Was in London again last Saturday. Left home at 0600 to catch a train and arrived at the Breast Cancer Care site where I met my good friends from BRCA Umbrella I did the Race for Life with last year in Birmingham. Leigh-ann , Lisa and Rian and others I'd met on the web but hadn't met in the flesh ,Caroline, Jennifer,Karen, Lulu, Liz. I hope I haven't left anyone off. We were split in to different breakout groups and I was put in one without most of my friends except for Lulu but I made lots of other friends. Someone asked why are group was formed and the counsillor who took us said we all had something in common-we'd all had breast cancer. Interestingly there was only a couple of us over 50 and the rest were younger. That's what you get with BRCA, I was told previously I'd gone so long without because of my healthy diet as I'm vegetarian and was vegan for many years. Caroline pointed to a lady called Jackie I think she was a counsillor to ask my implant question and guess what? She said a lot of surgeons will do implants for ladies 6 months after radiotherapy and I've gone 15 months. YIPPEE!!!!! The day was invaluable but very tiring for all of us.
Gray went down with me as I'm a wimp and don't like being in London on my own though I used to go there quite a bit during my time in the Navy on my own! He obviously couldn't go to the forum but he went to the Imperial War Museum as he'd wanted to see it for a while and he quite enjoyed it.Afterwards we went to a pub with Lulu and a couple of the other girls for a drink and a chat before catching the tube back to Euston. I asked them about their implants and one of the ladies had her expanders in and one of them said "yo've got your expanders in too haven't you!" Lulu pointed out that mine were real! It was quite funny because I'm quite well endowed!




I'd like to apologise for not putting any photos on for a while but my camera wont work with Windows 7 and are old pc has given up the ghost! I went to Boots to buy a new camera and the lady there looked at all their digital cameras and not one of them was for Windows 7. Can you believe it1 So my camera is useless!


Joy of joys! I received a letter this morning from the breast surgeon about my pbm! She says she wants me to see her so she can explain to me the pathway that they have for undertaking a bilateral risk reducing mastectomy. It's on Thursday 13th May. So the ball is rolling! I've booked the day off from work to make sure I get there on time and I can mentally prepare for it. Gray has an appointment at the Biobank on that day but he's going to change it so that he can come with me.


I'm on the phone at the moment trying to book Tigers tickets for a final match- and they've cut me off! Grrrrrr!

As days go by I'm getting closer to wanting to book that appointment with the plastic surgeon. My first big worry is whether he will agree to give me cohesive gel implants as I've had radiotherapy treatment. If he wont I'll ask to see another plastic at the QE through my counsillor. If I can't have the implants then I'd rather go flat chested. I really can't face having a flap done due to the longer surgery and recovery time. I'd rather use breast forms.


I've put my question on several BRCA webites including the BRCA sisterhood facebook group, BRCA unbrella and Force. A few wonderful people have replied to me, some positive and some negative but I'm still sticking to my guns! Would love to find others who have had succesful cohesive gel implants after having radiotherapy previously.

Easter weekend is over and it's back to work. Haven't eaten much of the chocolate egg I was given at work from the bosses even though it's Green and Blacks plain chocolate which is one of my favourites. Gray and I decided not to get each other Easter eggs this year as we both want to lose weight and I seem to have gone off chocolate since I went on tamoxifen. Can't understand that as I have loved plain chocolate all my life.
We went to Leicester to watch the Tigers beat Bath and Sunday we had lunch with my brother Greg at the Wheatsheaf carvery. Gray spent most of the rest of the weekend decorating while I did a mountain of ironing. I'm afraid I'm allergic to wallpaper paste so I can't help him with thev papering or I sneeze my head off!. We put lining paper on the walls and then paint over it as the house was built in 1938 and the walls are less than perfect! When the paper is up I will be able to help him paint the awlls when we've chosen the paint. We have ahad lovely oak wood flooring put down in that room and the hall. We are very pleased with it.

The weekend was a bit marred by me worrying about my possible future pbm. Teri,one of my wonderful supportive BRCA sisters sugested listing my fears so they can all help me with them as they have already gone through the surgery. I am very lucky to have them in my life. Isn't the internet a wonderful invention I'd never have met them without it.

While in Portsmouth we also visited the Royal Naval museum which was in 3 parts. There was a display of figure heads of old war ships. This one we thought looked quite haunting!

Right hi folks! Where was I? Oh yes down the smoke!

Next we trained it to Portsmouth where amongst other things we managed to get lost trying to find HMS Nelson which is where I did my dental nurse and dental hygienist training at the Royal Naval Dental Training school which isn't there any more! We managed to find it eventually after walking all round Southsea and Portsmouth We couldn't go in obviously but the entrance with the gate house hadn't changed a bit and it brought back so many memories.

We took a tour ound HMS Victory which was about my 4th time, Gray had been wanting to do it for years and he thoughrely enjoyed it. He was fasinated. Years ago there you to be naval matelots showing you round but now it's civilians I suspect volunteers. They used to say Admiral Nelson died on the ship but they don't think so. He certainly was fatally injured on the ship during the battle of Trafalger.  

http://www.hms-victory.com/index.php This wesite tells you all about kit and it's history.

We also wet around HMS Warrior which I hadn't done before.

http://www.hmswarrior.org/

It was the first ship to be made of iron and was the pride of Queen Victoria's fleet.t

Another highlight for me was seeing my old friend Jayne. I lived in Plymouth for 6 years after leaving the navy and Jayne was a really good friend while I was there. I was very sad to leave Plymouth, I love the place. I t was my first draft in the Navy. When I was 15 I went on a Youth Hosteling holiday and saw Plymouth for the first time and fell in love with it then. I promised myself I'd live there one day and hey presto I did! I had to move eventually as it was in the time of Maggie Thatcher the destroyer! My work days were dwindling and I live in a slummy awful flat in West Hoe which was in a lovely location but was the pits and cheap! I wanted to buy my own little place but property prices there were prohibitive. My mum told me there was a full time job going near them in Birmingham and I could live with them while I got back on my feet. I very reluctantly arranged for the removals and dragged myself to Plymouth rail station to catch the train to Brum. http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/homepage/leisureandtourism/tourismandvisitors.htm

Jayne and I kept in touch for a while, I was even her Cheif Bridesmade when she married her husband Ian who was a Naval officer at the time ( a pig as we used to call them!) and he wore his ceremonial uniform with his sword! I visited Jayne in Plymouth and she visited me in Brum. After a few years or so they moved and she sent me her new address and phone number which eventually got lost and sadly we lost touch for years. Then about a year ago while I was recovering from my brast cancer treatment I had a phone call out of the blue and it was my old friend! She had found my phone number on a piece of paper! I've been trying to get her to use facebook to keep in touch and so has her son Tim but Jayne isn't very computer literate but she managed to video skype me! 

Gray and myself met Jayne off the train from Portchester after she'd finished work and we went to a pub at the gun wharf for drinks, meal and lots of talking! It was so good to see my old friend again!

I'm going to publish this for now until later as I have a load to do. It's my day off and we've got a friend coming to lay a wood floor in one room and the hall on Monday and Tuesday and the room has very full book shelves in it so it's got to be emptied!

HMS Victory

                                   HMS Warrior

                                          With my good friend Jayne.

                   Nice Real Ale!

Shivering down the Smoke!

Here I am late again! Is it 3 months since my last entry I think! Oh dear! I want to add photos but I'm writing this on the laptop and haven't been able to add pictures to this yet as the camera's softwear wont bwork on Windows 7. What a pain in arse!!

Anyway since I last blogged my cousin Pat on my mum,s side has been for counsilling and testing and thank heavens has come back negative. She is now trying to persuade her brother to be tested as he has a daughter and grand daughters. I got nowhere trying to get him to do it , perhaps Pat will have more luck. She's told him if he wont go for testing he ought to tell his daughter and give her the option. On a more positive note I've found some cousins I never knew I had and have been in touch through facebook. Isn't facebook wonderful! Two of them have already contacted the genetic clinic and are waiting for appointments.

We've had 2 wonderful weeks off work! This time was spent as follows:-

The first few days in London as we wanted to go to the Who Do You Think You Are show at Olympia.We weren't impressed with Olympia it isn't a patch on the NEC. It was very interesting and we learned afew things. I learned I can now buy my grandmother's birth certificate on the net with credit/debit card. It wasn't possible before as they said I needed to use an Irish bank. Iwas thinking of opening an account with one! We liked the area of London we were in. The people were politer than in Birmingham and there wre lots of lovely freindly pubs.

That was part1. Part 2 will be on a later date as time is pressing and husband nagging!

Bye for now.

Hi. I can't believe how long it is since I last updated this. Did I tell you all my brother got his results back and he carries the same BRCA 2 mutation as me and has already started his prostate screening. They told him he would just be having a consultation but when he got there the doc offered to do the in Greg's words "fingers up the jacksey test"! He said no thanks. So he just had the blood test.  He had it done at the QE but the doc wants him to go to another hospital for his subsequent appointments and says he'll put his fingers up his jacksey then! Which he is non too pleased about. He took his result badly but as most of us do he's getting a bit more used to it now.As I said to him his risk is not as high as mine is for breast cancer. He is also at higher risk of male breast cancer than normal men so he has been told to keep an eye out for that too.


Christmas has been and gone. It was quiet for us with just the two of us and Greg but that's how we wanted it.


New year was also quiet except for constantly messaging my wonderful BRCA sisters who have been a great find for me and wouldn't be without them. I love them all and I'm so pleased they invited me into their sisterhood.


On New Years eve our local pub where we usually go for a couple of drinks every Saturday shut at 2100 as it did on Christmas Eve and as it does each year. Think of the money they're loosing!


At work they have made me change my Fridays off cos most of the patients have Friday's off and want to come in then. The bosses said I had to have Friday off one week and Wednesday off the next! I told them Wednesday is no good to me in the middle of the week and suggested I had Friday off the one week and Monday off the next which means I get a 4 day weekend every other week. They agreed on that. They now owe me 3 days leave in lieu as Christmas day and New years day fell on my days off and I have to go in on one of my days off this month as we are having some training in the morning which I don't want to miss as I need more CPD hours.