Hello Crock and a very warm welcome to Cancer Chat,

I hope you won't mind but I have slightly edited your post to include the words 'diagnosed with breast cancer awaiting chemo' - having a more specific title will allow others who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and had chemotherapy to see your post immediately on the front page of the forum.

I know what you mean about daytime TV, it really isn't very group and I can imagine you must be feeling pretty nervous about everything at the moment. It's a real shame that your chemotherapy has been put on hold. Are you recovering well from your infection? This delay in the start of treatment must be making you feel even more agitated and I hope you won't have to wait too long now. I am sure you will get to hear from our members' chemotherapy experiences and that they will be around soon to answer any question you may have. I thought I would also share with you our information on chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer which outlines exactly what happens when you have chemotherapy. If you have any questions about chemotherapy or about anything else really, you can talk to Cancer Research UK's information nurses on freephone 0808 800 4040, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

I am sure some of our lovely ladies who have been affected by breast cancer will be around soon to share their experience with you. I am thinking of [@TwinTwo]‍ for example who also had a mastectomy recently and has had chemotherapy. There's also [@Sandra123]‍ from the fantastic The good and the bad thread.

We're all here for you anytime you need to talk. So if daytime TV is too difficult to bear, just turn it off and tune into Cancer Chat instead as they are a lovely bunch here (and they can be well more entertaining than daytime TV ;) . I am sure you will find some great support here from ladies who understand exactly what you are going through.

Best wishes,

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Crock,

i wouldn’t worry too much about the wait because of your infection, it shouldn’t take long before you start chemo.

as for how it works, it seems that it is different for everyone. My first one cause irritations, my teeth hurt, my feet hurt, stuff like that, but no nausea. The rest of them Ihad no symptoms except I got an infection and neutropenia after every session. But again I think that is not the norm. The worst part is the waiting around, you can pretty much write off your day, so make sure you take a book or some other form of. Entertainment with you.

Hi Crock,

Sorry you're having such a rough time of it right from the start too :(

I had my mastectomy on 8th November so wasn't long behind you. However, because my cancer had already spread I had my chemo right after diagnosis and completed it, well for the moment anyway, end of September.

Is the infection to do with your mastectomy?  It's just that I notice it's stopping you going for walks so was wondering what it was.

It is normal to go through feeling vulnerable and incapacitated, especially when off work (as I am also).  We're in a place where we're reliant on others to do many things for us and that's hard when you're used to be quite self-sufficient.  Even just having to trust the knowledge of oncologists when you're used to having a lot of control over your health is difficult.  Any long-term absence from work can cause your confidence to take a blow.  There's no way around that, but in reality when you do go back you'll be up to speed very quickly and just as capable as before.

And yes, daytime TV... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh.  I cannot stand it.  I ended up buying language CDs and learning a language while I was stuck in bed rather than watching daytime TV.

I was lucky when I started chemo in that my mum had her second bout of cancer at your age and I went along to her chemo with her a couple of times, so I was already acquainted with a chemo treatment bay when I found myself needing it this year, and I think that helps.  I can't speak for other hospitals, but certainly at mine it is very relaxed, actually quite fun (good staff and patients) and it's a good way to meet people going through the same thing.

If you know what type you are having then let us know, some of us will likely have had the same type and be able to give you some idea of what to expect.

It's late, I've just had a long overdue social night, so I'm starting to wane and must head to bed.  But I just want to say that we are all here, and if you have questions of what our chemo was like, what the treatment bay was like, or whatever, or if you just want to scream, cry, rant, laugh,... we're here for whatever.

LJxx

So sorry to hear. Now that you know you need chemo, it must be so frustrating to have to wait. We are all here for you, chat, rant, whatever helps really

hugs xxx

That is totally normal! I was diagnosed in January and had 'small' lymph node surgery to determine whether it had spread ( it hadn’t) I had a dose of chemo 2 weeks later which caused my wound to totally reopen, and it stayed that way for 4 months so I couldn’t continue with chemo then. Knowing you have the disease when in your mind it’s not being treated is hard! Fortunately in this time I was able to continue my other targeted herceptin drugs until surgery in June. That healed a little slowly but it’s done now and I’m.now into 'cancer, part 2- having the chemo and radiotherapy I should have had months ago, even though I was actually feeling quite well over the summer! Daytime tv is hard and you either love it or hate it. I watch little bits but I make sure I go out for a walk every day, read, (Readly magazine subscription) try to keep up with my photography hobby in some form and am learn8ng new skills via online classes for it (creative live website- all sorts of training available) I also try to see friends, sleep and generally not feel guilty about not being the efficient dynamic person I was before. Janet