cervical and radiation/chemo

[bev]

Hello, If you read my profile you can see that I haven't had chemo. But, I would like to wish you all the best for your treatments and also wish you and your family all the best for the season. Bev

[#2]

Hi Bev, Cancers cancer. Everyone has different treatments and they're all as bad as each other. Just be thankful you didnt need to have chemo!! & youre well and that's the main thing. Have a merry christmas and a happy new year! Butterfly

[louisa]

well your all mighty cheerful about starting your chemo's and good luck to you! i am still petrified of mine and i start chemo first cisplatin , if i cant take that they will change to carboplatin, on jan 5 with radiation external straight after, i had my tatoos last week so everything is ready to go execpt me, im still not. i have to have the internal radiation as well, and am going to be booked into the rpa for that as they aenesetise and rwh doesnt, my team is ok with that, it just needs me and its all under way.   i would rather be painting.

[bev]

Hello everyone, Hope that you all had a lovely christmas and that 2009 will be a great, happy, healthy year, with many more to follow. It amazes me that you can all remember the names of all your treatments. When it was explained to me about the radiation, I tried to take in all the details, but gosh, I don't think that I could remember everything in so much detail, but then maybe I could because it was affecting me. Does that make sense? You only seem to understand what is affecting yourself. Anyhow, Tom & I are going away for 6 days in January down to Batemans Bay. We bought a caravan from a friend a few months back and Tom has renovated it . We will be back for only a few days and then I go back to Westmead for another procedure. You see, I now have stress bladder incontinence and the doctor is going to place a "sling" in to try to help control my bladder. I have my supply of suduko and crosswords to do while I am in there. Also received as a gift a book, it is a  true story on an autistic boy. Our grandson has autism and I started to read this book a few weeks ago, and gee, you would have thought I was reading about him. I decided to stop reading it then and thought it would make for interesting reading while in hospital. Anyhow, all the best everyone. Stay positive, I feel that whatever the doctors want to do for us, is all for good. Bev

[Beccnat]

Louisa, I may sound all cheerful about chemo now, but when I first started this journey four months ago, I was absolutely petrified of surgery, general anaesthetic, chemo, radiation and everything else. After I got through the first surgery and survived the nausea, vomiting and pain, plus the devastating diagnosis of very invasive cancer, I figured I can survive anything! The only thing I can control in this situation is how I choose to react. And I am choosing to be positive and not dwell on the awfulness of it all. Easy to say, more difficult to achieve. I have some seriously down moments! The fear of treatment and side effects is sometimes much worse than the treatment itself. I hope you will feel much better once your treatment has actually started and you see how your body reacts. Beccnat

[#6]

I came to the conclusion early on after my diagnosis that I had no choice but to endure the treatments and the surgery so I could either do it with a smile on my face or be miserable. I had plenty of times where I cried myself to sleep, mostly after each chemo because I felt so ill and frustrated  I was so fit and healthy before hand & wasnt able to do everything I wanted to do, like walk up the stairs without stopping for a break in the middle. I had a baby to take care of and I was not even allowed to pick him up for 6 weeks after the surgery. There were heaps of downsides.. you would have to be on another planet not to realise that, but I chose to see the positives and focus on them. I had a new appreciation for life which I saw as a gift that a lot of people will never fully understand until they are faced with the possibility of not being around. Cancer is hard, mostly because you have far too much time to think about the what if's! A lot of people survive cancer these days. Sure the treatments make you ill but the alternative is not worth thinking about. Being a survivor is just as much about the emotional as it is the physical. I truely believe that your head creates your world. I had a huge awareness of my family around me and the worried looks on their faces all day long was a horrible thing to deal with, so I tried not just for me but more so for them to keep a positive outlook and that is not easy. I say horses for courses, everyone has their own way of dealing with things but for me personally, Im with beccnat on this, what other choice is there? My heart goes out to you Louisa. I do understand how you feel. Butterfly

[Beccnat]

Hi Everyone, I too, have been thinking about Louisa and wondering how it went. I'm on Day 15, Cycle 1 of my chemo regime. I'm feeling really good! Haven't had much nausea, no vomiting, but seriously serious constipation for the first week - better now! Am tired often! I got a number 2 buzzcut last week and dyed my hair purple on Monday! But today I'm moulting and it's half gone  I have my new wig, which looks fabulous, but I'll probably only wear it at work to make everyone less uncomfortable (this is me projecting onto others - they assure me it's no big deal as far as they are concerned!) My worst side effect has been chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) in my feet, legs and hands. So much so that there is talk of reducing my dosage, which I CANNOT agree to. But I've done a bunch of research and have come up with a plan on how to manage and alleviate the symptoms without compromising the curative intent of my treatment. I see my oncologist on Friday, armed with my plan and scholarly journal articles and solid evidence-based practice to back it up. Will let everyone know how it goes. I've read two excellent books this week, both of which were in my public library: Armstrong-Coster, Angela (2004) Living and dying with cancer. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.  Looks at the experiences of 12 people as they pass through four stages of living with cancer and "shows how the experience of the disease and even the way it develops is affected by the social context of the people involved, as well as their own physical and psychological characteristics". I couldn't put it down. Schneider, Stephen H (2005) The patient from hell. Da Capo Press: Cambridge, Mass.  Illustrates how one man diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma advocated for individualised and sometimes untested treatment using his research and rhetorical skills. Some of his pushiness resulted in improved treatments for many additional patients. This guy IS me - I bow to the powers of research! Couldn't put this one down either.  I started back at work on Monday, only to have a very low WBC yesterday. So I took today off and probably tomorrow to be on the safe side. Think I'll get a surgical mask, because I really need to work as much as possible. That aside, everything is going great! Next chemo on Wednesday next week. Cheers,  Beccnat

[louisa]

hi everyone im ok  they put my chemo off until tomorrow morning so i dont know how ill be yet, the radiation only takes about fifteen mins and i can feel it but its not painful yet, it kind of  feels like my hips have had a good work out, and i have got myself there and back (i dont drive so its the bus) i hope i will be all right when it gets on a bit. I saw the social worker and she was helpful and my degree came in the post which was a brilliant cheer up! but now im back to the terrors im thinking you all know about that.  good luck with yours beccnat, i know youll find the right solutions for you and im so with you on the research some times you just have to get outside the square.  thanks for the book reviews!,

[Beccnat]

Louisa, Good luck for tomorrow and congratulations on getting the degree! I understand exactly how you were feeling when you wrote about everything going so well, then this cancer thing lobs in on you. I'm in the middle of a master's thesis. I had my first abstract accepted for presentation at a conference and was busy researching and writing the article when I got my diagnosis. Brain promptly went on holiday from presentation to overdrive on researching this cervical cancer thing. Never did finish the article and eventually didn't even get to attend the conference as I was recovering from my second surgery. I put uni on hold as soon as I was diagnosed because I knew it was a lost cause for semester 2 at least. But I've enrolled for semester 1 - now I just need to stop obsessing about cancer and get back to real life! Much, much easier said than done! Were you planning more study that is now on hold? Beccnat

[louisa]

yes i was planning more study that is now on hold, but my lecturers said that if you cannot do honours its ok because if i come back the year after i will be able to do my masters, so there is hope yet! i am lucky enough to have some portrait commisions to do, nothing too demanding, just small coloured pencill works, so thats going to keep my hand in on my good days.  Can you tell me if a heavy achy feeling in the legs is ok?, i have excrutiating pain in my lower back to the left side, but i think this may be a menopausal thing?, the good news is that all my body swelling is comming down, one last question, how do you get rid of that metal taste in the mouth?