don't hold me to it, though

I am cleaning too, when I get off the phone and pooter. Yuk.

What you say about exercise sounds right MAS, that might explain it. But one of the exercises the physio gave me for my back kind of squeezes my boob onto my rib cage. I can do it, but when I do the required holding for 20 seconds, the discomfort kind of builds and builds. I think this is what is causing a pain in the boob later, but I'm gonna have to grin and bear it.

Am in call centre hell waiting to book panto tickets - how organised am I?

Ooh yay, Cinderella here we come!

very organised Cakes !! righto, off to dust :-(

Dusting going V BADLY here - I have put 'The Golden Age of Rock and Roll' on repeat on the CD, am not sure it makes me dust better but it cheers me up no end. (Mott the Hoople for younger listeners - see if you can find it on YouTube. I defy you not to dance).

Hi. Sorry to have given surprise info about these exercises. It does seem to make sense to me as I can feel the under-arm area tightening as the rads progress. We were all told strictly that we should attend the exercise advice class AND another on lymphodaema. So I have. Nurse said you should keep stretching out that scar tissue - go into the discomfort zone but not pain zone, she said! 4 times a day advised but at least 3, for 4 months after rads finish. Then continue but only twice then once a day till 12 months after treatment.

She said something about the under-arm muscles but also about muscles attached to chest wall.

Do you want to know more detail of exercises? Can write up more this evening if useful but have to go now.

Please, SR, if you wouldn't mind. I am quite keen not to end up covered in tight scar tissue.

one of the 'good' things about OCD and particularly mine (which concerns order/control/things being just right/) is that it made me do things like cleaning the bath and shower every day,even the day after surgery (hence my cleaning and doing stuff with poorly ribs) - the anxiety of not doing routines over ruled the pain and discomfort of my wounds and consequently my arms have been fully stretched and remain so - I don't know whether that's terribly sad or just weird - but it certainly controls one's life.

Sounds like it has an upside as well as a down.

Bit of a bind, though

it's not much fun, but hey my arm is flexible

And that's handy for drinking and cake eating

certainly is !

Hmm potting shed or summer house - both sound excellent. Potting shed probably more practical, but the idea of lounging in a summer house on a hazy afternoon, with a good book, and a glass of iced lemonade.........

Actually a good friend of mine had a summer house, which her DH - a fire safety engineer!- managed to set on fire, due to an ill positioned bonfire. (another of my cheery anecdotes)

Haven't tried the cooling breath so far Cakes, have done various other kinds of breathing - apparently I breathe the wrong way round . We also do too much chanting.

Have been swimming this morning, and am going to make the cake in little while.I'll have to somehow prevent DH from absent mindedly helping himself to a slice. Not many cakes are quick enough to get away from him.

Pennies and RWU thinking of you both and hoping things are a bit easier today. CC and Smee (and SR of course), hope fatigue and other chemo SE, not too horrible atm. Wave to Haggis - hope you're fine too. Also Wubbly if you read the thread, hope everything is well with you

What is this cleaning and dusting of which you speak Cakes and MAS?

It is the work of the devil, that's what it is! I have turned back over to the light side now, it was getting right up my nose hot.

Oh, don't mention the chanting, I absolutely HATE the bloody chanting. I feel such a knob doing it and I never relax because I am listening to make sure I don't start before anyone else or finish after them all. Fortunately we don't too much, I think we must all look a bit reluctant.

report back on cake KK!
ds will be making his cookies this weekend as he missed doing them at school...

Cake now in the oven - takes 1hr 10m to cook.

I've got enough ingredients left to make another, so will put that in later - give the best one to the cake stall and gobble the other one

Yummo - was it easy to make ? am looking forward to report !

Did somebody say cake?! Waves to all. No time to say anything other than hello, and to say I need a good recipe for when my mouth is de-chemo'd. Am anticipating about Tuesday next week. Should give you time.

Hope everyone's well. Am wilting a bit in this heat..

Hi Smee -

It was very easy to make MAS - method same as any sponge type cake - and you just mix in the fresh fruit at the end.

First attempt looks really nice, and smells great (Dog has just wandered through the kitchen, doing nonchalant sniffing-the-air as a hint)

Neither of my tins were quite the right size (one slightly too big, one slightly small) so am making one in each to see which looks best.

Looks like the sort of cake that would be very nice as a pudding with cream lowfat yogurt.

Haven't posted for a few days so was dismayed to hear of Pennies and RWU being down, Mas still with sore ribs and Cakes and KK also having aches and pains (hope I haven't missed anyone out). Hope you are all feeling a bit better now and best wishes to all those struggling through treatment.
Ds's school breaks up for summer tomorrow so we are hopefully heading off for a night in the tent. Think that's about all I can manage just now!

Just back from a much needed shower, but am still rather alarmingly thinking of cake, for which I blame Kurri. Oh and I vote for a potting shed with a terrace for reclining, so a hybrid of sorts; a pottersum shed?!

Hello Haggis. To be applauded as a brave woman. I like camping, but not too sure about it this year. A night'll be fun though, am sure.

cakes I was alarmed by the pantomime booking, but more so by talk of dusting. We dust to Ska in this house. Makes it far more conducive, though I have to admit it's a rare event.

Pennies and RWU, really hope you're feeling a bit brighter. Hard in this heat to think straight though am sure. Let us know you're alright when you can.

MAS, I think your cake addiction is worrying as mine. Hope the ribs are still on the mend.

• SR, is it the last rads tomorrow?? If so a big YEAY from me. Bet it feels odd, but another bit through has to be good.