Well, went to see he onc's senior reg on Wednesday. What a nice man and his nurse too. Showed him my lump on my wrist and explained how worried about it I was as it was on the same side I had the BC. He confirmed it is a ganglion! Oh the releif!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
He said it should go by itself in a few months or so. I told them I had had visions of going there for chemo! He laughed and the nurse Maggie said "bless!"
my next appointment is with the surgeon in November. Perhaps I may have made my decision about having a double mastectomy by then but I doubt it.
If the lump had been bad news I would have wanted it definately very soon.
I am worried about the weight I've put on since going on tamoxifen last November. I was slim at a size 10 before and now I am onto a size 14!!! I am told it will drop off after coming off in 5 years. I'm getting a bit fed up of buying bigger clothes!! The night calf cramps are beginning to get to me too.
However, the nurse said I could go on Arimidex instead if I asked Doc . However that also has side effects as has any treatment or drugs which includes joint pain. I think I'd rather put up with what I've got.

Tomorrow we a have our new vacuum cleaner!

I'm writing this at work in between removing tons of plaque, calculus and tobacco staining from patients teeth! Having a few DNA'S. I wonder if it's due to the swine flu and people are frightened to go places? Some of Gray's colleagues are off with it. We went to our local balti house last night and we were the only people there! They reckoned it was quiet because people were frightened of picking up swine flu and because of the summer holidays.

Had a fright last night while while using my tepe brushes, I found a lump on my wrist on the side I had the breast cancer. It is very hard like bone. I don't know whether it's a ganglion but I read on the net this morning that they are normally soft.

Didn't know whether to phone my GP, the breast care nurse or the oncologists secretary. Phone my good friend Mo for the breast care nurses number as she has had breast cancer too. She agreed she wouldn't know which one to phone either in the same position.

I phoned the nurse first at the breast care unit but got the answer machine as I expected. So I then phoned Lynn the oncologist's secretary and she brought my appointment forward from 26th August to Wednesday 29th July which is next Wednesday. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed 'till then.

Today would have been my Dad's birthday. He would have been 86 today. He died 24th March 2007 due to a fall outside his GP's after a routine blood test. There was a gap in the disabled access ramp where the shutter went into when it was closed . He fractured his hip and caught MRSA and pnemonia after a hip replacement in hospital. I miss him a lot.

Came back from a wonderful two weeks in Tenerife last Wednesday morning. We had a great holiday and I actually managed to mostly forget this BRCA thing.










This was our favourite evening pub!


More photos to follow as I have to go out in a bit!


However now I'm back this gene thing is back at the forefront of the picture again. Now I'm back at work patients are still asking abut my health and as I have been seeing some of them for over 20 years they are like old friends and want to know all about it!

Gray's boss has expressed a wish for BRCA patients to do a talk for the lab staff to exolain what it's like from a patient's point of view and Gray has put my name forward and I have been accepted to do a presentation. I've never done one in my life before and heaven knows how I'm going to go about it but Gray is going to help! Nothing's definate yet though. The nearest thing to doing that are oral hygiene talks to new Naval entrants and and in school classrooms!

Anyway must go now. Haven't been on here for a while due to lack of time but will try and make up for it!

TTFN!