Calling all triple negative breast cancer patients in the UK
Comments
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Hello everyone,
I forgot to mention that on the www.canceractive.com site and in the major headings that I gave, there is a lot of information about what is going on with prostate cancer. I thought this might be of interest to any men who might be viewing. It looks as though the two cancers are closely linked and that, since they are both mainly hormonal there is obviously something going on that is causing hormonal changes and malfunction. It would be interesting to know whether there are negative receptors in prostate cancer.
I recently read about a man in his fifties who was told he was carrying the BRCA2 gene and he had pre-emptive surgery to remove the whole of his prostate gland.
Best wishes.
Sylvia.
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Hello everyone,
If you want to keep this thread going you need to post.
Have a good weekend.
Best wishes,
Sylvia.
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Good evening Sylvia
I had a nice few days in Chelmsford despite the weather. I always feel at home there.
I have heard about aspartame before. It is not something I would knowingly indulged in. I would imagine that fizzy drinks contain the sweetener but the most fizzy drink I have is Guinness.
Michael
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Hello Michael,
Thank you for your post. I was glad to know you had an enjoyable stay in Chelmsford and I can understand why you feel at home there. I liked it very much and thought it had lots to offer. We had our weekend routines there. We used to park in the market multi-storey car park and then wander round the town, visiting both malls. We regularly went to the library, which we found excellent at the time. We often had lunch somewhere in Chelmsford on Saturdays and regularly went to the hair dressers in the lower mall. Chelmsford is a good place to live and within easy driving of Colchester and Frinton, which we also liked. I do not know what it is like in these places now.
I hope you are having a nice holiday weekend. Yesterday we were helping out at a fête on the seafront and were helping in the kitchen from 8 am until 5 pm and came back exhausted. It was very busy as it was a dry and sunny day, but cool. Today we are recovering!
Sending you fond thoughts.
Sylvia.
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Hello Michael,
I forgot to say that aspartame is used in sugar free drinks, so enjoy your guiness. As the advert says Guiness is Good for you.
Keep in touch.
Sylvia.
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Hello sam52,
I was just wondering how you are and how your father is. I hope you are managing to have a bit of rest and relaxation during your half term break.
Everything is much the same here in Exmouth.
I was checking the two threads about hyperparathyroidism today and was pleasantly surprised to see they are still active and I posted on both threads to keep them up to date.
Hoping to hear from you.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello everyone
I thought I would just pop in to wish everyone a good week as there are still people viewing, though not many posts.
To Carolben, I do hope all is continuing well with your chemotherapy.
To linali, I do hope all is well with you and that something is happening about your pain problems. I hope all is well with the centre and your family.
To everyone, I am concerned about all I read of newly diagnosed patients and with patients with recurrence. It is all rather disappointing.
Yesterday, I heard on the news that the aunt of Angelina Jolie had just died of breast cancer at 61. it is not good enough and we desperately need prevention and more news about what is causing all this.
Thinking of you all.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi Sylvia,
Thanks for your thoughts. I am very busy with bathroom renovations so have not been on the forum much at all. Also, I am trying hard to forget all about cancer for a while - but of course I am keeping up with all of my preventive stuff. Sometimes we just need a few days or a week or two not to think about cancer and that's where I am right now - unfortunately, my bald head is still a daily reminder. No appointments whatsoever in May has been a wonderful thing - in June I have plenty - so it will be staring me in the face again.
Hope you are well, and thanks for keeping the thread going. Even though I don't post, I do read most days.
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Hello adagio
It was so nice to hear from you. I do hope all goes well with your bathroom renovations.
I fully understand how you and all of us have to switch off cancer for a while and occupy our thoughts with other things. As you say, doing as much as we can in our daily lives to prevent this awful disease coming back is the most important. I do agree with you that we need days off, even a week off, to switch off cancer as much as we can.
I can understand that not having your hair is a constant reminder, but believe me once it starts to grow it does grow quite quickly. Once that happens you definitely feel more normal.
I can understand how wonderful you must be feeling not to have any appointments in May. Make the most of it and enjoy every day. Be sure to let us know how things go in June.
What is the weather like out in BC?
You can post on the thread anything that you like. It does not have to be cancer related. Telling us about your everyday life, interests and activities is therapeutic and I think part of the recovery process.
I do feel fine but a bit strange knowing that I shall have no check ups until I see my oncologist next April. I do need to write to her to find out who will be arranging my mammograms now that I am discharged from the breast cancer consultant.
It is strange but these days I seem more preoccupied with my osteoporosis than about cancer coming back. I am still taking the strontium citrate and gathering as much information as I can. I have recently been reading bits of Professor Jane Plant's book on osteoporosis and she seems to think you should treat it entirely with food. She does not seem to think supplements are any use. I have also discovered that there seems to be more calcium in hazelnuts than almonds, so I am taking both. Today, prunes were back in the news and the advice was to take ten prunes a day to help osteoporosis, especially in post-menopausal women.
I shall do all I can to keep the thread going.
Fond thoughts.
Sylvia. xxxx
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Hello PeterandLiz,
How did you enjoy your break in Skegness? I hope everything went well.
Thinking of you and hoping to hear from you.
Sylvia.
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Hello everyone
I have found some snippets of information in yesterdays newspapers and shall be posting them later on today.
Have a good day and try to keep in touch.
Best wishes.
Sylvia
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Hello everyone,
I am posting about an article that caught my eye in the Good Health section of the Daily Mail on Tuesday May 28th 2013 by Jane Feinmann. This article is connected to all the publicity we have had about Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy, the prior death of her mother of ovarian cancer at 56/57 and the death this week of her aunt of breast cancer at 61. You will remember that Angelina Jolie opted for this because of her high risk of developing breast cancer due to a faulty BRCA1 gene.
This article is about Sophie Graham, 39, who has the same faulty gene. She was also given the frightening odds of developing these gynaecological cancers. Her mother who also carried the gene died from ovarian cancer. Sophie is faced with the decision whether her breasts and ovaries removed.
From my reading it seems she feels that screening can take care of anything developing in her breasts, but that removing the ovaries is critical because of the fact that ovarian cancer is very hard to detect. She feels that getting rid of her ovaries will have a preventive effect on breast cancer. She finds having her ovaries removed terrifying because it will bring on menopause and she is only 39. Menopause has its own problems.
It says in the article that some experts do not think that removing healthy body parts is protective. What caught my eye was the bit that said, and we know this is true, that it is fairly rare to have BRCA1 and BRCA2 faulty genes, but larger groups of genes that predispose to cancer have been identified and a new test for these is due to be launched in 2014.
Some experts think that these genetic tests might create an ever growing group of worried well people. By this they mean people whose life is changed because they are told they have a faulty gene and then they start a spiral of worry and face surgery and removal of healthy body parts.
As of next year, a test known as TruSight Cancer Panel. This test will cost a few hundred pounds and checks for 97 genes linked to a greater risk of cancer. It will be available to all newly diagnosed cancer patients. It will also be offered to relatives of these patients.
There are a lot more details in this article and I am sure you would find it interesting to read. Please look on line.
I would be interested to know what you think about this. Is there too much publicity about genetics and breast cancer and perhaps not enough about TNBC which affects about 15 to 20% as opposed to about 3%. We are told that TNBC is aggressive and I seem to remember reading there was some connection with the risk of developing ovarian cancer.
I am also wondering how far this removal of healthy body parts will go.
Last week a London man here was the first person in the world to have his prostate removed after discovering he has a faulty BRCA2 gene. He had this done despite the fact that there is only limited evidence that having the faulty gene means a man has an increased chance of developing an aggressive form of prostate cancer, and removal of the prostate is radical surgery.
Some experts think that all these preventive approaches will not obliterate the risk for some.
There are details in this article about the use of Tamoxifen as a preventative measure in healthy women with the faulty BRCA1 gene.
In the article it says that it is important to note that having the faulty gene does not mean that the development of cancer is inevitable. Breast cancer is not a genetic disease like Huntington's disease where having the defective gene guarantees the development of the disease. With breast cancer having the faulty gene just increases the risk of developing it.
I would be interested to know what you think about prophylactic surgery to avoid breast cancer and ovarian cancer in women with these faulty genes. How far can this go? Could it be that women in general will be advised to have these prophylactic surgeries to prevent cancer in general?
The woman in the article, Sophie, has chosen intensive surveillance rather than removal of body parts. She has now had to reconsider this because of terminal ovarian cancer in a cousin at age 31. As for the genetic testing it appears that Sophie is in favour and she believes that knowledge is power.
This is an article well worth reading.
You might be interested to know that it is twenty one years since the first preventative mastectomy was carried out in the UK.
I think we need articles like this, about BRCA1 and BRCA2, to bring more awareness about TNBC receptors into the public arena.
That is all for today.
Best wishes.
Sylvia.
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Hi Sylvia,
Read your post thoroughly but not the article itself. The new genetic tests may have I intended negative consequences. However, I think awareness of the growing incidence of breast cancer, particularly tnbc in young women, is worth these potential consequences.
When you are in a country like US where there is not socialized medicine, you worry about large scale genetic screenings leading to justifications by health insurance companies for raising their rates, which are already out of the reach of many.
The "unnecessary" removal of body parts--that's a really hard one. A friend of mine opted for a bilateral mastectomy when her doctors assured her that her other breast was healthy. Post-op results showed DCIS in the "healthy" breast.
It would be helpful for people/patients to have a decision making tree that included potential emotional as well as physical effects of making a particular decision, especially in grey areas where these decisions are extremely difficult to make.
Until treatment becomes less toxic and produces more predictable "cures" I wonder if we should spend our resources on widespread genetic testing and instead continue to put our money into treatment research.
Just this morning's thoughts...
Appreciate you continuing to scour written resources and bringing them back to the rest of us!
Peggy0 -
Hello Peggy
Thank you for a most interesting post and I shall respond in more detail tomorrow. I hope you are progressing well post-treatment.
Fond thoughts.
Sylvia
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Hi Sylvia,
Just reading through the posts.
Have had visitors from Australia and leigh home so quite busy over the past few days.
Once again I'm in a very apprehensive state of mind, well to be honest just plain scared.
I had a range of blood tests done nearly 2 weeks ago and havent got the results from my gp yet.
Last evening I had a phone call from Limerick to say that Dr Martin....my rads consultant had requested an urgent abdominal ultrasound. he was the one who ordered a whole range or tests after the bone scan came back clear.
I am going to Galway today and so cannot get to gp and he isnt there tomorrow but I know that he wouldnt surmise what the implications might be.... he wouldnt to do with the abnormal bone marrow. So prayers and fingers crossed as the thought of ovarian and many other things runs through my mind.
It is like deja vu, 3yrs ago this week I had my unofficial diagnosis and had to tell Kerry whilst she was pregnant that I had breast cancer. Now she is pregnant again and I just pray that all will be ok with both of us.
The centre is busier than ever and will have an open day on June 12th to celebrate being acknowledged by the HSE.
Our bank holiday is coming up here, nothing planned but may go to see The Great Gatsby.
Thinking of everyone and wishing them well
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Hello Peggy,
I do agree that we need awareness about what appears to be a growing incidence of breast cancer in women, especially breast cancer with triple negative receptors. More importantly, we need to know why an increasing number of young women are getting breast cancer. I tend to think that it is our way of life in the western world. There is too much animal produce in our diet, too much over-eating in general, too much of a sedentary lifestyle, too much medication, too many toiletries and too many chemical products in general.
The thing about the genetic tests, especially BRCA1 and BRCA2, apply only to a small minority of people and yet that seems to be the main focus of research. I do wonder what will happen with all the other genes about which they are talking.
There has to be some reason why there is so much cancer around now. Is it our way of life that is causing genes to malfunction?
I think the decision to have body parts removed will remain a personal one. I think that all decisions will probably remain personal as emotional and physical effects probably affect everyone in a different way. Some women may not be that affected by the removal of a breast, or both breasts, and for others such removal may be so traumatic that they cannot function normally afterwards. If I look back at my own case I think it was the loss of hair that I found most difficult.
I feel the same as you do about genetic testing. I think money has to be spent in such a way as to give the greatest good to the greatest number of people.
I hope you continue to do well.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello linali (Lindsay),
Thank you for your post. It was nice to hear from you.
I was sorry to know that you are feeling afraid and I do hope that you will get good results from your blood tests. It seems to me that two weeks is a long time to keep someone waiting for blood results. The experts seem to have no idea of how much anxiety all this waiting for results causes. I do hope you will get your ultrasound soon and the results will be good.
Try to keep busy and get your ultrasound as quickly as you can. I seem to remember your telling us that you were diagnosed in June and that it was on the birthday either of your daughter or of you. Hang on to the fact that you are now three years out from diagnosis.
I do hope all will be well for you and your daughter Kerry.
It looks as though your centre is doing a very good job and I hope all will go well on June 12th when you have an open day.
I noticed from my diary that it is a bank holiday in Ireland and I hope the weather will be good for you.
I have seen quite a bit of publicity about the film The Great Gatsby. I really loved the book when I read it many, many years ago. I understand that this film is quite different. I would be interested to know what you think about the film.
All is well here. I do feel quite disappointed when I read about all the women being diagnosed with breast cancer and people being diagnosed with cancer in general. I wish there were more interest in finding out what is causing it. I tend to think it is our lifestyle and that this has somehow resulted in a breakdown of the normal functioning of the body and that hormones and genes have gone out of control. It is the only way I can explain to myself how imperfect the function of the body now seems to be.
Have a good weekend, Lindsay, and try not to worry too much.
Fond thoughts.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello everyone
Just popping in to wish you all a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend.
Best wishes.
Sylvia
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Hello everyone,
I thought you might be interested in a question that was put to Dr Rosemary Leonard in the Your Health section of the Daily Express last Tuesday May 28th 2013. The title of her weekly column is 'Getting to the heart of medical matters'. The woman was saying that two of her sisters had had breast cancer and one of her daughters was being treated for breast cancer. She wanted to know why she and her other daughter had been refused genetic testing.
The explanation give was as follows.
It was explained that the guidelines for genetic testing for breast cancer were quite complex. The doctor also said that one in eight women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime and that there was an increased risk of developing it with increasing age.
It was further explained that there are ten different genes that can increase the risk of a woman developing breast cancer and that there are genetic tests for four of these genes.
It was also explained that women should be referred to a cancer genetics specialist if their lifetime risk is raised to one in three or more or if they have a greater that one in twelve chance of getting breast cancer before the age of fifty.
The doctor further explained to the woman that she needed to look at the age that her relatives were diagnosed and that the younger the age at diagnosis the more likely there was to be a faulty gene in the family.
She was also told she needed to look to see if anyone has cancer in both breasts, if there is a family history of ovarian cancer and whether there are any male relatives who had breast cancer.
The doctor added that it was difficult to do genetic testing unless there is a blood sample from an affected relative, where any abnormal gene can be identified and then looked for in other members of the family. Without this blood sample, looking for an abnormal gene is very difficult.
The article ended that the full guidelines were on the Cancer Research website at www.cancerresearchuk.org. The doctor also told the woman that her GP might be able to explain why she and her daughter had been refused genetic testing.
I was wondering whether you have any comments on this.
I requested and saw a genetic nurse and had a long interview with her. She would not refer me for genetic testing because I was not a young woman on diagnosis. However, I did leave a DNA blood sample to be stored at the hospital just in case any of my nieces, my brothers' children develop breast cancer.
On this forum we mainly hear about bRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Has anyone tested for the other two genes for which testing is apparently available? What are the other genes?
That is all for now.
Best wishes.
Sylvia
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Hi Sylvia,
I've been quiet, just struggling a bit with each succesive chemo seeming a bit tougher - had to shave the rest of my hair off, so I'm bald too. My blood counts have been low, they didn't want to do the chemo on Tuesday, but I was keen and so they gave me a slightly lower dose, and boy has it knocked me - taking a shower is exhausting, although I love to just stand in that water, or sit on the floor!!
So there are 6 more shots of chemo to go - all going well I'll finish at the end of July. I can do this, I can do this, my ever present mantra!!
I'm currently only doing 1 yoga class a week, that's the day after chemo so I'm full of steroids, which helps. I thought of joining an aquarobics class at an indoor pool here - but it's not that warm and the thought of being cold through a class is not attractive. I also worry about bugs, being marrow compromised, so I'm going to leave that for the moment.
Otherwise we have a new baby in our family, my niece's child. He was premature and is only 1.3kg's, (just over half a pound?) and tiny, but holding his own and now breathing on his own too. He'll be in ICU for another 5 weeks or so, but they are both through what was a very difficult pregnancy. So I took up crocheting again and am making him a little blanket.
The thing about this fatigue is what to do while I'm just sitting - I read, go on my computer, watch tv, play games, and now can crochet too. I also joined this French conversation class (think I posted about this, if so forgive me, have chemo brain big time!) and I have to prepare something in French for each class, which has been a pleasurable challenge!~! I'm just very grateful that I'm not working right now, my life is slow and stress free(ish), time for walks on the beach, coffee with friends etc.
Keep posting, cos I know we keep reading, tho I do get what you say, Adagio, about taking leave from cancer.
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Hello Carolben
Thank you for your most interesting post. I shall be replying later on today.
Hello everyone,
I hope this week will be a good one for you all. With reference to genetic breast cancer, you might find the following link interesting. I shall be reading it in full late on.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Carolben,
It was nice to hear from you.
I can understand that you are struggling a bit with the chemotherapy, but you will get to the end of this. Hang in there. I know how awful it is to lose your hair, focus on the fact that it will grow back.
I think it was very brave of you to go ahead with your chemotherapy on Tuesday, but I can understand how you were keen to get on. With your blood counts low I can understand that even a lower dose of chemotherapy has taken its toll on you. Do they not give you the shots that are available to keep your blood counts up? I can understand that taking a shower is exhausting, but make you feel better.
Keep counting your sessions and feel good each time you put one behind you. Getting to the finishing line at the end of July may seem a long way off, but you will get there. Keep on telling yourself that you can do this.
Please remember not to overdo things, just gentle exercise if it makes you feel better, but always remember that with these chemotherapy drugs getting plenty of rest and drinking plenty of fluids are your best friends.
You are right to worry about picking up infections. Remember what we are all told, which is to avoid anyone who is unwell and to avoid crowded places.
The birth of a new baby is good news for you and crocheting will keep you busy and should be relaxing.
I do admire you for going to French conversation classes during all of this. Do you have a native French speaker teaching you? Your French conversation classes will help to take your mind off this cancer journey.
With what you are going through your life needs to be in the slow lane and as stress free as possible. It is good that you are not working right now. You need to take care of yourself and help your immune system through healthy eating, rest and relaxation.
I do appreciate your making the effort to post even though you are going through this awful journey for the second time. I have nothing but admiration for you. We need to keep this special thread going and we can only do this if everyone comes together to contribute. There is such a lot of information on this thread and we need to keep going.
I can understand that people want to move on after treatment and put cancer behind them but we have to remember that just as we needed others when going through treatment, others need us as they go through treatment. It is fine to take breaks to try to give your mind a rest but in a way there is a duty to pop back in and give others the help that you have received. You can never really put cancer behind you, as you never know when it will pop back into your life and you will need the comfort and support of others.
I shall be eight years since diagnosis in June, but I know that I cannot take anything for granted.
Thinking of you, Carolben, and sending fond thoughts to you.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello everyone,
I have just been reading the information on the link that I just posted. The link is
I read the part about preventative double mastectomies for women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and how this might affect all women and how we seem to be going into amputation of breasts in general as a preventative. I do advise you to read this article and how these amputations may lead women into a false sense of security. We are advised to remember that breast cancer from these faulty genes represents only 2% of breast cancers.
I found the part of the article entitled 'Breast Cancer Prevention Strategies' most interesting and am sure you would find the information there very helpful.
I must admit that I was a bit concerned about what I read about soy, specifically unfermented soy. I was wondering what you thought about soy products.
I find the more I read the more confused I am!
Best wishes.
Sylvia.
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Hello InspiredbyDolce
I was glad to see you are still part of the forum and was interested in what you said about the recall of that product. I do not know if it is available in the UK.
Hello also Christina1961. I was glad to know you are still part of the forum and that all is OK with you. Have you had any bad side effects from Tamoxifen?
Best wishes to both of you.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello everyone,
I am just posting to say that I am concerned about all this publicity that Angelina Jolie is getting over her double mastectomy (bilateral mastectomy). I am wondering that given that just 3% of breast cancers are due to these faulty genes, that it is going to send other women with breast cancer, not genetic, into a panic and having double mastectomies. We have to remember, these are amputations!
Two articles caught my eye in yesterday's Daily Mail. One was entitled 'Drug Can Halve Risk of Breast Cancer Returning'. The main point of this is that women with hormonal positive receptors, oestrogen positive, halve their risk of dying from the disease if they take Tamoxifen for ten years rather than the standard five years. Tamoxifen does have side effects and I have read in the past information about if you take Tamoxifen for too long you can end up with triple negative breast cancer. I noticed in the article the 'cheapness' of Tamoxifen was mentioned. I have also read in the past about the oestrogen positives being divided into luminal A and luminal B and one of them not having as good a prognosis as the other. I have also read of Tamoxifen failures and wonder whether these happen depending on whether you are A or B. Again I am wondering what to think about all this, especially as Tamoxifen does have the side effect of being a risk for endometrial cancer, blood clots and stroke.
Again, I pick up on the fact that breast cancer with triple negative receptors is not getting a look in.
Another article in that newspaper was entitled 'Torment of Cancer Mother Turned Away 15 Times by GP'. (Now she faces death because breakthrough treatment had been axed by the time she was sent to hospital). This was about a young woman who has been fighting breast cancer for five years being denied treatment because of a recent NHS funding clamp down.
You might want to look at all this online.
Best wishes.
Sylvia.
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Carol bean,
I know I may be facing someday what you are facing now. I admire so much how you are handling the chemotherapyAGAIN, you're right to stay away from pool for now to protect yourself from anything that might slow down your progress.
I'll keep in mind your language tip. Learning a new language does positive things for the brain. Once, years ago, I was depressed and took Spanish lessons to help me on my job. It turned out to have a very positive result on my depression.
Thinking of you and sending hugs
Peggy0 -
8 years this month, Sylvia, isn't that just fantastic!! It makes me happy to hear of women who get clean bills of health. There's a woman here in town who went through bc just before me and has just had her 1st year clean check up.
Sylvia, have you heard of Glutagenics - it's made from L-Glutamine, Licorice root and aloe leaf extract. It's a gastro-intestinal lining support. My gynae recommended it to me, so I will ask my onc what he thinks, just wondered if you knew anything about it? I'm having problems with my gut, veering between constipation and diahorrea and just can't get a handle on it.
Thanks, Peggy for your kind words, I guess the bottom line is that we handle whatever is put before us. What other option is there? Laying down and accepting defeat is NOT an option!! I'm just grateful that all the horrible stuff I'm feeling is SE from the chemo, and I'm not symptomatic. Trying to remember French (that I last spoke when I was 18, tho I was fluent then) has certainly been a challenge - especially as I have chemo brain big time!! I do crosswords too, just to try and keep my brain going. Last year I thought I'd like to learn a new language - Italian, I thought - yeah right, I got to learn Cancerish instead, dammit!
You know what gets me about this whole story is that your life is going along and it's familiar, you know the challenges and what's expected and it's manageable. And then in the space of days that whole life is taken away and you're thrown into a new life that I, for one, am not sure how to do. I really, really appreciate it when people tell me they think I'm handling it all well, because I have no idea, it's trial and error, hit and miss. I guess, over time, this will become the new normal for me. The other thing is I have no standard of "normal" in my body now - being on chemo especially makes my body do strange things, aches and pains (to worry or not to worry?); what is normal fatigue and what not. What are muscle and joint aches and what could be flu? The light headedness, the fluctuations in appetite, the fatigue. I feel like someone stole my body and replaced it with a stranger's body. I can look at my chest now and it's starting to look "normal" to me, the mastectomy scar has faded and is nice and smooth. But I still feel lopsided. Even when I do yoga I can feel that my body is not balanced as it used to be. The plus side is that this cancer has made me re-assess priorities, given me a new awe about our beautiful planet and our lives on it, and also made me realise how very loved I am by many people. So it's not all negative.
Well it's time for my afternoon nap now, and I've started rambling. Am off chemo this week, none till next Tuesday, Yay!
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Hello Carolben
Thank you for your post.
I have heard of Glutagenics and there is a lot of information online, but I have never taken it. Perhaps someone will post with more information about it. I noticed that it is an expensive product. We de hear a lot about L-Glutamine but I am not one for taking all these products that keep coming on the market. I know that aloe vera juice is supposed to be good for you.
Has your medical team offered any advice about dealing with constipation and diarrhoea? It is very difficult to know what to do. With diarrhoea you may need intravenous fluids to replace lost fluids. Bananas are supposed to be good for diarrhoea. I would probably try plain soy yoghurt with live culture.
You may want to read the following link.
http://cancer.emedtv.com/chemotherapy/chemotherapy-induced-diarrhea.html
As for constipation, when I was having chemotherapy I seemed to keep this at bay by eating plenty of prunes and dried figs, and kept my usual diet of plenty of fruit, not to mention drinking lots and lots of water or ginger and lemon tea. You might find the following link interesting.
http://chemocare.com/chemotherapy/side-effects/constipation-and-chemotherapy.aspx
Let me know if you take the Glutagenics and if it has any effect. It is always useful to learn about new products.
I found that I got through chemotherapy by eating plenty of mashed potatoes and quite a lot of hard boiled eggs. I remember how I recommended mashed potatoes quite early on on this thread and it seemed to work for women. I remember Maria_Malta posting to say she was finding mashed potatoes helpful. I often think of all the women that have passed through this thread, especially those who went through all their treatment here.
I think it is very brave of you to be taking up French again with what you are going through. Learning a language is a lot of hard work.
I do understand what you mean about how your life is going along nicely and then something happens, like a diagnosis of breast cancer, and then everything changes. It is all very difficult and very challenging. I think only those that have gone through such a change can really understand. As far as I am concerned, there is the Sylvia before diagnosis in June 2005 and the Sylvia afterwards. I can definitely say that I found it traumatic to become a cancer patient and to have to join what I called the world of the sick! I felt awful having all these hospital appointments, having tests, waiting for results etc. It was just not my world! All you can do, as you say, is get on with it. I have got used to it now but can really understand when you say you feel as though somebody has stolen your body and replaced it with a stranger's body. You learn to accept all this. It does feel strange still to have only one breast and you do feel lopsided. Once you put on your prosthesis and get dressed to the outside world you appear normal. Only you know you feel strange but to others you seem normal. I can certainly sympathise with you about a lopsided feeling and I do think it affects your posture.
A diagnosis of cancer certainly makes you reassess your priorities and you do appreciate all the simple things in life. I have been doing some gardening in the grounds this morning and I do appreciate all the little changes I see on the shrubs etc. I planted a row of plants called Nemesia and they are so colourful and fragrant. I bought one of each sort and they have lovely names such as framboise, raspberries and cream, berries and cream, myrtille, and vanilla. Seeing them all planted made me feel good.
I do feel for you going through all this again, but keep looking forward to the end of July and to the end of this journey. Take care of yourself, keep drinking as much fluid as you can, have as many of those naps as you feel you need and surround yourself with caring people and spoil yourself. I shall be thinking of you next Tuesday, but in the meantime enjoy the escape from chemotherapy.
Fond thoughts.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello PeggySull,
I thought how kind it was of you to pop in and say hello to Carolben and support her. Patients going through breast cancer treatment, especially for the second time, need all out love and support. We must never forget how important a few kind words are.
I hope all is well with you.
Best wishes
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Michael,
I am just popping in to see how you are and how your treatment is going, as we have not heard from you in a while. I do hope all is well.
Fond wishes.
Sylvia.
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