Sleep Problems post breast cancer diagnosis

Hello Active!
This cancer diagnosis lark is a right pain in the butt, in many more ways than one! it is quite traumatic, after all, and it is no wonder it surfaces in stressful dreams. I am lucky to be generally a good sleeper and tend to go right back to sleep after being wakened by a night sweat. Maybe you should explore methods which help you relax (relaxation, meditation, yoga...) to get back to sleep faster, which may also help ease the traumatic dreams?
Have a word with the breast nursing team to see if they can suggest something or someone (practitioner of relaxation)?
Quite apart from the fact that you (and I) have cancers that are oestrogen positive, and that restricts our options, I am frankly always reluctant to ingest yet more chemicals. I'd try some relaxation sooner than pills. But that's just me.
Meanwhile, take good care of yourself!
Catherine

Hi Active & Catherine
I totally understand what you're both saying.. On my last visit to my oncologist, he prescribed Dixarit tablets to help with night sweats, he said it works for some women and not for others but is totally safe with estrogen driven cancer. I bought the tablets but in the end I chickened out and didn't take them ( like you Catherine I feel that Tamoxifen is more than enough chemical to be taking ) I still wake every night with sweats thought not as much as I did at the start.

Keep well

Resolute x

Ps I too have the MOST peculiar dreams ...

Hi Resolute and Catherine,

Good to hear your comments and glad I am not the only one with strange dreams! I would consider medication for night sweats if they persist .
Knowing there is something for oestrogen positive people is a help in itself.
I felt I had coped well with surgery and radiotherapy and am a bit thrown now to find that although I am physically a lot stronger and look healthy and well, I feel it will still be a long time before I regain my confidence and the feeling of well being I
used to take for granted.
I read about people changing their lives after recovery and my great achievement is doing a bit of spring cleaning to finally tackle all the cobwebs and dust which have relentlessly built up over the winter.This from the least houseproud person you could imagine! Rather than planning some lifechanging event I find myself enjoying a bit of weeding and window cleaning. Pathetic!

Active.

Morning Active

Yes I was surprised to find that there was something you could take for night sweats aswell. I could be reading about myself when you talk of feeling good through & after treatment only to feel less well now and there's nothing pathetic about weeding or cleaning!! My problem is that by the time I've reached on everything I have to do, my days supply of energy has been used up so I only look at the cobwebs & weeds. I truly envy you!

Resolute x

Hi Active,
On the issue of doing the devil and all after treatment, and taking on the world, I feel quite strongly.
I resent this whole litterature of "battling" against cancer, and being "courageous", and being nearly expected to climb Everest to prove (to oneself? to others?) that one is over the treatment. I nearly puked reading over the week end in one of the Sunday papers when a famous(ish) Irish musician said something along the lines that cancer was the best thing ever happened to him.
I would not criticise him or other cancer patients who express such views, this is after all their way of coping.
But it grates a bit, because I don't feel a better person after my "little touch of cancer", I don't feel courageous, and while I am physically in very good form and shape, I do not want to climb Everest, and that should be OK!!!
By the way, Active, any chance you might call to my house to deal with my weeds and cobwebs?
Look after yourself, you're doing your best, and that's good enough!
Catherine

Hi ladies, just reading your posts, I too have weird dreams , wake u some days and feel totally exhausted from the "nights work ". I have finally started radiotherapy ladies , so delighted with that .Have only 5 sessions done of 30. Thanks to all of you for the advice re aqueous cream, crystal deodorant.so far no problems only that side is more sensitive.keeping up the walking so all good for now ladies.will finish May 1st the go on Tamoxifen too.I still feel a little removed from everything , doing everything i have always done , to meet me I know one would think I am the same as always but I know I am not 100% engaged with life.Still dont feel ready to go to support centre near me , will see how next few months go.Enjoy your day ladies.Have just read a really interesting blog by American lady called The silverlining.com she herself is a nurse who works in a cancer centre.I think she has a book of the same name coming out soon to.I agree with u Catherine, read that article on Sunday and certainly don't see this as any kind of a good thing to happen to me either. The only Everest I will be climbing in the near future is the mountain of ironing I should be doing now. Talk soon ladies.
Happymum.

Hi
Would just like to say when you come to end of treatment it is often harder to cope and this disrupts your sleep. I think it is only then that we reflect on what we have been through. I would definitely recommend going to one of the cancer support centres. One of the first things the counselor discussed with me was that I didn‘t have a " little bit of cancer". She said cancer is life threatening and not to feel you have to play it down .
Liz

Hi Everybody,

I certainly agree that the idea of 'battling' cancer is infuriating. You never hear of someone battling a heart attack or a stroke. I am getting sick of these celebrity or media types writing about their experiences of cancer. I don't care how many of their friends and relations rallied round or how many bouquets of flowers they got.I have decided to purposely avoid those articles in future.You never learn anything useful, just get infuriated!

One of the best books I have come across (stocked in public libraries) is called Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book.It is written by an American doctor and covers everything to do with breast cancer including a section on After Treatment. It is a great book for dipping into at every stage.Although it is a hefty volume ,the style is very readable as well as informative.

Hope the radiotherapy goes well happymum. I found that if I planned my day with just as much activity as I could cope with I was fine. I used to think of 'x sessions to go and the last week' and cross off each day on the calendar. Just like counting down to school holidays.

Active.

Hi Active,

It doesn't bother me when people say cancer journey, I don't use the term myself but I can see why people say it. What to call it is the problem! Do you say "I'm sick or have been sick for the past year". I got diagnosed with cancer and I certainly wasn't sick. In fact it was the treatment that caused my sickness. Yet I feel I've had a dreadful and scary time since diagnosis because it is life threatening. To me it's like going through a very dark tunnel and I can't wait to see the back of it! You're right though when you say people can call it what they like...

On the subject of celebs or those in the media writing about cancer, I think it's great, it highlights the issues around cancer and usually gives symptoms to look out for, self examination etc, which may in fact save lives. I for one knew nothing much about breast cancer and I think more awareness is needed. There will always be celeb types who will use any story to get on tv or in media to sell their story, but at the end of the day their cancer story is as real for them as my mine is. They just chose to make theirs public.

I remember around the time of my diagnosis, breast cancer seemed to be in every magazine I picked up, in every paper, on every radio show and tv! Before that I never even noticed! Of course I didn't want to face it and used to tune out. Now I realise that it was was probably always like that but because it didn't affect me then I didn't really care or take notice! That changed really quickly, and now I always read such articles or listen or watch such programmes because knowledge is a good thing in my opinion. I must take a look at that book you recommended. Thanks for mentioning it.

I hope you are doing well. Take care

Mel

Hi Mel,

You are much more charitable than me about celebs! You are quite right to point out that we live blithely unaware of so many things until we encounter them ourselves.It explains why I seem inundated by these
articles about cancer, which as you say are good for informing the public.I suppose those of us in the same dark tunnel with you , so desperate to see a bit of light, are more easily disappointed by articles which never can answer all our questions.
This business of trying to name what is wrong with us is something that bothers me too.Recently I asked my oncologist what my status now was, having finished with surgery and radiotherapy. Basically I was told that there was no answer to that question. Perhaps coming to terms with all that has happened involves living a life where wait and see is simply always there.It was easy enough to easy to write
that sentence. Living it seems impossible at present!

Active.

I think we are in what the call 'remission' which is scary in itself as basically it means that it could come back. My motto is live life to the full just in case and enjoy and cherish every minute that you feel well and are cancer free.

Hi ladies!
There is a fine bit of food for thought in your writing on this thread!! Personally, I hate the word "survivor" or "battling" or "victim" because I never felt like any of those things! However (at the risk of being lynched!!!!), I do feel that cancer wasn't the worst thing that could happen to me; luckily I was diagnosed early, got treatment and was given the chance to just coast along or to really take opportunities to step outside of my comfort zone. I have done a bit of both.... I don't feel I have recovered the energy to consider climbing Everest but I have found the confidence and bravery to do one or two things in life that I never thought I could do; I took up art classes for a while (I am not an artist, and wouldn't have even thought to take up classes only that the opportunity arose, it suited me and I now proudly hang a few "masterpieces" around the house!) but for me the bravest thing I have done in life is applied to third level and I'm not approaching the end of first year with another three to go after this.
Who knows whether it was cancer giving me a kick up the arse to go and do it, or maybe I was destined to find the courage to apply, but I know that I was given the choice.
I also know that while I always have known my strengths, I have been helped to get to like myself again, thanks to counselling and therapy. Again, I went for counselling and therapy as I felt I was losing my self-identity. If I hadn't had cancer, I probably would never have gone for help and it has helped me deal with way more in my life than cancer.
I have also recognised all the wonderful people I have in my life and reminded myself how luck I am to have such a fantastic husband and children that I will always be immensely proud of; a few friends and family have fallen away, since I was diagnosed; sometimes I get sad that we may not be close anymore but I have learnt that I can't take on the responsibility for everything that happens in my life. Having had cancer has helped me get a bit real and toughen up a bit.... that's not a bad thing at all!!
I know I'm rambling, but I hope you get the drift of where I am coming from!
But ending on what this thread is about.... three years since I began treatment, I still wake up at silly o'clock. I have learned to live with it, and try to deal with it, and I live in the hope that some day soon I will get a full week of sleep every night!

Take care & be good to yourselves

Hi encee,

Well done for taking those opportunities. I hope when I am 3 years on I too will be able to talk of the new things I have done. One thing I have noticed is that nowadays I am better able to say no to things that I either am not able for or to experiences that I know will be too negative.Sometimes it is best to avoid either people, occasions, tv programmes, or books etc that you know instinctively will make you feel worse rather than better. It is quite empowering to just say no, especially if that is a new experience for you!
Best of luck with your course.

Active

Hi Encee,

Excellent post. I agree with a lot of what you say, in particular about how we reassess everything in our life and take up new challenges. Although I'm not at that stage yet... Just getting through chemo here. Also the importance of family and friends. My God I've found people to be so kind and generous and I don't think I'll ever repay them. Even people who send a card who you hardly know, or send good wishes your way. Personally I don't care what people call their cancer experience, but I have to acknowledge that they can call it what they like. After all maybe for some it is a battle or a journey or whatever and they have every right to call it that, even if others don't agree! For me, cancer has been the worst thing that has ever happened to me and hopefully I will be able to look back in hindsight and say it wasn't that bad!! For now it's tough going and my life as I know it is on hold...