Australian Sisters
Comments
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Jenn - sorry to hear you have a pain in the but :-) just so you don't feel so bad, I wasn't ever constipated - just the opposite and I got hemorrhoids too. Chemo se's don't seem to discriminate, you can get them either way lol Happy birthday to your DH!
Kate - enjoy your hair! Chrissy gave you good advice glad you are taking her up on it.
I've been feeling so good lately, but the last few days I've been really tired. Almost like the start of chemo tired. I'm having trouble sleeping again - the melatonin doesn't always seem to help lately. I got home from work yesterday and felt like I'd run a marathon. Think I'll have to go back to the doc and get some heavy duty sleeping tablets again, maybe if I get my sleep back into a routine I'll feel better. Sorry - just a bit down today - but I'll bounce back again, if I can get some sleep, that will help.
Trish
xoxo
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OH Trish, sorry that you are feeling down... especially after feeling so good again. I guess you will be on this roller coaster for a while yet. But you are doing all the right things as far as trying to get some help with your sleeping and also recognising that this won't last forever and you will be on the up and up soon. What's the saying 'this too shall pass?" lets just hope it's quickly
Big hugs to you.
xoxoxxo
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Thanks Kate - feel a bit better already :-) xoxo
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Hi ladies, Sorry ive been awol. Been having tooth dramas and been a bit down and didnt want to depress everyone else lol.
Jenn, (doh) on the roids. hope they heal soon
Trish, Sounds like a great idea to get some heavy duty sleeping pills, after a few days hopefully you will be way more rested and feeling heaps better.
Kate, congrats on the hair, long may it last
Chrissy, hope all is well with you, I just finished bawling my eyes out at Mary's husbands message in that thread. Damn BC
Catch you all soon hopefully.
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Hi Lyndal, yes I too shed some tears when I read Jack's post and I must say it took awhile for the content to actualy penetrate my brain.........such a shock and totally unexpected at this time. She will be missed.
I'm doing fine at the moment and hopefully for a long while to come and so sorry to hear about your tooth issues....ouch!!! I hate having to go to the dentist..............I'm not afraid of much, but I'm terrified of the dentist..........I guess that stems from a bad experience as a young kid...........strange how things like that stay with us all our lives! Hope you have managed to get it sorted!
Trish, sorry to hear you are feeling a bit down but talking about what is bothering us so those days pass us by are what this site is all about. I sure hope you get some good sleep soon and bounce back to feeling great. You can take more of the Melatonin if that will help. I have read that you can take up to 20mg without any problems and that is the dosage that is recommended if you are using it as part of an alternate treatment regime for BC....................if I had used that amount, I would want to sleep non stop!......lol.
Kate I sure hope you get those ulcers under control soon as there is nothing worse than a sore mouth. I don't think we realise just how much we use our mouths until they are very sore...........mine got to the point where I was just drooling as they were all over my tongue as well as my cheeks and lips......thank goodness they haven't been that bad since chemo but at times of high stress they have come close. I still get them often as for some reason I'm very prone to them and have been all my life, even as a kid, so I've learned through trial and error what works to give relief. I also use SM33, a liquid that also has an numbing agent in it and I paint it on with a cotton bud but the draw back with that one is it stings like a bitch and brings tears to your eyes while you are doing it. Now I recognise the signs of them starting so I do the bicarb wash/biotene wash often and that seems to knock them back to the point that sometimes if I've times it right, they don't develope to full blown ulcers at all..........I love it when I beat them...........lol
Jenn, hope you are having a good day at work and it's not knocking you out too much.........don't forget that even though you feel okay, your system is under a huge amount of stress so don't push too hard. Good luck for Thursday and treatment #2! I hope it treats you well.
Sue, I know there was something I wanted to say to you but for the life of me I can't remember what it was and if I flick back a page I'm going to loose this post.........lol.........don't you just hate when the memory fails you?...I do.....anyway, sure hope you are doing just fine.
Sheila, where are you girl? You popped in and then popped out again............hope you are doing okay.
The weather here has changed dramatically, two days ago I was sitting here like a grease ball in the aircon and now I'm sitting here with my big thick winter dressing gown wrapped around me as it's on;y about 17 degrees!!! No wonder my DH is sniffling! So far so good, I've managed to avoid the sniffles, I sure hope he doesn't pass the bug...........lol.
Have a great day all!
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Well my day was pretty good until I got home from grocery shopping. The dogs were absolutely stinking filthy as Sarah had taken them down to the river for a walk. She was not here when I got home and the dogs were oh so nice an comfortable up on my good furniture. We have put in glass doors which we close when we go out, to stop the dogs from being in that room without us. We don't have a family room here, so our lounge dining room has our 'good' lounges in it (when we moved over from Canberra we downsized and only kept our expensive and good qulity stuff - henderson fabrics thank you very much).. needless to say I was none to happy when she got home. She is 24 but I hate to say, reacts to things like a 15 year old. Will not be responsible for her actions and will say a snarly Im Sorry! and then according to her then think that that should be the end to it. It is just hollow words said by rote with her and it makes me so so mad. and I mean MAD as HELL at her. So to cut a long story short, we had a huge row, and she has packed all her bags and left. It is so ugly. She was planning on moving up to Perth in a month anyway, and I was welcoming that move as she and I need space from each other, but it has all ended now in tears and tantrums and both of us overreacting.
All of our arguments stem like this. She has us very well trained to not make her feel accountable or responsible for anything. We either pussy foot around her to avoid the unpleasantness or what happened today happens. No middle ground. So I am feeling totally crap and dazed, but not entirely surprised by this. We have done this dance many times. Don't know what the answer is. How can you make someone grow up at 24??????
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Kate - I sympathise - let her go and stop giving her so much help - they have to survive on their own someday. What we've been through with my daughter would make a good soap opera. DH is so upset with her weight, husband etc at the moment and I told him she's 33 - time for him to let go - I let go years ago when she got married the first time at 19 and broke my heart.
Racy - where are you????
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She'll eventually get there Kate, meantime you stop stressing about it and her. Your the one needing pampering at present so no matter how hard it is, take a deep breathe, relax and think about yourself and not your daughter for a change. No one in the world wouldnt have been mad as hell for her not closing the door. Having 5 dogs, I know what its like to clean up after them and its no picnic, specially when your not feeling well/
I would also think that when she takes a breathe shes gonna be feeling guilty as hell for upsetting you so much while your doing your treatments, but hey if it takes her longer than that, you may be better off with her out of your hair for a while.
Give it a day or two and im sure you will both feel better.
Kate, strongly recommend resting a lot tonight and taking it very easy. One thing Ive found doing chemo, any emotional disturbance can really bring on the fatigue. Head goes foggy and body goes weak. So take it easy and look after yourself
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Kate - sorry to hear about your daughter - I would be mad as hell too. I know what wet dirty dogs smell like and how they can damage the furniture. Our lounges have a "dog" cover on them, but they get up on the lounge with us all the time for cuddles, so it's our way of trying to make the lounge last as long as possible.
One of our dogs, Gus is a real water baby and will get into any water he can. If he's out in the paddock it's straight into the dam. If it's raining he's out in it and then will play in any muddy puddle he can find lol. He's not allowed inside when that happens until he's dry and clean again. Your daughter doesn't seem very mature if she can't see what a problem a wet dirty dog (or two) can be.
Maybe being in Perth on her own, or being responsible for herself will help her grow up a bit. Maybe ... I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.
I'm planning on taking a couple of melatonin tablets tonight - thanks Chrissy for letting me know how big a dose I can take - that helps a lot. I find that when I'm tired everything gets to me. Before bc I was a can do person, able to do almost anything. I had (and I'm told I still do, but it doesn't feel like it) a high IQ and could grasp new concepts and learn new things easily. At the moment it's a struggle for some things at work - and I'm only doing and Admin Officer role for heaven's sake. It's not rocket science. I haven't lost my skills with typing or time management or multi tasking, but I just can't get my head around the new things I need to pick up quickly about what the organisation is all about and what the intricacies of the things I'm working on are. I feel like my IQ has suddenly plummeted to around 50! I can accept that my memory isn't what it used to be, but I don't like the fact that my brain just isn't working like it used to.
I used to manage a large team, negotiate with high flying sponsors, mediate, organise complex "things" - see can't remember the bl**dy word. Now I struggle to write something for the website that makes sense.
My manager is wonderful, and very understanding, and tells me not to worry that I'm doing far more than they expected for the position I'm doing (I do sometimes make suggestions for policy and such that make them sit back and think - why didn't I think of that) but I know I'm capable of so much more, and I'm frustrated.
I'll hopefully have a good few night's sleep and things will settle down a bit.
Sorry - that's my rant, and just telling you guys makes me feel a lot better.((((hugs)))))) to you all
Trish
xoxo
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Im exactly the same Trish, its like theres a fog in my brain. Im currently blaming Arimidex as I saw some posts where peeps went off it and recovered their brains. Perhaps your meds are doing it to you too.
p.s not sure what im gonna blame when im finally off the pills, maybe old age
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Thanks Lyndal - maybe it is the Arimidex, or it could be the old age getting to me too lol - I used to think 54 was ancient! I was thinking of changing recently, and then started feeling so much better I decided to stay on it. I'll ask the Onc next time I see him. But that's not till May.
Sue - you switched from Arimidex to something else didn't you? What se's are you getting now (if any)?
Trish
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Thanks girls. I know what you are saying is right. And yes I do feel quite sick now and yes my hair is falling out (but I have been pulling at it)!! Anyway I just roll with the punches (so to speak, not literally). I mean I have 4 dogs (one of them is hers but she lives with us) and Jilly in particular is a water dog. At the moment it is all muddy flats where she went, so to say she was absolutely covered in wet mud is not an exaggeration - and she's a long haired dog, so a disaster. The dirt will come off eventually, but it's the principle of the disregard and carelessness that first gets me upset, then the defensive attitude I get back when I voice my feelings which is the last straw. I'm not supposed to say anything. Wrong!
Oh well onto other things.
I know I have had a bad problem with short term memory and recall for about 4 years now, coincidently since menapause. I really noticed it in my admin jobs too Trish. I am just not cut out for that level of brain work anymore, and I can't even blame chemo. I think it's an age thing, or at least just me and chemo isn't going to help any. I have noticed that I have said the stupidest words lately, like just out of the blue and not in the slighest bit relevant to the sentence they are in. It is really weird. Is this a SE of chemo? or am I on a progressive slide to dementia I wonder??
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Trish - I switched to Aromasin nearly 3 months ago. I do feel better on it I think - can't tell as far as aches and pains go. I've forgotten what it was like on Arimidex. I do have more energy. My brain functions just fine for work, so that's all that matters. I haven't forgotten how to investigate and write software. I do have occasional memory lapses, like I'll forget the name for something but I remember rather quickly.
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Kate, you did the right thing standing up to your daughter. It's your house and she should respect that. Also, while you are on chemo she should be more helpful to you, not to mention compassionate. Get a cleaner in to remedy any damage.
Trish, the word you may be grasping for could be 'projects'. I am a public sector manager with responsibilities similar to what you described. It is common in our work to take notes at meetings with induvidual staff, bosses and teams and to refer back to notes often. So I have that to fall back on should chemo brain strike.
Sue, I was at Chermside Westfield this afternoon and bought some new shoes for work. Joanne Mercer black patent court shoes with wedge heels and buckles. How did your shoe shopping go?0 -
Hi Racy - good to see you. My shoe shopping on Friday was dismal - I went to that Comfort Shoe shop at the Homemaker Centre in Aspley and decided not to pay $219 for a pair of sandals
I'll stick with my $30 pair from BigW. I think my problem is with my feet - I think I have a Mortons Neuroma - need to see a podiatrist and get it checked out, but I don't really trust them as they give everyone orthotics. I get pain in the metatarsal arch area of my left foot.Just been reading about diethylstilbestrol (DES) on here - thread under high risk women - my mother was given something to prevent miscarriage in 1952 - now I read babies exposed in the womb should never take HRT and are at a much higher risk for bc - thanks for telling me now. I'll be calling her tomorrow to try and find out what she was given.
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Hi Racy. Nice to see you here... you been missed
Feet ugh - I have big fat size 10's and always have trouble finding anything that look good and are comfortable. I go for comfort over looks nowadays. Speaking of feet, I'm having reflexology tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if it aligns my ying to my yang - here's hoping I float outta there....
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Kate - I'm size 11
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Actually Suzie, I have to admit that most times I too am an 11, but sometimes manage a size 10. I fudge my dress size too... not telling that though, but suffice to say, skinny days are long gone along with the delicate feet
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I'm a size 7, the smallest feet in my family but that's the only small part of me....lol
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Well - I took lots of melatonin last night (thanks Chrissy) and slept like a baby. Feeling much better today :-)
I too have huge feet, sometimes a 10 and sometimes an 11 depending on the brand - I am in good company by the sounds of it.
Thanks Racy - you can be my second DH - he often has to fill in the words for me lol. I know I have to slow down and just let my body recover from the last 16 months. Trouble is I've never been a patient person.
Kate - hope you are feeling better today?
Jenn - how are you going? Is your next treatment tomorrow? Or Friday?
Trishxoxo
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Oh and Sue - thanks, I think I'll see if the onc will let me switch when I see him next. It's gotta be worth a try. Actually the aches and pains aren't as bad as they were a couple of months ago, it's just the brain thing, and I really think I have Taxotere to thank for that.
Trish
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Trish - I was feeling quite depressed and old - much better now. It's worth trying - we can always go back to Arimidex.
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Yes - very true Sue
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Trish, Arimidex did aweful things to me but when I changed to Femara within a week I felt so much better and I began to loose the fog that had surrounded me for 15months. Even my DD's commented on how much better I was and how much happier! All I can say is I must have been a real sourpus on the Arimidex but I'm glad the doc changed me.
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Hi all, It's my turn again tomorrow :-( I wandered up this afternoon and did my bloods. Onc appt at 11am and then tx at 2.30pm.
Have been working hard all week. Did some extra time to make up for not working the full day tomorrow. Got a horrible headache this afternoon so told my boss I was leaving 1/2 hr early if that was ok with her and that because I was there early today will have worked the full day (required hours). She has been narky and busy this week and made me check with my workmate that he was ok with checking my emails for the last 1/2 hour. Bit over the top considering that I have an email from her boss and The head of HR saying they are happy for me to work slightly different hours during this whole thing if I need to.
Oh well, turns out there's a big management shuffle happening next week at my bosses level and I get a new boss. He's really nice and a lot more relaxed (my current boss is bi-polar and can have out of this world expectations for output!) which I'm looking forward to for the next year. Am counting the days until the new guy takes over next Thursday...
I have the feelings of sadness and dread coming over me today. I DO NOT WANT TO TURN UP THERE TOMORROW AND SIT THERE WHILE THEY PUMP POISON INTO ME AGAIN. I took 1/2 tablet of my anti-anxiety tabs this morning and plan on a whole one tonight and tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon.
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Jenn, glad you are getting a nicer boss at work as it will make things a whole lot easier for you. I get the dread part, the first one you really don't know whats coming but with the second you do. Make sure you take you anti-anxiety med and try to relax. As everyone keeps saying, you don't have to like it, you just need to turn up. (((((hugs))))). I'l be thinking of you tomorrow!
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Jenn, I think the anti-anxiety med will help a lot.
Are you familiar with relaxation techniques? I knew nothing about them before BC and was a skeptic but since then I have learnt that deep breathing, for example, really does help. When someone used to say 'take deep breaths' I used to think it was just a saying but now I understand the multiple physiological reasons why it works.
Office politics hey...... happens in every workplace.
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Chrissy, like you I have very, very few side effects from Femara. Only occasional pain in finger joints on movement and sweats.
My foot size is 5 1/2 - 6.
I am just over 5 feet in height.0 -
Wow Racy - that's tiny - I used to be 5' 9" but I seem to have shrunk and didn't know it.
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I called my mother, she was given something to stop miscarriage but can't remember what it was (very understandable). Will have to do some research into this whole DES thing - would be nice to know if I was exposed to it in the womb.
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