Ring our virtual bell

Endometrial Cancer, Grade 3, Stage 1B.  Hysterectomy & 5 weeks radiation.  Finished June 1st, 2020!

Congratulations gillianm‍ !

How are you feeling now that you are a few months out of end of treatment?

Lianne

Hi Lianne, How are you? 

Thanks for asking ... Glad the pelvic radiation treatments are over.  To be truthful, the whole experience from diagnosis to continuing recovery has been a blur. I think for some of us, it takes quite awhile for the realization of cancer to compute. And recovery can take a long time too, much longer certainly than I had been expecting.  It was definitely wonderful to hit the big gong, in celebration with the technologists, nurses and other staff in the radiation unit at RVH, to know there would be no more treatments and that recovery was set to begin.  

The beautiful brass gong was gifted to the unit by the staff working there. Many people leave a decorated stone at the gong on their last day but, since I make Christmas crackers for a living, I decorated a cracker with butterflies to leave in the community cache - a symbol of transformation... 

I know for many people, Gong Day is a joyous one and one of relief.  I felt both of those emotions but Gong Day is also book-marked for me until I can catch up emotionally and one day go back in my mind, to fully celebrate anew. Congratulations to all who have made it to "Gong Day" or "Ring the Bell Day"!








 

Just finished my last treatment of radiation therapy. Hair is starting to grow back. Thank you for all your informative help.

Congrats Gigsy‍ it’s a hard slog isn’t it and such a relief to be finished!

I hope you were able to treat yourself afterwards.

How is your skin? How are you feeling?

best wishes, Essjay

Finished chemo yesterday. 6 rounds of FEC D for stage 2a Triple Negative Breast Cancer,  Tumour  was grade 3. On to Radiation next. So happy to be almost done with all treatments.  Looking forward to hair regrowth. 😀

Finished my last round of doxorubicin today! My lifetime limit has been reached! Only 3 hospitalization so I survived!
I am happy that perhaps my taste buds will return. Praying the mouth sores not too bad this time. 🤢
Still rinsing the mouth every time I get up.
Kinda wondering if my hair will grow back before I go onto the next chemo.
Although likely ifosfamide next chemo, which also includes hair loss. So thinking I will likely never see my hair again. 😠

I'm officially on the shelf! Scary stuff. 😬

gillianm‍ 

Sorry I did not see your response till now. I love the painted rocks idea. and your crackerThe whole setup looks beautiful. Glad to hear you are well on your way to physical recovery. I agree that the emotional/mental healing can take a little longer. I love what you said here "also book-marked for me until I can catch up emotionally and one day go back in my mind, to fully celebrate anew."

I know for me it took several months and probably even up to a year to get there mentally.

Lianne

PS - if you want to tag a member so they get a notification as I have done with your username, type the "@" sign and then start typing the username. Once you see the name in the list, select it and it will turn blue.

Congratulations to you Country Girl‍  and Gigsy‍  on completing your treatments too. Here's to hair!

Boby1511‍ congrats to you as well. Keeping my fingers crossed for the return of your taste buds.

​​​​​​​Lianne

So far everything is good. No skin irritation yet. Just tired but I can live with that. It's so nice not to have to hit the road every sunday for treatment.

Be nice to include those who have to have  surgery for cancer as this can be quite a hurdle too .Being invasive to cut through tissue , muscles , nerves and especially to remove a cancerous growth or mass o tissue. Which cannot be replaced as the brain or single organ and vital .Sadly I  Iam hearing from cancer pple . Some being under from as short time  as 95 min to over 7 hours surgery. and in this pandemic 😷  
Some having to undergo more surgeries to spread on other orgnsa with cancer . Let's ring a be.l for them too. Surgery is much more e complex for cancer patients and not being awake unlike Radiation , Chemo or I' Immuntherapy ,  Stem Cell or all the others . Often a lot of greif as Organs  are having to be removed , never to be  replaced . Elle 

elle29‍ 

Sorry you had a rough surgery and recovery. I feel for you.
Unfortunately, it's unlikely youll be able to access your records until a doctor has read them over. Your doctor likely has a backup. Maybe just call your cancer centre to enquire.
Pathology may take time, mine was 4 weeks, although I had a large tumour.
I could not get a copy of my CT scan until my doctor had read it over, so even thou it was there the day before the doc read it, I had no access.
I wish you continued recovery.

elle29‍ do you have an appointment made with the surgeon? I had to wait 5 weeks to see my surgeon after surgery which was tough for me and my hubby. No way round it as the details were to be shared by him and no one else, and it was his job to refer me to the medical and radiation oncologist so those things didn’t move either.

Time to relax and get over the surgery - hope the recovery is going ok xx

elle29‍ 

We celebrate any and all milestones - tests, surgeries, treatment completions, shrinking tumours - all cause for celebration and a virtual bell ring.

Glad you have completed surgey and are now able to focus on healing

Lianne

Ding Ding Ding!

I finished my 8th round of chemo on November 5th and had a lumpectomy on Dec 7th.  I have a TNBC diagnosis so I am anxiously awaiting the pathology reports to determine next steps (likely radiation).  Sending hugs and hope to you all.
 

PS2020‍ 
Congratulations on finishing chemo! And doing your surgery! Two bigs steps to being cancer free. I wish you clear margins, hopefully the surgeon was able to remove all cancer. 

Congratulations PS2020‍!
What is that.... Light at the end of the tunnel??? 
What a great way to bring in the new year! 
When are you meeting with your doc for the pathology results? 
 

ashcon‍ & Yuliya‍ Thanks so much!  I received some partial pathology reports today electronically.  They are a bit confusing - I don't have a meeting with the surgeon until next week to understand them fully.  I wish there was a better dictionary online that helped interpret reports.  

PS2020‍

This little guide from breast cancer.org was helpful to me in understanding my pathology. 
It's American but largely relevant to us here in Canada. 
https://www.breastcancer.org/search?utf8=✓&term=Pathology

Fingers crossed for you 🤞. 

ashcon‍ 

These are incredibly useful links!  Thanks so much for the recommendation it will also help in my ability to explain the results to my family and friends.

ashcon‍ Great news from todays meeting with the surgeon.  I had good margins and lymph nodes showed as clear!  I meet with radiology in a few weeks to see how many rounds they recommend.  Thanks again for all the support and help with the pathology - I was able to go in and ask all the right questions.

PS2020‍
That's great news! Congratulations! 
2021 is looking much better for you now, yes? 
And is your hair starting to come back? 
Hope you get a chance to read thru some of the posts and tips from others about radiation  😁

Enjoy your holiday season! 

ashcon‍ Absolutely - I am feeling very hopeful about 2021!  My hair is starting to grow back - it's very fuzzy right now - it will be interesting to see how my hair does grow back as I had thick black curly hair.  I will search for radiation posts to get a better idea of what's next.  I have been really good about not trying to peek too far ahead and just tackling what's in front of me.  One step at a time.

PS2020‍ 
Great news! Happy for you.
My hair too coming in... fuzzy.
I lost my eyebrows too with chemo. Just noticed today I look like saskwatch!
For xmass photos! lol. Guess I never look at my face.
Grew back in fast those eyebrows!!