2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS

ake

marymelodi....thanks for the hug i needed that!

maryannecb

Hugs from too.Very gentle ones though.Ouch. Take good care.

Fists up!

Anonymous

Quote:

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Laura I can't imagine you in a nudist camp...you look so apple pie and ice cream.

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It wasn't a nudist camp! Butt there was a nude beach - that's all I'll admit too! LOL

I have been really busy, and I'm trying to catch up with everyone's posts. In the meantime, a big hug for everyone. Lots going on...for the most part everyone seems to be doing okay! It was one year ago yesterday, that I received the call telling me I had cancer. This summer - for all of us - is going to mark many anniversaries re: our bc. I think we're all doing great! We've endured quite a bit - and have managed to keep laughing and smiling through it all. We R O C K!

On Sunday - I am picking ravdeb up and we're heading to Indiana to meet Rosemarie! Jaybird (Janis) may join us - not sure yet. Can't wait!

Will definately post Sunday evening!

Laura

ravdeb

Hi Amy,
Hope the crankiness goes away and you will feel blessed with the new additions when you get unveiled!!!

Feel good...those pains WILL go away! And I do hope the path shows one big fat NOTHING!!!!

Be well.

ravdeb

Must add that Laura sounds just as cute as her picture is!
And Rosemarie..talked to her and she is a true southern belle.

Will report back after our big meeting of the minds!

marymelodi

Travel safely, you "Rock-tober" gals! We are all envious of you being able to get together but also happy that you have this opportunity. Have a wonderful visit and make a toast to all of us, if you have the chance. We'll be awaiting your report and a picture or two.
affectionately,

Graycie

Amy, I hope you are feeling better.

Ravdeb,Laura and Rosemarie, Like the rest of the "Rock-tober" girl's, I can't wait to hear how your meeting goes. If anyone ever wants to talk on the phone PM me.

Graycie

Anonymous

Amy -
Hope you're feeling better today. Hang in there, girl! Remember each procedure is one step closer to finishing your journey.
Laura

marymelodi

Laura:
I love your quote about misbehaving women. It was said by a historian, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who has written some important histories about women and their contributions to all of us. She is someone I admire greatly and I was glad ato be reminded of her pithy comment.

Have a fun journey with Ravdeb!! You two may be just the kind of women that comment would describe.

ake

one of my bandages fell off and i caught a glimpse of my new addition...it's ginormous. it looks like a finger or something! supposedly they shrink and flatten in the next 2 weeks, but holy nipple!

Anonymous

Hopefully som guy wasn't going in for a finger addition and ended up with a little nipple on his hand!!!

You'll be fine ... these PS are pretty good nowadays!

ake

omigosh....wouldn't that be awful!!!!

RoseMarie

It was great to talk to both Ravdeb and Laura!!! How cool to finally talk and meet in person!! Yeah, my southern accent slips out every once in a while I can't wait until tomorrow!
Hugs from me too Amy!!! By the way, we share the unfortunate anniversary - August 17th - it was a Wednesday and the third day of school! I had had an excisional biopsy the Friday before...

Good night ladies - will also post tomorrow...:)

Graycie

Amy, I am sure they are just real swollen. Where do they get these nipples from anyway? Just curious. I keep thinking how they must be painful but I am sure it will all be worth it in the end. Hopefully they don't hurt too much and you are feeling better everyday.

Ravdeb, Laura and Rosemarie........I so wish I lived near where you are all meeting. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

My one year anniversary of being diagnosed isn't until the end of August on my son's birthday. He'll never forget that birthday. Actually I waited until the next day to tell him. However, It has been a year since I found the lump. They kept me waiting before they did the biopsy since they thought it was an abscess. I can't help thinking if they would have done it right away it wouldn't have been as big and in the sentinel node. In the 3 week's they made me wait it had gotten bigger. Very aggressive, that is what scares me.

Graycie

ake

graycie, the nipples were taken from the actual area where they are...it's called the "twist and stitch"...just a little incision on the breast and stitched to be a nipple. they don't hurt at all...i had some revisions from my first diep reconstruction that hurts a bit. plus, i had the nasty fat necrosis taken out too, so that's an incision.

i just took off all the dressings and saw my new additions...so freakin' weird i'm scared they're going to fall off so i'm walking around like a moron...very gingerly

Graycie

Amy, I am glad to hear they don't hurt. That pretty much explains it, thanks,very interesting. It doesn't sound like they will fall off, haaaa........your funny!

I think I may have one of those fat necrosis's. At least it sounds like it. I have what my PD called a fatty tumor. Do you think that is the same as a fat necrosis? It is on my left side near my rib cage so I asked about it and she didn't seem to be worried. She said it isn't on any organs. I hope she knows what she is talking about but she told me this about a year ago so I guess it is OK since it hasn't changed much.

Hey, Where is everybody? It look's like you and I are the only ones on here today so far.
Enjoy the rest of your Day!

ake

My fat necrosis was basically this rock hard lump in the exact same place on both breasts...on the side. i think a fatty tumor is like a cyst. mine was dead fat that had hardened. our doctors are going to remove anything that they think isn't a good thing, so if she says leave it, leave it. my surgeon knows i'm beyond paranoid, so she said for peace of mine, i should remove that hard area. i'm actually glad i did because i had some pulling in my armpit and now it's gone. i think the hardened fat necrosis was really pulling...my range of motion is better now. weird.

just got dressed and showered (i hadn't bathed since friday's surgery) and put on a tanktop and a bra with some padding and my breasts look awesome. i didn't realize how flat they looked before the nipples...now, you can see a bit of the nipple through my tank top and it looks sooo much better...like real boobs!

Anonymous

They aren't "like" real boobs!! The "are" real boobs!!

marymelodi

Amy:
I agree . . you've got "real" boobs . . .made from your own tissues, correct! I'm happy you have been able to get into the shape you wanted to be in. From an earlier picture you posted I could see how attractive you are and so I think now this will help you feel more confident. Am I right? So, congratulations!!! Hope all continues to go well.
Mary

ravdeb

ok...stupid me...pressed something and my message went POOF!!!

Amy..so happy to hear that the nipple procedure went well and you are HAPPY!!! That is the goal here!

Must tell you all about the meeting of the minds..that is the meeting between Rosemarie, Laura and myself. It was.....terrific!!! What beautiful women Rosemarie and Laura are. Laura is bubbly and just as cute as her picture and all of her posts. Even cuter! And Rosemarie with her sweet southern drawl is an amazingly brave and strong woman as she told us of her move and the changes she had to make with small children and being on chemo. Rosemarie is tough and gentle and oh so very nice!!!

Laura picked me up and recognized me waiting outside for her (can't miss my white lamb curls!!). We had a nice ride of about an hour and 15 minutes and we chatted and gabbed the entire time. It's so easy to talk to Laura. She's totally friendly and funny and cute and bubbly. We got to the HOliday Inn where we were to meet Rosemarie. We went to the bathroom and came out and there she was!

Rosemarie is such a pretty young woman with cute curls (like mine only she colored her gray locks)and she has the sweetest southern drawl! But I want to tell you all that Rosemarie is a brave young woman who had to get through all her chemo after making a big move to Indiana and she also has young children (cute ones...we got to see pictures!)to take care of. Amazing. And she is still smiling. She has a beautiful smile.

We ate and yapped from noon until after 5 pm!!! NON-STOP! OMG it was fun!!!!

Pictures will be posted after Laura and Rosemarie get home. I took some. If I can get them posted I'll do that, too!

It was a terrific day. Laura..thanks for doing all that driving! Learned a bit about race cars, too!!!!

Be well everybody!

ake

so jealous you guys were all together!!! ravdeb...can't wait to hopefully see you next week

marymelodi

Thank you ravdeb for the report of your excellent day!!
Bless your hearts . . . I'm so happy you had the chance to get together and enjoy each other. What a wonderful group we have with all these great, inspiring women!
love to all,
Mary

RoseMarie

Oh WOW! I must agree with Ravdeb - what a wonderful day!!! She's right, Laura is cute and bubbly and funny!! Ravdeb is so sweet!!!!! They are both soooo nice and it was great to talk and get to know each other in person!! Ravdeb - I think YOU are the brave and strong one!!!! (I'm a big chicken!) In spite of everything you are so positive and optimistic!
Can you believe my camera died before I even had the chance to take one picture!! Laura asked the waitress if she would take our picture and told her we didn't know when we'd see each other again - the waitress asked how long it had been since we'd seen each other...it was quite funny to see her reaction when we said we'd only just met!!!
Just makes me want to meet ALL of you in person!!!!!!
Lots of love...

Anonymous

Reading about Ravdeb's trip made me so happy. It felt like I was there. I do hope that we all get to meet each other in person someday.

Amy, congratulations on the new nipples.

I will see the radiation oncologist this coming Wednesday because my right shoulder and arm still hurts, and I feel something hard (like a lump) under my lumpectomy scar. I know I just had a mammogram and xrays and they showed no evidence of cancer, but I still want to hear from the doctor that this lump is nothing.

Take care, everyone.

Paula15089

Amy, congrats on you new additions!
Ravdeb, Laura and Rosemarie, lucky you, catching up like that!! Some girls on Moving Beyond are taking about meeting up in Vegas later on this year... that would be awesome. Unfortunately, Australia is just too far.

Guess what everyone, I just had my FIRST haircut.. what a milestone. I begged her to not take off too much, but i definitely did need tidying up. Wow, felt funny being in a hairdesser chair again... certainly beats chemo chair!!
If i am not too lazy, I will take and post come pics.

Anonymous

Paula, I've actually had my hair 'cleaned up' two times now. The first time they trimmed off the fuzzy stuff on top and evened out my hair. My hair was growing in clumps, it seemed, more hair thru the middle, kinda like a mohawk.

The next time I just had the lady shave the back of my neck, she said about every other week to come in and have the back area shaved so the rest could catch up.

ravdeb

Brenda..
I hope everything works out okay for you.
Paula..congrats on the new haircut! I've had mine trimmed twice...just got the fuzz off the first time like Kelly did and the second time he evened it out again and trimmed around the ears. Not sure what I'll do with all these curls as it's hard to let it all grow out..will look like one big bush!!!!

It would be wonderful for more women to get together when possible. The get togethers I've heard of have all been so wonderful. Amazing to actually meet people and I felt that I knew Rosemarie and Laura already before even talking to them on the phone!

Be well everybody!

Anonymous

GIRLS -
I don't know where to begin! Meeting ravdeb and Rosemarie was an absolutely incredible experience! Ravdeb - her Avatar does not do her justice! She is really petite and cute with lots of tiny curls all over her head! I picked her up, handed her the mapquest directions printout and told her she had to co-pilot, and she did a great job! But we had to refer back to the directions quite a bit because with both of us still suffering from chemo brain - we kept forgetting where to turn! It was so funny! We drove for about an hour and a half to meet Rosemarie. We did not have a single moment of silence! And I truly think had we driven together for five more hours - we still would not have had a moment of silence! It was great! She is really friendly and outgoing and funny! We then met Rosemarie! (I literally have goose-bumps writing this.) The three of us hugged each other. Rosemarie is adorable and so sweet and does have a great southern accent! She's way too young to be dealing with bc. But she's amazing...taking care of her 3 beautiful little ones, after a bi-lateral Mast. and all that went along with it over the past year, moving to another state right in the middle of it all, etc. She showed us photos of her house - it's beautiful! And lots of photos of her kids and dh. We sat in the restaurant for five hours! And again, there wasn't a moment of silence! I felt as though I had known both for a very long time! When it came time to say goodbye - I got really choked up and couldn't hold back the tears! But, there is the Komen Walk on Sept. 30th and I'm hoping she will join me and some Illinois Survivors from bc.org in downtown Chicago that day. She is having her exchange surgery and port removal on Sept. 15th though - so it will of course depend on how she's feeling. Me and ravdeb/faithful co-pilot - were on the road again! And again we didn't shut up for a moment! I dropped her off and managed to maintain my composure - until I pulled away and then (once again) I couldn't hold back the tears! And I truly realized how much I would love for all of us to meet and how much of an emotional bond I feel with all of you! The pictures turned out great...here we are (I couldn't choose which one to attach so this is all of them, sorry):






(I made the Rock-tober t-shirts. If ANY of you want one - PM me your address as I would love to send one along to each of you - no-charge of course - just because ...)
Laura

Paula15089

omg, you girls look FABULOUS!!!!
Ravdeb, i love love LOVE your hair!! I have to say you look completely different from your avatar, much younger and prettier!
Laura, thanks for letting us all know how the meeting went.. i now feel like i was there!

ake

I cried when I saw the picture. You are all gorgeous...RAVDEB....LOVE THE HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to meet you all...when is the big reunion?????