2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS

Anonymous

Happy Birthday!!

I just love birthdays like a kid again. Every year we celebrate one of our birthday's or one of our children's ... we have been given another year of wonderful life to enjoy by each other's sides. Rosemarie, may this year be cancer free again and I pray that cancer moves further from your thoughts! You look so happy, lovely and young!

Love,
Kelly

TracyNY

Congratulations Rosemarie! You are looking younger each time I see you. I wish you many, many more.

Tomorrow is my day. Last lap of the reconstruction and my little lipo. Does it hurt? Yes. Is it worth it? Hell yes. Will I think so tomorrow? Probably not!! I'll be sore and aching but it wears off.

I'll let you all know how it went.

marymelodi

I join in the warm and happy greeetings to our Rosemarie! You do look so happy and radiant in your pink shirt! We have all been so blessed to have received your friendship and the gift of your spirit in this group. May you have many, many more years of a life of bliss. Happy, Happy Birthday!!!
Best wishes,
Mary

ravdeb

Hoping that Rosemarie is still enjoying her wonderful day!!!! I love birthdays!!!

TracyNY...Good luck with your liposuction. I hope it's not too painful and you heal well and you are happy and so on and so forth. Wishing you only the best. BUT..you never posted pictures! We'd better get ones of the new you!

debbie444

Well ,just finished standing on his jumble stall. He was over the moon as he made the grand total of £15.63. ( i would rather have just given it to him than cart the stuff around but he wont learn that way!!)
Rosemarie, keep enjoying that birthday!
Debbie

ravdeb

That's great Debbie! I read your post and I'm like..what is she talking about!!! Glad to hear he was successful!

G'nite Ladies.

maryannecb

HAPPY BIRTHDAY , Rosemarie. Hope you had lots of great food and your kids and DH were in their best form with you. Your hair is quite a bit longer than mine, you look great in your Rocktober T.

Tadah, hope you get some rest and recover well. We are still waiting for the completed reconstructed upgraded pics.LOL.

Kelly, slow...Did you Google him? Do you know anyone that knows him? I am from a small place so easy to get background check done. He sounds very sweet so far.

Laura, where are you? 3 days no hear...and Sherry? and scottish lass? and chumfry?

Debbie, wow no disasters this week. Must be a record.

Victoria, you were so lucky to hang on to most of your hair. Being bald was well, terrible.

Ravdeb you seem to have gotten over your slump. So happt to hear your angio showed no interval change. That is the last thing you need, more trouble. My daughter is 17 and a challenge at times too. But..this time next year she will be in University 2 hours away. It helped to have our trip together last month. We talked a lot and she is starting to understand that when I worry about things there is a reason.

Tracyseattle, good to see Dazzling Dave is still in the pic and things are going well. How are your Riverfest plans going? Did the board settle down?

Michelle, stunning picture, what is the backdrop? You have traveled a lot this past year.

Linny sounds like you are enjoying being a grandmother. Hope you figure out posting. Some days I can post a pic and some days I can't, must write it down so I can remember.LOL.

Speaking of pics, nice wedding photo Amy , you two are so photogenic! And Ravdeb, cool bald pic. My daughter went with me to the hairdresser when I was buzzed.He did it in a back room of the shop. My wig was ready so I left there with hair and did not see my bald head til I went home. I felt it was a good way to have it done. No one cried, in any case.

Hi Graycie, how is your week going? And Brenda, is school going well?Hi Paula and anyone else...

Fists up!

maryannecb

Here are my 3 pics for Kelly.

Graycie

Rosemarie, I hope you are having a GREAT Birthday!

Ravdeb, You are the winner....I was looking at how many posts every one has posted and you have the most....I knew you were good at keeping up, but I didn't realize you were that good.....lol........I love your bald picture. You actually look good bald. Michelle you look good too. Maryanne, I just saw your picture. You look good too....
Isn't it funny how hair can really change the way you look?

Amy, You make a beautiful bride........That would be funny posting our wedding pictures especially since I was only 18. I don't have a scanner though. I can't believe I have been married for 38 years and to the same man........lol.

Cathy, Don't you get tired traveling all the time? I have been running around for the past couple day's and I am exhausted. Were you able to meet with Tadah?

Mary, How are you doing with your cleaning?

Tadah, Good luck on your liposuction. I hope you have some before pictures so you can compare them to the after........

Laura, Debbie, Victoria, Kelly, Cindy, Sherry, Brenda, Linda, Paula, Jill and anyone else I missed..............Hi.........

Gail

Anonymous

Happy Birthday Sweet Rosemarie!

Rock on sister!

Laura

Anonymous

EVERYONE -
I have been very busy trying to finish my anniversary gift to you! It has been sooooooooooooo hard. My computer keeps crashing while I try to produce it, and I have been stock-piling all the photos you've submitted since the beginning of our thread. I am really trying to get this done. I wanted to have it done in October, but I failed. I hope you like it, I will get it to you all soon! My dh just downloaded new drivers for it, so I hope this helps me. Love you all - miss you - want to see you -
Laura

Anonymous

Mary-Anne, thanks for the photos, that's actually the easiest for me to save them to my picture program. And, btw, yes I did Google him. And I searched his zip code.

Rosemarie, hope your birthday was exciting.

TracyNY, I will be thinking of you tomorrow. Any time one goes under the knife, it can be dangerous. Best of luck and send pics of your living room!

Love to everyone!

ravdeb

Graycie..you crack me up!! I laughed through your whole post. Yes, I know. It's sad. I probably should win a medal for the amount of posts I write on these boards. I'm an addict. Any advice??

I look good bald? Well, then you probably look good with your new short hair do. Hope you aren't hiding it under the wig!

That pic was taken after I had my wig. In fact, we had just come home from an exhausting day with my friend here and a friend who came from the States. We had gone hat shopping and then out for lunch and we stopped in this store that sells only American things..all kinds of stuff we can't get in the regular stores like cheap paper plates, and LINT ROLLERS! So, when we got home and my daughter got home from work, she wanted to start lint rolling my head!

Maryanne..I also had my hair shaved off in a private room at the wig salon. My husband was there but in another room. He then put my wig on, which was ready for me, walked me out, my husband thought it was my own hair, and then he proceeded to style it to my face. He then put another wig on top of that wig, slipped my wig off leaving me with a blonde wig!!!! He went and washed and styled my wig and kept coming back and doing the same trick so I could see myself in a variety of styles and lengths and colors! My dh and I never laughed so hard!

Then he came back and put my wig on. He then took me back to the private room, took my wig off so that I could see myself privately and then put it back on. I went out for lunch with my dh, feeling beautiful, and went to a board meeting at night feeling just as beautiful (even though some of the board members knew what I had gone through during the day). I had only a few tears when I took the wig off to show my dh (who was dying to see!). But it was NOT a bad experience..I remember it as being kind of fun and I always think about it. It was good to get rid of my hair as I was ready to stop dying it and this was the best way to do that!!!!!

ravdeb

Just thought I'd add that after reading today's news on line I should probably just go back to sleep.

The main labor union here that controls most of what goes on in this country is on strike. This is not a new thing. They strike a lot. But now everything has stopped..no mail (this is the worst part for me!), no flights out (our friend was supposed to leave today to meet up with her husband in Australia), no garbage pick up, soon no gas in the stations if this continues...what a mess.

And to top all that...a serial rapist got loose. He was in jail and was being moved and he climbed a fence. He's been loose for 2 days now and guess what..suspected of being in our area. I mean..not in our town, but in our general area of the near north. Makes ya kinda wonder and wanna look over your shoulder a lot. Am wondering how safe it is to walk the beach...but I'll go anyway. I feel like I'm in a movie!

RoseMarie

My birthday was great - quiet and sweet and I'm thankful to be alive! I can't believe I'm 39!!!
Oh Ravdeb - safe thoughts and prayers your way!!
I also had my head shaved in a back room of a salon- it was very traumatic and I refused to look in a mirror while she was doing it. Once my wig was on my head and was cut and styled I truly felt "normal." I called my parents and asked if they wanted to see it -- when I got to their house they asked me where the wig was!!
I don't have a true "bald" pic as I just had such a hard time with showing my bald head!! I felt so unsexy, and ugly no matter what my dh said!! Phew, moving on!!
TaDah - hoping all is well and recovery is quick!!
Debbie - so great what Mark is doing! I'm sure he is very proud of himself!!
I better go - John Michael is still asleep!! AGH!!!!

debbie444

Maryanne - quite a quiet week ( i dont count writing on the library white board in permanent marker or one of the kids pulling the projection screen down on my head)
EXCITED !! Roger has bought me my birthday present early - he has had to give it to me as he cant hide it. Its a 1978 VW camper. Needs alot of work but he is going to respray it and get it running for me. Wanted once since i was a kid. I am thinking a deep metallic aqua with bubbles on but open to the artistic ones out there.
Debbie

Graycie

I am off to work in a minute. Just checking in..(I have to catch up to Ravdeb, HA)..
No Mail? How terrible....no birthday cards! I was worried it was going to be late. Now it is going to be really late. I hope they settle the strike soon.
Ravdeb please don't go alone to the beach. We have a serial rapist loose here too. They call him the bike path rapist. Actually he has also killed a couple of his victims. He looks for women who are alone walking or jogging.

Rosemarie, I am glad to hear you enjoyed your birthday. I, like you, never took any bald pictures. Didn't care for that look.....

Laura, I knew you were busy...

Well, I better run, I hope everyone has a good day!

Gail

ravdeb

Okay..so I went to the beach alone and even did the walk twice! I mean..I usually do it twice but yesterday I only did it once. I found some really neat seashells too. And I'm safe!!! WHEW! I actually didn't walk quite as far down as I have been walking as it was very empty there. STayed in yelling range of the regular fishermen who already recognize me. I allow them to fish on my beach!!!!

A funny thing about being bald. I mean..I was so scared..really scared. I remember Amy calming me down. But, this is the first time since that picture was taken that I actually looked at it. In fact, I thought I only had a video of it so that's how much I avoided looking at this. And the fact is..it's not that bad. Being bald shows your face more. We tend to hide our faces with lots of hair. I always had a lot of hair around my face ('cept once when I was younger and cut it quite short). Both of you..RoseMarie and Gail, are so beautiful..I'm sure you look beautiful without hair, too. The guy who shaved my head told me that although I had a nice shaped head, I didn't look good bald! I've decided not to listen to anyone anymore!

So, Gail (I'm practicing using your real name.. I know that I'll meet you and call you Graycie anyway because that is who you are to me!), you have a rapist loose too??? This guy we have raped 35 women. The prison people who were transferring him apparently didn't chain his legs though they suspect his hands were chained. They did a test and had some of the guards see if they could climb the fence with their hands chained and well..they COULD! Makes ya feel really safe, huh??

Debbie..OMG! a projection screen on your head??? And you are still with us to tell the story??? Thanks goodness for that! I've had students of mine by mistake write on my white board with permanent marker. Funny thing about that is that it WILL come off in time!

What a stupendous birthday gift you got from Roger! wow..he got that because he knew you wanted one so badly. That is soooooooooooooooooooooo nice!

I'm still waiting for my puppy.... yes..I want a cute puppy. I've given up on that. At one of the strip malls here people often give away their puppies in front of one of the stores. I go nuts when they have little puppies and there have been many times when I wanted to just grab one and take it home. But, I know that my dh would NOT be pleased!

Oh Gail..I don't think you'll catch up with the number of posts I post but you have this weekend to catch up because at 5 am Israeli time Thurs (tomorrow), I will not be on the computer again until some time on Sunday evening...Israeli time. We are 7 hours ahead of NY.

So............... I will be having withdrawal symptoms which I will take care of with my wine addiction!!!

marymelodi

Maryanne commented about no disasters from Debbie this week. That's because they are all happening to me. I didn't want to spoil Rosemarie's birthday party yesterday so I didn't say anything until now.

My husband lost his job on Monday. He was accused - unjustly - of wrongdoing and has been put on "indefinite suspension." I believe that he did not do what they said, but there is no way to prove his innocence. He is majorly depressed. He had only been able to find part-time jobs for the last 3 years and then in July got this full-time job. It turned out not to be as good a deal as it seemed but he was trying to make it work out so we could have the full-time income. Now he is back looking again.

Right after he got this news, he had to go to a doctor appointment which I have been trying to get him to go to for a couple of months. He has had swelling in his lower legs, ankles, and feet. At the exam his blood pressure was extremely high. They did an immediate EKG and did not find anything remarkable - Whew! But, he was sent for a bunch of blood tests and has to have a cardiac stress test. Then he has to see the doctor again next week. So we don't know what might be wrong . . . heart, kidneys, or something?? Of course the job stress can do nothing to help.

Then yesterday, our other cat, the girl, got out and ran away. This cat has bonded to my husband and he calls her "my little girl." She sleeps next to him at night and he spoils her terribly. There were workers in our basement yesterday, which we did not know about, and they left the door open. She got out through the open door. He is heartsick on top of everything else. Since our little boy cat came home a couple of months ago (remember?) we are hoping she will come home eventually, also.

So, for now, we are the disaster family of the group. If we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all.

Mary

marymelodi

Talked to my husband a few minutes ago. A bowl of food that he left on the porch has had some eaten from it. Perhaps it is our wandering girl raiding the larder. We can only hope. Tonight is supposed to get cold. I know she is wearing a fur coat, but she is a skinny minx and I hope she won't get too cold.

Ravedeb - she is pur white like the cat in one of your pictures.

Maybe these pets are a bad idea . . . worry, worry, worry.

Mary

maryannecb

Kelly you are a girl after my own heart. I had my DH police checked as he wasn't from around here. He laughs about it now!

Debbie I am pretty sure you can rig sails on those VW campers and maybe then you could make it here next year. Markers...who invented them anyway. Hope what you wrote on the board was memorable-like a prayer or something. I missed what your son is doing, is he raising money?

Mary,yup you can take the disaster baton this week. What can I say? Be as supportive as you can but try to get him motivated to start looking. I am sure your cat knows how good he had it and will wander back home. Perhaps leave some food on the step. The noise of the workmen likely scared him, he'll be back. If he doesn't turn up you'll have to hire inspector Debbie to track him down.LOL.

Tracy my CD arrived today but I forgot it at work... will listen tomorrow. Beautiful wrapping and card. Thanks so much. Can't wait to listen to it.

Ravdeb...be careful. You too Gail.You should get a puppy, Ravdeb, someone to walk with you.

Thinking of you Tadah.


Laura i just knew you were up to something, don't stay away too long.

Fists up!

ake

mary...sorry you're having such a hard week so far. your cat will come back...maybe just exploring and then will be back.

watch out for those serial rapists! i took a self-defense class when I was 20...it made me feel so empowered. I would come home so charged that I would try my moves out on my husband (then boyfriend)...he wasn't pleased with me taking the class after a while!

so, i need to vent...that post on the "moving beyond" thread...it's titled "advice and needing to vent" or something like that. ravdeb...you replied to it. it's the woman who is mad because her younger cousin was saying inappropriate things about her mom having cancer? i'm just floored. this kid is 9 and other people are posting calling her a spoiled brat, rude, a little shit, and that she should be beat. she's 9! i don't even understand cancer and i'm 30, so why would a 9-year-old be able to deal appropriately with this. just a vent. that post is really bothering me. it's the child advocate in me coming out and yelling.

well, i'm ready for a nice relaxing night of my 2 favorite shows...america's next top model (i'm a freakin' femminist...that show goes against everything i believe in, but i love it!) and top chef. my husband plays tennis on wed. nights, so it's a night alone for me...right in the middle of the week...perfection

rosemarie...did you have a nice birthday? how did you celebrate?

maryannecb

I read that post too. Most of the relies made me as upset as the things the little girl had said. It is clear that few social boundaries have been set for the child. Usually children repeat pretty much what they hear at home. Who knows what kind of jokes or remarks the MOm makes about the sick and elderly.

It would take years of counseling both Mother and child to get through to them. Lets not talk about the replies which suggested hitting her. I can only hope they are kidding a little.

I usually don't get involved in such discussions as the people who are most vocal belittle any kind of moderate sensible approach. Can't change the world Amy.

Fists up!

linny

Ladies, your posts are coming fast and furious - if I miss a day, it feels hopeless to catch up.

Mary, so sorry about your husband losing his job, hope something else comes up soon. Amy, stunning wedding picture, your dress is spectacular. Rosemarie, happy birthday, and many more in good health and happiness. You look about 25 years old in the picture, so lovely.

Michele, your travel pictures are stunning, and your hubby is not bad either!!

I sent my daughter in law a birthday card today, she will be 24 on the 4th of December. She is such a lovely girl, and a good dil.

Ravdeb, the hope for Isaac is that after the implant and several years of intensive therapy, he will function at a normal level. He will be mainstreamed, the thinking is that he should be with regular kids so he has proper language models. He is so cute, I feel so bad that he cannot hear the voices of his wonderful parents and siblings.

I was talking to a close friend tonight, who asked me how I am, I said fine, a little nervous about my appointment at the hospital for follow up next week. Then she started a whole speech about how life is uncertain, everyone has different trials and difficulties to go through in their life. Then she gives me an example of someone who is having financial difficulties. I was so annoyed I got off the phone. I simply can no longer talk to my close friends about my cancer, they say such stupid things. I know they dont mean it. Thank goodness I have supportive family, and everyone on these boards.

I made a great stir fry tonight - shallots, mushrooms, pepper, and broccoli with toasted sesame oil. Yum. I have to make more foods like this, and stop the snacking.

Since I have gained weight, my normal breast is bigger, so now I dont wear anything tight on top, since one breast is so obviously smaller (and higher after radiation!!) - I dont want to wear a special bra, with a form in it. I am very comfortable in these cotton bras that I have found (Warners - I can post the style number if anyone wants it).


Linda

linny

Amy I forgot to say I saw that post about the little girl also and was shocked at people's responses - holy cow, she is just a little kid. Yes, her mother should tell her its not appropriate, but the reactions on the posts were over the top.

Linda

ake

I changed my avatar picture...had to show you ladies this picture...my friend took it of me and my hubby at a wedding we went to last week:)

[image][/image]

Curlylocks

Amy,

What a wonderful picture!! You look so happy and in love. Your hair has also grown quite a bit too.

Michele Wenz

Paula15089

Tracy,
have you sent the CD to me already, or are you going to? Do you have my address? I can't wait!! Pity I am so far from you guys...

Banos

Hi everybody,

Im new to this. I just had my surgery two weeks ago. I have ER/PR positive and HER-2 negative. Doctors say that I should start Chemo very soon..im really affraid from the side effect of the chemo. would please just tell me the right timming to do Chemo therapy..

Thank you all..
God bless

linny

Hi, sorry you had to join us, but a big welcome and hello. The timing of chemo is up to your doctors, it is generally done within a few weeks of surgery. As far as side effects, every patient reacts differently. I found it difficult, but you will get advice from the medical staff about how to deal with side effects and what to expect. Always keep in mind, it will finish quicker than you think, and you will start to feel well again as soon as it is over. Its a necessary journey to return to health.

Linda