joining the network.

Hi Gemma

My 2nd tumour was in the other breast and wasn't a secondary but a new breast cancer.  When I had the left side off in 2003 I considered having both off at the time but wasn't in a position to make that decision - it was all so much to take in!  In retrospect I wish I had and then maybe I wouldn't be going through what I am going through now.....but it's all very good in hindsight, isn't it?!  It is a very difficult decision to have a perfectly healthy breast cut off and at the time I was told that my odds of it coming back in the other breast were not that high.

Good luck to Tanya on Thursday - I hope she copes well with the chemo.  It is doable but make sure she gets some rest in the few days after each treatment.  I found that each time I felt different.  It wasn't a cummulative thing, just different each time.  The first one made me feel really tired and a bit queasy (like morning sickness) for a few days and then I just felt really tired for up to a week after the treatment. The second one was really quite easy and I just felt tired.  The third one knocked me for six!  I felt really sick and really tired and it took almost 2 weeks to feel "normal" again and then the 4th one was much like the second - pretty easy, just tired.  She will most likely lose her sense of taste for a few days (completely normal and it does come back!) and may feel like her mouth has been burnt (the roof of my mouth felt like sandpaper after about a week after chemo).  If she needs to have Neulasta injections after the chemo treatments she may get achy joints.

Anyway, talk again soon,

Louise