Calling all triple negative breast cancer patients in the UK
Comments
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Hello everyone
I heard an interview on Radio 4 a few days ago and thought I would post this snippet about it."Despite investment and research into cancer treatment, there has been no real breakthrough in tackling the disease. The BBC's Tom Feilden has been to the Welcome Trust's Sanger Institute near Cambridge, where scientists say that we need to look at the very first mutations at the start of a cancer to make progress in tackling the problem".
For those of you interested you can look up May 16 2012 Understanding breast cancer, Welcome Trust, Sanger Institute at:-
www.sanger.ac.uk/about/press/2012/120516.html.
Apparently they have now found forty genes that are associated with breast cancer development.
Wishing everyone a good week.
Sylvia0 -
I feel as if we have a friendship here and we should discuss everything and anything. The diversity of life.
One a more serious note
Give a thought, say a prayer or thank you of the men and women of D-Day today. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!
June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which "we will accept nothing less than full victory." More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.
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My father was there.....he was part of a convoy protecting battleships;he was in the Royal Naval Intelligence Afloat (mainly listening in to German naval broadcasts and cracking their codes).All the more amazing as he was a refugee from Nazi Germany himself.
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To BernieEllen and sam52,
Thank you for your posts. I do not think we should ever forget the gratiude that we owe to all those who paricipated in the events of June 6th 1944. We owe so much to the generations that fought in World War 1 and World War 11. I lost family members in both wars. I wonder what they would think of our world today?
Good night to you two great ladies.
Kind thoughts
Sylvia.
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Debbie visited a psychic of some local repute. In a dark and gloomy room, gazing at the tarot cards laid out before her, the tarot reader delivered the bad news:
"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just be blunt - prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year."Visibly shaken, Jennifer stared at the woman's lined face, then at the single flickering candle, then down at her hands. She took a few deep breaths to compose herself.
She simply had to know. She met the tarot reader's gaze, steadied her voice, and asked:
"Will I get away with it?"
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Answers given by 7yr old school children to the following questions:
Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the sticky tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mum just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.Why did God give you your mother and not some other Mum?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's Mums like me.What kind of little girl was your Mum?
1. My Mum has always been my Mum and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.What did Mum need to know about Dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least £800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?Why did your Mum marry your Dad?
1. My Dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mum eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My Grandma says that Mum didn't have her thinking cap on.Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mum doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because Dad's such an idiot.
2. Mum. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mum is, but only because she has a lot more to do than Dad.What's the difference between Mums & Dads?
1. Mums work at work and work at home and Dads just go to work at work.
2. Mums know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but Mums have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
4. Mums have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.What does your Mum do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't have spare time.
2. To hear her talk, she pays bills all day long.What would it take to make your Mum perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. You know, her hair. I'd die it, maybe blue.If you could change one thing about your Mum, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my Mum smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like her to get rid of those invisible things.0 -
Hello BernieEllen,
Thank you for your posts. You made me laugh a lot. I am sure you made others laugh as well.
Have a good weekend.
Best wishes,
Sylvia.
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A very big hello to Sylvia and all of the wonderful ladies on this thread. I've been meaning to come by and say hi. I hope this finds you all well!
Warm Regards,
Betty0 -
Hi Sylvia and all of the incredible ladies on this thread.
Well today is my birthday, my daughters birthday and I think that my nephew's first baby will be born today, but most important to me my 2 year diagnosis and I'm here to enjoy my birthday, hurrah!
I have been quite busy and have a few fund raising things coming up. I finished the Ladies Flora Mini Marathon on Monday 4th and felt a huge sense of achievement, I really didnt think that I would. To be perfectly honest I wasn't the worlds most physically active woman before the cancer and always had low energy levels!
I watched all the jubilee stuff and recieved a call from my sisters at the start of the marathon, they were at a pary and their dogs in a sausage eating contest and a fancy dress competition. Made me quite homesick if only for the crazy dog stuff.
I have had my physio deferred as she felt that my body wasnt ready for it and the exercises gave me alot of pain. I have appt at pain clinic next Friday so I hope that I can learn new techniques of pain management.
We are moving on to our summer schedule at the centre and will have a flexible day on Tuesdays with tai chi, massage , reiki stress management and any activities such as painting, scrap booking that anyone wants to do. Just so that we can get together and chat and laugh!
Ironically all of my sickness benefit finishes today and I havent heard any thing about my invalidity claim. I am really worried about it and so I am having a Quiet day at home no big celebration. I do feel angry though that I have survived but because I cant return to my job have financial worries that get in the way of being grateful to be alive. It is something that we have discussed at the centre as so many people men and women cannot return to their original jobs.
Anyway apart from that whoopee I'm alive and will be soon skypeing my beautiful grandson a fabulous reason to look to the future. I also have so many wonderful friends and family who have been with me with their support and love and hugs. Yes I have lots to be grateful for.
Hope that all is well with you and all that terrible weather has gone
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Hello LintRollerDerby (Betty)
Thank you for your post. Thank you for your kind words. How are you feeling a year and a month after diagnosis? I hope you are well, getting on with your life, and keeping breast cancer just in a little corner.Please pop in whenever you feel like it and tell us about your life post treatment.
Warm wishes
Sylvia0 -
Hello linali
First of all a very happy birthday to you and your daughter. I do hope you will do something special. Let us know if your nephew's first baby does arrive today.Above all, congratulations from all of us on the second anniversary of your diagnosis. Well done and keep up the good work.
I was glad to know that you have been keeping busy. Congratulations on finishing the Ladies Flora Mini Marathon on Monday June 4th. I can understand that you felt such a great sense of achievement. I know you had doubts about how you would cope but you made it! You are to be congratulated even more because you said that you were not particularly physically active before the breast cancer and always had low energy levels. What is the secret of your renewed energy? Do you think it is a change of diet or are you taking anything special?
I am trying to imagine your sisters' dogs in fancy dress and in a sausage eating competition. I think I have got that right and it was not your sisters in fancy dress and eating sausages. How many sausages can one dog eat? Do your sisters live a long way from you?
I do hope you will find some relief from pain when you have your appointment on Friday June 15th and learn some new techniques for pain management. I am sure that people reading this thread would love to know what you are told and how they might benefit from these techniques, as I get the impression that a lot of women suffer different kinds of pain for quite a time after treatment.
I was so glad to know that you are getting so much out of the centre that you go to. It looks as though the flexible day on Tuesdays will be very enjoyable. It is so important to get together to chat and above all to laugh. Laughter is the best medicine.
I was so sorry to hear that problems with your sickness benefit coming to an end have had to spoil your day of celebration. I do so hope that you will be able to get some financial help. The last thing you need is financial worries. I do hope it will not be long before you hear about your invalidity claim. There must be some way that a person who has gone through cancer and cannot return to their previous work must be able to get government help. We elect governments to take care of us and if they do not do that there is no reason for them to exist. I do not know what the system is in Ireland, but BernieEllen may be able to help. I think that here you would probably get Disability Living Allowance or Incapacity Benefit, both names of which I think have now changed to Employment Support Allowance. Are you able to do any other kind of work? I remember that your job before diagnosis was to do with Unions and I think that must have been very interesting but very stressful. You said that you have had discussions about this at the centre. Post and let us know what people think. I would think that, like you, they feel very angry. Work is such an important part of life that people feel sad and lost without it. Let us know how things go.
Whatever your other feelings, you must be happy to have just passed two years since diagnosis. There are so many people dying prematurely of cancer. Just think positively and tell yourself that the financial situation must resolve itself in the end. You are right to say whoopee to being alive.
Look forward to being able to see your grandson via Skype. Family and friends are more important than anything else and you are lucky that you have had their love and support throughout your treatment. Just think of the men and women that have to face serious illness alone. I saw quite a few women sitting alone during their chemotherapy treatment and men and women alone when I was going through radiotherapy. I do not think I could have done it alone.
It is very quiet here in Exmouth today and we are back to more cold and rain. All the excitement of the Jubilee seems to have disappeared. We need some sunshine. The television now seems to have been taken over by Euro 2012. Are you interested in this? I know a lot of men are, so I suppose many women will have lost their husbands, boyfriends or partners for the next couple of weeks. I suppose I am lucky because my husband hates football!!!
That is all for now. Warm wishes.
Sylvia0 -
Hello everyone
I was wondering whether you have read the latest research coming from Canada about TNBC.In short, there is breakthrough research that has the potential to cure TNBC. It would do this by targeting a protein called RSK2. This protein apparently eliminates TNBC cells completely.
The research is as recent as June 2012 and is published in the medical journal Stem Cells. It is reported there that RSK2 inhibitors have the ability to kill of the cells, including cancer stem cells, which give rise to cancer occurrence.
It is said that RSK2 inhibition provides a novel therapeutic avenue for TNBC and holds the promise of being one of the first targeted therapies for this difficult to treat form of breast cancer.
There are 400,000 women worldwide that get diagnosed with TNBC and is considered to be the most difficult breast cancer sub type to treat, because of a lack of effective treatments.
If you would like more details please look at:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/CBCF/TNBCannoucement/prweb9576703.htm
Best wishes to everyone viewing the thread and posting. I hope everybody has a good week.
It would be nice to hear from the three American ladies who were great posters on this thread during their treatment. I hope you, christina1961, bak94 (Brenda) and mccrimmon324 (Heather) are all well and happy. I hope Heather you are happy back in Pennsylvania and in your new job.
To sam52 and Karen3, I hope you had a good half term despite the weather, and I shall be thinking of you as you wend your way back to the classroom.
To Maria_Malta, I hope you are well and I am thinking of you as you probably return to school as well.
Good luck and best wishes to all of you.
Sylvia0 -
Hi, Sylvia,
Thank you for your always kind words. How have you been? I've been trying to get on with my life and sometimes I'm successful. Other times, not so much. We recently had our first tropical storm (thankfully, not a hurricane) since chemo and I got to see how the low pressure affects my joints after treatment. Not so fun!
Our daughter graduated from high school yesterday with high honors. We're very proud and it feels surreal that she's about to start college. We're moving to South Florida in a few weeks and I'm happy to be starting a new phase in life. I hope it brings good things.
Thank you for posting the article about the new TNBC treatment. I hope every day that there is an announcement of treatment that will greatly benefit all of us. TNBC is so aggressive and can leave such devastation in its wake. It's critical for researchers to find the Achilles heel of this disease.
I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!
Warm Regards,
Betty
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Hello LintRollerDerby (Betty)
Thank you for your post and for asking after me. I feel fine and I hope it stays that way. I am just ten days away from my seven years since diagnosis, which will be on June 20th. It does seem a long time ago that I was going through all that fear and anxiety, but I know that I can still not take anything for granted.I was glad to know that you are trying to get on with a 'normal' life and I know that can be difficult, especially if you read bad news on these threads. We just have to keep as normal as we can and look after ourselves as best we can. I think we all have our good and bad days. It seems that lots of people have various aches and pains after treatment, but learn to live with them. There is no doubt that chemotherapy leaves long-lasting effects. I am fine except for peripheral neuropathy in the feet. This seems to affect a lot of women, judging by what I have read on other threads. It comes from treatment with the taxanes for chemotherapy. I had docetaxel (Taxotere) which my oncologist said was less toxic than paclitaxel (Taxol). Apparently there is no cure for this neuropathy, according to my oncologist, GP and a podiatrist that I saw. Most of the time it does not bother me.
You must be so proud of your daughter graduating from High School with high honours and getting ready to go to college. I do hope everything will go well with your move to South Florida and that it will be the beginning of a good new life for you.
It is encouraging when we hear about possible new TNBC treatments. Of course, what it does not say in the article is how long it will take to use this new research as treatment and what the side effects of the treatment will be. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are too harsh on the body and I think probably, in the long term, contribute to recurrence and spread. I still believe it is more productive to try to prevent the disease.
Keep happy and keep optimistic.
Best wishes
Sylvia.0 -
Hi All.
On the 16th May I was told, as a result of the core biopsy on my breast lump, that I had grade 3 TNBC. I had my lumpectomy with SNB on 6th June and am due to go back on the 20th June to hear all my results. I am feeling very scared at the moment but have taken alot of comfort from reading all the messages in this forum. I have two children and like all of us want to see them grow up and live a long, happy and healthy life. At the moment that doesn't seem very hopeful. Any advice in these early days would be appreciated.
Thanks, Katie.x
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Hi Sylvia,
Congratulations on your seven years since diagnosis! I'm sorry to hear about the neuropathy, but happy that it doesn't bother you most of the time. Aside from the joint pains from chemo, I have some neuropathy in my fingers. It was minor, but seems to be worsening lately. You're right about the Taxotere; it is definitely the culprit.
Thank you for the well wishes about our daughter and upcoming move.
That's very true about wondering how long a treatment would take to reach us if it were found. I'm with you in thinking that chemo and radiation are too harsh and make things worse. I declined radiation because I couldn't handle the possibility that I'd have more side effects to deal with. We certainly do need prevention because a cure is proving too difficult with breast cancer being so heterogenous.
Warm Regards,
Betty
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Hi Katie,
Welcome, but I'm sorry you have reason to join us. That said, you will find lots of support and information on these boards.
That feels like a bit of a wait for results. Did your physician offer to give you preliminary results from the SNB? Have they mentioned scans or tests to stage you? All of this process is hard, but it's especially difficult when you're in sort of a holding pattern and unsure about the extent of the disease or the plan of action.
I know how scary this is and please feel free to PM me if you need/want to talk. We will help you through this.
Warm Regards,
Betty
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Hello KatieS44
Thank you for your post. I am sorry that you have to be here, but I and others will do all that we can to support you. The first thing that I want to say is please do not be afraid. You can get through this and we can guide you through.Let us start from the beginning. Did you discover your lump or was it the result of a mammogram? I get the impression that you might be too young to having mammograms, but you do not say which country you are from. Other countries start mammograms from an earlier age. Before starting standard procedure of a mixture of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it is usual to have scans. After diagnosis through fine needle aspiration, mammogram, ultrasound and core biopsy, I had a CT scan and a bone nucleide scan. After the core biopsy I was told that my breast cancer was non-hormonal and that this meant I was oestrogen negative, progesterone negative and HER2 negative and that after standard treatment drugs like Tamoxifen would be of no use. I would not worry about the grade 3 status as this is the most common one for TNBC. I would ask exactly what the percentage receptor status is for the things I have mentioned because sometimes you can have mixed receptors.
The fact that you had a lumpectomy three weeks after diagnosis might mean that your tumour was quite small. If I were you I would ask the size. I would also ask whether any lymph nodes under the arm or elsewhere have been affected. I would also ask what the treatment plan is. In the UK it seems to be that with lumpectomies you tend to have follow up treatment with radiotherapy. If I were you I would also ask whether you will need chemotherapy. Often after standard treatment you also have scans again to check that all is OK. Please bear in mind that all breast cancers are different and that there can be variations in treatment.
I do hope you will have good results on June 20th. All of us who have been through breast cancer treatment know the fear and anxiety of waiting for results and check ups. Just try to keep busy so that time passes quickly and so that June 20th will come and go and you will proceed with whatever treatment is advised.
I am so glad to know that this forum has been of comfort to you. I started this thread to help and support everyone going through this disease.
You must look on the bright side and keep looking forward while you are going through this. More and more women are surviving breast cancer.
Please keep reading the thread and posting as much as you like to help yourself. We are all here for you and you will get through this.
Sending warm thoughts and wishes your way.
Sylvia x0 -
Hello LintRollerDerby (Betty)
Thank you for your post and for your warm words to Katie. It is so helpful when women who have finished their treatment continue to post to help, comfort and support others that are going through treatment. It is right to give others support, especially if you have been guided and supported through your own treatment.You are right about neuropathy. It seems definitely to be a long term side effect of chemotherapy treatment from the taxanes, paclitaxel and docetaxel and seems to affect the nerves in the hands or feet. I have started to soak my feet in very warm salty water, and that seems to help. As for the hands, I just notice that the palms can suddenly go bright red.
I was interested to know that you agree with me about chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It looks as though they keep us alive, but at a price, and that later in life they set us up for other health problems, including recurrence, spread and new primaries. However, we have to concentrate on the fact that they do keep us alive and for many years. Let us hope that a prevention will come along in the not too distant future and in the meantime we have to do all little things that we can, such as healthy eating and exercise, to keep this disease at bay. It is no small task. I read recently that there are 3,000 different cancers. I think I also read that there are about 21 different breast cancers.
This week I read in one of the British newspapers that the experts say that one in five women with breast cancer will have there illness return following treatment.
Apparently researchers looked at the records of 1,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer since 1999. What they found was that the tumour returned in 214 cases and that it came back an average of three years and four months after the patient had finished treatment. I feel we need to concentrate on those statistics and remind ourselves that almost 800 women did not have the disease return. Even those who had a return of the disease still managed to survive for quite a time. Of course, this research does not mention how those statistics divide up with the different kinds of breast cancer. I think we always have to look at the positive side of everything with this disease.
The other statistics in this article quoted that 48,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK and it leads to 11,500 deaths. Of course, these deaths are too high and have to be improved, but we still have to concentrate on the fact that many more women are surviving than dying.
This study was funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and also found that 60% of all patients were still alive ten years after diagnosis. Again, we have to concentrate on the positive side of that.
Keep posting, Betty. We need to keep these threads going and to fill them with information, our personal experiences, our hopes and optimism, our determination and courage and our support and comfort.
With very best wishes
Sylvia0 -
Hello everyone, but especially those going through treatment.
I hope everything is going well with Karen3 and am wondering about Karen_Sheffield, who started chemotherapy on May 10th. I sincerely hope all is well.Hello Dulcie. Do you have any news about your mastectomy? I do hope you are feeling much better now that you have stopped chemotherapy.
Hello youngmommy. I do hope that all is OK as you go through radiotherapy.
Hello linali. I am thinking of you and hoping all is well. I am sure you are busy doing something useful to our cause.
To everyone, I was talking to a friend the other day who told me that somebody she knew had had breast cancer over thirty years ago and it had then come back. At the time she had just had surgery and nothing else. When it came back three years ago she was offered treatment, but declined everything, so with no treatment at all, she is surviving. It is so hard to know what to make of all this. Of course we do not know what kind of breast cancer she had. I also know someone who had breast cancer and just surgery and is still alive after 25 years.
All of this gives you food for thought.
Thinking of you all.
Sylvia0 -
Hi Sylvia and Betty.
Thanks for your kind words and support. I am 41 and live in the UK. I found the lump myself and it was measured as 2.1cm from the ultrasound scan (but I'm not sure how accurate they are). The lump felt like it was growing daily from discovery, although appeared to come from nowhere, but I'm not sure if that's the case or just my paranoia. I have had only blood tests and a chest x-ray so far which I was told were both normal. I have been told I will have chemo followed by radiotherapy.
Best wishes to you all.
Katie.x
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Hello KatieS44
Thank you for your post. I am so sorry that you have to go through this at such a young age. You probably know that triple negative breast cancer affects mainly young women, so the experts tell us, but I have found on these threads that there are a variety of ages. At least you have had the lumpectomy and the lump has been removed, so that is behind you.I have read often on the threads how women say that their TNBC seem to come from nowhere and then grow rapidly. It was certainly my own experience. It seemed as though suddenly I had a big lump on my right breast and it did grow quite a bit until I started treatment. I had chemotherapy first, every three weeks for six months. This was because the tumour was large and they wanted to shrink if before surgery. This chemotherapy first is done quite often now and I think especially with TNBC. It was certainly not paranoia on your part in thinking that your tumour seemed to come from nowhere.
Let us know what you are told on June 20th and please do not be afraid to ask your medical team questions. I shall not forget June 20th because that was the date of my diagnosis seven years ago.
On this thread we can take you through every step of your treatment. We have recently done this with five women and they have all got through their treatment, even if there were ups and downs on the way.
Try not to worry. When first diagnosed and for some time a person with breast cancer diagnosis goes into shock, but it does get better. Make sure you get plenty of support from friends and family and avoid stress. Take one step of this journey at a time.
Do you have any history of breast cancer in the family?
Best wishes
Sylvia x0 -
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Hello everyone
I am just popping in to wish all of you a very good weekend.
To my fellow Brits, do not let the awful weather get you down. It cannot go on for ever.
To all going through treatment, keep positive and keep looking ahead. Treatment will come to an end.
Look for the highs in every day and forget about the lows.
To Bernie, thank you for your post.
Best wishes
Sylvia
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR GIVING YOUR CAT A PILL
1. Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.
2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.
3. Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with lef hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of 10.
4. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.
5. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, holding front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold cat's head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.
6. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.
7. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with its head just visible from below spouse's armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force cat's mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.
8. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink glass of water to take taste away. Apply band-aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.
9. Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.
10. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.
11. Ring fire brigade to retrieve cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.
12. Tie cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Force cat's mouth open with small spanner. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Hold head vertically and pour 1/2 pint of water down throat to wash pill down.
13. Get spouse to drive you to emergency room; sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Stop by furniture shop on way home to order new table.
14. Arrange for vet to make a housecall.
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Hello Everyone,
I am just posting to say that today it is seven years since I was diagnosed with TNBC and had a large tumour. I had chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy in that order. I hope this will be encouraging to all those reading this thread amidst some of the sad news I have read on other threads. You can get through all this.
Best Wishes,
Sylvia.
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Hi sylvia,
Congrats on 7years, it gives the rest of us great hope as TNBC is so unpredictable.
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Hi
I was at gp yesterday for blood results and he said that my blood sugar is high 6.7 I think. I dont eat much sugar apart from 1/2 tsp in coffee. Any tips for what diet I should be following.
I was busy at weekend at a vintage car show fundraiser. Getting ready for sister's visit from england on sunday.
Pain specialist put me on Lyrac? a nerve ending suppressant. He is also doing a procedure on my shoulder to relieve the pain, but didnt know what under arm connected to breast pain is. Suggested I get back to radiography dept.
Not in the best of moods at the moment, gp told me that my application for invalidity will be refused. I will have to get as much evidence to support my claim. The form that you fill has no relevance to any effects you may suffer after cancer treatment that could prevent you from returning to your original job. I work in a hospital and the work is very physical and very pressurised with all the cut backs and you need to be 150% fit to work there now! Its difficult some times to describe the pain and fatigue and I think that even my gp isnt that aware although he himself is a cancer survivor.
Feeling like running away to an island, cant even console myself with cake anymore!
Sorry to be so negative but I have tried to keep upbeat
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Dear Sylvia - congratulations on your seven year 'anniversary'......may you enjoy many,many more.
You have been a great encouragement and source of information for all on this thread.I always look forward to reading your posts, even though I am not triple negative.
As usual, I have been very busy with home and school stuff (reports to write - just finished, thank goodness!) I will fill you in via a pm soon!
With love,
Sam
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Hello linali
Thank you for your kind words. I do so hope that my seven year survival will encourage others to think positively and to keep looking forward. I definitely know how the newly diagnosed feel. There is such a mixture of feelings. You are stunned, shocked, frightened, confused and bewildered, and above all think of death. Slowly as you speak with your medical team and your treatment is explained you are still frightened but I think more reassured. When the actual treatment begins, you are kept so busy that you barely have time to think. You get yourself through the day. Night time can be problematic and you can find that you are unable to sleep. I know that for many weeks I could think of nothing except "I have breast cancer". You do get through the treatment and you do get back to a normal life.I was interested in what you had to say about your blood test results and your blood sugar level. I think the 'normal' is about 5.3 or that is what the doctors like. They do get hooked on all these levels. I tend not to take any notice. I also think that doctors take too much notice of their measuring machines, which are not necessarily accurate. I think levels of everything vary.
I would like to know whether your GP made any suggestions about how to lower your 6.7. I would think normally you would get referred to a dietician, but you probably know as much as they do or more. If I were you I would probably follow an anti-diabetic diet, which, to me, is much the same as an anti-cancer diet and is really just a healthy diet. We know the villains in our diet, they are cakes, biscuits, pastries, sweets, chocolate (especially high sugar chocolate), fizzy sugared drinks, juice drinks and fruit juice, canned fruit in syrup, all the frozen desserts and so on. Beware of all junk food and prepared foods, as they seem to put sugar everywhere. You need a simple diet based on fresh fruit and vegetables, a little meat, poultry or fish, and if you have potatoes a few small new ones. You need to be careful not to overdo carbohydrates, as they are made up of starch which converts to sugar in the blood. You need to avoid white bread and eat wholemeal or rye bread, avoid white rice and eat wholegrain brown rice, especially wholegrain basmati rice, avoid pasta made with white flour and stick to whole wheat pasta. These whole foods are absorbed more slowly in the body and do not cause the blood sugar to rise so quickly. Alcohol also converts to sugar in your blood.
I am not sure at what level of blood sugar a GP decides you have diabetes. There is also something called metabolic syndrome, which I think is to do with high blood sugar and I remember reading that it was one of the risk factors in the development of breast cancer, for which there are many risk factors.
I also think that, if you are overweight, losing weight and exercise will probably help to lower blood sugar levels.
I was glad to know that you had a busy weekend with your vintage car show fund raiser. Anything that takes your mind off breast cancer and makes you feel happy, useful and fulfilled is a good tonic.
I do hope you have a good time during your sister's visit from England. Make the most of it.
I have never heard of Lyrac. Is that a brand name or a generic name? I was wondering whether it might be something that is used for neuropathy, a long term side effect of chemotherapy treatment using paclitaxel (Taxol) or docetaxel (Taxotere). It is always prudent to see your oncologist or breast cancer consultant for any unexplained pain where you had surgery on the breast and under the arm. I think we all get twinges from time to time, but think chronic pain should be investigated.
I am so sorry that you are going to loose your invalidity benefit and can understand how the worry of that will have affected your move. I know that in this country some cancer patients get disability living allowance, but I am not sure how this gets allocated and whether everyone gets it. It is not means tested and is not based on the actual illness but from the needs arising from that illness. I know that your GP has to sign forms to back up your claim. I would think that a lot of the needs, after you finish cancer treatment, will remain with a person. You may have trouble with your arms from surgery, may need help with shopping because you cannot carry heavy weights. You may need special mastectomy bras, or flaps to sew into bras, and so on and so on. It does not make sense that a person cannot get help towards needs arising from a diagnosis of cancer. I can understand how you could not cope with work in a hospital. Were you a nurse? I know how awful the working conditions are in hospitals at the moment, especially with all these ridiculous cuts. I think it must be one of the most stressful jobs to do. I have a good friend in her fifties who has worked in the NHS around London since she was eighteen. She now works for a consultant in cardiology in Barts hospital and the workload is horrific. She never knows when she is going to get home. Fight your corner, linali. If you have the equivalent of our Citizens Advice Bureau, go to them and fight your case and get them to fill in the forms for you. Again, if the system works like ours, appeal any decision that goes against your interests.
I can understand that you feel like running away to an island. I think we all get like that sometimes. I know I do. I do not like what the UK has become and much preferred the fifties when people were a lot poorer. This country is now consumer and materialistic mad. The huge stores are filled with a load of junk, and that applies to supermarkets in particular. They are killing people with all the junk food. We have a serious problem with obesity and I saw a programme on the television entitled "The men that made us fat". It was all about putting corn syrup (fructose) into all our food and drinks and how it is loaded with calories. People reading labels will not identify fructose as anything fattening and harmful. It is more loaded with calories than sugar.
That is all for now, linali. Enjoy your time with your sister and laugh as much as you can. Laughter is better than anything else I know.
Thinking of you. Best wishes.
Sylvia.0
