2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS

ravdeb

Well, I had my blood test today (and they were fine with my veins..only a slight difficulty but nothing dramatic) and most of the results are in on-line and my cholesterol went down A LOT!!! Of course, I'm on meds for it now..but it worked! Guess I'll be on meds forever....

Anonymous

ravdeb -
I bought a new Font/Typeface package and one of the fonts is called Hebrew. I typed this in, using the Hebrew font...can you translate it?

cathy987

Great news Deb. If meds can lower it that much so be it!

I still have cholesterol in my denial bin. Haven't had it checked since just befor bcx and at that time it was to the point that my rnp wanted me to start meds. Guess I need to face the test again at least.

ravdeb

Cathy..have it checked out. It's life threatening. I had high cholesterol before bc but they ignored it each time. Just before my diagnosis when I had a blood test, my onc saw it and told me to ignore it then because of the chemo (and eat a lot of salad with olive oil) but after I was done with treatments she sent me for a blood test and my family doctor started me on statins 3 months ago because a diet didn't lower it at all. I am shocked at how much though..My LDL went from 160 to 90! that is amazing! And that's with forgetting to take the pill a few times.

Laura...you typed in two different letters in Hebrew, some vowels and what is called the "trope" or "ta'amim" in Hebrew which is the signs for the melody for chanting the Torah! The big print are the letters..those big lines..those are two of the same letter and the other one has a "L" sound. The signs on the top are "trope" and on on the bottom on the right and on the left..those little ones are two different vowels. We learn to read Hebrew with vowels but then learn to read without vowels so that all those little vowels are not usually in printed books or newspapers.

debbie444

Gosh - glad i dont need Hebrew - sounds very complicated!!

Beautiful weather here again , and my apple tree seems to have recovered from the drastic prune i gave it a couple of years ago and is actually coming into bud thank goodness.
Just picked Catherine up from athletics club and her teacher is quite excited about her hurdling skills. where thats come from with my athletic prowess i really dont know!! Catherine chose to try that as there wasnt much running involved ( thats my girl).
Cathy - get it checked. You really dont want to beat BC for cholesterol to get you!!
Ok - off to do all th eironing now - the downside to good drying weather!!

Graycie

Laura, AOL has Hebrew also but when I tried to put it on here they translated it to English....lol....

Ravdeb, Wow, that is really good on your cholesterol. I am supposed to have mine checked if I would just go and get the bloodwork done.

ravdeb

Get the cholesterol checked! It's life threatening, Ladies!

Debbie...do you always dry your clothes outside? I do it in good weather..but not all my clothes...just table cloths and sometimes sheets..have table cloths to wash and hang outside but they keep telling us RAIN, so I don't want to hang them outside yet..the rain is very dirty and dusty now. Lots of dust in the air. Yesterday in the evening it looked brown outside!

Hebrew isn't really hard to learn to read because once you know the letters it's all phonetic...unlike English. I was an English teacher for years and it's really hard to teach Hebrew speakers to read English..they get frustrated because there are more exceptions to the rules than rules! In Hebrew..there are no exceptions. What is there, is there. YOu just need to learn the rules of spelling. There are no exceptions once you have learned the rules!

Anonymous

Vowel, shmowel, how about this: LOL

RoseMarie

TracyS - I know you posted a while back about pain and LE. Did you ever get that resolved? I have had a lot of pain in my left wrist for about a week now. My arm is pretty swollen again after having it pretty much "in control." I see the doc on the 24th so I'll wait till then to talk to him about it...
Justin has his first soccer practice tonight. We spent the entire day out - took the van in for a new tire, had to wait for a tire to be delivered, spent $50.00 on nothing I really needed at WalMart while I waited...so now he's fast asleep - at least he'll be rested for soccer!

Ok...nothing exciting happening my way...hope everyone is having a nice day!

marymelodi

Hello to all:
I haven't been able to write much lately, I know. I have been super busy at work and when I get home there are many things to do and even if I have planned to go online, I often do not get to it.

I hope everyone is doing well. I am especially concerned about our members who are facing upcoming surgeries or procedures and pray that all will go well for you. I also send concerns for those who have family members with health issues.

I myself have been struggling with a bad headache for the last 2 days. I think I may have migraines. I will be seeing my primary care doctor in a couple weeks and I will go over all this with her then. Since the first episode in January, this is the third subsequent time I've had this intense, one-sided headache with accompanying nausea and sensitivity to motion. Each time I've had to take a day off work and I am at home today. The previous times, it's taken about 4 days from the first aching to feeling okay again. So far, ibuprofen has dulled it some, but the ache is still there. I need to do some research on headache, but I'm sure she will ask me to keep some kind of diary. In January, I had an MRI to check it out and nothing was discovered. I've never had something like this and frankly, it is discouraging to me to have a mysterious physical thing going on. If I were still menstruating I'd think maybe it had something to do with the menstrual / hormonal cycle.

Speaking of drying clothes on the line outside, I was watching Martha Stewart's show and she mentioned line drying to give clothes freshness, natural bleaching from sunlight, etc. Then she said many communities have ordinances prohibiting hanging clothing outside. She said in her upstate New York residence she is building a fenced area, where she can line dry, but where no one can see it. I presume that would have to be a 12 to 15 foot fence. I just shake my head over an ordinance like that and remember the hours and hours I spent in my youth hanging the wash out and taking it down, carrying it into the house, folding and ironing. My mom was chronically ill and that type of physical work fell to me as the oldest daughter. We had to have freshly ironed shirts for my dad and brothers every week and I had to have blouses and dresses to wear to school. Everything was made of wrinkly cotton. No polyester blends or knits. Yes, that's how old I am!!

OK - take care,
love to all,
Mary

Graycie

Laura, I know what it say's

Debbie
Rabbi Wannabe

You didn't know I knew Hebrew did you? lol

Graycie

Mary, I am so sorry to hear about your headaches. They certainly sound like migraines. I had them when I was going through menopause. My sister is experiencing them now. How long ago did you go through menopause. Do you think they could be related? Mine lasted a long time. Also I stopped drinking diet pop because of the nutrasweet and gave up the caffeine. That seemed to help.

Anonymous

Graycie -
OMG - how did you do that... LOL - I am shocked! Let me know!!!!!!!

Graycie

I'm just smart.......lol

Anonymous

LOL

Anonymous

Okay - if you're "just smart"...translate this Japanese phrase:

Graycie

That is funny Laura, I can do Japanese too...........lol

Graycie

OK, You got me......I seem to have forgotten my Japanese.....lol

Graycie

Wait...I think it is coming to me.....I know what it say's

Graycie you Rock......am I right?

Anonymous

OMG - Good,...very good...ROFLMBO!

Graycie

I Told you I was smart.......ROFLMAO WITH YOU.......

Anonymous

That was good! Thanks for the laughs...

----------------------------

I have to get dressed here...I have Bunco tonight with 11 of my gal pals. If one doesn't show up, we can't play Bunco becuase you have to have 12. And if someone doesn't show, we play left-center-right. Wish me luck, I would love to win the jack pot! But if not...maybe next time. It's a great group of girls and we have lots of fun together. We rotate hosting it, and the hostess each month has to provide all the spirits, food, entertainment, etc.

Hope you all have a great evening. I know many of you are facing new situations, dealing with family ill-health, etc. I hope things turn out fine for everyone.

Graycie

Laura, What's the story how come we are the only one's on here? I think they all deserted us....lol.....

Where is Everyone?

Have fun playing Bunco tonight.

Curlylocks

Its getting late and I’m tired with trying to finish up last minute touching up on white trim before our house is put on the market in a little over a week’s time…yikes…so much too do, so little time. We will get done whatever we can and the rest will be a “work in progress as my husband said”…

I am saddened by the shootings in Virgina. It is too bad that some one didn’t pick up on this young man’s problems sooner. Its hard to believe that one person can destroy so many families in a matter of a few hours.

The weather was quite pleasant today at 10C, this weekend it is going to be gorgeous at 20C, woo hoo on both Saturday and Sunday and sunny!!!

The work crew will arrive at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, so much for sleeping in.LOL. We will be estastic once our kitchen is put back together.

Rosemarie – that must be really hard on your MIL thinking about having to put your FIL in a facility where they can care for him probably without him hurting himself as he doesn’t know what is happening. My mother struggled with putting my aunt who lived with my parents for 35 years of their marriage (since we were babies) into a nursing home in the last two years of her life.

My aunt was born normal but was left unattended in a bathtub and banged her head and was left mentally retarded because of it. You would never know to look at her or talk to her for that matter, she just couldn’t read or write and could never live independently on her own. My mom and Dad were both in their 60’s when my mother made the decision to put her in the nursing home as taking care of my aunt was like having another child in the house as she had the mentality of a six year old. At first it was hard and my aunt cried everytime when we to visit and then after a few months she barely acknowledged us leaving, how cute was she? She passed away 1 ½ years after going into the nursing home of a heart attack at age 68. My mom was devasted and blamed herself for putting her in there but truthly it would have happened regardless of where she was. At my aunt’s funeral some of the staff members that came told us that the time in the nursing home was the happiness of her life as there were other people for her to talk to, play bingo, etc.

Cindy – I hope you get a surgery date soon, those pre-jitter nerves are awful!

Deb – we always leave the house when it comes to showings, don’t want to hear people cut up our lovely home. We may decide not to do the colourwashing, it is a lot of extra work that we don’t have the luxury of time right now. The basecolour that is on the wall is nice and we will see what the finished product looks like once the cupboards, backsplash are up.

Congrats on the cholestrol drop!

Victoria – all the best for your upcoming surgery on Friday, healing thoughts my sister.

Cathy – the support group here has about 25 women in it and I rather enjoy it as we have break out sessions where you share what you want about any topic, entirely confidential within confines of room. I find it easier to share and talk about my feelings on bc with others that “get it” and a lot of my friends will never know what we go through and it is too hard to explain anyway.

Amy – congratulations on your friend’s new baby girl. Sorry you lost the bet but Mexican food isn’t that bad, golf I could do without, not a big fan…probably as I am not clue which way to hold or swing the club.

Tracyseattle – I went to the local “Look Good Feel Better Programme” here in Canada and it was really well done. They gave each participant a box full of makeup, sunscreen, body and hand lotions, showed us how to draw eyebrows and generally made you feel good about yourself. Most of us were going through chemo at the time so it was a real boost. I got taped in one of the session doing the trying on different wigs and putting on makeup. Apparently they show this tape at one of the local cancer facilities to advertise the program.

You will make a wonderful speaker, can you talk about our sisterhood here and how we all support one another! Your experience with breast cancer.

Rosemarie – what a girl! I would not have a clue how to change at tire. I would be the one waiting at the side of the road for hours for help!

Debbie444 – your little man Mark learned young about the mechanics of a car, is that what he wants to be when he gets older? I don’t buy any clothes that need to be ironed except maybe for a my husband’s shirts for when he goes out fancy dressed up.

Mary – I hope you get answers to your unresolved headaches, isn’t it always sometime that we have to worry about.

Laura – I didn’t know you were so talented with all these different languages. Have fun at your card game.

Graycie – I’m here but headed off to bed to try and get some sleep…zzzzzzz

Much love to all my sisters
Michele

RoseMarie

Mary - I hope you're able to get some relief soon and some answers! I remember hanging the laundry out to dry as a kid too! The jeans would always come off the line really stiff but the laundry would smell great - I live in one of those neighborhoods with all the rules - no line drying around here...

Gail & Laura - too funny!
Debbie - I'm impressed with Mark's mechanical abilities too!! My 9 year old knows that there are 4 tires on the car...maybe!
Michele - good luck with everything!! Woohoo, almost there!

Have a great night ladies!

TracySeattle

Haven't really gotten any resolution about whether the pain in my arm is related to the LE - but it does go away after I visit the therapist, so I think it is related. The pain is kinda like what you feel when you are retaining water - an achy kinda thing....

Not a lot going on with me right now..... I'm thinking and praying for Cindy and Victoria.

Work is really busy and I am looking for a new job - I have had a few calls and will probably go on an interview but these jobs are also in Seattle - UGH! I am so tired of the commute!

Love to you all!

RobinTN

Tracy:so good to find you again.I am so glad things are going well for you.I think of you often and want to thank you for always being there for me when I needed someone.You will always be in my heart.

chumfry

Mary, those sound like migraines and I should know! Not only do I have them myself, I'm right in the middle of updating MayoClinic.com's overview story about migraines. So I'm hip deep in information. (Yes, this is my dream job, after 20 thankless years in newspapers.)

There are special meds you can get that kick migraine pain right in the butt. If you have more than two migraines a month, they can even put you on a daily dose of preventive meds. When I get migraines, I take an old-fashioned migraine drug, called Midrin. It contains a pain reliever and (I think) a muscle relaxer, which helps because my migraines often start as tension headaches.

I had these headaches for a long time before I realized they were migraines. I called them eyeball headaches because they always lodged behind my right eyeball and made it feel like it was going to explode.

Common triggers include red wine and preserved meats, like ham and lunchmeat. All you want to do is lie down where it's dark and quiet.

Here's the story we have on the site right now. We update stories every two years, so I'm in the process of freshening it. Hope to get it done before my surgery! Ack!

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migraine-headache/DS00120

Paula15089

Mary, definitely sounds like a migraine to me.
I get them too, although not as often now that i am off the pill. I take Naramig for it (not sure if its called the same in USA), which is a special migraine medication, its damn expensive but worth every dollar. Talk to your doctor, there are plenty of meds out there for us migraine sufferers!

Laura and Grayce, lol... Graycie, let me guess - Google translator?

Rose Marie, hmmmm, tyre change - impressive! The most i can do when it comes to a car, is check the oil level. BUT i drive manual (i think you guys call it a stick?), so does that make me a car expert?

Anonymous

Oh...sweet Paula - you are such a sweet heart...

I truly hope all the headaches go away soon...

No it's not google translater LOL - it's raw intelligence...LOL

---------------------------

Well girls...I did horrible at Bunco - One girl wasn't able to attend - so we played left-center-right. I lost $20 - which is not bad - but it was spread out over 3 hours, so it was quite fun. My bestest gal pal - Barb - won the jack pot twice and walked away - $120 richer! We don't have high stakes, but we love every minute of it. All of my gal pals live across the road from me in a huge sub division - consisting of 13 houses - each on a two acre estate. It's ironic that all of us are in our "40's" and all have much in common, although there's only a few that don't have children. During chemo, they brought us gift baskets filled with fruit and cheese and called us often to ask if they could assist in any way. I love them for this, and always will. And since then, we have all become very close. This past summer, we had a huge party...here's a pic of some of us girls (the girl on the far right...her mom is a 25 year bc survivor and she and I have become very close but the girl next to her immediately right: her mom recently died of bc...): so sad...but she is doing the 69 mile bc walk in her honor.