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Staycalm's avatar
Staycalm
Member
9 years ago

Hello to you all

Just thought I should introduce myself before wandering off into other conversations. Married to lovely man, have 15 year old daughter struggling with anxiety and depression. Librarian working casually part time (choosing not to work during chemo). Two dogs and two cats. Into reading, listening to podfic and podcasts, researching on the internet, family history. Got plans to make up pieces from my Harry Potter and Hobbit Lego collections and some jigsaws while home. 

I received my cancer diagnosis on the 5 Jan this year after a very anxious Christmas and New Year. Since then there have been all the tests, appontments and I had my first chemo on 23 Jan. My lump is apparently one of the hormonally driven fast growing ones so I'll be having 6 months of chemo to reduce it in size, surgery, and then whatever followups come later. Prognosis is good at this point.

I'm at Peter Mac and they've been brilliant. Amazing service and their new building is spectacular. First chemo went ok. Felt really horrid on the night after but I think it was the heat and perhaps some stress got to me. After the first few days I have been very well, very determined and very positive. I've felt very energised. Been able to get the house into a less chaotic condition. Cleaning and sorting like crazy. My husband has been able to get 3 months paid leave in order to support both me and our daughter. I am very lucky that things seem to be falling into place to allow us to give our situation our full attention. 

Today my hair is dropping out much more than usual so I guess the bald side is making it's presence known. I've been buying lovely scarves and stuff from the opshops.  Hopefully someone will show me what to do with them as I have no idea!
  • Thanks Unicornkisses. I hope your chemo goes well too. I think I was just so programmed to feel horrible that when I realised it wasn't so bad it gave me a real boost. I just have to be prepared to not feel like this for much longer so it's a good incentive to stay busy and be proactive towards the times when I will feel like crap.

    The other thing I've done is cull all my old stained or holed tshirts to set aside a few of the nice soft ones to make into headcovers. I have all sorts of stuff now so maybe a few days watching some of those YouTube Videos will be coming up. 
  • Welcome, Staycalm. You have come to the right place. I am very sorry though that you have had to find yourself here, joining us.
    I was diagnosed on Christmas Eve and had to wait though the holiday period for an appointment with the surgeon. 
    This is the worst part, the waiting.
    How great that the a chemo seems to be okay for you, it is so hard to predict how you will react to it. I start mine in a couple of weeks and while I want to get it over with, I am not looking forward to it.
    regarding the scarves, I googled "making a scarf into a turban" and it brought up some great videos and pictures of how to make them. 
    The other thing I have is one of those hair towel turbans for after washing your hair, I am going to use that as a template for making some out of pretty material. It is pretty simple in design, I know you can get them in Big W