Oh, you know me too well @Jimbo165
Sorry your birthday will have mixed emotions for you.
I have also just lost a very good friend to pancreatic cancer, yes, it is a nasty one…
I am actually not very good with large gatherings and I hate being the centre of attention.
I come from a very small family with an antisocial father.
But with my default smiley face you will be great. Don’t forget the ‘I’m 60 today’ badge to set off your outfit and you’ll be the life and soul of the party…
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Hi @Jimbo165 and @Erica , I too have been rather silent on the forum front due to being hyper busy and a few days away in cloudy Spain!! Really wanted to see some sun but alas wasn’t to be, visited Cordoba which was amazing and I highly recommend!
I’m very jealous of your youth @Jimbo165 
I could do with going back a few years. Sorry to hear about the funeral, very sad. Sorry @Erica for your recent loss as well. Hard isn’t it!
Your birthday family get together will be lovely even if it will be tiring, so nice to have everyone together.
Interesting that you’re now on besremi- do keep us posted with how you are. I’m still on pegasys, Worthing seem to be able to get me my prescriptions luckily- they’re keen to keep me on it and I’ve responded so well on it with not too many side effects- although I certainly feel that my hair has changed and I have far more lines on my face since being on it- wonder if anyone else has the same issues? No need to answer that one @Jimbo165 - question only for the ladies 
.
Take care everyone and keep fighting
Gillyj
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Good morning @Gillyj and @Erica, along with other readers of this growing thread. Thank you both for your kind words, it means a lot to me.
LRI currently do have supplies of both Pegasys and Besremi, but as I only came off of the Pegasys in December, the Besremi was deemed to be the safer option at this point in time, but I guess that only time will tell on the efficacy of the drug, especially when you take my “involuntary contrariness” in to account! 
I have noticed a thinning of whats left of my “natural solar protection” covering, but how much of that is down to the Hydroxycarbamide or my alleged youth, I don’t know. I do know that I am regularly informed that I don’t look my age, which gels nicely with me not acting my age either!
As always, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Hi @Jimbo165 @Erica @Gillyj I have also been away to rainy spain and the canaries. Lovely to get away from it all for while and the Island of La Palma in the Canaries i would definitely recommend. Rain forests and rum distilleries.
I am due to use my first Besremi next week so will see how that goes. It is a strange pen like contraption that the pharmacist went through with me how to use. 2 doses in one pen but a new needle is attached for the 2nd. You dial in the dose at the top and it checks it has that quantity available. The pharmacist wasn’t sure what to do with the empty pens so has suggested i bring them back when i get the next ones. Needles go in sharps box. I think they changes mine due to the change in frequency I need that they weren’t prepared for. I have 4 doses and i need one dose every 3 weeks so i have a decent supply for now.
Hope all goes well with your Jimbo and you have the energy to enjoy your birthday celebrations. I have just past 61 so have a year on you!
All the best to everyone
xxx
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Hi @Chrispy and all your strange pen like contraption sounds as if it would be far too high tech to me.
When I went to see a consultant last about something else he was talking about the way forward for me and he kept on saying’ but of course at your age’.
In the end I thought that if he said it again I would say something very unladylike to him.
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Hi @Erica I don’t blame you. I think i would say something too. But it did make me smile.
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Good morning @Chrispy, @Erica and @Gillyj, and everyone else, I hope that you are all well.
@Chrispy, yes indeed, the Besremi regime is a little more complicated in operation but, I have to say, a less traumatic and painful procedure in comparison to the Pegasys self stabby system. Again though, it is a refrigerated item, so my fridge contents are worth a lot more now than they were before last Friday! And there was a lack of explanation regarding disposal, although the needle part will go in my sharps box, and I shall do the same as you and return the “pen” part back to th ehospital pharmacy in case they can be reused.
@Erica, I am sorry to hear of your recent loss; these times are difficult for all of us, and seem to get more frequent now too. I’m also sure that if you were to end up having to use these pen type injections that you, despite your own self-deprecating comments, would breeze through their use without a seconds thought. I am hoping that I will do likewise for my next one!
A couple of things have crept in to my mind of recent times though:
- I wonder if there are any fellow or fellowette forum members who are on both Hydroxycarbamide capsules and either Besremi or Pegasys injections?
- and has anyone else on these medications noticed and skin discolouration? I have some in…ahem…an intimate and gentlemanly area, and mentioned it to my Consultant on Friday who said something along the lines of “well it can occur occasionally and you are, as you know, awkward, as patients go” which I took to be a compliment and is a help to keep the medical fraternity “on their toes”!
As always, take care, stay safe, be kind to yourselves and keep smiling.
Thank you all for your kind greetings and thoughts.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Good morning all
Beautiful sunny day here in Sussex but a bit chilly!
I suppose @Jimbo165 so long as you are not going to a nudist beach the discolouration is irrelevant?? I have some discolouration around my eyes- dark pinkish which is not attractive!!
I don’t know why they can’t do pegasys in a pump injection form- would be so much nicer!!
Enjoy the sun today
Gillyj
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Morning @Chrispy
I do like the sound of how besremi is administered- so much kinder to one! Do let us know how you get on with it
Hope you had better weather is Spain that we did!!
Gillyj
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Hi @Jimbo165
Happy Birthday to you and I hope your celebrations go well !!!
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Many happy returns @Jimbo165, I do hope you’re treating yourself today, or letting others do so!
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Good evening @Erica and @Duncan, and thank you for your kind Birthday greetings. It has been a strange day, with a very long funeral service for my friend’s wife, who was only diagnosed in December and passed away in early February. The church service was about an hour, then the committal at the Crematorium lasted for about 30 minutes, but it was all beautifully done.
Then a nice carvery with Daughter No3 and No4 before finally making it home a little while ago.
Hope you are both well.
Take care both, stay safe, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Hi @Jimbo165 I was wondering if you had any advise about the besremi injection. I followed all the instructions last night but the blue safety shield over the needle didn’t move back like the diagram. I pressed it down firmly and the tip of the needle did go through the skin but i am sure not all the drug went inside me. the instructions said press down gently but i started like that and nothing happened so i pressed harder. Did you have any problem? Any advise for the next one would be appreciated.
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Hi @Chrispy Oh, I hate instruction leaflets.
I had a leaflet recently for something completely different and it was longer than the instruction leaflet with a TV.
I will copy your post to the Blood Cancer UK nurses in case they can help at all @BloodCancerUK_Nurses
Take lots of special care and be ever so kind to yourself and please do let us know how you get on.
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Thank you @Erica I was given a printout that was 5 pages long and thought i had done everything correctly. I have emailed the haematology pharmacist who supplied the injection for advice but i am not sure she knows alot about it either. It may have been me or it could have been a faulty needle.
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Good Morning @Chrispy,
I am sorry you had some difficulties with the Besremi injection. It sounds like you have done all the right things by contacting the hospital. Unfortunately without seeing the injection it would be difficult for us to make any suggestions. Do you have a contact for your haematology department at the hospital? I wonder if it would be worth going in to the department for the next injection and going through it with one of the nurses? Alternatively you can do the same with your local practice nurses. A second pair of eyes is often helpful.
If we can offer any further support please do contact us, our number is 0808 2080 888.
Best Wishes,
Heidi (Support Services Nurse)
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Thank you @Heidi-J-BloodCancerUK I was thinking the same. The problem is I am not sure many people are using this particular injection. I will see what i can do as i don’t want to waste the next one.
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Hi @Chrispy I have learnt, after many years, that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.
I don’t know it probably depends on the size of the medical organisation, but I would expect their would be medical staff trained in this or similar injections.
The more I worry about things the more worried and nervous I am and then I make a mess of things!!!
Then older I get I realise for me peace of mind is so important.
Be ever so kind to yourself, do lovely things, I am just going out for a walk while the sun is shining and the sky is blue here. Let us know how you get on.
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Good evening @Chrispy, apologies for the delayed reply, I’ve only just made it home from work, having ventured out at 6 this morning.
Yes, the Besremi jab seems a lot different from the Pegasys ones and, in all honesty, if the nurse “talking me through the process” hadn’t told me that I’d been successful then I wouldn’t have known I’d done the deed! Was your injection painless? Mine was totally painless although a tiny bead of blood did appear about 10 seconds after the jab, along with a little “bubble” of what I assume to have been some Besremi.
I realise that the above ramble probably hasn’t helped, for which I can only apologise. My next go is 3 weeks tomorrow, so hopefully you, and any other Besremi users, will be able to offer me some advice by then.
@Erica, it’s even worse than that when any and all instructions are only available “online”!
Thank you all for my Birthday Wishes and kind thoughts, I survived the ordeal by numbers!
Take care all, stay safe, be kind to yourselves and keep on smiling.
Best wishes,
Jimbo165
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Hello Jimbo165, wanted to send belated birthday wishes. Hmmm, 60 is a big one as I know to my cost as I turned the great number on March 1st. My partner keeps telling me I’m in my sixties now, but I have decided that 60 is a liminal number between decades and while I am ‘staring it down’, I’m not quite there yet. Kind thoughts 
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