Hello my name is Heather I have just been diagnosed with brest cancer last week for the first time (and last I hope) Both my sisters have had cancer,one died seven month ago Im a bit scared of what to expect with the chemo. Can anyone tell me how soon after the treatment do you start to feel ill? How soon do you lose your hair?
Read through th post and loosing count of all the people on the thread I thinks its great that its growing every day.
I am off to France 4am so have to make the post short.
Maddona For a while I was having zoladex injections to shut down my overies. I dont think after 3 that it is unusual to have slight spotting. As Sue said call the onclogy Monday do you have a hospital cancer care nurse? I do and shes great any problems and I just call her.
Hope everyone has a fab weekend and when I get home it will take me 3 days to catch up with all the posts : )
One for the tips folder if we ever get it. Not had any pain whatsoever since painting my nails dark, this time last week they were killing me. Lorraine have a fab time. xx Kev, nice to see you again, love the new photo xx
Hi to everybody x Went to the hospital yesterday, i felt ready to ask more questions. I asked wat type of cancer i have, i'm sure they'd said before but its as if my brain shut down!!! The biggest cancer i have is invasive ductal carcinoma, the other two i have their not really sure about, know more after my mastectomy, is this normal? I just pressumed it would be the same. Going by mri scan my lymph nodes look ok, but again know more after op, keep my fingers crossed!! I have mastectomy on 20th aug, woke up this morn full of cold, hope it doesn't linger!! now i've accepted that i have to this op i just want to get it done. I hope you are all ok and have lovely weekend, its lovely and sunny i'm thinking bbq for my family who have been such great support. Talk soon, caley xxxxxx
Great idea Marian. i look forward to reading it when you are finished.
Wendy, I think waiting on dates for things to happen is the worst aspect of this horrible disease. I saw my onc on July 15th and she said she was arranging for my radiotherapy to commence around Sep 14th. Yesterday I got fed up waiting to hear from them, so after many phone calls, I finally spoke to the head of radiology who told me that no date would be arranged until after my last chemo on Aug 26th, just in case there were any problems. Why didn't they tell me that in the first place?
Whether it be FEC or EPI, which seem to be the first lot of 4 we all have, they are a bugger! The second lot we have seem to be gentler. Just bear in mind that the first 4 are really zapping any stray cancer cells Hard as it is, the side effects don't last forever.
Susan 13 I have to have Arimidex after my radiotherapy. I've been reading up on it too. The conclusion that I have come to is that everyone reacts differently to chemo and meds. So I will start off with it and see if and how it affects me.
Hi Chelle, hope the taste buds are coming back to life again. Mine get better every day. I'm going to enjoy food now until the 19th!
Hope you cold gets better soon. Caley. Just what you don't want at this time is it?
Nice to see you again, Kev and hope that you and Brad are OK.
Stef............where are you? Hope you are OK.
Hi to everyone else on the site. Sorry if I have missed anyone out, but we are so many now!
Jean I’m seeing my onc next week and she said last time, that at my next appointment they would arrange when my rads start. Now I’m thinking will they?? as it’s still a week before my last cycle (as you know). Oh well I’ll just have to wait and see. My taste buds are still missing!! It’s taking forever for them to return this time.
Caley it’s good that you felt ready to ask questions. I think its part of accepting this awful situation you find yourself in. I think they can find out more information after your op because when I had my lumpectomy and some nodes taken out, they examined what they removed and know more about your cancer and spread. Glad your nodes look ok. A bbq sounds perfect for this lovely day and hope you feel better soon.
Paula your tips and information folder is a great idea especially when your new to all this and your heading is struggling to take in all the information. And there are so many new people here, imagine how many people would benefit from it! Glad you’re on good form despite being knackered.
Lorraine have a fab time in France. I too am losing count of all the people on here. The more the merrier (apart from i don't want any of us to go through this of course).
Kev it’s great to hear from you. Glad all is well.
Beville welcome to this site but sorry you’ve had to go through this terrible time. It’s lovely to hear that things are returning to normal for you and you’re coming out the other side. How much longer have you got to have Herceptin for? How are you finding it? I’ve got to start Herceptin this Autumn and I’m hoping it’s a lot easier than chemo.
Maddona I’m sorry I can’t help you with the Zoladex as I haven’t started them yet (Mine starts this Autumn unless I have my ovaries removed). I’m sure spotting is quite normal though.
Hope everyone is able to enjoy this lovely weather we’re finally getting.
Hi everyone OMG it has taken me absolutely ages to catch up with all your posts, as I said before I have to use a public computer and I haven't been able to get to one for a few days.
Well my step mum finally saw the surgeon and showed her my pictures, the response was what I expected that she thinks he has made a right mess of them, so my options are, do I stick with what I have or return to the UK to get them put right. The surgeon also said that she couldn't understand why he left my nipples and that I would have to have both implants removed and using my stomach reconstruct that way. She also said she would not touch me until I have been checked out by the oncologist in UK first as she is not convinced he has removed all the cancer. I am seeing my oncologist in Nicosia on wednesday and will ask her what she thinks, unfortunatly they tend not to bad mouth their own over here so I'm not sure I will get a straight answer. I have been pretty poorly lately and getting a lot of pain in the site where the tumour was, I was putting this down to healing pain but I'm not so sure now. Oh well fingers crossed it will all be ok. hope you all who are having chemo next week don't suffer to much. keep on smiling I am. sue
well i had my first FEC chemo yesterday(friday) and i must say so far so good but jey i know it's early days yet im just very tired and spaced out from the steroids but i was told once of the steroids it will be down hill from there so monday is d day for that to all happen. I must say i was a bit teary as the first red stuff was pushed into me but hey ho onwards ond upwards i have to have three cycles of fec and three cycles of taxotere which im dreading as some women i met said that was the worse one.
anyway im ok at the mo and will keep you all posted.
well i had my first FEC chemo yesterday(friday) and i must say so far so good but jey i know it's early days yet im just very tired and spaced out from the steroids but i was told once of the steroids it will be down hill from there so monday is d day for that to all happen. I must say i was a bit teary as the first red stuff was pushed into me but hey ho onwards ond upwards i have to have three cycles of fec and three cycles of taxotere which im dreading as some women i met said that was the worse one.
anyway im ok at the mo and will keep you all posted.
Just wrote a long post trying to remember all of you - then lost it all! :-( Well done, Jenney, on getting through your first chemo. Sue - do hope you get some peace over what to do next. Caley, as others have said, each step we take will help us to understand more of what's going on! Enjoy your bbq. Jean - thanks for your encouragement as always. Guess what? THE letter arrived this morning. I have an appt. to meet my plastic surgeon on Friday and hope to find out date of op. then. To all of you - sorry, I've been so rubbish at writing personally - there are so many of us! Must be a great site to attract so much interest. I continue to find it supportive and helpful. Enjoy the sunshine, love, Wendy xxx
Glad to hear you're OK so far. Only 2 more FECs to go now. Hope you don't get the dreaded metal mouth. About Taxotere. I've only just realised that this a propriety name for docetaxel, which I had 6 goes of. Although there are definite side effects to it, I wouldn't say they are worse than FEC, just a bit different. From what I remember, the first dose was the worst by some distance, as I ached so much I didn't know what to do with myself BUT, the other 5 weren't anything like as bad. We're all different, but please don't worry about the taxotere too much, it's bearable.
Hi to everyone else. Hope you're having a good weekend. Paul and I are off to Greenwich this afternoon. Spot of lunch, then an outdoor play in the grounds of the old naval college.
