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?
hi opera...im new to this site too, i was diagnosed a week before you. very strange feeling...some how i didnt think i was a cancer type person. iv since realized that there isnt a cancer type of person this thing attacks randomly. i know what you feel about your friends...mine have been very supportive but there is a lot of brave face stuff going on...like "really its nothing to have your breast taken off and a muscle taken out of your back to replace it" when really it is a very big deal...but how do you express that !!!!!!. i think you really do need to be able to express what you are going through to one person. i had my first chemo last week and couldnt stop crying, i think its just how this thing gets you. you sound to me that you have coped with all of it so well.... i think it probably is very good to cry...i did nt cry till i was out of hospital and sat in the bath, i looked down at my body, it looked so alien and wrong and i cryed and cryed and it felt good. i hope the soreness goes really quick. xxxxx helen chelle thankyou for your words... i really did think that it was going to be 5 months of that feeling....it has changed in to some thing else now, im still baffled by the storys of people working though. i do find when people say they have a friend of a friend that worked all the way through it...one said to me that there friend set up a company single handedly..they think they are being helpful but ts not because it makes me feel like im not dealing with this very well. oo the tea thing... i found rooibush tick tock tea tastes really nice...but thats probably just me. i hope every one is having a good weekend . xxxx
Thanks Helen and Heather for your encouragement. It's easier to talk to people who know what it is like.
Helen don't take it too much to heart when people talk about friends of friends. Everyone is different some people have chemo and some don't and if they weren't very close friends to them they can't possibly know how they have dealt with it.
I am HER2- and so I decided not to have the chemo. It was the right decision for me so, I can only imagine what it must be like for you. I had a lumpectomy not a mastectomy (thanks to my second surgeon) but even so I look down sometimes and I look all red and wrinkled and I feel as if it doesn't belong to me at all.
Heather your sister sounds great, quite a fighter, she is lucky to have a sister like you.
I was feeling very sorry for myself yesterday, gets me like that sometimes. Still only 3 radiotherapy sessions to go. I won't miss the travelling 100 mile round trip to Lincoln but I am still managing to drive myself.
Well it's a fab day here today.. I'm sitting on my sis's front terrace, just having had lunch, with a cold drink, my laptop & a fab book. I'm only about a fifth of the way through it, as not long started it, but it's great so far..it's told from the perspective of a dog. :-)
Hope everyone else is doing ok today!
Blossom, sorry to hear about your cold..hope the honey's doing the trick. Fingers crossed for your chemo, I hope it goes ahead..
Helen, I am glad you're sounding better.. With regards to working, it's a very personal thing. My sister took a week off for each chemo but worked the rest of the time, but one of her friends took the six months of chemo off. My sis was so tired so much of the time, which she may well have been anyway, but I'm sure continuing working must have taken its toll. So don't let it make you feel you are not dealing with it well because you are!!!
Anne, thank you for the kind words about me & my sis! :-) I am so glad you haven't got many sessions left..as you say, it will be so good for you not to have to do that journey, it must be so tiring.. I read your profile & I am so glad that your second surgeon came up with the right result for you.
Hi to everyone else, hope you are all feeling ok and enjoying the weather if you have it or are you just cursing me cos it's raining where you are.. ;-)
Don't worry marmalade i'm not cursing you because its a lovely, sunny day here also, although feeling alittle fresh in the wind or if a cloud covers the sun. Love your photo by the way...it's always nice to put a face with the person :-)
Hi Anne, so sorry to hear that you also have breast cancer. I'm glad you're now ready to post on this site, hopefully you shall find it as supportive as i do. You do sound like a strong person but don't feel afraid to lean on your friends and family, as thats what they'll want you to do.
Thanks for telling me of some tea Helen that just might taste good when my taste buds are out of sorts. I really do miss a good cuppa!! I agree with Anne about working through chemo..everyone's different. I couldn't think of anything worse than having to work while feeling poo and in the chemo coma...i just couldn't do it. So you're not alone :-)
Hi Blossom, sorry you've been unwell, fingers crossed you feel better soon x
Hello to everyone else, hope you're all keeping well. Take care,love Chelle x x
Anne sorry you have had to join us but I think you will find the support we all need at some time, good news you only have 3 radiotherapy to go and the drive you have had to do I think you have done really well, so don’t be to hard on yourself I sure you must of got very tired. I have just started my radiotherapy had 4 sessions 26 to go and thankfully I only have a short drive (15 mins).Good luck with the rest of your treatment.
Helen sorry you are having a bad time,although I have finished my chemo and had little side affects, I don’t think I would have had the strength to work, i just felt so drained sometimes and our bodys are just so messed up by the time you felt ok it was time for chemo again, so don’t think you not dealing with it ,I still haven,t pluck up courage to go shopping on my own yet as. I felt ill acouple times in the supper market when I went with my husband, and i think what would i do if i am on my own and it happen.
hi all, margaret ive been feeling exactly the same about shopping at the moment. its almost a lack of confidence thing too, ive got out of the habit going places on my own someone nearly always goes with me. then ill go on my own and i can feel ill and panicky,which is out of character for me. i hope this feeling goes away and i can get my confidence back soon. i suppose its all apart of this big journey we are all on. thank you all for being here, it really helps to talk.
hello everyone, this illness has attacked my confidence too ....when i was first diagnosed i completely lost my identity....but it came back with a bit added on. i have nt been out on my own since i had the chemo...im going to try tomorrow.i think the problem is feeling so vulnerable. before i started chemo i had this feeling that i was going away....i do feel that that is true. a part of me is gone at the moment but i know it will come back after the chemo....i really think these drugs affect my brain...i dont feel very present in my own life. i think its probably similar for all of us . it will all pass . when this is finished we will feel like super heros. xxxxxxxxxxx
I hope that everyone is as well as can be expected at the moment.
The weather had turned awful again so we don't even have the sunshine to cheer us up now!
I see the oncologist tomorrow for an ongoing check up. I have a number of questions for her. If any of the questions and the answers are relvant to anyone else, I will let you know.
This is my good week (next chemo due Tuesday) This will be the last of the Epirubicin course. Then I go on to CMF for 4 treatments.
Marmalade it's lovely to see a photo of you.Nice to put faces to the names.
C'mon Chelle........let's see Jimmy in all his glory!
You and I both next Tuesday for the 4th chemo.Heather will be on her 3rd on Thursday. Hope she is well. Haven't heard from her for a while.
Chelle, glad you had the good weather too! Looks like it's going to be a decent bank hol weekend aswell.. Yes, finally plucked up the courage to put on a photo..didn't want to scare you all away! :-) Hope everything is going ok with you at the mo & that hubby & family are well. Hope Jimmy's been behaving himself too!
Margaret, hope the radiotherapy is going ok..hopefully those 26 sessions will go quickly for you! Sorry to hear about your supermarket experiences, hope you can overcome it. If not, just send hubby..that's what they're for.. :-)
Blossom, hope your cough & cold are better & hope you are not feeling quite so down! Hopefully your pre-chemo week is going well & you are feeling half normal as you hoped. Have to say, half normal at any time would be an achievement for me.. :-)
Helen, hope you are feeling ok at the moment.. I can imagine that it must be such a surreal feeling sometimes, as if you are watching someone else go through this. If you do feel like a super hero at the end, you'll have to think which powers you would like.. Hmmm, one to ponder.. :-)
Jean, hope you're weather has picked up today, it has here, though tomorrow is supposed to be torrential rain. Hope your check up goes well today & you get all the answers that you are looking for. Glad the photo went down ok..as I said to Chelle, I really didn't want to scare you all.. :-)
Sis is waiting to hear from Bupa about whether she can have her op done privately, which should hopefully speed things up. You would hope there would be no problem, but who knows how their minds work. If not, she is fine about having it on the NHS, it is just the timeframe that is bothering her, so fingers crossed.
Hi to everyone else, hope things are going ok for everyone or at least as well as they can be..
I'm doing fine apart from back ache and she has given me painkillers for that.
The GOOD NEWS is that the new session of chemo which is called CMF does not have as many side effects as the EPI. Tiredness and diarrhoea are the most common ones.
Even better news is that my hair should start to grow again as CMF doesn't affect hair loss. I expect the same will apply to you, Chelle. Check it out next time you visit the hospital.
Oh and the name of the drug I have to take after the radio therapy is Arimidex.
I hope everyone is looking after themselves and that chemo and radio therapy are not giving too many problems.
