Hope your recovery goes well.  I have just go back from hospital after check up.  I am all clear and have been discharged.  Just yearly mammograms and letrozole.

Oh that's brilliant news! You must be feeling very relieved! Got my first check up in April.

Caroline x

Good news Pandy - well done to you & your body!  Will be joining you on the big L very soon.

So its my first day home alone, I wonder what damage I can do eh?  Still on regular paracetamol here which seems to be doing the trick.  Under arm does feel a little painful today (like there's a lump of lego stabbing me in the side) but am off for drain removal at 4pm so they can check for any lego pieces I guess.  I will be SOOO glad to be rid of this drain, given the level of yuck has not increased hardly at all since leaving hospital I'm not sure I have as much fluid circulating around my body compared to the average...I think its my bodies way of saying it needs the reintroduction of alcohol (still not fancying it, along with pizza...end of Feb maybe?).

The really annoying thing about my Mother not being here anymore is that I will have to do my own washing up (boo!), cooking I don't mind too much but washing up is quite a chore...may just leave it till the boyfriend comes round to check that I've not managed to strangle myself on my drain tube or fall asleep with a mouthful of strepsils (he really doesn't trust me at all!).

Am still doing well on the exercises, find the last one with arms out to side & behind head the most challenging one and am sure am providing a regular source of great amusement to those smoking outside the pub opposite when doing said exercises (I should be charging you know).

You'll all be glad to know that the green poo has gone and the dulcoease has done its trick, always nice for me & my bowels to be harmonised once again!

Am also doing well on the daily walks, which today will be to the train station & hospital & back...I like a boobless adventure, am at the ready to bat anybody who gets too close to the missing boob site and already find myself wandering along with my right arm at an angle ready to slap those who may get too close! Amazing the things you need to think about with new body challenges...am having to rethink the whole handbag set-up...

I do hope you are all loving the onset of spring, am keeping a close eye on my lovely croci which didn't get too battered by Dennis (as I hope you all didn't), daffs about to pop and can't even recall what I did re tulips so that will be a nice surprise.

And talking of nature sprouting my head hair is growing lots (its about 1/2 cm now), eyebrows are nearly at full capacity and chin hairs are certainly making up for lost time...interesting that all hairs are much whiter than they used to be.

Am still not sure I trust my waterproof dressings to attempt a full shower yet, been having prison washed and lower body showers to far but may go further (get me!), once blummin drain is out.  It will be interesting to see how the drain is affixed as its got caught on doors and things and despite good yanks has managed to stay attached, although I don't want another fainting incident!

Christine - how the knee & are the new hearing aids still free of Archie DNA?

Caroline - hope you're still feeling more chipper.

Sam X

I love your positivity and sense of humour!  I'm sure everything is going to be fine with your attitude to life.  You sound good fun to be around.   All the best with the Hospital trip today.  Will keep following you to see your progress.

Hi Sam!!

So good to hear from you!!! All seems to be going well - hair, poo and removal of drain today!! Have to say I hated the drain as much as you! Like you - I kept getting it caught o various pieces of furniture. I would take some pain killers before you go to have it removed. It's not a pleasant experience!! It's amazing how much pipe they have stuffed inside you!! 
Well done in doing your exercises - they do get easier but don't push it. 
Ive been accepted on to a research trial that has developed an app which is aiming to help give you more guidence/ information and remind you to take your hormone medication.  Be interesting to see how it works!! I'm thinking unless it sends someone round to put the pill in my mouth, it might still be hit and miss with me taking it!! 
Mood wise - ok. Still a bit up and down and still constantly exhausted!

Hope your jolly to the hospital goes ok!!! 
Caroline xx
 

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Hi Sam,

its good to see the loss of a boob has done nothing to change your outlook on life!  I am jealous of your being allowed to cope alone and go for walks. If you remember I was almost under house arrest after my surgery with my 'mother hen' children keeping me 'safe' and daily visits from the district nurse.  Lucky you getting rid of your drain before the need to shower becomes unbearable. Mine was full every day for nearly a fortnight the first time and a full fortnight the second time. I can't say it bothered me all that much, though. I used to sling the bag across my shoulder and hide it under a jacket. My fluid filled protuberance hasn't gone down yet! And that's with a needle drainage being done and daily lymph draining exercises. At least I am clean! The old lick and promise doesn't do it, does it? I was really lucky because it didn't hurt much at all when I had the drain removed, so I hope you find it ok, too.

It is nice to see those brave little harbingers of spring poking their heads out from the  mud that used to be flower beds, before the constant rain. I wasn't feeling up to clearing all my old perennials before the winter came and now the crocosmia leaves are slimy and drooping all across the edge of the lawn and the daffodils and crocuses (croci?) are fighting to be seen above the remains of the cranesbill and the flipping grass and dandelions and other weeds that have taken over. And where has all that long grass come from? it's supposed to stop growing in the winter! I keep waiting to be so disgusted with the state of the garden that I get my *** into gear and do something about it, but that hasn't happened yet. 

So glad your crowning glory is coming back. I had lunch today with the girls who learned about my breast cancer on the day I was diagnosed, one of whom has made a remarkable recovery from ovarian cancer and a lesion on her bowel.  She had to have chemo and lost her hair, and was delighted to find it came back a beautiful grey colour and curly!!  Ten years on she's still teaching PE four times a week and never stays still. Amazing woman!

I'm still putting my ears out of reach of the demon dog, so they are still intact and my knee is not exactly pain free but good enough to do the full gym circuit on Monday including 100 steps which I couldn't do the last time I went because I was in so much pain. I had my NHS physio appointment on Monday and have been given an exercise programme that should really help me, so in the morning, between taking my Lansoprazole and having breakfast I now do my lymphoedema exercises and my knee exercises instead of watching BBC Breakfast TV.

I am still taking the Letrozole without too much in the way of side effects, thank goodness, so I hope you will be ok with them, too.

Caroline, what date in April do you go for your follow up? Mine is 8th. I find taking my Letrozole after my evening meal is quite helpful in reminding me to take it because even if I forget, then, I always remember when I go in to tidy the kitchen for morning and take it then.  I was advised to take it then rather then earlier in the day to reduce feeling sick and I can't say I have felt sick, really.

Pandy, I'm really glad to,hear you're all clear now. That's great news.

It sounds like we're all on the way up, now, don't do too much, Sam, it's early days yet, Caroline I am, like you, still feeling very tired. If I do one big thing in a day, I'm wiped out for the rest of the day, and I give in to it, which I can, so take care of yourself. My mood is getting better now my knee pain is much less, so I think it was the knee that was getting me down more than the Letrozole.

Onwards and upwards, ladies!

Christine xxx

Hi All,

Glad your drain removal was painless, well, relatively, Sam. I hope you did decide to trust your dressings to be truly showerproof, they are! That first shower after that long wait, well it wasn't so long for you, is wonderful. I felt like a bag lady after two whole showerless weeks. I imagined people could smell me coming, except my kids wouldn't let me go anywhere until it was removed.

The appointment in April will be the first checkup since my drain was removed. That was two weeks after my last surgery. I suppose it will involve checking that the cancer is still gone, presumably ultrasound, possibly a mammogram, no idea really!   My swollen non boob is getting annoying now. It feels like a tight band under my arm and the skin is a bit tender. I keep thinking my bra is rubbing on it, then I remember I'm not wearing one!  Got an appointment at the lymphoedema clinic next week, but I don't know that there is anything that can be done about it, I'm religiously doing the exercises.every day.  Talking of exercise - the gym is part of the hospital physio department and the exercises are really for strength and balance. I did the full circuit yesterday, and my knee is suffering today because I did the step ups and the thigh stretch, (showing off) which meant bending my legs further than they have bent for months - foolishly I believed it when I was told they would be good for my knees! I had to take 2 paracetamol at 3am before I could get to sleep! I might give the steps a miss next week and not force my leg to bend quite so much.  I've got my X-ray next Monday, at 5.30,  so I'll be at the hospital twice in one day. Such joy!!!

Apart from all that, life is good, or it would be without the eye-watering wind and rain we are all having. Even the dogs are reluctant to go out in it, although that might be because they hate the coats I make them wear, otherwise they smell of wet dog for hours afterwards!

Caroline, or should I say Storm? After boasting about remembering to take my Letrozole, last time I wrote, as I was getting ready to take it last night, I counted them and realised some time in the last week I have forgotten to take one!!!  Duh!!!

Going to do some painting today. I am finally making my faces resemble their owners.  As I expected, the husband was easier to capture than the wife but I'm happy to say I know what to do today to bring her to life, not literally, obviously, but you know what I mean. She really is very pretty and I would hate to fail her. She has such twinkly eyes, once I catch that she will be there! Fingers crossed!

Happy pancake day,

xxx

Hey Maggie, 

You were the first person to reply to my original post, and I just clicked on your name to see how you were going on and I see you were discharged from oncology last month.  I just wanted to tell you I am very pleased for you!

i am doing fine, now, just taking Letrozole and doing well. 

 Thank you for reaching out to me and others, you have been a great help to us all.

Christine xxx