Calling all triple negative breast cancer patients in the UK

adagio

Hi Sylvia and everyone,

I have been neglectful in commenting on the thread, but I do read the posts to see what is current with everyone.

Maryna - so sorry to hear about your neuropathy issues becoming worse. That must be so difficult to deal with particularly since you love to walk and keep active. I too would find all of these ailments quite depressing - so no surprize that you feel down in the dumps! hopefuly the nurse will be able to give you some information which will be helpful. I was interested in the distinction between peripheral neuropathy and motor neuropathy - are there tests to distinguish the two, I wonder? So glad though, that the chest pressure did not turn out to be heart related - that is a relief.

I never had a port for my chemo - my oncologist was not in favour unless absolutely necessary - she felt that they were seen as a foreign body to our systems and that our bodies would want to reject them - fortunately I never needed one. It must seem odd having a port inside! Let us know what your doctor says about the port removal.

Hanieh - so sorry to hear about your leg issues and your headaches. I often get dark thoughts of recurrence of the cancer in the form of metastases, and I have to tell myself not to think negatively, but to remain hopeful.

Sylvia - your warm kind words to all of us here are very uplifting - thanks so much. I have been focussing on thinking less about my past cancer diagnosis and trying more to focus on other things - like decluttering my house and going through stuff which I no longer care for and do not want in my life any more. I find this very therapeutic - I am fast becoming a minimalist and I like it. We can get by with so much less. I find that if I think about cancer, I get more anxious about recurrence or metastases.

When I was going through chemo, I was paranoid about getting neuropathy - I took buckets of ice with me to the cancer agency and all throughout my infusions I was icing my feet and my hands. I did get some very mild tingling in my feet and fingers, and my oncologist reduced the dosage for me because she knew how important it was to me. Thankfully, I have not had neuropathy up to this point, and it has been almost 3 years since I completed my treatment. But I never take anything for granted because I do believe that we can have delayed reactions to these harsh chemicals.

Today I went for my mammogram and in two weeks time I see my oncologist - so I am hoping that all will be OK.

We have all gone through a lot of stuff and life is not easy, but we must always have hope and work hard at being positive. Drugs are not the answer to all problems, but they do have a place. The difficult thing is knowing when to take them and when to say no thanks!

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello adagio,

It was nice to hear from you and thank you for your kind words. You are right to focus on trying to think less about cancer and your past diagnosis. We have all done what we thought was the best and we are trying our best to keep ourselves fit and healthy. The past is done and dusted and we cannot do anything about it. We have to look forward, live each day to the full and not let cancer rule our thoughts and lives.

I was glad to know you are de-cluttering your house and getting rid of things you do not want. I am a minimalist and cannot stand clutter. I see so many of my friends and neighbours being victims of their possessions. It seems to make their lives so difficult and yet they are so reluctant to get rid of anything, even though they never use the stuff. I am the same with clothes, I keep the minimum. I do not hoard anything and my apartment is a source of peace and quiet for me.

It is good that you have posted about using ice to try to prevent neuropathy when you were going through chemotherapy. It is good to have it in print for all to see. I think new patients should ask about it for their hands and feet, not to mention asking about an ice cap to avoid hair loss.

I think it is also very important for new patients to ask about more frequent but lower doses of chemotherapy drugs during their treatment. I think that the treatment every three weeks will probably be phased out, as women seem to do so much better and feel so much better on weekly, or two weekly, regimes. The trend seems to be giving to ticking along doses.

I have to go now but I shall finish this post later today.

Thank you for popping in. we need to try to keep this thread going.

Fond thoughts.

Sylvia xxxx

maryna8

Hi, Adagio

Nice to hear from you, glad you are doing so well.

I had my consult with the nurse/practitioner. I will start by saying I was impressed by the time she took with me, I have become used to doctors who rush in and out so quickly. She talked with me, and then did a lot of tests. Tests with the little hammer, and the pin, and a scraper; she worked my muscles in legs and ankles, she watched me walk, and turn and tip-toe. She checked my arms too. She looked over my tests, my EMI and MRI's. I heard that motor neuropathy is not common result of chemo, there is a test that is invasive and not too dependable. She said I definitely have peripheral sensory neuropathy, but it could be a lot worse. I still have feeling in my extremities, my gait is good, and my balance not bad. As to the leg weakness, she could only give me her opinion. In her opinion, it could be partially caused by nerve endings in the feet and ankles shooting up the legs; but she thinks also could be a fatigue syndrome brought on by chemo, and aggravated by the medication I took for the liver disease which caused serious fatigue. And aggravated by inactivity compared to what I used to do. But there you have the chicken and the egg as far as I am concerned. To me it seems like I was inactive because of the fatigue! Anyway, her advice was to slowly work back up to speed on exercise, rest frequently, and go from there. She said she could put me in physical therapy but I could just as easily do it myself, and I agree. So I have ruled out heart problems, my chest x-ray was clear, and I have heard the scoop on the neuropathy. I am going to finish up the work that was being done on my varicose veins, they were almost finished when I found the tumor in my breast. My acupuncture doc thinks the fatigue will pass in time, and he also works on the neuropathy and energy. After all that I don't know what else to do except the common-sense things such as the nurse advised. Any other ideas?

I feel that I was not sufficiently pre-warned or self-educated about the nastiness of neuropathy. My doc and nurse mentioned it but said it would go away when finished. I had it after my first bout, and then started the foot icing on my own for the remaining Taxoteres. He also reduced my doses. But the damage was done with the first treatment, I believe. The one that put me in the hospital. The problem as I see it is that we don't spend our lives studying up on cancer treatment if we are not in that field. When it hits us, we are not really prepared, that is not a good time to start studying when in full panic mode. I jumped right into surgery, and treatment and trusted the medical staff to tell me what's what. But as we all know, the past is the past, what's done is done and we have to figure out the best way to move forward. What I do know right now is that I can be fairly active for a couple of days, by the third day I have to spend a large part of it resting.

I am tired of my port, it seems to bother me more the last couple of months, I can't bear to have the seat-belt putting pressure on it. Possibly because I am back to my pre-cancer weight and maybe that is putting more pressure on it too. I haven't had any problems with it otherwise, and it has always worked so far. I see my onc doc in April, (who is not the same one I had through chemo),I will talk to her about getting rid of it.

I hope your mammogram turned out good, and best wishes for your oncologist visit.

Your de-cluttering program sounds great, I am in sore need of that; my husband and I were both packrats and I have a lot of stuff that could go. One thing that stops me there is my shoulder injury, which prevents me from doing a lot of lifting. But that problem is for another day! Enough for now.

Talk soon, Mary

maryna8

Hanieh,

I wonder what is going on with you, and how your test turned out. Hoping all is well!

Talk soon, Mary

maryna8

Hi, Sylvia

Well, Super Tuesday is over, on to the next drama. My state's election is on March 15, but we are not as big as some and seldom make a big difference. They do call us one of the bell-wether states, because we have voted for the winner in the US Presidential Election in every election from 1904 to 2004. We missed a couple after that. That doesn't mean I have always got my preferred candidate!

Politics really does seem like a spectator sport, always on and never stops.

I forgot to mention that during my neurologist nurse/prac visit, she also went over all the current drugs that are offered for neuropathy. There are drugs for the tingling and burning, and drugs for neuropathic pain, but really nothing for leg weakness.

Onward we go,

Talk soon, Mary

Honeytagh

Honeytagh

Honeytagh

Hi Sylvia and everyone

I'm on a trip to another city for my cousin's wedding party. My husband sent my MRI results and I can't understand the problem well. I don't have access to my doctor either.

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello adagio,

I am now responding to the latter part of your post. I do hope everything will be alright when you see your oncologist in two week's time. I understand that in the end you decided to have your mammogram despite your reservations. It is very difficult to make these decisions. I was surprised that you were not given your mammogram results straight away. I was always told mine more or less as the mammogram was completed.

I do agree with you that we have all been through a lot of stuff and that life is not easy. There will always be for us the before and after diagnosis. We have to keep looking forward and looking on the bright side. I think there are a lot worse illnesses than cancer. I would dread having anything like dementia or Parkinson's disease, motor neuron disease or multiple sclerosis. I have seen first hand what these illnesses do to people.

I try to avoid drug at all costs and am not taking anything except supplements to treat osteoporosis and a multivitamin/mineral. I take no medication and have not taken anything in the ten and a half years since diagnosis. I am still drinking lots of green tea and have also added white tea, and I am still eating my bitter apricot kernels. I am concerned, when reading the TNs about all the women who seem quite happy to take metformin, even if their oncologists are not in favour.

That is all for now. I do have some things to post on the thread, which I shall try to do over the weekend.

Fond thoughts and thank you for your contribution to our thread.

Sylvia xxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Mary,

I have just read your post and am always interested in what is going on with the American primaries. I want to do your post justice, so I am going to answer it tomorrow in a more relaxed way. I also have a couple of interesting articles about cancer from the Independent on Wednesday March 2^nd which I would like us all to discuss, not to mention various articles in the March edition of What Doctors Don't Tell You.

Fond thoughts.

Sylvia xxxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Hanieh,

Thank you for your post. I have looked at the reports you posted but it is difficult to comment on them as we are not doctors. It is difficult to know what the two different reports mean, as most of the wording is the same. You need to discuss these results with your consultant and to ask him to explain them to you in simple terms that a patient can understand. Are the two different reports two different opinions? I would think it is most unusual for a doctor to give these reports to a patient without first going through them and explaining them in simple language.

I do hope you are managing to enjoy your cousin's wedding party, despite having all this hanging over you.

Sending you my very heartfelt best wishes.

Sylvia xxxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Amanda,

I hope you are feeling much better and dealing with being back to work. I look forward to hearing from you.

Hello Joliel,

I hope all is well and that we shall hear from you when you have the time. It is so interesting to have posts from all over the world. We need someone from New Zealand as well.

Sending best wishes to everyone and urging new patients to come on board and to hear news from those that have finished their cancer journey and from whom we have not heard in a long time.

Very best wishes.

Sylvia xxxx

maryna8

Dear Hanieh,

As Sylvia said, we are not doctors here; but I do want to say that the MRI results don't look bad to me. There are a lot of words that say "normal", and "unremarkable".

Are you still having unpleasant symptoms? I hope not too bad, and you are enjoying the wedding.

And I hope you can get a diagnostic explanation soon!

Talk soon, Mary

Honeytagh

Hi Mary

Thank you so much for your encouragement. In fact I still have the symptoms more or less. Tonight I will fly back to Tehran and tomorrow I will see my doctor. I hope there is nothing serious.

Love

Hanieh

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Mary,

Thank you for your kind words to Hanieh. This is so important when our friends on here are waiting to hear results from scans etc. Like you, I did not think there was anything worrying on the scans, but, as we know, we are not doctors. I did pick up on the words retained cyst but did nto really know what that meant. Hanieh will be safely back home today, so perhaps she will have more to report.

Here in the UK Donald Trump is still headline news on all the media. I have this strange feeling that whatever happens, everything will be done to stop him getting the nomination to go through for the Presidential race. I do admire him for being outspoken and not mincing his words about what needs to be done. It is hard to believe that four trillion dollars have been spent on wars, but that the infrastructure in the US is in a terrible state. I do believe that charity begins at home. I do not trust Hillary Clinton, but much prefer Bernie Sanders. I do not think he will get to the Presidential race. Money will see to that.

It is getting very nasty here in the UK over the EU referendum. I think we shall all be truly sick of it by June 23^rd!

Cancer is very much in the news as well. Today on the early morning news it was all about ground breaking progress with ways of treating cancer with highly indivdualised treatment for each patient. It is all about boosting the immune system through the T cells to beat cancer. I am going to look up more details later on. I understand there are articles in the Guardian and the Telegraph. Trials have not begun yet but they were even talking of all this perhaps being a future for cancer.

You might be interested in an article that was in the Independent on Wednesday by Steve Connor, science editor. The title was "Vaccinated against cancer: British woman is given pioneering treatment.

"A British woman has become one of the first cancer patients to be injected with a new vaccine designed to stimulate the immune system so that it destroys tumours wherever they have spread in the body".

This particular woman is 35 and has advanced cervical cancer. She was diagnosed in July 2015 and was among the first to be part of a cancer vaccine trial that will run for two years and has 30 volunteers.

Try to have a look at the article and tell me what you think.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-woman-becomes-one-of-the-first-cancer-patients-to-be-injected-with-new-tumour-destroying-a6905506.html

Another article on the same page entitled Research – Sress 'Creates transport routes for cancer cells'.

I know that we are all interested in stress related to cancer development and I shall post more details later. Try to have a look.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/stress-can-cause-transport-highways-to-develop-in-cancer-patients-that-allow-tumour-cells-to-spread-a6905681.html

Talk to you later.

Have a good weekend.

Sylvia xxxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Hanieh,

I wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you and hope to hear from you when you get back home.

Fond thoughts,

Sylvia. xxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello everyone,

I have just read the latest news about cancer in the Telegraph. You might like to read it for yourselves. Click on the following link if you want to keep up to date.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/12182401/Scientists-find-Achilles-heel-of-cancer-offering-hope-for-most-deadly-cases.html

Have a good weekend.

Sylvia

maryna8

Hello to Sylvia and all,

Hoping Hanieh has received some news by now, and has found it reassuring. it is so hard to wait.

Our political scene is certainly entertaining! Until you realize how very serious it all really is, with all that is going on here and around the world. It is amazing though, that Donald Trump has not had to spend much money on ads, unlike other candidates. Cameras follow him everywhere, his name is on every newscaster's lips, his life has become a political ad. On Thursday Mitt Romney, a failed presidential candidate from 2008, came out and called Trump a scammer, a con artist, a crook and whatever else came up in his prepared statement. I heard it and thought, "if only you had attacked Barack Obama that fiercely 8 years ago you might have been president." At that time, he was very meek and mild with the Democrat and lost. So in my opinion, he probably needs to just be quiet; since as the Donald says, he is a "loser". (smile) My opinion is he was prompted by others to give such a speech; you are right, they (other members of his own party who wish to pick the candidates themselves) are plotting and planning dirty tricks to take Trump out of the picture. Publicly, in some cases. I think they will have a hard time, he has proven himself very resilient. I think Ted Cruz is proving to be very knowledgable on almost all the issues. He seems much better informed than the other candidates who mostly sling insults. Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats have had very few debates, and at least 2 on Saturday nights when they know not many people are watching. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that Hilary will be the candidate coming out of that.

Even though we vote, our actual election is decided on delegate votes, earned by the votes of the states they represent. Some of the states are all or nothing, some are proportionally allocated. If Trump does not get 1237 delegates by convention time in July, the Republicans can have a brokered convention, where they can try to manipulate the delegate count one way or another. Personally, I hope it does not get to that, I think it would be very destructive. The news media thinks that would be wonderful, since it's all a big circus to them. On March 2015, the big states of Florida and Ohio will have their primary elections; the results of those will be very telling.

It sounds like your early summer news will be consumed by EU decision news. I hope you get your wish as to the result of it all.

I have looked over the articles you linked to, I do find the article on stress interesting. They seem to be talking about people who already have cancer, and the effect of stress on the lymphatic system pathways. I would think it would also have an effect on people who don't yet have cancer. Or other diseases for that matter. Best wishes to the woman with stage 4 who is testing the vaccine. How wonderful if our own bodies could be amped up to fight this disease. The last article is interesting too, starting to think about how to personalize our treatments by identifying the antigens in the cancer cells, and targeting them specifically. It all makes sense, and all of it sounds better than the chemo they give now, which lays waste to every cell. I hope the work moves along quickly!

I hope everyone has a good weekend, it is going to be springlike today. My lilac bushes have little green buds!

Talk soon,

Mary

maryna8

To all:

Ty Bollinger's weekly newsletter is here

https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/triple-negative-breast-cancer-treatment-options/

Mostly supplement info, may be of interest.

Mary

Honeytagh

Hi Sylvia, Mary and all

I talked to my doctor and she recommend to see a brain neurologist . She said I may need an MRA or MRV. My symptoms are sometimes better. My Gp believes they can be the long term effects of my cold. I m not sure whether I can stand more scans as I m already in a bad state of stress and anxiety. Hope everything gets better soon.

Love

Hanieh

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Hanieh,

I was so glad that you got back in touch with us. Why do you think that your doctor has recommended that you see a brain neurologist?

Did you have a talk with the consultant about the results of your scans? That would seem to be very important in my opinion. You need to go through the results line by line and have it all explained.

Mary and I read the scans, and although we are not doctors, most of it seemed to be normal. If that were me discussing the results, I would be asking what "retained cyst" means and what "aneurisms?" means. You need to feel completely satisfied with the explanation and you need to ask if there is a follow up to this because of any of the comments.

You do not want to become a patient mixed up in the middle of doctors with different opinions.

What are MRA and MRV scans?

You say your GP believes that your problems may be the after effects of your cold. Sinus headaches can be very bad.

You might even be suffering from allergies that are causing sinus pains in the head. Have you tried any anti-histamine tablets to get rid of sinus problems?

If that were me, I would want to make sure that the problem is something that your GP can treat and resolve, before getting involved with more scans, as they do not do us any good.

The high anxiety and worry about all this will not be doing you any good. Anxiety can trigger all kinds of problems.

I hope this helps.

Let us know how you get on. I hope you can resolve this, perhaps get some relaxation therapy, then put all this cancer business etc. behind you and get on with your life.

Love.

Sylvia xxxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Mary,

Thank you for your post and for the details about the American Presidential primaries. I can understand why Donald Trump is doing so well, given that I think ordinary people are sick and tired of established politicians.

I shall keep watching, but am convinced that somehow the establishment Republicans will stop at nothing to prevent Donald Trump from ending up their candidate for the Presidency. I do not like the sound of a "brokered convention". It smacks of backroom deals.

The behaviour of the politicians in the referendum on the EU in this country is getting really nasty. I wish all the politicians would disappear and leave the ordinary people to vote. There is so much fear mongering that I feel this is more like a general election than a referendum for the people. I have made up my mind and nothing is going to change it. I am for Brexit.

The article on stress is very interesting and I am sure it is one of the main risk factors for cancer, especially breast. There is no knowing what stress does to the functioning of our body, especially the immune system. I would think it is bad for everyone, those with cancer and those who have survived it, not to mention those who will develop cancer because of it. I think stress is responsible for ill health in general, and let us face it, for most people struggling with the problems of everyday life, there is no escape from stress.

We shall have to see how these new treatments pan out in the end, but I think they are going to be very expensive.

It is very cold here for March but nature is still coming to life.

I was reading in a French magazine about the amount of chemical stuff that is going onto all our food, especially fruit and vegetables and how important it is to eat organic products. I did a shop in my supermarket afterwards and managed to buy mostly organic produce, sweet potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, oranges, lemons, bananas and grapes, not to mention celery. I thought I did quite well.

I am very concerned about Hanieh. She was doing so well after treatment and getting on with her life and now she is really suffering from anxiety. I do hope she will relax and try to move on.

Can you believe I have now posted more than 4,000 posts and most of them have been on this thread.

That is all for this evening. I hope you have a good week.

Fond thoughts.

Sylvia xxxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello everyone,

Did you know that March 3^rd was Triple Negative Breast Cancer Day? I did not and I do not know whether anything was done in the UK. Please post and let me know if anything was done where you live.

I read the link that Mary posted from Ty Bolinger and thought you might be interested in the summary at the bottom of that article. Please let us know if any of you are taking any of the items mentioned and what you think of them.

"Article Summary

If you have Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) or are concerned about it, there are a lot of natural ways to treat it that do not involve surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation.

Western medicine says that TNBC is the least "treatable" of all breast cancers because conventional treatments focus primarily on hormone-positive cancers.

Approximately 10-20% of all breast cancer diagnoses are "triple negatives." The risk for cancer reoccurrence in TNBC individuals is greater during the first three years after conventional treatment than with other forms of breast cancer.

Here are a few natural substances that work with the body to kill cancer cells (including cancer stem cells) and boost the immune system. Scientific proof of the effectiveness of these modalities for treating TNBC is growing:

Vitamin D

Curcumin

Melatonin

Bee Propolis

Blueberries

Green Tea

Other natural substances including include medicinal mushrooms, ginseng, Omega 3 Fatty acids, piperine (from black pepper), and silibinin from the milk thistle plant

TNBC is NOT a death sentence. There are dozens of natural modalities to help your body get back to health safely and quickly by working with the body (not against it) and using what nature has already made available to you."

Best wishes to you all.

Sylvia

Honeytagh

Early signs of spring from my kitchen window

Honeytagh

Hi Sylvia , Mary and all

You're like a very kind and caring sisters to me. Now it's 8 am and my head feels better. I like to stick to the idea that everything is getting better. With the coming of spring may all worries and anxieties disappear. Though I like winter , I don't know why it's always accompanied by sense of depression for me. Looking at my tree from the kitchen window I feel more energized and rejuvenated. Our new year will be in two weeks and I have lots of things to do.

Tomorrow I will see my Gp again to discuss everything with him. I'm tired of all the scans and hope I won't need anymore. I don't like the idea of seeing a brain neurologist as it makes me too nervous. I should get better fast.

Lots of love

Hanieh

Honeytagh

My flowers in my balcony

adagio

Mary - I think most of us have been in the same boat when first diagnosed - we jumped into treatment because we felt we had to act quickly. Of course, now we realize that we could have taken more time to consider our options and truly make an informed decision about our treatments - even though, at the time I felt my decision was informed. If I were to do it all over again, I would take much more time. So glad that your visit to the nurse was a positive experience - sounds like she was very thorough with you and gave you some good suggestions as to what the problem could be. Perhaps you should give it more time and carry on with your acupuncture, exercise and stress management. Have you ever tried EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) - the integrative cancer facility that I go to has a group led by one of the doctors every Monday, and I think I may give it a try. EFT is sometimes referred to as "tapping". My philosophy is that it is worth trying everything to see if it will help providing it does not harm us. I am a believer in acupuncture and I also did it a couple of times a week during chemo. And again, I was very specific with him that I wanted it for neuropathy - or preventing it.

The only other thing I can suggest for you is looking at something you can add to your daily supplements and/or diet. I have heard that the B vitamins are especially beneficial for nerve problems. Perhaps a fish oil supplement which is anti-inflammatory could help, or magnesium - maybe you do all these things already. What supplements are you currently taking?

Hanieh - you must be worried about having to see yet another doctor. That certainly doesn't help with stress levels, does it? I also get pains in my head off and on and I immediately think the cancer has gone to my brain. My family doctor wants me to have a brain scan done, but I have refused because I don't think I could bear to hear anything negative. So I keep putting if off over and over again. I will pray for you that you will start to feel better soon and that the doctors can get to the bottom of this pain you are having. Look after yourself. Stress can definitely cause pain in the head, for sure, so try to relax and breathe in and out again.

Sylvia - I did know that March 3rd was triple negative day - but I was unaware of anything going on in the cancer community. I think the young woman with the cervical cancer is very brave trying the new drug - she really doesn't have anything to lose, I guess. Good for her. I am not convinced that the cure for cancer is to be found in drugs - I am really not quite sure what I think any more, to be honest. I do believe that eating real food and avoiding the junk is top of my list - having said that - I was doing that and I got cancer. So there are definitely other factors to be considered - environmental and stress are but two more. It is so overhwelming reading all these treatment options and research articles, that sometimes I cannot take it all in.

Spring is on its way, and I find it to be a delightful time of the year - love the colours and the smells.

Look after yourselves ladies - you are worth it!!

sylviaexmouthuk

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello Hanieh,

It was nice to hear from you and, yes, we are trying to take care of you.

I was glad to know that your head was feeling better, and let us hope it is some kind of sinus problem and that it will improve and disappear as we go into spring and summer. Sinus headaches are very common and can often come about when going from a warm home to the cold air. Headaches can also be caused by allergies. Of course, stress and anxiety can also cause pains in the head.

I think we all get fed up with the winter and people do suffer from SAD (seasonal affected disorder). We had an elderly gentleman here who would not go out from December to the beginning of April. He used to very depressed and bought a lamp from the pharmacy here that he switched on to get artificial daylight. He said it made him feel much better.

Here in the UK autumn and winter have been awful and we have been shut in too much. Today we went for a walk to get some fresh air, but the wind was very cold. Raymond took some photographs of some of the flowers in the grounds to our apartment complex. I hope you enjoy them. The yellow flowers are daffodils, the pink ones are hyacinths, and they are on the rockery. Also on the rockery is a clump of pink heather. The other deep pink flower is a cyclamen. Spring is definitely on the way but I do not consider spring has arrived until we put the clocks forward at the end of March.

Thank you for the photographs. They look lovely and I can understand that the greenery makes you feel energised and rejuvenated when you look out of your kitchen window.

I was interested to know that it is your New Year in two weeks. What will you be doing. What year are you in Iran? I know you do not calculate it the same as we do.

I do hope you will have a good appointment with your GP and that you will come out with peace of mind. I can understand that you are tired of all the scans and that you do not wish to see a brain neurologist.

Try to relax and keep positive.

You have good friends in me, adagio, and Mary. I am sure it is the same for Amanda, but she is busy working. A lot of people on here have finished treatment and moved on.

Love.

Sylvia xxxx

sylviaexmouthuk

Hello adagio,

I think that March 3^rd was not much of an event. I think that the main emphasis of orthodox medicine with breast cancer is with hormonal breast cancer which is the most common and they can dish out pills for it. I remain firmly positive about being negative and do not take any notice of the doom and gloomers!!!

Like you, I am not convinced that the cure for cancer is to be found in drugs. I still think the cure is in prevention and it is based on a healthy lifestyle, that is healthy food, exercise, avoidance of all the chemicals in our life, and avoidance of negative stress. We need to keep away from all the junk food that is so abundant, have a walk, avoid chemicals as much as we can, and keep stress and bay because I think it upsets everything in our body and makes all our hormones malfunction.

Like you, I have always tried to be healthy in my daily life and still got cancer, but there are other risk factors and I think stress played a large part in my own breast cancer. I also had an undiagnosed parathyroid problem which was leaching calcium into my blood and goodness knows what that was doing to my body. More and more there is research about teeth problems, periodontal problems, fillings and teeth extractions and illness. I have to try not to think about these things and just carry on normally.

I think we are all desperate now for spring.

Sending you my very best wishes.

Sylvia xxxx