2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS

Anonymous

MaryAnne, I was supposed to have one this past week and an appointment, but I have had to work more than usual, had court dates with the ex, etc. I have some vacation starting on July 9th and I need a mammogram this month.

Sooooo, I have rescheduled my onc visit for the 17th, I think and will have to get the MUGA done before that. I also am supposed to have blood work done. August 18th is the oopherectomy.
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Blossom, Gucci, hahahaha

debbie444

Still waiting for my results - guess i wont hold my breathe.
The dr said i had somrthing that sounded like tenasinavitus - inflamation of the ligaments due to the drip. How come i got all of the way through chemo ok and got that from a saline drip!! He gave me some fantastic pills and hey presto the pains gone! Marvellous.
We went away for my friends wedding to Bristol. It was a humanist wedding which i have never been to before and was held on a terrace over looking the Clifton suspension bridge. It was certaintly different - the bride walked into 'why do fools fall in love' sung by a barber shop quartet! It was stunningly hot and i have a face like a fire engine on most of our pics but we had a good day with the kids doing things the following day, historic ships, dancing in fountains, shopping, walking etc. I felt just like me again!


Hope you all had a good weekend too.

Kelly - good luck with the oophrectomy - even i sailed through that one!!
Anyone heard from Tracy?
Thinking of the ones who are meeting up
Debbie

sherryhaire

Debbie you look great!! Hope all had a good weekend, Quiet here, see my PS in one week getting excited

marymelodi

Nice photo Debbie! So glad to hear you are feeling better and had a nice little holiday. Handsome hubby, too!

Anonymous

maryanne -
Wondering how your lung situation is doing. I hope it's not worse and that it's getting better. Let us know.

tda -
What is your first name? But...if you don't want to reveal it - no problem. I was just wondering. Or, should we all try to guess what it is? If so, what is the first letter?

debbie -
I was wondering about Tracy too!

TRACY -
COME IN TRACY...

EVERYONE -
Happy 4th of July. I hope someday - in our lifetime - we will have a holiday (worldwide) honoring the cure for cancer and celebrating freedom and independence from it!

Laura

Anonymous

And BTW -
Debbie -
You and your dh look great! Your hair is so long, it looks adorable!
Laura

Graycie

Just popping on here for a minute but Debbie I agree you look great and your hair is coming in good. I'm with Laura, you do look adorable....What a nice picture of you and your husband, at least I hope it is your husband....HA. I will write more tomorrow, Everyone have a Great 4th....
Gracyie

Anonymous

Laura, tda has revealed her name. Her name is Tracy, too, I believe. Her initials are t.d.a and her birthday is 8/1966. I am soooo hoping I got this right, tda!!

Debbie, your hair looks wonderful and so do your hooters!! Did you have a lumpectomy or have you already been thru recon?

Regarding the oopherectomy, I am actually looking forward to it. I keep forgetting to take my tamoxifen. I mean, about once or twice a week, I totally forget. Last night, I woke up at midnight and went to take my pills. I want the estrogen out of my body!!

Oh, by the well, I have ditched the wigs for good. Will post pic soon.

TracyNY

Quote:

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Laura, tda has revealed her name. Her name is Tracy, too, I believe. Her initials are t.d.a and her birthday is 8/1966. I am soooo hoping I got this right, tda!!

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Girl, you just won Final Jeopardy!! Wow! I'm impressed, yup, that's me Tracy D. Appia.

I just got back from a little road trip. I went to Baltimore to a girlfriend's housewarming party then to Philly for some shopping. Shopping was disappointing, if I spent $150, I spent alot. On foolishness at that. I generally do some good damage down at Franklin Mills.

I am very exhausted though. I think I did too much walking down at that outlet. Who's lighting up the grill tomorrow? I could eat some swine, y'all know I love the pork!!

TracyNY

Envying those breasts, sister!! You look fantastic and your husband is a bit of alright too!!

debbie444

LOL ! I had a lumpectomy not a mast so they are my own home grown 38DDs! Spent a lot of the wedding hitching the top up, felt very on show strange as i have spent the last 12 months flashing them at any medical professional who came near!
As for the compliments to Roger - will keep them to myself - dont want him getting above himself! The photo was taken on the 2nd - 15 years to the day that we got engaged - its a good job we didnt know what was coming!

Kelly - i am not good at remembering to take the pills either - and i still have to take them ! No signs of and 'tropical or mad cow ' moments yet - perhaps that is still to come!

Happy July 4Th to you all
Debbie

Anonymous

Thanks all!

tda - I must have missed the post where you told us your name!

Kelly & Debbie & Everyone -
By having the ovaries removed - does that eliminate the need to take Tamoxifen? I am really concerned...I had a bone density test last week. My Gyn cld. yesterday and said I have "severe" Osteopenia (I am so sick and tired of all this!). She said being thin does not help and I have to be very diligent about exercising at least 3x a week and will have to start on Fosamex or Actinol. I am fairly certain that Tamoxifen can add to bone lose (I've been on it since Feb.). I had the left Ovary removed 2 years ago due to a 6 cm Cyst. Help - any info would be appreciated.

Laura

Anonymous

Having the ovaries removed will eliminate 90% of the estrogen. Our fat cells make up to 10% of the estrogen, so it is not totally eliminated. Even after the ovaries are taken out, there is still a need for hormonal treatment whether it's Tamoxifen or Arimidex, etc. Pre-menopaulsal cannot take aromatase inhibitors so they take Tamoxifen.

Tamoxifen has been shown to have other benefits besides blocking the estrogen receptors. I think they have found that Tamoxifen is also a cancer cell targeted killer ... that was a surprise to them. After my blood work shows that I am in menopause, I don't know if I will switch to Arimidex. Arimidex has less side effects than the T.

debbie444

BUMP BUMP BUMP - we were disappearing!

debbie444

Kelly - did you do the research yourself or were you told all about it? My onc said he advised it, i said ok and in i went!
Debbie

sherryhaire

Here is hoping everyone had a great weekend and 4rth of July, sure was quiet here as the rest of my family had to work as usual, all 3 of my sisters are Nurses, and my boyfriend went to New Mexico to see his brother, I couldn't take off work as I am saving my time off work to get my new Boobies!!!

Anonymous

Deb, I did the research and told my onc and she said she would support my decision. She thinks it's over the top, but it's my life and I want to live it.

debbie444

Kelly - all power to you! As I said , my onc was the one who mentioned it, by all accounts he sends 'all of my young ladies' ( bless him!) for the op. He must know what he is doing, and if its a sledgehammer to crack a nut, well thats one nut well and truly cracked!
Debbie

maryannecb

Arrrggghh, I wrote the longest chatty post yesterday and poof it was gone.

Replied to all of you. Here it goes again...

Kelly good luck with MUGA and ooperectomy. Glad to hear you have ditched your wig, I think you were the last hold out, and from the warmest place too.

Debbie, you are starting to look like your precancer photos,your Avatar looks so steroidy. 38DD!, makes one sided 34A me think about surgery.

tda hope your BBQ was good.

Laura my lung is about the same. I have a dry cough, chest pain woith deep breath, coughing or sneezing. Pain is wicked at the time but settles right away. I had lung function tests yesterday and I am still able to breath normally and get my oxygen properly. The respirologist says it make take months to recover and some people have permanent scarring. I am a little worried about my heart as it lies so close to my lung. I do function pretty normally so I really shouldn't complain. I read your other post about MRI's. My tumor was read as fibrocystic by radiologist on US/mammo and MRI. SoI have little faith in any test. I do not have the BR Ca genes so so far I plan to keep my other breast. I hope I do not live to regret this.

My diet is stalling the last month. It is hard to deprive myself of all lifes pleasures day after day. Did lose 2 pounds this month though.

I am no lonmger menopausal and need to get my IUD back in so I won't get preganant.LOL Wouldn't that be a fright.

Fists up!

ake

hi ladies,

i'm back from my vacation with the in-laws. oy is all i can say. i was so glad to get home. it was just boring and hot as hell and humid. my mother-in-law is a bit clingy sometimes. but, i was with my amazing husband, so i can't complain too much. i'm going to virginia beach tomorrow for the weekend...i'm determined to be suntanned as long as i can

for some weird reason, i CANNOT get cancer out of my head these days. i can't stop thinking that it's going to come back...total fear. i don't know if it's because my year anniversary is coming up in august and i can't believe that i've actually made it a year or that i'm okay or what. but, it's bothering me and i'm trying not to be paranoid, but it's hard. just having a cancer kind of weak. anyone else get these random fears?

i hope you all had a great 4th of july, vacation, etc. debbie...your hair looks fantastic! kelly...i want to see you without the wig

love,
amy

chumfry

Amy: Yes, I had a spazz-out period about a month ago. I think it is prompted by being around relatives we don't see often. You know they are thinking "cancer" every time they look at you. It's temporary. <grin> Mine soon reverted to my normal level of fear, which is kind of like background noise you can tune out.

sherryhaire

Amy--I too have a hard time getting "Cancer" out of my head of course it is hard not to when I see the scars. It is getting better though, I guess it just takes time to heal emotionally as well as physically. Hang in there we have the best support group ever!!

debbie444

Well, for once i have good news!
My oophrectomy results just came back and there in black and white it says ' not shown any abnormality'. By all accounts it was a bleeding ovulatory follicle, not sure what that was, not sure if i care now either!
Some days my every thought is cancercancercancer,
other days i dont think of it at all. If it does raise its ugly head again in the future , i dont want to look back and realise i spent all of my cancer free time worrying about it!
Debbie

RoseMarie

Hello everyone! Just spent the last 6 days with my friends from Tallahassee. We had a total of 14 people in our house - 8 of which were kids all under 9 and 3 of which were 3 year old boys!! Whew! I spent several hours with a sponge just wiping dirty finger prints and who knows what else off the walls after they left! We had a blast and the watched fireworks every night from my back deck. (Don't know if that's just a local thing but 5 nights straight of fireworks is a new one for me!) I'm so focused on making great memories for my kids now. I did have a cancer moment yesterday when everyone left - every once in a while I just get totally overcome with fear. I know it was brought on by the let down of everyone leaving - most of the time I don't think about cancer and feel like my old self.
Debbie- beautiful picture and great news! Yay!!
I'll have to post a pic soon with my holy-smokes-it's-red hair...(better than gray...I think)
Thinking of all of you - back to repairing my house-:)

ake

rosemarie,

ok...now i'm making the connection between my scary thoughts of cancer...they come when i'm with a lot of people and then leave...when i'm with my family for the weekend and then i leave or on vacation and it ends. something about getting back to the real world or being out of my comfort zone...who knows! i went running this morning and feel a bit better.

debbie....i'm glad everything was okay!!!

here's a pic of me and my husband and brother. i miss my long hair, but everyone loves my short hair better!

mcv

ake - You look great!!

debbie444

What a great picture - you so look like your brother!
Debbie

marymelodi

Hello to everyone!

Had a good long weekend as the dog sitter at my sister’s house. Enjoyed the company of my canine “nieces & nephew.” We had two downpours on the morning of the 4th and so I did not go out to the picnic that was planned. Just stayed home knitting, reading, and watching movies on the big screen TV. I celebrated freedom by doing exactly what I wanted to do!

Amy: you are so cute and lucky to be surrounded by handsome men. Forgive me for being too personal, but I can’t tell . . . did you have a lumpectomy or mast. Your figure looks so good! I also had long hair before BC. I am also getting lots of compliments on the short hair and so I will keep it this way. You do look very, very good!

Rosemarie: Wow! You survived all those kids. What an amazing mom you must be! Did you have red hair before or is this a new color after you began getting hair back? Mine has come back much whiter than previously. Of course, it is the time of my life when I would have expected to see white hair.

Debbie: Hooray, Hooray for your good news. I am so happy to hear this. Prayers have been answered.

Sherryhaire, Chumfrey, Amy, Debbie: I join you in having some scared moments thinking that cancer might return. Thankfully, most of the time I am not bothered by too much worry. Perhaps I am in denial or maybe the pressing concerns of my life just crowd it out. I don’t know. Sometimes I think a little more fear would help me stay on track with exercise and more healthful habits. I worry more about the drop in my motivation to keep exercising. Every day is another challenge.

Maryanne: I hope your lung continues to heal up and that you feel better and better. We should encourage each other in the diet/exercise area. I am trying to lose weight also. It is always a concern. I agree that self-denial is extremely difficult. It always has been for me and I am living to regret it.

Kelly: I join with everyone else is wishing the best for you. I am 53 and was on the threshold of menopause when diagnosed. My last period was 3 weeks before the start of chemo, back in October. I believe that chemo pushed me through the menopause gates. My onc recommended Tamoxifen for the time being. We will reassess again in November, when it has been “officially” one year without menstruation, and then I will move on to an aromatase inhibitor if the blood tests show it is time. I am overweight and believe that I still have some circulating estrogen from that source. I never forget to take the pill, but then I have several other pills to take for hypertension and diabetes and so the routine is well fixed for me. I don’t think you should be too fearful if you forget it once in a while. I would think there would be enough of the chemical circulating from your last dose to protect you. Of course, you should get right back and take the next dose on schedule and you shouldn’t miss days and days. But, an occasional missed dose would not be a reason to panic, I should think.

Laura: I agree with what Kelly wrote about still having estrogen in your body even after menopause or removal of ovaries. As I understand, the adrenal glands create estradiol (estrogen) through the action of an enzyme called aromatase. That’s why the other drugs are aromatase inhibitors. They stop the enzyme from working. But, the amount created by the adrenals is much less than what the ovaries create. As soon as we are sure my ovaries have stopped producing their version of estrogen, then I will switch to the AIs. The problem with all the drugs is the side effects. For me, with the tamoxifen I have to watch for increased uterine issues because while tamoxifen blocks estrogen in the breast tissue, it stimulates endometrial growth and can possibly cause problems there. I also have to be cautious about the blood clots possibility. But, I’ve decided that the risk of these side effects is one I can live with versus the risk of more breast cancer. In your situation, with a different body type and different health issues you have other things to think about. You are doing the right thing in asking a lot of questions and getting as much information as possible.

wishing the best for us all!

Graycie

Kelly, Congratulations on ditching the wigs..The wig looked great on you but I know how you must feel being free from it........too hot around here but I still don't have the nerve, my hair isn't coming in as fast as the rest of you.

Laura, Sorry you have osteopenia. Can't they give you that new drug Raloxifene (Evista) instead of tamoxifene since it is an osteoporosis drug and it is supposed to work as well as tamoxifene with less side effects? That way you kill two birds with one stone.......

Amy, I am with you. I have had a few bad days. I can't get CANCER out of my head either, Very depressed. I haven't been like this in some time. The reality of everything we have been through is coming back to haunt me and the lost of control over this horrible disease. I don't see my ONC until Oct, way too long as far as I am concerned. I have been really tired lately which doesn't help. I keep imagining the worse case scenario. I know I have to think positive but it is hard sometimes. Well enough of this, I don't want to bring everyone down. I am starting back to work so I am sure that will help, I am probably just bored.....glad you had a good time on your vacation...BTW, nice picture of the three of you and I agree, I like your hair short. I agree with Debbie you look a lot like your brother. He is very handsome.

Debbie, Good news with your results. I am real happy for you and I like your attitude about live for today and not worry about tomorrow.

Rosemarie and Marymelodi, Glad to hear you enjoyed your 4th of July.......And Rosemarie, what's with the red hair? When did that start? I don't remember it looking red in the last picture I saw of you.....I bet it looks nice......

Everyone take care,

Graycie

debbie444

Lets see the red hair!