** SEPTEMBER CHEMOTHERAPY CHAT 2019**

By the way, my car is a 1990 Volkswagen Golf, customised and named V'ger after the Voyager probe which appeared in the first Star Trek film which Miss India starred in, when she had her lovely long hair shaved completely off for this film.  As you will have guessed, I love cars, customising them, animals, science fiction, travelling and anthropology, a mixed bag eh?  At the moment though, I don't feel much like doing anything save reading, tired from the anaesthetic I guess, but I'm making improvements.  I'd like to resume patchwork quilting soon, so watch this space, unless I get my chemo dates and then find I'm too yeuk to bother!  Then I'll just sit back and dream of new places to go, intending to perhaps go when I'm better.  As it was, only the other week, we were due to fly to Zakynthos with Thomas Cook, but due to discovering cancer had come back and the resultant operation, that had to be cancelled and we lost a lot of the monies paid up front, as it was an online company we'd booked through.  Won't do that again in a hurry.  (We would have just got home, had we gone, before Thomas Cook collapsed.). Take care and enjoy the weekend.

Good afternoon

Ah that explains it.

I wonder if anyone needs a donation of fat?

Wow, the forum seems to have been really busy this month and I have totally lost track of who is experiencing what and who have asked for advice - sorry :-(

My September has been fairly good - had four weekly doses of paclitaxel with fairly minimal side effects. Only have a further six doses to go and that should be my chemo finished.

On the non-cancer front life has been a bit more interesting!

I effectively lost my job this past Monday when my company went into a very public meltdown, now have the fun of trying to claim for ESA with an unknown start date as my department are not getting made redundant for another couple of weeks by the sound of things.

On an upside I start an Open University masters degree in psychology in the next few days - not sure whether that was my brightest move but hey ho.

I am planning to take the late plunge into having a wig for when I start having to do job interviews. I figure when I hopefully start interviews in the new year my hair will still be too short and not sure I can face the questions and unconscious bias I would find if I went with headscarves.

I hope everyone Is keeping as well as possible under the circumstances.

Wow, good luck to you Lisa, doing a masters degree AND looking for another job at the same time.  I wish you all the best and as they say, when one door closes another opens and I've found it is true, much as we don't think that it will be at the time.  Have faith, all will work itself out given time and think about this, you're beating cancer which is the biggest challenge of our lives.

Lisa, interested to see you're getting 10 weekly Paclitaxel...I'm getting 9, others get 12...I wonder how they decide. I'm hopefully getting number 6 on Tuesday...and have found it much easier than FEC so far.

I wondered myself about the numbers of cycles, EC/FEC seems a bit more consistent with 3 cycles. I’m doing 9 Paclitaxel weekly, start next week - dreading it x

Don't dread it Holbox...I've found it a lot easier than FEC...my blood counts have stayed up and the weekly cycle makes it feel like things are passing quicker. The last few weeks I had chemo on the Tuesday and the Friday has been my 'bad' day...weak, shaky and cold...but that didn't happen this week and I've had a 'good' week but a wee bit shaky today, so maybe a bit delayed this week. I've had some diarrhoea with 2 of the cycles, controlled with Loperamide...and hadn't had any this week...until yesterday after some tomato soup...lesson learned!

I hope you find it easier too...and everyone else getting Paclitaxel x

Giuliella
Thanks for clarifying, the DIEP flag reconstruction sounds very challenging, are you happy with the choice you made? I ask as am considering plastic lovelies, 2 main reasons, will have small implants so hopefully can get away with no bra and also won't have to take bits of body from elsewhere to recreate more "natural" reconstruction. Although now I hear about the utilisation of tummy fat it sounds a little more appealing though offset by what sounds like a much larger operation...mmm.
Ah the old Golf, went on a trip round Europe in a GTI of those 20 years ago, it was particularly interesting going across the alps as the tread on the tyres was verging on illegal...happy time indeed. Good film too.
Bad luck re holiday, I had one planned too in Oct but had only booked flights so was lucky BA took pity on me and gave full refund.

Sam X

Sam, let me first off tell you, we are all different, so what is good for one may not be for another, I'm thinking of pain levels mainly here, as I couldn't tolerate any other tablets besides paracetamols, so it was very painful for me.  So, as I am in my mid sixties, I was told implants are perky, whereas your own breasts do hollow out on the top as you age and they drop, so the implants do not and then don't look symmetrical.  Also, I was not keen on a fake implant, with possible leakage or more operations down the line if one leaked.  Having seen a lady who had a DIEP flap done with her own tummy fat, it did look quite good and in a bra, looked the same as her other one, so I went with that.  However, it was to have been an eight hour long operation and as I mentioned before, they do an angiogram to see where your blood vessels are, then take a big one at the tummy site to reconnect behind the ribs near the heart.  Naturally, there are risks with every procedure, but I thought this sounded reasonable, apart from the tissue could die if the blood supply failed and then it would be removed and you're left flat that side.  The physiotherapist gives you exercises to do for a few weeks beforehand, to build up the core muscles first.

The first night after the all day operation was dreadful, it dragged on for ever (and there was no clock in the room, so it felt even longer than it probably was).  You have two drains and a catheter is it, inserted so you don't need to get out of bed to wee, which you wouldn't be able to do first off anyway, but I couldn't feel it in there, thank goodness.  Didn't want to eat, difficult when lying in bed anyway.  I had a bed that propped your head and shoulders up a bit and it raised up beneath your knees, to elevate them and let your tummy relax.  So you get a huge wadge of fat taken out of the tummy area (they can take it from your thigh or back too) with a very long scar from hip to hip on the bikini line, but mine is straight and neat.  They remove the breast in an oval shape, then cut and shape the fat to fit into the breast area, leaving you with an oval scar and pain behind, where a piece of rib cartilage is removed to enable the surgeon to microsurgically reattached the blood vessel to supply the new "breast".  You need to wear a supportive sports bra, no under wires, for around eight weeks 24/7 and also, a thing like an old fashioned corset, a body cincher that is so tight and is a compression garment (which does cost quite a lot, but is good quality from Lipoelastic), for the same length of time.  Felt dreadfully tight when it first went on and I'm glad the nurse fastened it for me, as I'd never have managed it alone, but now it seems fine and I quite enjoy wearing it, just to make sure everything isn't going to fall out if I remove it, ha ha!  Because it has to fasten underneath you like a body, it's a good idea to wear panty liners each day, then only wash it overnight once a week.

Yes, the pain was quite bad, especially when I got home, as I couldn't take anything stronger than paracetamol, but you may be okay with stronger painkillers.  They tried Tramadol, morphine, codeine and another drug on me whilst in hospital for those three and a half days, but to no avail.  I reacted badly to them all.  The physiotherapist gets you out and walking the next day and on the third day, the catheter is removed and they get you climbing stairs up and down, before you are fit enough to go home.  Because I have IBS they didn't need to know whether I had been to the toilet or not before they would let me go home, because as I explained, you have six meals inside of you at all times when eating normally before you "go" and as the Fortisip they gave me to build me up prior to the op gave me dreadful diahorrea and I was empty, I wasn't going to "go" any time soon, with not eating much whilst in hospital as well.  I am dairy intolerant and can't eat much at any one time anyway.  So they let me home on day four after the op.  That is the scarey bit, how do you cope on your own at home, but we managed somehow, despite me usually caring for hubby, he just had to try his best, which bless, he did admirably.

I'm at week eight this coming Tuesday and beginning to get about much better now.  I went out for a walk every day since getting home, going a tiny bit further each time to strengthen my weakened  leg muscles.  They were strong from doing ten years of Tai Chi, but in three weeks of resting, they were weak again.  Much better now, though not back to full fitness just yet.  It seems to take so long to recover, but we are all different.  I'm still wearing the compression garment and have the pillow under my knees at night still, but getting there.  Better each day.  I wouldn't choose to undergo this procedure again any time soon,but I guess I will forget about it soon and so far, though it's going to take many more months before the new breast "drops" and settles, it looks good in a bra, same size as the other one.  I believe I will get a nipple tattooed on, don't fancy more surgery nor a stick on job, but that comes 18 months later, I believe, when everything has settled down and my plastic surgery nurse does the tattooing.  So I hope this info helps, but I'd advise you to speak with someone at a MacMillan Centre who has gone through the same procedure, for their take on it and to see the results first hand.  I am glad that I did it and hubby says it looks good too, so that's got to be a good endorsement, doesn't it?  All the best and sorry if this is a marathon tome.

That's really interesting to read. 

It's worth joining the UK DIEP flap group on Facebook as well if you are considering it. 

X