Calling all triple negative breast cancer patients in the UK
Comments
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Hello everyone,
I am expecting the thread to go quiet now in the run up to Christmas and the New Year, so I just wanted to send my best wishes to all of you for a very Happy Christmas and a Healthy, Positive New Year.
Best wishes.
Sylvia
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Hello everyone,
I hope when you are tucking into your Christmas dinner, you will remember to make it a rainbow dinner!
Fond thoughts to you all.
Sylvia
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Hello Mary,
Thank you for your reply.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is your own immune system attacking the joints so I cannot see how it can be controlled by diet. I am on Methotrexate and Hydroxychloroquine. I was told Methotrexate is used in treating some Cancers and is a chemotherapy drug. I also carry a card that says I cannot take Trimethoprim or Co-trimoxazole. My RA was very mild only slight aching in my elbow and knuckles on one side. The drugs I take I was told was to reduce my immune system. Maybe that's why I hardly ever get ill because I have a strong immune system? The only time I get cold symptoms is when I am stressed which I call a stress cold.
Plantar fasciitis is damage to the tendon in the bottom of your foot, mainly the tendon tearing across the tendon. I can play table tennis and there is a dull pain. As soon as I stop and sit for 5 minutes the tendons tighten up. When I stand up and try to walk it is very hard to take the first 10 steps and it is painful. This is because as I stretch the tendon it gets little tears across it, just like an old perished elastic band. Yes it can also hurt if I have my foot in the wrong position while sitting. Many guards and policemen get it. Liz got it from standing still for 4 hours at a time while running chocolate fountains at weddings. Have you tried sitting with your feet down? I think this will be less painful. Liz was told by her doctors that she needed to rest her foot and spending half her time in bed while on Chemo cured it. I will look into the injections and see if they are available in the UK.
Liz said its feels like she still still hung over from the Chemo and its 4 years since she had it!
Merry Christmas
Peter
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Hello Sylvia,
I did here the report the other morning on the BBC news channel stating that 90% of cancers are caused by lifesyles and the environment.
By early afternoon after interviewing some experts in the UK the headline had changed to between 70% and 90% of cancers are caused by lifesyles and the environment.
Merry Christmas
Peter
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Hi Sylvia and everyone
I have not been here for a while and I have missed all here. I had some in laws as guests for some days and I was too busy to leave a post here.
Merry Christmas to all of you with the best wishes for the best things to happen .
My winter classes will begin in two days and I'm happy for a new start.
Lots of love
Hanieh
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Hello Peter,
It is true that we do get conflicting reports in the media about all aspects of news, and especially anything relating to cancer. Nevertheless, a percentage of between 70% and 90% is still very high. I think that we can help ourselves with diet and exercise to a certain extent but when it comes to the environment that is more difficult, whether it is the internal environment in our homes and workplaces or the external environment which is impossible. We live in a modern industrial or post-industrial environment and breathe in all the toxins that it brings. We also have the problem of the water supply and goodness only knows what goes into that. All in all, we just have to live the day and hope for the best.
With all the hype that has been going on about faulty and mutating genes, it seems a bit ridiculous when it only affects about 5% of cancer patients.
I have been reading up about rheumatoid arthritis and it certainly seems a very nasty disease and the treatment medication seems nasty as well. I wonder why the immune system in these kinds of diseases starts attacking itself. One of my female cousins had lupus and the treatment was nasty. She died some years ago in her late twenties.
I hope you have an enjoyable Christmas and that the New Year will be good to you and yours.
Best wishes.
Sylvia
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Hello Hanieh,
Thank you for your PM and your post. I can understand how busy you must have been with house guests. Thank you for kind wishes to all of us for Christmas and the New Year.
How is your year divided up? I am asking this because you said your winter classes would begin in two days time. Here in the UK schools, colleges and universities have just broken up for the Christmas holidays. The new wither term will begin on January 4th and things will probably not get back to normal until then. It is hard to believe how we have extended Christmas day into two weeks. It is all very commercialised and has lost its original meaning. We do not really do much any more since our parents died and gatherings at the family home ceased.
Keep posting when you can. Do you celebrate the end of each year?
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Morning Sylvia/ everyone
Hope you are all doing great.
I'm back at work now but looking forward to the Christmas break (4 days) lol so not much .
Just spent a lovely weekend with my daughter in Manchester. She booked a lovely hotel and we had a brows around the Christmas market. The weather was a bit wet but we still enjoyed it. This time last year I was on my second fec and was good for nothing so I'm determined to enjoy this Christmas.
Do any of you ladies go to the gym etc? I was very fit before and used to run. I know they say exercise is very important for us but a few ladies I've met who have tn where also very fit before and I wonder if pushing the body too much can do more harm than good .
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas 🎄🎄🎄xxx
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Hello Peter,
I believe that my friend who has the RA who treats with diet and supplements must have a food allergy of some sort, or else her doctor is telling her that eating the wrong foods will aggravate her RA symptoms. I believe she is attempting to deal with it in a holistic fashion. If she eats any nightshade (tomato, potato etc.) her hands will swell very badly. She drinks wine with no additives such as sulfites, and I believe pork is off limits too, plus other items. She does have the crippling effect in her hands and wrists. The friend who takes the bi-weekly injections of Enbrel (etanercept), she has no crippling but she has a lot of pain; I believe she is a rather severe case. She stays as active as possible but is lying down whenever she gets the chance. My cousin also has RA but she goes to an infusion center and has medication through an IV. My cousin just turned 60, the other ladies are in their upper 50's. All different ways of dealing with it with varying degrees of success.
I saw my acupuncture doc Friday, and asked about my foot problem. He manipulated my feet and showed me some exercises to do; he said in his opinion I had a mild case which should get better with that. I myself think it is aggravated by the chemo-induced neuropathy, we will see how it goes. He said he could also treat with the needles if needed. I told him about the Plasma treatment, he hadn't heard of it but was very interested and said he would check it out. I find it very disheartening, I have always liked to walk and power-walk, now the more I walk the more my feet burn and ache.
I had to take dexamethasone before and after my chemo treatments; I guess it is similar to the methotrexate that you use.
I wish you and your Liz a very Merry Christmas, and better health for all in the New Year to come!
Mary
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Hanieh, hello;
It is good to see you back, when I don't see your posts I miss them and hope you are doing well.
I understand you have had guests, and then will get back to work in a couple of days, maybe that's today? Over here everything is out-of-normal too until after Christmas and the New Year celebration. Then we settle into winter and people get back to work. Although up to now we haven't had much winter. It is much too warm for December and everyone's lawns are still green. It does not seem like Christmas weather-wise, that's for sure. I have a waterfall and small pond out front, and I am still seeing my frogs, they should be buried in the bottom and sleeping by now.
Hope you had a good visit with family, and see you around soon.
Best wishes, Mary
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Hello Sylvia,
I find it interesting about the relation of diet and exercise to cancer incidence being that high. I would think it would depend on the kind of cancer. Colon, lung, stomach etc. seem like they would really bring that into play. But it seems so many of the people I know with breast cancer are, and were, living in a much more healthy manner than their peers who are not stricken with it. Maybe some of us just have stronger defenses against it, I have to go back to the stress which will play havoc with the immune system and throw it out of whack.
About the RA, I know several people with it as I told Peter. It is one of the nasty auto-immune diseases; my mother-in-law also had it but she lived to the ripe age of 93. There is also a statistic I read somewhere that if you have arthritis you will probably not be afflicted with Alzheimer's. She took a lot of comfort in that, she was really afraid of that disease. No matter what illness we have, it seems there is always a worse one!
After finishing chemo I had so much pain all over my body that I went to several different doctors for diagnosis, with the last one being a neurologist. He tested me for all of the auto-immune illnesses, and found no trace of any of them. I was amazed at how many of these diseases there are, the list went on and on. It is astonishing all the ways our bodies can betray us. After that I pretty much gave up on the whole thing and decided to wait it out and see what happened next. After a while things settled down to the extent that I knew where the various pains were coming from, and I am still in the process of trying to fix what I can, and live with what I cannot.
Hi, Amanda! It's good to see you back, glad you had a nice holiday with more free time to come. We are gearing up for the Christmas celebration into the New Year, and then back to somewhat normal. I have planned a little trip to Mexico in January with my sister-in-law, I sure hope it's warm and toasty. We tried to go farther south but started too late trying to book something to get to where we wanted.
It does seem that a lot of otherwise healthy women get breast cancer, I haven't figured that one out either. Except I am a big believe in stress being a strong causation.
To everyone: I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year!!
Talk to you soon,
Mary
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Hello Amanda,
We are all happy to see you back on the thread and to know you are settling in with being back at work. The four days break for Christmas will be good for you and then hopefully everything will progress in the New Year.
It sounds as though you had a good time in Manchester with your daughter. It sounds as though, as well, that you have a very good relationship with her. Do you live far from Manchester?
I am glad that you are determined to enjoy this Christmas after being on your chemotherapy journey last Christmas.
I do hope you will get some answers from the ladies about whether they go to the gym. It is not something that I do or have ever done. I think it is better just to go for regular walks. Like that, you are exercising every part of your body. Of course, there is gardening too, but that can be quite demanding and exhausting. I am hoping for some better weather and more time to get out for relaxing walks. It could be that running makes too much demand on the body and people that I know who have done a lot of running have trouble with their joints.
I do not think we shall ever solve the mystery of why some seemingly fit and healthy people get breast cancer and others who do not appear fit do not get it. We have to remember that there are many risk factors to developing breast cancer but that those risks did not necessarily cause it. As I have said many times, my breast cancer consultant told me that I should not have had breast cancer, but that, with healthy women, their immune systems can become lazy, and do not fight off breast cancer cells.
We also have to remember, as I mentioned to Peter, that even if we eat healthily, or what we think is healthily, and have regular walks, we are still vulnerable to the inside and outside environment and we do not know what we are taking into our bodies. I try very hard to limit toiletries and household cleaning products, but there is little I can do about the outside environment, which is probably quite toxic.
In my own case, I am convinced that stress played a major role. I have no proof, but that is what I think. I think it would be very useful if we had our cortisol levels tested when we have routine blood tests. Those blood tests are, in fact, quite basic.
That is about all for now.
Have a very good Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Mary,
I am going to have to answer your post tomorrow, as I have run out of time. They are always very interesting and informative, so I like to do them justice.
Talk soon.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi Sylvia,
The cleanse with the green juices was very interesting. Basically, one survives on the freshly pressed juice for 3 whole days with no solid food - however, if you get hungry, they say that you can take some nuts or brown rice or a broth. But no animal fat or foods - only plant based. It was not a hardship to do the fast because the juices were so delicious and superbly healthy and invigorating. Juice shops are almost as popular as coffee shops here. One of the places had a special on their 3 day cleanse. They provide you with directions and all the bottles are labelled as to what order to drink them and on which days. I did have a bit of a headache on day 2, and my legs ached quite a bit on day 3. Then of course when I started eating solids again, I filled up very quickly. That didn't last long though - now I am back to eating normal portions again. I feel like the cleanse did not harm me in any way - I would consider doing a one day fast once a month, for sure, but not 3 days on a regular basis.
I don't like the consumerism of Christmas - I prefer it to be a time to reflect on the meaning of life and a time of hope. I am not into the gift buying and the glitz, however, we do have Christmas stockings - something which my adult kids still insist on having. I do love the lights of the season - the lights shining in darkness bring me a sense of hope and realization that the darkness can never put the light out.
This Christmas will be a little quieter than usual because my grandchildren will not be visiting us this year, and my other son is at his wife's parents for Christmas - but I will have my 2 daughters and their husbands. So there will be 6 of us - all adults - so we will eat well, have good conversation and play games. Just a nice relaxed and cosy family time. I will cook the food, but I like to keep it simple and nutritious.
Wishing you and Raymond a relaxing Christmas and a healthy New Year in 2016.
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Hello Mary,
I was not really surprised about the high incidence of cancer related to lifestyle. With the epidemic of cancers that we now have, it makes sense. We just have to remember that lifestyle is not just food and exercise and that the environment is a huge part of lifestyle and virtually impossible to control. I have never really been convinced about genes, although it seems again common sense that your lifestyle can affect your genes and how they function. Even if we are eating healthily, the 'experts' seem to be constantly changing their mind about what constitutes healthy food. It seems we are now back to the Atkins diet, and high protein being the way to go, and that carbohydrates are the villains. I remember how maligned the Atkins diet was in its time. I think with carbohydrates the processed ones are the main villains, white rice, white bread and white pasta. People do not seem to understand that these carbohydrates are quickly assimilated into the body and converted into sugar, thus sending your blood sugar levels (glucose) soaring. I think high blood sugar levels resulting in metabolic syndrome and then a diagnosis of diabetes 2 and the beginning of inflammation in the body may be the slow path to tumours and cancer.
I really think we all need to avoid sugar and processed foods in our struggles to avoid cancer.
It is true that healthy people do get cancer, but, as I keep repeating, the words of my breast cancer consultant back in 2005, the immune system in healthy people can get lazy and fail to fight cancer cells as it does on a daily basis. We have to remember that cancer is in our bodies and not outside of it. It all seems a bit strange and I often ask myself why cancer cells are a part of the body's system. It seems a bit perverse.
We also have to remember that cancer is a systemic disease and that the various names that the medical establishment gives to various cancers is just a system. It just depends on where in the body the cancer cells decide to take up residence. If they take up residence in the breast it is called breast cancer and so on.
I do agree with you 100% that stress plays a part in cancer, especially the way people handle it and whether to them it is good or bad stress. I have experienced stress that I found difficult to handle, and thus, for me, that was negative stress. There are also people in a person's life that can cause them negative stress. What I found interesting when I was seeing the homoeopathic breast cancer consultant at the hospital in Bristol, was the long, meaningful appointments that I had with her where I felt she really got to know me, and I do remember a good conversation about stress and where she got me talking about the people I considered to be a negative influence in my life. I know now how to listen to my body and I can feel the change when I am experiencing negative stress. As I have also said before, I think our cortisol levels should be monitored.
I am very interested in rheumatoid arthritis and auto-immune diseases. They sound awful and it is hard to believe how many there are of them. I think all the treatments, mainly medication, are dreadful as well. I could not believe that the chemotherapy drug methotrexate is used in rheumatoid arthritis, although I can see the connection with depressing the immune system. I believe that methotrexate started off being used for rheumatoid arthritis back in the 1940s and was later used as part of a combination of chemotherapy drugs for breast cancer. I do not know how regularly it is used now. It looks as though it is one of those drugs that has been re-targeted in its use, just like metformin has been re-targeted from diabetes use to breast cancer use. I sometimes wonder what is going on in the drugs world.
I did see one combination of a chemotherapy regime which had epirubicin first of all, followed by three or four cycles of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and fluorouracil (CMF).
It is important not to mix up methotrexate, the chemotherapy drug, with dexamethasone which is a steroid, long acting and potent and is prescribed to suppress inflammatory and allergic disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis. It is also used to help with nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy treatment. I remember having it.
It always amazes me when I see all the drugs that are now coming through big pharma and how lethal they are. I am also concerned about the cocktail of drugs being given!!
That is about all for now.
Sending you greetings across the ocean for Christmas and the New Year.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello adagio,
Thank you for your most interesting post. I shall answer later today.
Fond thoughts.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello adagio,
It was nice to hear from you and to learn about your green juice cleansing experience. Well done for trying it. It does sound quite hard but I suppose you can always have some nuts, brown rice or broth if it gets too much. I was not surprised that you are not allowed any animal fat or foods. Did you manage to do the three days without anything else? I must say the bottles of green juice sound intriguing. Were the ingredients clearly marked and could you see any reason as to why you had to drink the juices in a specific order? I was not surprised that you had a bit of a headache on day two and leg aches on day three. I would think you had low blood sugar levels after three days of fasting, if there was nothing in the drinks to keep it going. I do not know if I could do that fast as I really need to eat small meals three times a day. I have been making juices in my blender with a mixture of kale, rocket, spinach, and watercress, along with a fresh pepper, fresh ginger, a tomato, and a few grapes. I did not use an apple because I thought an apple would not work in the blender. I tried some cayenne pepper the first time, but found it rather fiery. Perhaps I put too much in. I have been using these drinks as a refreshing pick-me-up.
I was not surprised to know that you felt full up quite quickly when you began to eat solid foods. I am sure that the fast could not have done any harm, but have concern about blood sugar levels getting very low. I can understand that you feel ready to do a one day fast once a month, but not the three days on a regular basis.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Like you, I do not like the consumerism of Christmas. In fact I find all the eating, drinking and buying expensive presents quite obscene. There is too much poverty in the world for this to be alright. In the UK we have people sleeping on the streets, children going hungry and living in poverty and soup kitchens and food banks everywhere. We have a most unequal country and the present government has to be one of the most uncaring we have ever had. The NHS is really suffering.
I am sure your Christmas will be a nice one with your two daughters and their husbands. It sounds as though it will be a family get together a bit like Thanksgiving. Raymond and I always liked the fact that there was no giving of presents on Thanksgiving.
That is all for now. Raymond and I send you best wishes and hope that the New Year will be a good one for you, healthy and happy.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi Sylvia
Our classes and schools are divided into two semesters. But I teach in Iran Language Institute which is the oldest and the most professional language institute in Iran dating back to before revolution . Here we have four terms each year.
Last night was the longest night of the year, here called Yalda. We celebrated it with some friends by having especial foods, fruit and nuts and staying up until midnight playing cards,reading some poems and joking.
About what you asked about celebrating the end of each year I should say we actually celebrate the first two weeks of the new year called Norooz which is the beginning of the spring . But the last month of the year is the busiest as all people rush to shopping centers and according to an old custom every family should do a complete clean up at home including cleaning all the windows, walls , floor, and washing anything that is can be washed.
Lots of love
Hanieh
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Hi Mary
It s so nice of you to say such kind words. Tonight when I came back home after five classes, reading your post was really energizing. It's really cool to have such great friends around the world.
Love you and wish you the best
Hanieh
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Hi adagio
Your posts are really interesting. Thank you so much. I once saw TV programme about the benefits of fasting which is a great way to reduce the IGF 1 hormones which are responsible for rapid growth of cells.
Wish you long healthy life
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Hello Hanieh,
I was interested, as always, in what you had to tell us about how things are done in your country. Here in England the school, colleges and university terms are divided in much the same way. There are three terms in the schools with a half term week's holiday in the middle of each term. With the university, which used to be three ten week terms, they now have a reading week in the middle of these terms. Today university seems very different to when I was at university, when only the top 10% were good enough to get into university. I think things changed when it started to be called "going to uni". This was never used when I was a student. In Scotland everything may be a bit different as they have their own school system. I am not sure about Wales and Northern Ireland, but I think they tend to follow England. The UK is a very strange country and not really united.
I was most interested to know that you are teaching at the Iran Language Institute which is the oldest and most professional language institute in Iran, dating back to before the revolution. Is this institute post 18 and adult?
I was interested in what you said about Yalda, the longest night of the year, during which you stay up until midnight. This December 21st, the winter solstice, we call the shortest day and it marks the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. There is no special celebration, but we start to look forward to the daylight gradually getting longer and lighter.
The big events here are December 25th, celebrating Christmas, but it seems to be just an excuse here for over-indulgence. It is quite a mad time of year, really. It has now spread through to New Year's Day. It is December 31st that is the other important day with people seeing the old year out and the new year in. again, it seems to be a time of over-indulgence. There are firework displays in the big cities here. We usually watch them on television.
I was interested to know that you celebrate the first two weeks of the new year and that it is called Norooz.
This week I had problems with one of my teeth and I had to go for an emergency appointment yesterday and it had to be removed. I am feeling a bit strange today and thinking something had to happen before I got to the end of 2015, but at least this was not a major incident.
Here we do our Spring cleaning about April. It is then that we also start our gardens on a re-birth.
We are having a milder than usual December, but the rain and winds have been awful. There is a lot of flooding in the north-west of England and people have lost their homes.
I think Raymond and I are waiting for January 4th when things will get back to normal here. We do not like all the commercialism of this time of year. It is ongoing. Amazon starts its January sales online this evening, which is Christmas Eve.
I get even more philosophical than usual at this time of year. There is so much suffering and hardship in this world, not to mention selfishness.
Thinking of you and sending sincere best wishes.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi Sylvia and everyone
I would like to wish all who celebrate Christmas a joyful and happy time!
Michael
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Hello Michael,
It was nice to hear from you and thank you for your best wishes to all of us on the thread who celebrate Christmas.
How will you be spending Christmas? Will you be in Essex, London or Northern Ireland? Wherever it may be I hope it will be enjoyable and meaningful.
It somehow does not seem like Christmas Eve here in Exmouth. It is very mild and the rain still keeps coming, along with strong winds.
Tomorrow the seafront will be busy as some hardy people take to the waters to do the annual Christmas swim, before heading to the numerous pubs, restaurants and cafés along the seafront. On Boxing Day there will be the annual Fun Run along the seafront.
We do not do much for Christmas these days but we are hoping for a nice rest from all the work involved in running our apartment complex and hope there will be no emergencies. I have six books and two magazines sitting waiting to be read. I am also waiting for a book to be delivered entitled An accidental hero by Steven Gilbert about Jeremy Corbyn (non-fiction). At the moment I am reading a book by Dr Michael Mosley entitled The 8-week blood sugar diet. It is not your usual diet book. It is all about the epidemic of type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, why it is happening and how this is a disease that can be reversed. There is a foreword by Professor Roy Taylor.
I was interested to read that in the UK it s estimated that type 2 diabetes is costing the country at least £20 billion a year and in the US $245 billion a year. There is quite a lot in it about metformin. I would recommend this book to people. It is all about how to prevent and reverse type 2 diabetes and stay off medication.
Have a good Christmas and I hope the New Year will be good to you.
Sending best wishes.
Sylvia.
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Hello sam52,
I hope you are still viewing the thread. I have no idea whether you are still in London or have moved. I was wondering whether you finished work as you thought you might.
Love
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Sylvia,
We are still here in London; there has been a last minute hitch with the house and I am now praying that it will be resolved, but we won't know any more until after the New Year. I am feeling very down about it.
Because of all the uncertainty, I do not feel I can give in my notice when the new term starts, so it looks as though I will be teaching until the end of the academic year. Meanwhile, the sale of my late parents' house is going through and we are in the throes of sorting through everything, which I am finding stressful; losing the house will be quite an emotional wrench.
I have been in poor health for the last three months, which I am sure is partly due to all the stress. I hope that 2016 will be kinder!
I wish you and Raymond all the best for a Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year.
With love,
Sam xx
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Hi Sylvia
I hope everything goes to the best for you and all here on these last days of the year. And a year full of joyful incidents awaits you.
Here in the ILI where I teach , all ages are being taught from 7 to the age the person can learn. Yet the branches for children, young adults and adults differ as well as the system and methodology. I have thought here for a complete 11 years. The first 6 years I taught young adults but after that I passed some tests, interviews and training courses exactly the same as the time I wanted to enter the ILI to qualify me as an adults' teacher. ILI was called Iran America institute before the revolution and is the only institute that has kept its high standards. We also have courses in French, German, Spanish and Arabic as well as teaching Persian to non-Persian speaking living in Iran.
I love my job especially because I love English and teaching it. It's a really beautiful language.
Lots of love
Hanieh
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Hello Sam,
It was really nice to hear from you as you will always be special to me.
I was so sorry to read that you have had a last minute hitch with the house and I do hope it will be resolved soon. Buying and selling a house is a very stressful time and you can never know what will happen until you have completed contracts. I think we all know that going through this situation is up there with the major stresses in life, so I do hope everything will work out as we cancer survivors do not need stress in our lives. I can understand how you are feeling down about it, but try to tell yourself that all will work out in the end. Try to relax and enjoy the break from work. When Raymond and I were in the process of moving here at this very time of year, we also had complications and everything was on hold. It was a stressful time and we had to get through Christmas and New Year with all this hanging over us. We eventually moved here on January 10th 2002. We then had to get used to living in an apartment, and it was very different from living in a house.
I can understand how you feel about giving in your notice at school when the new term starts. If it is still the same as when I was teaching, you have to give three months notice, so I can see how you will have to teach until the end of the academic year. Perhaps this extra time will in the end make it a more relaxed move.
I can also understand the stress you are going through with the sale of your parents' house and sorting everything out. This is yet another stressful time that we all end up going through. Just try to think of all the happy times you spent there and then focus on thinking about your new home and how you can make it nice and put your own identity on it.
I was really sorry to hear that you have been in poor health for the last three months and I can understand how stress would have played a part in it. We all know that stress is not good for us who have survived breast cancer. You have done very well so far and it must be over fifteen years since you were diagnosed. In addition, we both went through all that anxiety over our problems with an over active parathyroid gland and having to have surgery to cure it. It was so beneficial to me to strike up a friendship with you on this forum when, quite by accident, I discovered the High Calcium thread, and how we struck up a long correspondence there and the PMs that got us through all that worry. I am still convinced there is a connection between the over active parathyroid gland and breast cancer.
I really hope that you will have a better 2016. For the moment concentrate on getting your health better, and try to relax and rest as much as you can during this winter break.
Life is much the same here in Exmouth. The weather has been awful and it seems to drag your mood down.
We do not do much for Christmas because we do not have much in the way of family. We shall have a quiet day and try to catch up with some of our reading.
Thinking of you and sending our very best wishes for a healthy, happy and stress free 2016.
Love
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Hanieh,
Thank you for your very kind words.
I was interested to know about what goes on in the ILI where you teach and obviously enjoy teaching English. I can understand why you enjoy teaching English as a second language. Besides teaching French as a second language I have also taught English as a second language and I found it so interesting to do this. I can pick up lots of mistakes with native English speakers here and also know instinctively the mistakes that foreign speakers will make as they learn English. English grammar and English spelling can be quite difficult as some of the rules are not very logical and the spelling is not phonetic as American English is. It was quite interesting in Morocco because the other two teachers that were teaching English with me were Americans doing it through the Peace Corps. The students had teachers with different accents teaching them and differences in spelling and sometimes meanings of words. For example, the Americans talk about candies and the English talk about sweets. The English spelling is plough and the American spelling is plow. The English talk about the pavement and the Americans talk about the sidewalk. It is all interesting.
We are counting down the days now until the New Year.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi, all
this was in the latest newsletter from The Truth about Cancer and Ty Bollinger
Happy continued holidays!
Mary
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Hello Mary,
Thank you for the link. I shall have a read of it later on. I do hope you had a nice Christmas that brought you happiness.
Thank you for your great contribution to this thread.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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