Hi, I'm sorry that you have been affected like this. I was on taxol for breast cancer, and I had serious mobility issues, fatigue etc which admittedly improved after chemo ended. For me, radiotherapy was the straw that broke the camels back in the axillary area, and I developed lymphodoema quickly afterwards. That gets me down sometimes. I am also on anastrazole and had painful joints for the first six months, but that seems to have eased. But yes, in some ways my quality of life has been negatively affected as I can't do everything that I used to with my right arm - like working on my allotment to the extent that ai used to. However, I have adjusted my life accordingly, and there are some good things, but I'm not always brilliant at it as i sometimes forget that it's normal to take two years to recover even for the best of people. Quite often I have alternate days ... a very good day, then a resting day. On rest days I might listen to a play, or an audio book, or watch a good film, catch up with friends on zoom, write emails etc. Feed the birds, arrange some flowers in a vase or whatever. Before diagnosis, I was always so busy, busy, and lots of things were put off to next week, next month, next year etc. Often they never happened at all. So in that way, the cancer has enriched my life as do those things now or tomorrow or this week. I've written a short list of things that I'd like to do with my life in 2022 - get a snazzy new haircut (my hair is growing now), enter a poetry competition (I've always wanted to do this and a local poetry group has invited me to their workshops as a complete novice) and have a little trips out with a friend, my son, or alone just to appreciate new scenery, a wood or an outdoor cafe. But this whole adjustment thing was a process that I had to go through, and it took time. If I keep my sun high (the nice things in my life), then the shadow beside me seems a little smaller. Take care, x

Your story is so similar to mine. I had just two sessions of chemo the first resulting in neutrapena, the 2nd full on sepsis (horrendous). I then moved onto Radiotherapy and have been on Anastrazole now for 23 months, mild symptoms achy knees and right hand elbow. But right now my finger nails are really weak and flaky. Have you heard of Biotin working? Wishing you all the best

I'm not too achy now but often tired mid afternoon. Are you on Adcal 3 for calcium? I took hair, skin and nails vitamins for a while and that has Biotin in. Now I take Superfoods greens and fruit. It's the oestrogen that we are lacking. I've thought about stopping Anastrazole but my consultant has given me 10% odds of stopping the cancer returning, so will carry on. I think it's affected my teeth too.

stay in touch!

Silver