I have just been diagnosed with stage 4 secondary liver cancer. I felt I was in free fall whe I was told a few ago. I want to run but I can't.  We are a member of a club we do not want to be in and yet more that a third of people will get cancer. It's terrifying. I'm finding hard it to be the sick one too. I'm the fixer and doer in my family and I can't get used to not being that person any more. 

I wish you good luck with treatment. I also find Maggie's centre invaluable for counseling at the moment they have save me a few times ️

Hello 747, my heart goes out to you, I can feel the free fall you are feeling. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I wish you the strength to bear this without such anguish and hope you find the support you need. x

Hello 747, my heart goes out to you, I can feel the free fall you are feeling. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I wish you the strength to bear this without such anguish and hope you find the support you need. x

Thank you. Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing too x

Sheltie lady

Welcome!  I am very much in a similar position in that the thought of dying doesn't phase me but that said I'd rather not feel absolutely crap until that time comes, so far so not-too-bad!

I get the impression you're probably an optimist too, and think that is serving me and those who support me well too.

I also had some tears when telling close friends (they should make a movie of when you told your 3 chums - "3 birthdays and a cancer announcement "not sure where Hugh Grant would play a role however), funny when you're the one with the "news" and end up telling them it will be OK.

I do hope that you don't have it too bad personally but also for your poor daughter & families sake by the sounds of things ( I am a perfect patient!).

I only have BC in RHS but want both removed & reconstructed for smaller, more manageable boobs!  I look on it as an opportunity as would have never have done anything otherwise (far too much of a practical, tight, northerner).

Sam 
 

Hey you! Yours was the first post I ever read on this forum and I recognised a kindred spirit although I’m a Lancashire returnee, having worked and lived all over the world but now happily ensconced in the beautiful Lancashire countryside. Still Northern grit!

I love the movie idea!! Hugh would have to be a Sheltie, though. 

I had a surprise just now, as my daughter just admitted she was absolutely shell shocked by my news.  I thought she had been feigning her optimism before my tests to make me feel better but I had no idea she really believed I would be told it was nothing to worry about. No wonder her brother phoned me within minutes of her leaving here. She must have called him from the car before she left my drive.  I feel sorry about that as I hate to worry her.  She’s getting her head round it now and said she’s glad my support network is building but they are only the backing group, and she’s the number one I call. My best friend, the one who burst into tears has been in touch with her, too, offering her support, that’s really pleased me as they probably need more support from each other than I do  

We've decided not to tell anyone else until I have details and after an upcoming family wedding. 

I’m going to start on that film script now. Lol!

That did make me laugh, i had both breasts done, I now have the pert breasts of a 20 year old, ony problem is that I dont have the face to match - i do think this is something the surgeon should remedy at the same time :)

I agree, I can think of a few things I’d like done at the same time!! My sister once got a surgeon to pierce her ears while operating on her neck! 

I like the idea of pert breasts. I was always the one with the big knockers!

Got to say my surgeon was brilliant - tennis sized lumpectomies and no one could ever tell looking at them.  

Sheltie lady

Well, despite you being a "wrong un" from the wrong side of the Pennines given I am stuck down south I'll let you off for now...

Do you really have what appears to be two & a half shelties? If you do I do hope they are looking after you well, what are their names - you can tell a lot about the owner by the names they give their animals in my book (take my boyfriend for example who will name a black cat "blackie"...no hope...).

I have to say I admire your daughters unfaltering belief, until confronted by the facts, that you were to be all clear, I'd much rather that than than doom & gloom merchants, and she appears to be getting her head around the unfortunate news, hopefully the rest of your support network are also doing so.

So you do have a wedding to add to the film - not sure Hollywood will go for such a long title now so a full rewrite is needed.  I don't have a large family and my generation is definitely the last of the line (we're definitely not a maternal lot, preferring instead the company of animals) and all my friends are either married or divorced & scarred so no prospects of any weddings on the horizon here, and I do so love a good wedding so am vvv jealous...am sure you don't have to be told but do have a cracking time.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend...off for some culture shortly (I aim to inject some at least twice a year, it can be quite an effort) at some sculpture gardens and then the obligatory pub lunch (let's hope the menu caters for my newly discerning palate!).

Maggie

As long as your boobs and face aren't on show au natural at the same time am sure you'll get away with it.  Alternatively you can do as I am following an explosive outbreak of corking spots and don a bag for life on your head..possibly a bit extreme in your case I suspect...

Sam X
 

Hi!  Yes I do have two and a half Shelties actually, two of my own, Faith and Archie, who are great great great great grandmother and grandson, 12 years between them, and Smudge who I half own with my daughter. He lives at her house and comes to me for day care. He is the Merle and is 9 now. Faith is 141/2 and Archie. 21/2. The photo is actually a pastel painting I did of them and it does have three Shelties in it. The camera must have cropped it.  I don’t know about looking after me, they think they are the bosses.  Yesterday,  I had all three here and decided to groom them, not their favourite activity (or mine but the were in need of a good brushing). When I had done, I popped into the front garden to feed the birds, and blow away the dog hair I was covered in, and the gate at the side of the house didn’t quite latch properly when I went back in.  The dogs were all in the garden. Five minutes later I was busy doing something in the kitchen when I heard someone calling me. It was a couple of neighbours from two doors away returning three runaways. My dogs had left home in protest at the fact they looked like powder puffs!!

The family wedding is to take place in a field in September- we will be deciding what to wear when we know what the weather has in store for us. The bride’s father has spent the last few months building a pavilion large enough to accommodate us all if the heavens open. We are just wondering if we can get away with wearing wellies to get to it.  The dress code is ‘garden party’.

Enjoy you culture!!

Those naughty shelties making a break for it  they obviously fancied an adventure. I hope you live somewhere quiet, always saddens me the thought of animals near cars. You've got quality neighbours, quite an ability to round up your herd I suspect?

Well, like your shelties I've been trying all week to make a break from my confinement, unfortunately not your garden but hospital. Due to be discharged today, the novelty of private room on private ward with lovely staff has well & truly worn off. Am grateful for the  facilities hoewever, one of the benefits of needing protective isolation! It's been like a spa but instead of facials and massages they've stolen blood and pumped me with antibiotics!

Apart from Monday, when admitted, have annoyingly, felt absolutely fine so have had much fun with the lovely nursing staff here and enjoyed visits from friends & family.

The best thing will be getting rid of an extremely annoying cannula in elbow fold of RHS arm, not convenient at all...and comes with equally annoying handbag charms.

Hopefully out for a bike ride later.

Sam x

Oh bummer, you have just reminded me of all the sh1tty stuff to come. My original appointment for my results was brought forward to Thursday just gone and my son drove up from Surrey and my daughter left work early so they could be with me when I was told exactly what I was facing. Unfortunately the needle results hadn't come back, but the core biopsy result was a lot better than it could have been. The nurse made a point of putting on her sympathetic face when she asked what I had been told so far by the doctor.  She seemed a bit put out when I just said, 'he said it was cancer and I told him I thought so.'  She was deprived of the chance to tell me in a sympathetic voice that I had cancer. I'm being mean now!  She continued with her encouraging voice, to tell me it was a primary cancer that was good, and it was oestrogen receptive, also good. It is apparently an invasive globular grade 2. Both my kids immediately picked up on 'invasive' so my nice nurse had the opportunity to explain to them what I had already read about. The sting in the tail is they couldn't tell what stage it is so I have to have a MRI. Well, my son was on it like a terrier, when will we get the needle results?when will she have the MRI?  Poor nurse probably wished she'd taken the day off!

Sadly, my old lady Sheltie was taken ill on Wednesday overnight, but because Thursday had been arranged around my hospital visit etc. I couldn't get a vet appointment until Friday, by which time she was really poorly. She has been there overnight and the prognosis isn't good.  She has a kidney infection but they can't flush it out because of her heart problems. Euthanasia has been mentioned. I'm waiting to hear if there has been any improvement in her bloods since yesterday but it isn't expected. So I may have to let her go to the rainbow bridge today. Now that has got to me.

On a lighter note, my sister has given me a new mantra that she quotes when dealing with medical professionals- she has had a LOT of dealings with them all her life. Whenever a new condition presents itself she tells the doctors - IF YOU CAN FIX IT, GET ON WITH IT, IF YOU CAN'T MAKE SURE I'M NOT IN PAIN ! Pretty good mantra don't you think?

Like yourself, enjoying yourself despite the situation I have to say it has been lovely getting together with my kids and going to the pub with them. We went to visit a relation who had a bad fall recently, she fractured three vertebrae and can't walk without a Zimmer frame but shares our positivity and we had a wonderful three hours of love and laughter. 

Christine