2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS
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Cathy - lol that was funny!!
Hmmm.. a big question why some get cancer and some dont.. i do believe its genetics + environment equation. Mainly genes. Or, as my surgeon said - 'you just happened to be damn unlucky'. -
V..what beautiful photos. My e-mail was weird yesterday so maybe that's why it got returned to you. I think I'll be changing my e-mail address as that happens too much.
Gail..I don't know anymore if we all need to wear sleeves for flights. This surgeon does not think I need a sleeve and would not write a letter recommending an LE therapist. He did write a letter for the pharmacy saying that I want a sleeve for prevention but wouldn't say that he agreed with it.
He said that if I already had swelling there would be no question. But he had never heard of prevention for an snb with one node removed. He did say that radiation can cause lymphedema and I'm not sure my underarm was radiated although I do remember it being red and it peeled at the incision site. I would think that would mean that it got radiated whether it was aimed there or not, right? I am calling an LE therapist to ask her. Tried yesterday but she wasn't available. Will try again. The thing is..my arm aches. It could be from the herniated disc in my neck as I had this ache in my right arm but it went away. Now it's in my left arm. I didn't tell this to the surgeon as I was on a roll with just seeing what he would say to me and I forgot to say this! But, I will tell the LE therapist and see what she thinks.
I actually hope she tells me not to wear a sleeve as I have no energy for this stuff. I asked the surgeon what he would say if I returned to him in 2 years with lymphedema. That is what prompted him to write the letter for the sleeve so I could get it subsidised.
I'm off..working on a birthday book for my mom(altering a children's board book into a birthday book and each one of us is doing a page though I did my dh's already for him!). Finally decided how to do my page and will now prepare the paper that I'll attach to it...
Much to do. I leave in about 2 weeks and I aint ready! -
So much to catch up on!!
Rosemarie - I am with you on this issue. Your post hit it on the head.
Brenda - any news on the sleep? I hate being unable to sleep - until a short while ago , I was alwaysthe last to fall asleep wherever i was. Its not fun. Get Sean to legoland!! The girls were 12 and 13 - some of it was too young but there were plenty of other things - some of the rides were too scary for me to go on!! I think this will be the last time for the kids tho as thats 2 years on the trot now and i think they are getting to the upper limit of it. Catherine says we can take our grandkids there for the weekend!!
penguins - how cute are they?????? It has made me want to watch the 'March of the Penguins ' all over again.
Amy - i hope that puppy is behaving for you! It sounds like neither of you are fit enough to run after it.
Cindy - going greatgirl! I bet you are a fantastic help to the May group you spoke about.
V - are those pics yours or another artist? I can see birds of prey, i think , which somehow i didnt put with you! Are they under market stalls?
Deb - it wasinteresting to hear you talk about medical things in a language other than English. You have prob told us but which language do you speak normally? Is it just the medical jargon which slows you down?? I must say i admire you - its enough to understand what my drs are saying as it is! The book sounds good - can you ezplain it a bit more?
Cindy - the house. Any signs of a bite yet?
Mark had a great birthday , we shot off not long after he had opened his presents so when we got back he was right in there - there seemed to be a very strong DR Who theme -K9 , and Daleks everywhere!
Laura - you put me to shame with this gardening! Are the paths so we dont lose a small child in Aug???? Is any of it cobverted to 'garden' or is it all forest with clearings etc??
OK - legoland. It rained once - at around 9.00 at night so we decamped to our friends tent which was bigger than ours and watched a DVD (they go about camping slightly differebt to us!) with a bottle of wine. The site was an old orchard , thekids enjoyed playing out side amongst the trees. We went on a river cruise down the thames from Windsor , seeing Eton college etc, the other night went for a walk along the towpath , seeing the celebrities houses - which was an eye opener!!
It was good going with other kids as a lot of the time they went on the rides together ,meaning we got a break. I didnt have to be a fireman this year! Theonly donside was , that without realising ,me , Julia , Hannah and Catherine all wore pink without realising - when we stood in a group we looked like the pink ladies from Grease and were on a themed outing! I fetched my shirt out of my bag to break it up a bit.
It wasnt as grey as it look s - My friends actually got burnt in the sun - not sure whats happened with th epics.
OK - cant get the pics on - will do it later -
I am still on-line...waiting for something to dry and then I can glue.
Debbie.. I speak English at home. My kids speak English to me but my dh speaks Hebrew to them and they speak Hebrew to him..well..usually. It sometimes gets mixed up but I always speak English at home. My inlaws live very close to us and we are in close touch and I only speak Hebrew to them. I have mostly English speaking friends right now, I suddenly realized. But I do have Hebrew speaking friends as well, so I mix it a lot. However, I must speak Hebrew to my doctors. My resident onc is S. AFrican so I'm lucky that I can and do speak only English with her but all my other doctors I speak Hebrew to. So, when I went in to see this surgeon yesterday, I had it all prepared how I was going to say it. And then, they always say things that I sometimes have problems with. i understand everything but it is sometimes hard to explain what I want to say and I do look up words in the dictionary before I go! Some days I fumble a lot over the words and other days I'm amazed at how fluent I really am!
My birthday book...I decided to do an altered book for my mom for her birthday. I'm new in the AB art. Haven't yet done a book though I have one started.
The birthday book...I found a children's book for about 20 shekels which is about $5 in the grocery store. There are 5 page spreads and we are 5 in our family. This book happens to have plastic frames around the hard cardboard. I was tricked cuz I thought the whole page was plastic with paper glued on it so I removed the paper and found I had just the frame. I didn't remove all the cardboard though so it will be okay. That I did just on the cover.
Haven't done the cover. But each of us is doing a page. For my dh's page since he has no time, I sanded down the shiny pages and painted over it for a background. Then I glued down a pic of a bike (he's a mountain biker), painted a tree (he's a farmer) and will glue down a photo of a pomegranate (he grows them) and then write something on there that it's from him.
I did the same thing on my page...sanded down and painted over the pages. I'm making mine look like a big gift box. I made "wrapping paper" by painting on tracing paper with water colors and some oil crayons and will glue that down (like decoupage I glue the stuff down..layers of mod podge) and will put a ribbon on it and little tags attached. Well..that's what I think..I'm in the process. Then the kids will each do a page. And that's it.
I will need to do the cover. Have an idea but will need to try it out...
V...are your paintings typically Hispanic for this market?
By the way..I'm a lover of penquins too...but they look very male so I can't identify with them for some reason.. -
There werent 3 of us in pink - there were 4! I heard one woman tell her child in the queue to ' youll find me easily on the way back from the toilet - I am stood behind all these pink women!"
Anyway - just to show you all i havent lost my nack of trouble , here i am getting eaten by a lion.
And practising to fly a plane in case the Wards have an affect on our flight to the US.
Mark has true Ward trouble genes too
Whilst Catherine seeks out the rich and famous
Windsor castle from the river Thames
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Debbie..beautiful pictures! I think I'd like Legoland. I love seeing how people have built amazing things out of legos. It's an art. I love that.
Thames looks beautiful. years back I remember sitting at a pub overlooking the Thames, ale in hand.
V...another person was wondering why I hadn't answered an e-mail but I had..she just never got it. Something has been up with my e-mail server (or down, as the case may be). I'm not too far along on my AB either, but I will say that when my daughter was a baby I started a beautiful embroidery picture of teddy bears in ballet costumes and I STILL have not finished it! She's now 23. Before her Bat Mitzvah at age 12 I said I'd finish it and never did. Maybe for the grandkids?
I have an appt this week with an LE therapist who will fit me for a sleeve/glove. Such a ruckus to get one. I still need a letter from the insurance..from a doctor saying he recommends this. But..it's not THAT expensive and totally worth it if I can prevent it. I feel like not working so hard to get the insurance to cover it. I'm so tired and it's so much running around. As it is I have to spend my Thurs afternoon getting fitted and if she doesn't have a sleeve to fit me, the other therapist will teach me how to wrap. I'm not happy with the wrapping thing cuz it's so much work! -
Wow, Debbie - sounds like a wonderful time!!!! The pictures are great!
Kelly - I loved the pictures of Teryn on the beach, btw!
Deb - the book idea is beautiful - what is an AB?
Hopefully you will never have to worry about LE! I think the preventative sleeve is a good idea. Wrapping is SUCH A DRAG!!! And because you look like a burn victim, everyone stops to ask what happened...ugh
My LE therapist said the fluid build up in my arm is very "dense" - it's being pretty stubborn but my arm has been wrapped from finger tips to shoulder every day since July 10th. I should have a new sleeve and glove this week and will only have to wrap at night...for the next 6 months! It is soooo frustrating, hot and itchy BUT my arm looks normal from the middle of my forearm to my finger tips! In 6 months time everything should be back to normal.
Laura - Don't work too hard!! We have NO trees (ok, well, 5 very small, skinny trees) as our development used to be a corn field and I miss VEGETATION!!
Mike and I went to the tennis finals yesterday - it was fun. No Roddick though, bummer. I think I'm turning into a tennis fan lots of cutie-patooties!!
Ok, I feel like I'm just going on and on...too much coffee! Have a great day ladies!!!!!! -
http://atfishers.com/viewpost.php?post_id=9351
This is a local article about the new "Survive Oars" dragon boat team. -
Deb - you would have loved Miniland - Londons landmarks and other countries built from lego. When my computer isnt pretending that it is powered by clockwork i will post some pics of that
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Rosemarie - are you going to join?
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I was checking the news to see if any disasters had struck at Legoland. ALL the Wards there at once?! Just a magnet for mayhem. Sounds like you all had a great time.
Isn't LE a pain Rosemarie? You get used to it though. I abandoned all of that stuff though, I have slight swelling in my forearm and as you recognize the things that trigger it you just work to suit. Alcohol and salt make my arm swell so I just wear my night sleeve if I overdo it. I could continue massaging and all that but I don't want it to take over my life. My therapist says once you get to a place that you're comfortable, you can minimize all the time that you spend on it. -
RoseMarie..I'm glad to hear that part of your arm is back to normal. And also, you, Tracy NY. It's a horrible side effect of the surgeries and treatments we've been through. In my search to see what research says about those in my situation with snb and lumpectomy, I read that chemo can even cause lymphedema. I didn't know THAT! I don't want to wrap..I don't think I'll do it right and would be afraid of causing LE instead of preventing it. So, I hope that on Thurs they will have a sleeve for me. Preventative sleeves don't always need to be custom made (so the therapist told me) so I can buy it off the shelf. I have very skinny arms..or fairly skinny arms so I hope this won't be a problem.
Yes, Debbie..post the pics!
I've been in the house all day long with phone calls and gluing my book.
RoseMarie..AB is Altered Book. There is a whole "society" of altered artwork artists. You can alter just about anything. There are some amazing things artists have created out of books. One woman made a star out of a book. I'm not that creative or talented! I'm painting on the pages. It's a strange idea, I know, since I have a lot of respect for books. Most of the artists buy cheap second hand books. Others don't. There are no rules. That's the fun part. NO RULES!
Are you going to join the dragon boat club?
Back to gluing... -
ravdeb -
Everytime you mentioned AB...I thought you are writing an auto-biography!
RoseMarie -
OMG - I had goosebumps watching that video. What an incredible sport. Are you going to join? You've inspired me (and so has maryanne)...I want to see if there's a team here in Chicago. The Y I work out at has a rowing machine...yours may too. It would be a great way to train. And to answer your question about getting us on TV...yes, that's my mission. Take care of that arm...are you doing any daily massaging? That's what really kept mine under control.
Debbie -
You are such a good sport! I love the photos...glad you had a good time. Your kids are very fortunate. Our forest doesn't have garden areas, because there's too many animals that would devour it. But I have beautiful gardens in the front of my house. The paths in the forest are actually ones that intersect at several spots...they were originally created by the deer, but they have become clogged with weeds, etc. We are merely clearing them to keep them passable and sacred. And we're widening them a bit too, so we can ride a Gator through them (hopefully I will be able to buy one soon). It's a ton of work, but I love a challenge. We had the chainsaws going (both of us at the same time) for almost 9 hours yesterday and 7 hours on Saturday. You'll see what we're up against when you visit.
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Debbie -
I was searching the net for Dragon Boat BC teams and saw that there's a UK team! Maybe we could both join and meet half way! LOL Here's the linkie:
http://www.breastcancercampaign.org/how/event/0062/ -
Do you really think its a good idea for me to set off in a small boat??? Roger went a scared shade of white when i got on the river cruiser!!
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Debbie -
The only way you could do it would be if you wore a VERY thick and buoyant life vest and an increased life ins. policy. LOL But really, I don't think they tip over very often...except of course if there's a Ward on board! LOL -
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Debbie -
You must have felt REALLY, REALLY, REALLY tall there! LOL That place is awesome...I have always loved miniatures, it's incredible..I especially love the photo that's 7 down from the top. Wow! I want to live there! I'm so short, I probably could! LOL -
Oh Debbie..those are just amazing. Yes, you are right. I would love to really see this. One day I'll get to Legoland. That is just so nice!
RoseMarie... I finally had time to see your ilnk for the dragon boats. I think it sounds like fun and great exercise. I wanna bring one here! -
ravdeb -
When you're in the states, why don't you buy one and row it back home! LOL -
Sending out the search light for
MARY-ANNE
and
MARY...
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Yes , where are the 'M's??????
Just checking in before i go and make the most of the good weather by getting some washing out and then try and book an airport hotel for the journey out. Traffic is horrendous at the moment to get down south - the lad who works for us also does airport taxi runs - yesterday he was actually parked up on the motorway , sat on the central barrier for 2 hours. Dont want to miss my plane!!
The kids are still in bed , recovering from the camping trip so i dont have a loud background music of Avril lavigne on loop.
I forgot Laura - wellies ARE boots - wellingtons actually.
Oh , and we squeezed in a safari too!
Deb - you would love it!!!!!! There is other stuff too , i seemed to spend most of my time walking like a cowboy with wet jeans from the water rides but it was fun! -
Wow, that is AMAZING, Debbie!!!!
Dragon boat racing does sound like fun - I'm going to go to the meeting to get more info and see if it's something I can commit to.
LE really is a drag. I do daily lymph drainage and have some exercises I'm supposed to do. If my darn elbow would just go back to normal I'd really be happy. So glad yours is manageable, TracyNy!!
Deb - the Altered Book idea sounds neat - I'll have to google it when I'm done here...
Justin turns 5 on Sunday!!! sniff - I CAN'T believe it!! He just misses the kindergarten cut off though...
Brenda, your "baby" will be having a birthday on Sunday too, right?? I think you and I share a wedding anniversary and a kid's birthday!
Ok ladies, have a wonderful day!!!! -
Debbie -
You are very animated and such a good sport! Love the photos...you look really thin! Are the animals made from Legos too?I think you said you will be arriving on Friday...what day will you be leaving? I think you said Monday or Tuesday...?
RoseMarie -
You would probably be racing on Lake Michigan? If so, we're definately close enough to meet half way! LE or no LE - we could do it! -
Hey...there's a third "M" missing...Meeshell!
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So, where ARE the m&m's????
Laura..I would row home but then I WOULD have LE!
Debbie..those are magnificent..the lego animals. It is really amazing. Is that really you, or did they build you out of legos, too? You look like you are ready to take off without your helmet!
RoseMarie..let us know how the dragon boat meeting goes. I really do think I'd join if there were a group of bc women doing this. I am so impressed with MaryAnn's group.
How do you do lymph draining? Have you seen the thread called "you know you have lymphedema when...". The women were finding the humor in it. Are you familiar with Binney? She told me, as did Victoria, that my achy arm could definitely be a symptom of LE. Thurs I get my sleeve, hopefully. No insurance, though...or not yet. all the doctors are away. I have no patience for this. Dh said we will just pay for it. I will need it when I do dragon boat racing!
Let's all wish Victoria good luck today. She is giving a lecture on the sisterhood of bc. We have so many women on this thread alone who have spoken up for bc survivors on TV, on radio and so on. We can be awfully proud of ourselves. We are one heck of a group!
Have more painting to do as I continue on my book.
Have a good day, everybody. -
Laura, if you and Brenda venture out to Legoland, lemme know, she'd love to go with a group!
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Did you hear that Robin Robert has bc? She was an Olympic athlete and now tv news anchor with bc. I am sure bc will get so much more coverage now that she has it .......
Thinking Laura should send our video to abc, maybe more will see that normal young women get bc out of the blue. -
I am really sad about her dx. She is very genuine and such a caring woman. Joel Seigel saved her life! His death was not in vain. Quite a few newscasters have been dx'd with cancer. In Chicago - in the past 5-6 years there has been numerous dx's and six cancer deaths.
I worked on my e-mail to ABC News for quite a while today...yes - it's prime time and I will be sending it tomorrow. And yes, I will forward the video too! Great suggestion!
Roy and I will be in San Fran the 2nd or 3rd weekend of Sept. - We just may try to head down the coast - Roy grew up in Petaluma, Ca but hasn't been to the southern end. Hmmmmmmmmmmm...we will definately let you know of our plans. -
Hi Ladies!
Aquafest weekend was a huge success! The Community is raving aobut it, the weather was great and we all had loads of fun! I am pretty tired, but it was worth it.
There are still political issues going on around the elections of officers, etc. I have decided that I am definitely moving on to other things. Depending upon who gets elected as President, I may stay on as an Advisor. We will see.
My next endevor is to be the Co-Chair for the Relay for Life in our area for 2008. That means in 2009, I will be the Chair for the event. I think this will be a much less political event to have fun with. Not sure why Aquafest has to be the way it is, it seems kinda crazy to me. IT IS A FESTIVAL!! It is supposed to be FUN!
I am getting excited about our get together! It is in 23 days!!! Can you believe it? I need to get busy and finish figuring out what I am going to bring!
Well, gotta run, I am still playing catch up.
Love you all!
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